A novel way to destroy an artifact?

[Ancalagon]

I've always held that "getting rid of" an artifact (for campaign purposes, anyway) is generally not that hard if the party gets creative about it. Stash it in an impenetrable vault, toss it in a bottomless hole, banish it to somewhere else, break it in some cinematically interesting fashion, not entirely undoable.

Actually destroying one so that it doesn't just reappear somewhere else, get reassembled or otherwise come back to haunt the campaign world again (if not the party themselves) in X number of years/centuries isn't anywhere near as easy.

The original goal was to toss it in the gate and stop worrying about it. Then one player got clever...

 

[jgsugden]

You're writing a story with the players. There is no right answer to any story question.

If it were my game, artifacts are the ultimate. Even the Greater Gods can't just destroy an artifact. They are objects that harness the pure fundamental core energies of the universe... so if it were my game, the artifct would not have been the thing that gave. The gate might have broken, theatifact might have popped out of the gate (unblemished) or I might have had something more dramatic (space and time rip?) as a result.

 

[neogod22]

I would be a little more creative. Since the artifact was cut in half, I would have the artifact possess the next creatures that touch each half and have them obsess on reattaching the pieces. Assuming th as t the other piece is no where to be found, I'd put it in the hands of a dangerous enemy that will track the character that has the other half, and always seem to show up at the worst possible time and try and kill the characters.

 

[aco175]

I would destroy the portal along with the artifact. Better is that the portal does not work as planned anymore and can now be accessed by others and at odd times. Maybe the rotating arm became dented by the artifact and now acts randomly. Now you have another story lined up to fix the portal. I'm sure there is a lot of political ramifications for the PCs, like the taxes the kingdom was collecting is now the PCs responsibility until they fix it.

 

[Ancalagon]

A clever idea from a player that moves the story forward? Yeah, I'd allow it in a heartbeat.

In some ways, as a GM, those are the best moments of the game. I can have a tendency to railroad a bit if I don't watch myself, and a totally out of the box idea from my players is something I go along with because - hey it's something new! Let's explore this together.

In this case the artifact - more like a minor artifact - contained the living eye of Kraken, allowing it to see and dominate creatures at range. When the extremely hard crystal sphere exterior was cut by the edge of the gate, the eye within was also cut. The party was already on this Kraken's enemy list for spoiling his plans, but now it's deeply personal.

That will be the consequence.

Their home base is a port city...

 

[neogod22]

In some ways, as a GM, those are the best moments of the game. I can have a tendency to railroad a bit if I don't watch myself, and a totally out of the box idea from my players is something I go along with because - hey it's something new! Let's explore this together.

In this case the artifact - more like a minor artifact - contained the living eye of Kraken, allowing it to see and dominate creatures at range. When the extremely hard crystal sphere exterior was cut by the edge of the gate, the eye within was also cut. The party was already on this Kraken's enemy list for spoiling his plans, but now it's deeply personal.

That will be the consequence.

Their home base is a port city...

Does the Kraken summon a leviathan to destroy the city? Lol

 

[Ancalagon]

Does the Kraken summon a leviathan to destroy the city? Lol

The KrakenS (there is more than one!) are at war with the slugmen - the ruling class in the Yellow City. They also were the patron of the party's warlock - but he betrayed them to help the party succeed, so now it's *double personal*. (The warlock is getting a new patron... an enemy of the Kraken....)

 

[neogod22]

The KrakenS (there is more than one!) are at war with the slugmen - the ruling class in the Yellow City. They also were the patron of the party's warlock - but he betrayed them to help the party succeed, so now it's *double personal*. (The warlock is getting a new patron... an enemy of the Kraken....)

I think the greatest revenge, is to have the characters get wind that there will be an attack on the city. As they rush back to warn them, and come within sight of the city. They see that tidal wave coming in to destroy the entire lower half of the city, and realize this is their fault.

 

[Oofta]

There is only one way to truly destroy an artifact in my campaigns, and destroying one may be an entire campaign in and of itself. So simply throwing it into the Cuisinart of Doom probably isn't going to cut it. Get it? Cut it? I crack me up.

In any case as others have stated, the artifact may have been transformed, it may have been damaged it may appear to have been destroyed but it was not. Some elemental power of ancient might may have been imprisoned inside and is now released but it may be 27 years before anyone realizes it. It may now be two separate hemispheres, that can be fused back together. It may be two separate spheres that could be connected with a rod while a heavy cord is looped around the inner rod to make a yo-yo of doom for a giant.

I have a persistent world, so I'd probably deal with it in some future campaign. As far as the current set of adventurers is concerned it was destroyed but then when some as-yet-to-be-determined-world-ending McGuffin is needed it can be used at that point. Hmm, wonder if Aegir (Norse god of the sea) could use a yo-yo?

 

[Ancalagon]

I just realized - this is basically as "unmovable object, unstoppable force" question.

In D&D there are items that are almost impossible to destroy - artifacts. Then there are extremely destructive forces - a gate's edge, or even more so a sphere of annihilation. So it's a "who wins" really.