D&D 5E worthy quest

[pukunui]

(EDIT: Please skip ahead to post #15!)

One of the PCs in my campaign is suffering from a long-term injury. He's been wanting to get rid of it for a while now, and he has just reached a city full of paladins and clerics. Seems like as good a place as any to find someone who can cast greater restoration. Unfortunately, being only 4th level, he may not be able to afford the cost.

Can anyone help me come up with a worthy quest he could undertake in order to earn a free casting of greater restoration?

Thanks!

 

[HEEGZ]

Okay, so created this worthy quest using random dice rolls and some slight filling in of details:

Lunatic Liaison

The PC is approached by a former teacher, a NE half-elf female ascetic monk priest (choose your deity, I can suggest one for FR if you are using it). One of this monk's acolytes has become raving mad, and she is requesting the PC to do something about it. In her midnight meditations, it has been revealed that the source of the the madness was the result of the acolyte traveling to some strange location in the wilderness. The PC must escort the lunatic NPC back to this location, and reverse the effect, resulting in a return to his sound mind of before. How the PCs accomplish this is half the fun. The acolyte is a LE human male monk, and has taken a vow of poverty. In his lunacy, he has taken to chewing on all kinds of objects, leather, metal, and has suffered damage to his tongue, teeth, and lips as a result, and it has affected his speech, as well as his ability to communicate in a normal fashion.

The adventure location is set in the wilderness, a nearby swamp/bog, which contains an ancient ruined keep. While exploring the keep, the errant monk delved too deep, and unearthed the catacombs beneath the keep. There, he disturbed the soul of an ancient cleric, still alive in undeath. This evil being cursed the acolyte with madness, mistakenly (in it's own madness) thinking him to be the source of his ruin, and essentially was seeking revenge. Not an outright death, but a madness that would wreck his life (so far working as intended). Attempts to remove the curse have failed, and the curse can only be removed by destruction of an object in the possession of the ancient cleric, an electrum dagger with a black pearl in the pommel. It is up to the PC to discover all of this, recover the dagger somehow, and destroy it in the presence of the mad monk, thus restoring his right mind.

I'm hesitant to give any further details at the risk of a railroad plot. But that should give you a bit of an outline to go from. Also, has the convenient twist that the two primary NPCs are evil aligned, and may be at odds, or in the fringes of the society or town where the PC is at present, thus driving their need for adventurers. Go, go random dice rolls!

 

[pukunui]

Hmm. Interesting idea. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it works in the context. I probably should have mentioned that I'm running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and the city the PCs have just reached is Elturel. The one that's full of zealous do-gooders and the like. I can't really see an evil monk wanting to go anywhere near that place.

Now, the PCs *will* be meeting with Leosin and Ontharr. The PC in question is an elven arcane trickster. Not really Order of the Gauntlet material. But I suppose Leosin might offer to help him if he joins the Harpers and agrees to undertake the quest.

So in this case, the "worthy quest" would be the one the PCs are going to be going on anyway, but I suppose it might give that particular PC extra incentive to accept.

 

[HEEGZ]

The NPCs were rolled randomly. Since it is in FR, and I love Elturel... You can refluff them. The main ascetic priestess, she is a LN servant of Helm, and resides at Helm's Shieldhall, one of only two temples in the town. Her acolyte can remain LE, and add some complication to the matter, and perhaps a reason she is seeking help outside of her church. You can substitute the swamp for the nearby High Moor, and the keep is one of the Moorsedge keeps, abandoned many centuries ago.

[edit]
Nearby stopping places are to the north, on the way to the High Moor and the Moorsedge Keeps: Soubar, a foul and evil town of ill repute, and an infamous inn; also, the Boarskyr Bridge, where Bhaal was slain, and colored the river water black, cursed to this day. Also, the wilderness that the road cuts through on the way north to these places is called the Fields of the Dead, and it would be appropriate to have some skeleton/zombie encounter on the way there or back, etc.

If you have Faiths & Pantheons from 3e, you might read p. 28 where it gives some ideas for a Consecration of a Glymtul, a "favored thing". Perhaps the dagger is such an object, and the lunatic acolyte needs to complete the task to be restored into the good graces of Helm, after a lapse in vigilance. Also, the undead cleric could be a servant of Bane, Cyric, or Shar, the sworn enemies of Helm.

 

[Dkase]

What manner of affliction have they come down with? I'd say a free casting of the spell would be a pretty good signing bonus for one of the factions, and have the quest be the continuation of the Tyranny of Dragons story line. Might seem a bit of a cop out, but really, what more noble of a quest can their be than keeping an evil dragon goddess from invading the realms?

 

[Sunseeker]

That must be one heck of a wound if only Greater Restoration can fix it. I'm not familiar with Hoard, but is this something that's actually in the material as possibly happening to players? I'd like a little more information on what sort of character this PC is, and what sort of wound he's got.

The only thing I'm coming up with is if it's a physical wound, perhaps a test of his mind. Have him drink some sort of juice that puts him in a trance where a powerful cleric tests his convictions. He doesn't necessarily need to fight anything, perhaps simply answering deeply personal questions that he otherwise wouldn't tell anyone in person would suffice, or perhaps confessing to some bad thing he did at one point in the past and showing true remorse.

If it's a serious physical wound, I'd advice against sending him on any quests that could prove physically dangerous.

 

[pukunui]

I'm not familiar with Hoard, but is this something that's actually in the material as possibly happening to players?

No. I modified the optional Lingering Injuries rule from the DMG so that when a PC would ordinarily be killed outright, the player can choose to have them survive but suffer a lingering injury of an appropriate type instead. Because this PC got fried by lightning, I decided it was more of a neurological injury. I took the confusion-inducing long term madness effect and made it permanent (instead of having it only last a few hours). "Indefinite madness" can only be removed with greater restoration or similar magic.


EDIT: So the player had his PC bring up the injury while hanging out with Ontharr. The paladin offered to get someone to have a look, but when he said the healing process would involve prayer, the PC declined. The player was really getting into the roleplay and decided that his Evermeet-born elf would not like to be beholden to human gods. He's going to seek out an elven healer who can restore his mind instead. Fair enough!

He might have to wait until the caravan reaches Daggerford, though. He can go on a little trek into the nearby Misty Forest to find some elves who might be able to help him out. He might need to undertake some sort of mini "elf quest" (ha ha) to prove his worthiness in the eyes of Corellon or something. Any ideas?

 

[Dkase]

If you don't want to pre-preemptively introduce the PCs to the Elf King in the Rise of Tiamat, than perhaps Leosin can relate a tale of elfin lore via his Harper lore? Maybe he's heard about an abandoned temple of Sehanine wear the PC can wash the afflicted area with water from a sacred well beneath the light of a full moon or some such?

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, something like that could work! Thanks.

 

[jayoungr]

No need for them to meet the king; how about having them go to the village of Altand? They could get to know it before the dragon attack, which would give the PC some personal investment when it later gets hit. Maybe Galin's wife could be the healer.