Fishing for Ideas

[DjeraktheBloodletter]

So I am running a Warcraft campaign, and one of my players has decided to run a Wildhammer Dwarf. For those that are not Warcraft people, Wildhammer dwarves live in the aeries on the sides of mountains, and raise gryphons as their mounts.

Now this is the problem... he wants the Wildhamer special weapon, the Stormhammer...

Description: The Wildhammer dwarves’ signature weapon, this dwarven battle hammer is beautifully crafted, with a lightning bolt pattern carved into the polished wooden haft and clouds and lightning etched into the faceted metal head. Even the leather wrapped around the handle is mottled to suggest clouds and rain.
Powers: The Stormhammer is a +1 shock dwarven battle hammer. The wielder can swing the hammer can cause a copy of the weapon to appear and fly toward the target, allowing him to use it as a ranged weapon as well. When used in this way, the battle hammer has a range increment of 30 feet and a maximum range of 10 range increments (300 feet). The wielder is proficient in this use of the weapon if he is proficient with the battle hammer as a one-handed melee weapon. The ranged copies function just like the hammer, and the wielder adds her Strength bonus on damage rolls with them. Since she does not have to draw ammunition, she can make more than one ranged attack with the hammer in a round, even if she does not have the Quick Draw feat.
Moderate evocation; CL 11th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, lightning bolt; Price 28,330 gp; Cost 14,220 gp + 1,120 XP.

I determined that in order to be able to get his own Stormhammer, he would have to achieve 6th level first with 3 levels of Wildhammer Dwarf racial levels, and then he must return to his clan and pass a Rite of Passage before they would allow him to have one of the coveted weapons. In order to complete the Rite of Passage, he must be alone, without any outside help, with only mundane equipment.

The problem is thus... I want to test him in a fairly simple way that does not test him physically, more of a mental challenge. I am drawing blanks as to how I can achieve this. I had though maybe puzzles or games he would have to complete, but as of yet have not found anything suitable. His character has taken his 3rd level of Wildhammer, and the other 3 levels are Fighter. He's not the brightest apple in the bunch so I did not want to make it TOO hard for him...

I would appreciate any ideas anyone would like to share. It will be a couple weeks before the current adventure arc ends and he can take this test, so no big rush.

Gracias in advance

 

[Vespucci]

Have the council of elders or whatever scorn him for his arrogance in demanding such a thing. Then have the Kindly Mentor Figure explain that all of the Stormhammers owned by the clan are being used by other heros. However, one was lost centuries ago, and is rumored to be in the lair of....

 

[DjeraktheBloodletter]

Have the council of elders or whatever scorn him for his arrogance in demanding such a thing. Then have the Kindly Mentor Figure explain that all of the Stormhammers owned by the clan are being used by other heros. However, one was lost centuries ago, and is rumored to be in the lair of....

That is an interesting waylay of his expectations... Bypass the Rite to send him to recover a lost Stormhammer. Definite possibilities for a side quest there.

 

[Vespucci]

One more point. It doesn't need to be a "side quest". Even if you are playing with the conception of a story arc, the adventure to find the hammer could be linked into that story quite easily. For instance, the lair might be somewhere the PCs were going anyway. Or they might need to consult a sage in order to find the place - the sage might be important to the plot themselves, or might reveal that the lair contains something else important to the characters' ambitions.

 

[anest1s]

Not really answering the question, but:

What would his clan want him to prove to give him the hammer?

Lets say he would have to prove his strength, his wisdom/intelligence and his intentions.

To prove his strength he has to go somewhere where its difficult to go.
To prove his wisdom, we will have to find a way to get the hammer.
To leave with the hammer, he has to have good intentions.

For example:

Fly/Climb to the highest mountain (maybe fight the ''guardians'' to there)

Persuade/Trick a strong creature that lives there to give you the hammer. If he fails to get it the easy way, he can just fight the creature. (If his exceptional strength can make up for wisdom, why shouldn't it be a solution)
Then for the intentions test, he will have to choose between leaving his hammer behind or something important, or doing what is right. This has to be planned, depending on his clans ideals.

 

[Tovec]

To prove his strength he has to go somewhere where its difficult to go.
To prove his wisdom, we will have to find a way to get the hammer.
To leave with the hammer, he has to have good intentions.

If this were the case I would make sure he knows it going in that he is going to be tested in those ways. Not the specifics but the "challenges" he must overcome.

(If his exceptional strength can make up for wisdom, why shouldn't it be a solution)

If you do what I said above he'll try wisdom first but he's a dwarf, everything should be possibly solved by smashing it with something heavy.

