D&D 5E I TPL'd (Total Party Lycanthroped) my players and they don't know yet! Best time to reveal and fun alternate rules sought.

The Party - 12th level Human Elemental Monk, 12th Level Drow Shadow Monk, 12th Level Eladrin Transmuter Wizard

The Plot - After the players successfully stopped a Demon and Undead invasion, the agency they work for (sort of an Impossible Mission force) has determined the need to re-establish contact with the Halflings and Giants societies in the far east. Trade and diplomatic relations has been non existent for 20+ years and to get there, the players had to secure travel through a dangerous wilderness to get to a port city to secure a ship to the Island where the Halflings and Giants live.

The Fateful Encounter - You know those horror movies where the group of teenagers come upon a cabin in the woods after being warned not to go inside and do anyhow and the audience is screaming at them not to be so stupid? So yeah, gotta love my players. After the gem that powered their small boat was stolen from them the night before, they tracked the thief to a small cabin in the woods. Now, keep in mind that the Wizard had already figured out how to power the boat using his spells, and knew they could complete the journey, but made the decision that "no one steals from us".

The cabin itself was a portal to a pocket dimension where an Arcanist (flavored as Fey for my campaign) held 4 dozen gnomes in thrall (basic cult leader stuff). The Arcanist made use of several were creatures, bear, wolf and boar, as his personal body guards. My party goes in guns blazing to a fight that is almost 2x deadly in adjusted xp (encounter was designed for them to sneak in and steal back the gem, not fight them directly). They are able to fight to a draw in the 3rd round of combat when the Arcanist get's concerned that his Finger of Death spell not only didn't take out the wizard, but failed to break his concentration on a black tentacles spell that was affecting the leader and his allies. At this point, I'd say it was probably 70/30 for a Party Victory vs TPK

So the party get's it's gem back, yay! But during the fight, each PC was subjected to and failed their Con saving throws against one of the were creatures. The human failed against the bear while the Drow and Eladrin failed against the boar. Because they were so focused on the fight, I don't think they realized/put together what happened to them. No one asked about Lycanthropy after the session or since.

Moving Forward - So I really have three choices as to when I could spring their first full moon on them.

1. They made it to the Port City, where we ended the session, so I could have it happen on their first night in town. Complication - May be unable to acquire transportation to Island until they resolve Lycanthropy issue.

2. Happen on the ship they take to the Island. Complication - have them wake up one day with the entire crew killed save for one scared s@#$less cabin boy, and to present it as a mystery. Because none of them are navigators, this could lead to them going off course and having an adventure or two before they make it to the Halfling/Giant destination (an Odyssey, if you will). Also could still lead to complication in 3 if they don't realize what happened.

3. Choice 3 to be when they get to the Island itself. Complication - Mission in jeopardy because of their nature.

Help! - So I'm torn on how to move forward and am looking for cool suggestions! Suggestions on alternate rules to how I should run the curse itself are welcome as well since this is such a high level party. Next session is this Saturday so I have little time to decide!

Option 2 sounds the best. Not only does it provide the better roleplaying oppertunities, but it limits the potential casaulties until they figure out their situation.

I would go with 2. The off-course adventures could be used to test out how to adjust future encounters, given their newfound strengths. If they embrace the curses, they can then shapechange on command. That means that you're going to have to start equipping the enemies with weapons and abilities that can bypass their immunity to nonsilver/nonmagical weapons. Not necessarily every enemy should be able to, but the key baddies should be aware of the party's condition.

I like 2: 'oh my god... We killed those people'

I think I'm leaning towards option 2 as well. I like the idea of using the off course adventures as a testing ground for the new abilities, and perhaps give them the option to resist the curse and/or try to cure it. My initial thought was that if they choose to embrace they would become NPC monsters, but instead maybe I can use that time to figure out how to incorporate it.

Maybe give them the option of embracing it as a Prestige class? Going to have to think on how that might work. Ideas on a 4 to 5 level Lycanthrope Prestige class would be most welcome here!

cmad1977 said:

I like 2: 'oh my god... We killed those people'

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Or possibly, oh my god... the Arcanist has tracked us down with his minions and is trying to kill us! Could then hold the revelation that it was them until later.

No need to use a prestige class for embracing the curse. The rules for it already exist. The PCs suffer an alignment change to that of the respective lycanthrope. That in itself may deter one of them from embracing the curse.

If the players get too big for their britches with their new power, throw enemies that know Remove Curse at them to strip them of it for their hubris.

Agree that a prestige classes isn't necessary, but it could be a fun way to give them some options and a way to embrace without the alignment change if done right.

Feels like a good use of the prestige class rules as presented in UA as the way to gain access is through an event in the campaign. And for those who don't want that path, they can still try to get cured and continue on with their regular level progression.

Wait until it is their time of the month.

But seriously, though I like the plot appeal of option 2, it is a tad heavy handed. You know your players best, but they might not care for that.

Instead, give them something similar- perhaps waking covered in blood in their rooms in an inn, and then comes news of the slaughter of a stockyard's worth of animals.

That way, they have a chance to figure out and address the issue before they have to deal with the actual moral/campaign quandary of beind mass murderers, albeit cursed ones.

That's a good point [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] Perhaps if I go with option 2 I should make it that the crew abandoned ship in the middle of the night (and the rowboats are missing) as they were scared off by the transformation. That or the players were put on a rowboat out to drift and wake up with no knowledge of how or why (the crew through them out after they changed and went on a rampage, nearly killing the crew).

Both of these keep it out of the moral issue of them actually killing the crew and instead increase the mystery of what is going on. I could still have the one scared cabin boy who was left behind on the abandoned ship who perhaps is so traumatized he doesn't tell the PCs at first what happened, giving them some time to figure it out on their own.