A curse....Help for this imaginatively challenged DM?

[Shadowslayer]

I planted the idea that there was a curse on this particular region of forest that is nearby to an elven settlement. (my own motivation for doing so was to simply explain why these particular elves hadn't and couldn't go there.... and needed the PCs help with some baddies that were holed up in that area)

Never really fleshed it out but more or less insinuated that it was due to a long ago feud between an Elf elder and the humans that were settled on that land way back when. The human basically made the curse so that any elf from that particular settlement that stepped foot within, would cause the ground within to erupt in undead and descend upon the elven settlement. The elves havent figured out how to remove it, because they can't go there, and over the years have just accepted that there's a certain forest they just have to stay the hell out of. (and from time to time, someone stumbles in there anyway and the elves have to deal with zombies every once in a while) That's as fleshed out as it got.

Of course, now the PCs want to find out how to lift the curse, and I have no idea what to do, or how to even get them the info they would need. I could make it as simple as "find the cursed stone of X and destroy it", but I wanted to do A: do something cooler than that and B: Have it be self contained and playable in a night or 2. (The adventure that took them into the woods has nothing to do with the curse storyline and the major story arc is something completely different)

But I can't think of anything.

Anyone wanna take a run at this?

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

Ask them "Well, what do you think you need to do?"

This insinuates they aren't smart enough to figure out your puzzle. Insinuating someone isn't smart enough to to do something tends to make them work harder at solving the puzzle.

Take the answers shouted at you, choose whatever you think is the most interesting one, and go with it.

In other words: Lose your ego, let the players—wittingly or unwittingly—shape their own destiny, and bask in the glory.

 

[bobhayes]

I like TikkchikFenTikktikk's suggestion.

If you decide to decide yourself:

The elves more or less lied to the party. What actually happened was, the humans had settled in the area first when the elves decided that they weren't going to let any upstart humans get a foothold in the elvish lands, and tried to force them out. Elvish arrogance led to a disastrous war. The humans had nearly won, when the elves in desperation called a peace conference to settle things diplomatically. But the humans didn't realize the duplicity of this particular elven group - it was all a lie, and when the humans laid down their arms to negotiate the elves made sneak attacks using powerful magics.

The betrayed and beleaguered humans sought assistance from a powerful necromancer in the area. He hadn't been concerned with the war, other than being delighted to have so many corpses available, but struck a deal with the humans: he would aid them in their war, but they had to bind the souls of their people to him. In return, he would destroy the elves. Alas, this was yet another betrayal - when the compact was sealed in blood, the necromancer destroyed the humans himself and took their life force, creating an undead army of tremendous power. The now-desperate elves sought divine assistance, and their gods contained the undead force (and the necromancer) with a blood ritual of their own - so long as the elves abandoned the territory where the humans had been, the necromancer's magic will not function and the undead army (and he himself) are contained and unable to attack them.

The elves guard this secret closely, because anyone seeking the destruction of the elves need only kidnap an elf or two and bring them to the forest - the longer the elves remain, the more the undead awaken and the greater the risk to the elvish people. The occasional lost elf that has triggered the effect in the past hasn't led to enormous disaster, because once the undead kill that particular elf, the binding magic reasserts itself. But someone who knows the whole story could destroy the elves utterly by keeping elves in the forest but protecting them from the undead.

This is a bigger plot element than you would want to handle in a session or two - but they could perhaps find out the history of the curse by venturing into the necromancer's lair. Make raising the curse far beyond their power at the moment - they would have to destroy the necromancer himself, who is a powerful lich at this point - but at their present level they could gather information and maybe a little treasure and put this quest in their future "to do" bin.