Necromantic cheese anyone? (Possible Spoilers!!)

[Aereas]

I have been running my group through this path for the last couple months now and we just finished adventure 6. In the treasure vault is a rather strange item which reads as follows:


Mystery. Something that appears to be a block of cheese with one slice cut out of it. It detects as possessing overwhelming necromantic magic, but all attempts to identify its powers fail. Market value 200 gp as a curio.


Now, I can see the humor in watching my players cast spell after spell trying to identify this item and gaining nothing from their efforts. However, I was wondering if there was any special idea in mind when this item was created or if anyone has seen/done anything more with this item?

As of currently I have only read through half of the 7th adventure but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that it could play a hidden role in a later adventure (My players have kept the ring from the fire mages tomb in adventure 3 for a similar reason - though none were too pleased about the curse on the tomb that would have pretty much killed whoever touched it with no chance for survival). Even if the item has no particular plot benefit I was trying to think of something interesting to do with it (not necessarily powerful but just unique) as one of my players is a Dread Necromancer.


Secondly; I can clearly see what level the adventures are designed for but do the adventures assume that players will have allies traveling with them during the missions? Torrent is set to travel with them right from the start. Along the way they befriended/rescued Crystin and Tiljann as well and now have those three as a permanent addition. Katrina is written as spending her time in Lyceum to help with the PC's image but none of the other characters have any particular mention either way much past when they joined. [I did really like how the following adventure actually had side bars to handle Crystin's visions if she was there and would have liked to continue seeing some in later ones as well, but thats another topic]

Thanks in advance for any insights given on these two questions.

[RangerWickett]

Oh, the cheese is a really obscure reference to a session from Piratecat's storyhour. He was going to have his party come upon a mighty treasure hoard, and he asked EN Worlders for suggestions for interesting magic items. One of the most amusing was a block of cheese that radiated intense magic, but had no apparent powers.

So no, I had nothing at all in mind, other than to have something curious and odd in an otherwise serious adventure.

As for NPC allies, consider that 3e wasn't quite as precisely designed with balance in mind as 4e. When writing or editing, I generally tried to make sure the adventures were a reasonable challenge for a 4 PC group, with the assumption that if you had extra PCs or NPC allies, it is always easier to add new foes to up the challenge than it is to spontaneously scale down an existing enemy.

[Primitive Screwhead]

RW, thanks for the information on the cheese.. I was wondering that as well. My players should be coming across it this coming friday..

However, I am not the type to have a completely unknown mystery consumable item because *someone* is bound to eat it and ask "so, what happens"... and I have arrived at a fun option for the Cheese.... still working on the exact 4e mechanics of it...

THe short of it:

Spoiler:

This cheese is meant as an epic, non-lich style of immortality.. of sorts.
It is used in a ritual in which the aging evil guy/gal suckers some young witless soul to partake in a special 'blessing' in which the young soul will gain lots of arcane power. In reality, the ritual is designed for the souls to swap bodies.

Consumption of which slays the aging evil guy/gals body while slicing all but a tenuous thread to the soul. Using the force will and chutzpah, the soul traverses a small distance to the mostly willing target and forceably trades positions. This leaves the evil guy/gal in the young body and the young soul in the dead body. The evil guy/gal usually makes sure the old body stays that way with a handy knife.

There is a bit of a safety net in that the spell can be ended by a particularly willful soul, returning the body from the state of death.

This means, in the PC's hands, they will have a block of cheese that can kill thier body. You may ask.. how might this be useful.. well, I am looking into the game terms of objects versus enemy/ally as a dead body is an object. The PC would still have full control over movement and actions.. but would not be targetable by the majority of powers.
The down side is that the safety net is the 4e Death save that the PC can modify the roll by an amount equalling thier CHR modifier... so it is possible to actually die from using this cheese.

THoughts and feedback are always welcome!

[Marius Delphus]

So...

The cheese has a soul
The cheese has a soul
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The cheese has a soul

...

In my defense, it's been a rough week, and the rest isn't looking up.

[Aereas]

Thanks for the reply RangerWickett.

Primitive Screwhead: I'm not quite ready to allow my player to become a lich (even a limited version). While I haven't fully stated it out I was thinking something along the lines of an item that allowed you to temporarily take on features of the undead. In my thoughts the item would have 6 charges each day (renewed at midnight) To consume a charge, and activate the item, you need to take a bite our of the cheese. So long as one charge remains the cheese reforms at midnight as its charges replenish. If all the charges are gone then you have eaten all the cheese and can no longer make use of its power. In all cases the effects would only last a few rounds to a couple minutes.

I haven't fully decided how I would want to handle the transformation but my current thoughts are as follows:
1) You adopt a new template based on how many charges you consume. 1 charge would be the skeleton or zombie template, three charges would be a lich or ghost and all five would grant you the abilities of a vampire. Going beyond the SRD could of course open up options like a death knight, shadow, or other sorts of undead.

2) Instead of granting a template to be added onto a character consuming charges could instead grant abilities of the undead. Such a case would look something like this, and the effects of lower charges would be cumulative with higher ones:
1 = Undead subtype
2 = Resistances/Immunities to energy types or Damage Reduction (I'd probably give an array to choose from to represent the different types of undead out there)
3 = Fast healing
4 = Minor ability (I'd create a list to choose from that draws from abilities possessed by undead)
5 = Major ability (same as above but better).

3) This is much like number 2 but organized quite differently. Instead of a set list based on how many charges you use I'd make just a general list of powers to choose from like; Fast Healing, Energy resistance, Special ability, Damage reduction (and probably one or two more).
Each time you use a charge you would be able to select an ability and the amount of charges would determine its strength. For example, if I consumed one charge I could gain resistance to fire equal to 5. However, if I expended three charges I could gain resistance to fire 15, fast healing 3, and one special ability (which would be chosen from a tiered list to accommodate different charge values).