odd Skyseeing request: what if we give up?

[efreund]

Having trouble figuring out what to do with this one.

One of my PCs is a taciturn Lawful Good "keep your head down and do your job" kinda guy. Dwarf Eschatologist to boot. He takes loyalty to Delft and Saxby very seriously, and often plays the straight man to my other PCs' more colorful ideas and hijinks.

Well his gruff old dwarven self just can't take all this craziness anymore. They just met the Voice of Rot, and one party member was raised as a pseudo-undead, and another has announced that she wants to multiclass as Cleric and take VoR as her god. The fourth PC is currently going crazy from Distant Madness. That leaves us with our Dwarf, the only sane one left, and he just wants to get back to Flint and do his job. Which, at this juncture, means providing security at the Kaybeau Arms Expo. (The OOG player is on board with what's going on, and in particular, is geeked out by the vision of broken Reida, but he's letting his IG character go hardcore reactionary and regress towards the stable and safe.)

So he's commissioned a skyseeing out of the party skyseer (who happens to be the one that wants to take up VoR as her personal diety). She has agreed to this. The vision he's requested? "What will happen if we just drop this case?"

There are so many ways I could go with that. Many of which, admittedly, spoil far more of the grander plotline than is appropriate at this time. I've been pretty liberal with skyseeings in the past, so I don't want to just cheese out and give them nothing. And this seems like a juicy time to really drive home a cool theme and scramble the party's nerves even more (and maybe help refocus the other two PCs, who are currently carefully sketching out how they're going to burn down the Theater of Scoundrels before heading out to Ber on the Mavisha quest).

Any ideas, good forumites? Just seems like such a golden opportunity. I appreciate your brainstorms!

 

[RangerWickett]

Vision.

The dwarf PC stands in the RHC headquarters, vague figures drifting back and forth down the hallways. He holds in his hand a gold coin, feeling its weight. He grimaces, shakes his head, and drops it.

He turns to walk away as it falls, and just as he's turned his back it smashes to the ground. Its impact punctures a hole, down to the sewers and subrail and beyond.

He takes one step away, and the hole's edges start to erode.

He takes another step, and the hole expands outward.

A third step, somehow carrying him out of the RHC and down the steps to the street. He hears a grinding sound behind him, and when he turns to look, the whole building has vanished into a pit of dust.

He considers the pit, reaches into his pocket, and fishes out a rusted amulet, like the ones used to access Macbannin's underground laboratory. He holds it in his hand, feeling its weight.

He grimaces, shakes his head, and drops it. The vision ends.

 

[Samuel Cole]

They just met the Voice of Rot, and one party member was raised as a pseudo-undead, and another has announced that she wants to multiclass as Cleric and take VoR as her god.

I know this isn't what you asked, but since the Voice of Rot is a fey titan rather than a deity, I think it'd be more appropriate for VoT's patronage to manifest as a fey-pact warlock than as a cleric. Not only is a warlock the very definition of "I have a powerful fey patron who grants me power," it also makes more sense for VoT's powers to destructive (striker) than creative (leader).

If it were a member of my party, I'd have VoT accept the PC's fealty and make all kinds of promises of future power, including divine powers. However, once the PC has signed on the dotted line, he or she would be surprised to wake up with the Warlock multi-class feat and an inclination to eat only rotted food. Escaping the Voice of Rot's service (and thereby retraining the feat) would become an extended side plot for the character.

 

[RangerWickett]

I think efreund's doing PF, not 4e.

But one of my PCs did something similar, and I basically gave him the ability to channel negative energy and control corporeal undead. In exchange, he could only eat food that was already rotting, and whenever he was below 0 HP he'd vomit a snake that would observe the surroundings. Sadly the full game never made it past adventure 5.

 

[efreund]

Thanks! That was completely perfect. Too perfect actually: my PC commented that it was "too full of awesome, I can tell you didn't write it." Anyway... his character is now driven to get to the heart of the matter and save the RHC

I'm glad I asked for help: truth my told, my head was in a completely different place. Perhaps the perils of reading through the later adventures, I was too focused on the endgame, and thinking about how if they drop the case, the Gyre crushes Earth, which isn't something I wanted to address. I just hope they get to that awesome climax! In adventure 3 that is.

Re: wannabe Priestess of Rot: that wasn't what I was asking about, but those are some really cool thoughts. Thank you both Samuel and Ranger for the brainstorm. I like the idea of the bait-and-switch bargain, as well as some of the powers over undead. (But looking ahead, there's not really much corporeal undead in this campaign.)