McGuffin Help

[Baileyborough]

Hey guys,

I'm getting into my heroic tier campaign now, the party is at level 4, and are really coming together with their own personal quests and backstories coming into effect.

I have an idea for a (somewhat) over-arcing quest, in which they are tasked by a dubious tiefling to find a stone shard - this is just the initial encounter with said guy, who let's call Shivers for now. He says it's a piece of Bael Turath or some such and wants to collect any artifacts from his history, etc.

The shard is part of a greater stone - the killing stone.
I'm basically pulling this as a form of the Cain and Abel story - two brothers eons ago, one killed the other. This one (first?) act of violence was stored in the stone, and has fermented over the eons to turn the stone into something evil (?).

I need some help polishing this off. I don't want it to be (too) hammy and contrived. I thought the initial thought of the first murder-weapon was a good place to start. The image I have in my head is of a rock, slightly bigger than the size of a fist, with a black hand-print that almost looks charred on.
What I'd like is if anyone has any suggestions or ideas of where to take this. Should I go the route of the chars going to try and find pieces all over the world before big bad does? What does big bad want with it? Why's the stone so important? What could it do?
Any ideas or inspiration would be great.

Thanks,

C.

 

[d2OKC]

I don't know if you've read through the Slaying Stone, but it is a very good sandbox style adventure that has an item in it that isn't exactly like what you're describing, but has some similarities. You could look at that to get some inspiration, if you haven't already.

What I would do, instead of it being an item to quest for, is do something smaller with it.

Make it like a lodestone. Something innocuous they pick up one time and it becomes a bigger burden than they could have ever imagined. It won't leave their person. Bad things happen wherever it goes. Their reputations are ruined because of this stone, and their quest is actually more along the lines of getting rid of this cursed item, and possibly destroying it at the end to rid the world of it.

And, there could be some evil organization trying to get it from them that they have to continually dodge - or better yet, an order of paladins that think they must be dealt with, since they are the ones carrying the cursed stone!

Maybe a very powerful creature (rakshasha? succubus?) is after the stone as well for their own schemes?

 

[buddhafrog]

I don't know if you've read through the Slaying Stone, but it is a very good sandbox style adventure that has an item in it that isn't exactly like what you're describing, but has some similarities. You could look at that to get some inspiration, if you haven't already.

What I would do, instead of it being an item to quest for, is do something smaller with it.

Make it like a lodestone. Something innocuous they pick up one time and it becomes a bigger burden than they could have ever imagined. It won't leave their person. Bad things happen wherever it goes. Their reputations are ruined because of this stone, and their quest is actually more along the lines of getting rid of this cursed item, and possibly destroying it at the end to rid the world of it.

And, there could be some evil organization trying to get it from them that they have to continually dodge - or better yet, an order of paladins that think they must be dealt with, since they are the ones carrying the cursed stone!

Maybe a very powerful creature (rakshasha? succubus?) is after the stone as well for their own schemes?

I like this idea but am curious how you might pull it off in game - specifically the critical "it won't leave their person." How and why? If these could be answered well (b/c this is the only thing that allows the rest of the general plot), then I might try something similar.

I'm guessing this is not too uncommon, but I'm not overly experienced. Help would be appreciated.

 

[Evilhalfling]

sounds like a good case for artifact rules - (see DMGs)
they are designed to last only a 5 levels or so, which would make a great, achievable arc, rather than a plot so large it cant be finished.

artifact attunement rules are pretty good for showing increasing power base on actions. Probably the stone won't communicate what actions it likes, but killing humanoid foes (instead of knockouts) would be likely.
-2 for leaving a defeated foe alive after combat
+4 for betraying a friend.
+1 for killing a member of your own race with HD = yours.

Property: At the end of an extended rest, it returns to the person it is attuned to.
If it has some useful effect the players won't want to throw it away: +2 damage with all melee attacks should do it (treat as a non-slotted iron armband of power) this can scale up like the armbands if the item is pleased.

As for an ultimate purpose - what if it can teach/act as the ritual component for a circle of death ritual that kills everyone but caster in some radius (100 sq/1 mile/ 10 miles) The ritual would take longer than 10 min to cast, of course.

 

[Ranes]

I like the suggestions here, so mine will build on them. If you want the McGuffin to stick around longer but not have it constantly annoy the characters, its property could be that it returns to the attuned character's possession on a full moon, a Friday or when it's raining (because the same condition was met when the stone was first used).

This way, the party can rid themselves of it, and have some adventuring time without it being albatross-like around their necks, only to discover that it finds its way back to them at certain intervals. The PCs should be able to learn, by research or eventual deduction, the condition that brings about the stone's return. If the return trigger is something that doesn't occur at regular intervals, this could be harder for them to deduce but they might enjoy the puzzle.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

If you wanted the stone to stick around maybe you could have it attune and influence one specific PC. Part of the influence it would have over the PC is that they wouldn't want to get rid of it. The other part of the influence (going with the first act of violence and brother against brother themes) could be a mounting urge to do your companions harm. Or give the stone a different motivation.

