5 Unknown Promises

Hi all,

The idea here is that a character will remember making one of the following promises but they can no longer recall any of the context behind it. Essentially they know what they have to do but they cannot remember the when, who, how, or why.

What I am hoping to get help on is the scenario behind these promises. To think of the sidequest that ultimately ends with the character deciding to uphold or break their promise.

"I will take his place"
"I will return it to her"
"I will tell him the truth"
"I will let her go"
"I will do what he asks"

It is five seperate sentences for five seperate characters so they should all be independant of each other. Also, the characters won't know this right away but the promise is made to a great angelic being of good so they should altruistic or generally [Good] in nature. That being said, I would like it to end up being a tough choice - one not easily or readily made.

I'll also point out that we're using the Pathfinder Rules, but a homebrew fantasy setting.

Thanks for your help

I don't know if this is exactly what you're going for, but here are a couple thoughts ...

Mistah J said:

"I will take his place"

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I don't know why, I just have this vision of ...
Someone needs to go on a sure-to-be suicide mission (perhaps to stop a dragon or to destroy an artifact) that can only be killed/destroyed by a certain weapon/method. So someone has to take that particular weapon/etc to do the dangerous deed.

Alternatively -- a small village town is currently being plagued by a strange disease. Even the priest is sick (the only priest in town) and regular methods are not helping. The townsfolk are convinced that the priest needs to do X to stop the plague. It would surely mean the death of the sick priest but he seems like he will do it. The PCs must decide to take the priest's place and do X for him (cross the desert, climb the mountain, etc to find a sacred spring whose waters (when you channel a turn undead use or something) have healing properties that everyone believes will cure the plague). It must be made clear that the task is dangerous (or else it has no "should i/ shouldn't i" aspect to it). The requirement of turn undead is what keeps other townsfolk from being able to do it, but at the same time means that the PC whose promise this is needs to be able to turn undead (ie cleric/paladin).

Mistah J said:

"I will return it to her"

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A powerful (relatively speaking for the PC's level) magic item is found (perhaps as loot somewhere else, etc). It has an inscription of being a wedding gift. The story: it belongs to a woman who got it as a wedding gift from her fiance who died before the wedding. It was since stolen and exchanged hands a few times to eventually end up with the PCs. They have to decide whether to give it back to her, or if they are tempted to keep it for whatever magic it can do.

Mistah J said:

"I will tell him the truth"

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One spin on this is if there is something the PCs did in the past -- maybe an enemy they killed. And meeting the father of an enemy they killed, only to have to tell him that they were responsible for their son's death.

Alternatively, perhaps they find a man who believes his son is dead. Only to realize that the "dead son" is actually now a villian in a near by town. Do they tell the father that the son is alive but "evil" or do they let the father remain at peace thinking that the boy is dead.

Mistah J said:

"I will let her go"

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A woman is caught (perhaps by the PCs, or perhaps by guards and the PCs come across her after she just finished killing her captures). She is a murderer - she murdered several citizens of a city (perhaps one of them was even an important political figure). The woman's story: She is (well, was) a mother. Her children had seen a secret cult meeting in the wilderness near town and thus were murdered by an evil cult/organization/cabal/etc now she has been murdering its members. The guards/authorities do not believe her since she has no concrete evidence. Nor do the authorities even know about this organization. Hence, she is a crazy lady to be put in jail. The PCs must decide whether to release her even though it means she might kill the remaining members of the cult. Of course, she has no proof so the PCs have to take it on her word for the entire story to be true to begin with. The angel is involved because the angel wants to see the evil cult stopped. Or perhaps the angel is an agent of a good god that the mother prayed to repeatedly upon finding out her children were dead.

Mistah J said:

"I will do what he asks"

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This may not be a good one to use depending on your players (it does get a bit harsh) Pick a creature that is always (100% evil). The law enforcement find a nest of this particular creature type very close to the town. The authorities ask the PCs to go kill the baby before it grows up and is evil. (or maybe it's still in eggs if you don't want to talk about killing babies... which IS a harsh thing to talk about or even suggest for some people -- so use this cautiously)

Alternatively -- perhaps the local law enforcement tells the PCs to go get a certain medusa who lives nearby who is to be held on trial for her crimes.


Of course, in any of these you'll have to figure out why the locals aren't helping, etc. and why the pcs are even asked to do so in the first place.

Yes,

These are exactly the kind of ideas I was looking for!


Thank-you very much

I was only thinking that this sounds like a cool idea. It has the feel of some of the new TV shows like Heroes, Lost, or Flash Forward, where there is this great mystery behind everything and only bits are revealed each show.

I guess that with most all of the promises you can lead the players to think one path should be the right one and then switch it or present a second path at the last minute. It would be realy cool if they all tied into one bid idea/ wrap up for the conclusion of the campaign.

aco175 said:

I was only thinking that this sounds like a cool idea. It has the feel of some of the new TV shows like Heroes, Lost, or Flash Forward, where there is this great mystery behind everything and only bits are revealed each show.

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Thank you very much! The idea was given to me by a story I read here in the Story Hour forum. I can't remember whose it is, but I do remember that each party member, upon completion of their 'task' heard a certain sound in their ears, something that reminded them of the Powers that set it all up and that they knew their job was done. Or something like that.

For me, this is something that's going to come up if and when one of the PCs dies. They are going to spontaneously return to life with one of these quests implanted in their head.

Please feel free to add more if you think of it,