Then for the intentions test, he will have to choose between leaving his hammer behind or something important, or doing what is right. This has to be planned, depending on his clans ideals.

A cool concept would be a choice between leaving it behind (doing what's right) or sacrificing something else, like a friend maybe (doing what's wrong) in order to keep it. It would work best if the friend is an NPC so the death isn't a PC's if he is greedy. Of course he gets to keep the hammer either way (but he shouldn't know that). The friend can be an illusion so that his death isn't an unjust one, it just looked that way.

Oh, of course there would be some kind of repercussions of keeping it unjustly. The elders would have some way of monitoring him without his knowledge and they see that he sacrificed his friend for his weapon. If he has a good reason he might be able to keep the weapon if not they take it away?

 

[DjeraktheBloodletter]

Sidequest: This part of the story arc is all about his Adulthood initiation into the clan. It's all about proving himself worthy of becoming a full member of the clan and obtaining the honor of carrying one of the Stormhammers.

I intended for the other players to get something as well for their parts in this section, custom tailored to their characters. I thik that perhaps the Wildhammer Clan will send them, as a team, on a quest important to the clan itself, whether it be to recover a stolen/lost Stormhamer or something else is now up for debate. The reward in the end, he gets his hammer, they get their special item/ability for helping the Clan.

They are already on a major quest to fix what they are about to break, and I wanted to give them a little side-quest to achieve what one player asked at the beginning of the campaign if he could work towards. With these great ideas, I can actually start to plot a bit for how and why the Clan needs the adventurers help...

 

[Greenfield]

If you're hesitant to grant the weapon, set up a fairly stiff trial, but one he can pass. Add the qualification, though, that the coveted hammers are intended for the defense of the clan territory.

So include either the restriction that the character has to stay and defend the clan territories (effectively ending his career as an independent adventurer), or that he must return when called upon, should the territories need his aid.

The first one feels cheap, I know, mainly because it is.

The second one, however, is a source of nearly endless plot hooks, to be dredged up and used whenever you need them.

 

[Allegro]

The goal of this test is to only grant the hammer onto those who put the clan above self or are too dangerous to deny the hammer.


The setup is the elders of the clan in a long winded speech talk about the ritual of clan chief StormChaser. The player is told, the ritual consists of a staging of an epic fight where a couple dozen goblins rushed StormChaser and he defeated the lot of them. The player is led deep into the mountains underneath and finally over a stone bridge arched over an unfathomable deep gorge. The PC is given a wooden practice hammer which is painted to look like the historical hammer. The player is then attacked by dwarves who are clearly dressed up to look like goblins for the reenactment.


After a couple rounds of mock battle, screams are let out as a dozen dwarves fall to a hail of goblin crossbow shafts and a horde of thousands of goblins and trolls come into to view with the sound of drums and the beet of iron shod foot. The elder who was presiding calls for a retreat and say the dwarves with you were chosen for their skill in acting rather than fighting and the horde must be delayed for the good of the clan and either they have to be delayed with arms or the capstone of the bridge must be destroyed or the clan will surely parish. Without siege equipment or time to prepare the capstone can only be destroyed by directly standing above it and hammering.


The PC has two options of winning, either best ten trolls in armed combat or destroy the capstone of the arch. The dwarves have captured a dozen goblins and trolls and will compel them to attack in waves. If the PC attempts to shatter the capstone the horde will melt into an illusion and the trolls will be dispatched with. Alternatively, the PC could actually beat the unwinnable odds and be deemed to dangerous to be denied an hammer. If the PC attempts to bargain or convince another Dwarf to destroy the capstone he will be denied the hammer.

 

[DjeraktheBloodletter]

I think I have settled on having the Rites cancelled due to the fact that the Gryphon Riders have been facing a sneaky enemy that attacks from hiding, and takes the Stormhammers from the corpses. An intelligent enemy capable of flight... naturally one would think a Dragon, right? Especially with the claw marks and scorches on the bodies...
Warcraft Chimaeras are big badass things, thinking of having one (CR 8) and altering it a little. It has taken a dislike to the dwarves and is punishing them for flying near it's lair. It's angry because this is the once-in-10-year breeding season and it has a fresh clutch of eggs to protect. It takes the hammers because it's smart enough to disarm the enemy of a powerful tool.

So, they go in and either kill the chimaera, or try diplomacy with it to get the hammers back and stop patrolling this area while it has eggs. Possibly even gain an ally for the clan. If they kill it, they take the eggs back to the clan to raise, maybe use as guardians...

Think that will work... once they complete that, the High Shaman will perform a ritual to reward the party.

Sound good?