I'm a lazy DM. I procrastinate a lot. And sometimes this means that I need to Stall the players while I think of something.
During one of these stalling encounters, the PCs came upon some crossroads near twilight. There, a lone man pushing a cart with "The entire world" inside it offered to make them some deals. This should have sent warning bells through their heads (I mean seriously, making a bargain with an entity in the Crossroads at night?).
One PC, being a PC, wanted to buy a magical item and sell one. I said "Sure". The second wanted a bottle of elven wine and some bread and cheese (since they had been eating trail rations for a week). I had tipped the second player that this was suspicious, and he has the (possibly incorrect) notion that the Deal Maker is some sort of fey entity, and the character being an elf, thought it was a good idea.
The Catch? The deal maker said "You can have your requests for free. All you have to do is just say your name into this jar." The first PC was certain that their name would be stolen. The character who wanted the wine agreed to do it for himself and the other PC, then spoke his name into a dusty old jar. The merchant put the jar back on his cart, and toddled away.
So, how can I use this to make an interesting plot? I want to make it bite them on the butt (one did get a nice magical item, and it is a very risky thing to give your name in this vague circumstance), but nothing too mean.
I don't want something so Drastic as the PC losing his name. I was thinking that the Deal Maker sells the jar to someone or something unpleasant needs allies to do something morally questionable, buys the jar and summons the PCs; the one with the name in the jar is "forced" to help.
During one of these stalling encounters, the PCs came upon some crossroads near twilight. There, a lone man pushing a cart with "The entire world" inside it offered to make them some deals. This should have sent warning bells through their heads (I mean seriously, making a bargain with an entity in the Crossroads at night?).
One PC, being a PC, wanted to buy a magical item and sell one. I said "Sure". The second wanted a bottle of elven wine and some bread and cheese (since they had been eating trail rations for a week). I had tipped the second player that this was suspicious, and he has the (possibly incorrect) notion that the Deal Maker is some sort of fey entity, and the character being an elf, thought it was a good idea.
The Catch? The deal maker said "You can have your requests for free. All you have to do is just say your name into this jar." The first PC was certain that their name would be stolen. The character who wanted the wine agreed to do it for himself and the other PC, then spoke his name into a dusty old jar. The merchant put the jar back on his cart, and toddled away.
So, how can I use this to make an interesting plot? I want to make it bite them on the butt (one did get a nice magical item, and it is a very risky thing to give your name in this vague circumstance), but nothing too mean.
I don't want something so Drastic as the PC losing his name. I was thinking that the Deal Maker sells the jar to someone or something unpleasant needs allies to do something morally questionable, buys the jar and summons the PCs; the one with the name in the jar is "forced" to help.
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