Ideally I think this would work best if the influence was gradual on the PC who carried the stone and the emotions it emparted were subtle. To work best this will require buy in from your player to act appropriately influenced and it'll require players who like telling an interesting story together and wouldn't become too adversarial.

My group had a story arc similar to this where one PC found an intelligent magic item that started influencing him. Once we realized there was something wrong with the PC, it was a great series of sessions where the party was trying to prove something was amiss while the influenced PC covered things up. And the arc concluded with the party trying to find and get rid of the item, again while the influenced PC worked to stop us. My favorite part was that there was no combat involved, it was all social, skill, and roleplay oriented. The "I know you have it" and "You know that I know you have it", but we're still talking as if no one knows where it is moments were the greatest.

 

[d2OKC]

I like this idea but am curious how you might pull it off in game - specifically the critical "it won't leave their person." How and why? If these could be answered well (b/c this is the only thing that allows the rest of the general plot), then I might try something similar.

I'm guessing this is not too uncommon, but I'm not overly experienced. Help would be appreciated.

I was thinking something almost exactly like evilhalfling mentioned. The artifact rules are almost perfect for a situation like this.

On top of that, though, it would have some story things going on that the rules don't necessarily cover. When they take an extended rest in a town, something bad happens (fire, sickness, etc.) and people start connecting the dots. Maybe under certain circumstances it actually changes the physical characteristics of the person carrying it to make them look awful? I'd have to give it a lot more thought to really flesh it out, but evilhalfling is on the right track for what I was thinking, anyway.

 

[Randomthoughts]

The shard is part of a greater stone - the killing stone. I'm basically pulling this as a form of the Cain and Abel story - two brothers eons ago, one killed the other. This one (first?) act of violence was stored in the stone, and has fermented over the eons to turn the stone into something evil (?).

<snip>
What I'd like is if anyone has any suggestions or ideas of where to take this. Should I go the route of the chars going to try and find pieces all over the world before big bad does? What does big bad want with it? Why's the stone so important? What could it do?

A few ideas spring to mind but they're epic in scope - not something resolved in a story arc or two:

If it's a killing stone, it's value would be to use it to kill something "unkillable" like a god. The big bad would be the enemy of this god. Perhaps the PCs are allies (or will become allies) of this god. A less epic use of a killing stone would be to kill a king or important figure.

Maybe the big bad uses the PCs to get parts of the stone, but eventually they may figure out that they're being used. You can connect this megaplot with their backstories including things like blackmailing them to help the big bad if the PCs don't cooperate.

You can also go a completely different route with the killing stone. In your story of "Cain vs Abel", what happened to Cain? Maybe he's the big bad, but he wants to reassemble the stone to perform a ritual that would redeem him somehow? Look to Moorcocks "The War Hound and the World's Pain" for inspiration.

Maybe you could have two parties vyying for the stone - the big bad that wants to use the stone to kill a god and Cain, who wants to ultimately use it to redeem himself. The big bad can trick the PCs in getting it for him, to prevent Cain from having it.

Something else to consider: how does the killing stone relate to the god of Death? An artifact like this probably would attract the god's attention. Perhaps Cain is the god of Death? Perhaps the stone could usurp the god of Death (or perhaps could be the only thing that could "kill" the god of Death?).

Well, those are my thoughts anyway. It'll be interesting to see what you decide.

 

[Baileyborough]

Thanks so much for the input guys, but I think Randomthoughts is closest to what I want to go for. I'm really digging the "kill a god" vibe, and I think yes, the Raven Queen may be slightly pissed by the whole thing. I was originally going to have bad guy A set them up/blackmail them into his service, just one or two jobs, but then see where it goes.

Thanks so much!

Any more ideas are more than welcome!

 

[Will Doyle]

Maybe you could have two parties vyying for the stone - the big bad that wants to use the stone to kill a god and Cain, who wants to ultimately use it to redeem himself.

I love the original poster's ideas about the first ever murder weapon, and I think Randomthoughts has a great suggestion here that builds on it.

Cain would make a great antihero, especially as a villain in search of redemption. According to some readings, Cain was made immortal, cursed by God to wander the world in shame, with a mark laid on him that will "deliver god's vengeance sevenfold" if he is ever harmed. For your version of Cain this could have a similar game effect - strike Cain, and you get the same damage back multiplied.

You could possibly have your Slaying Stone start off as something your players need - perhaps, at the beginning of the arc, they get a hold of it, learn its powers, and then use it to slay a big bad. Cain appears throughout as this unstoppable, unreasonable character who is after their stone.

Then, after the big bad is dead, one of their patrons gets corrupted by the thought of using it to kill a god (and perhaps become one in its place), and tries to steal it from them. If he does, Cain then appears as a uncomfortable ally, whom they work with to get the stone back. Finally, they join Cain in a quest to destroy the Stone, and earn his redemption - and oblivion.