der_kluge
Adventurer
(Player's in my Circvsmaximvs.com PbP - get out!)
I need some advice on how to resolve this side-quest.
So, in a small town, my (4th level) players decided to help the reclusive map and book dealer. He was obviously entranced by some book, which he wouldn't relinquish under any circumstance.
Long story short, the players held him, and pried it from his hands, and the party sorcerer read it (it's written in Draconic).
The book cast 3 spells on her:
Lesser geas
a spell of my own design called delusion
and charm person.
She failed the first two. Now she has been geased to read the book, and do what it says.
The delusion basically makes her believe that everyone is out to take her book, and can't be trusted.
She made the save against the charm, which is the least of the enchantments anyway, which would basically make her believe the book is her best friend.
The book's contents detail the story of one Shelatrox, the Gleaming - who is being held prisoner against his well in some sort of pocket dimension. Shelatrox details out a very curious, but simply ritual involving casting rope trick inside another rope trick and then aligning the second rope trick to his pocket dimension with an included scroll from one of the pages of the book (which is currently missing, unfortunately).
The book instructs the reader that, if they are unable to cast the spells, to continue reading the book - which consists of 100 pages of random words written sideways and upside-down, which will consume the reader's time for more than 24 hours. The book then basically recasts all of its magic 1x/per day on the reader, basically ensuring that the wizard either memorize the spells in question to break the geas, or to learn them.
Unfortunately, for the bookstore owner, he just speaks Draconic, but he's not a spellcaster, so he's been stuck inside this insidious "trap" for nearly 3 years now. And "last time they removed the book from him, he nearly died" because his ability scores all dropped so low, they had no choice but to give the book back to him, which just repeated the cycle all over again. And the town's only cleric is 4th level - not high enough to cast remove curse. Curiously, a protection from Good spell will temporarily negate the effects of the Delusion and Geas spells, since Shelatrox is, in fact, an ancient brass dragon, but the book fails to mention this part.
Apparently, the story, as told briefly by the book, is that Shelatrox summoned a Janni, which angered an Efreeti, who in turn created a clever trap for Shelatrox, imprisoning him in a pocket dimension - where he's been trapped for countless years. Shelatrox survives by summoning Djinni's to his aid, to create food and water, since he lacks the ability himself.
But, destroying his spellbook in the process, Shelatrox created 3 identical books - each book is immune to fire, has DR 20/magic (or DR/+2 in 3.0 terms). Each casts lesser geas, delusion (placing the user into a delusional state) and charm person upon reading. Shelatrox tossed these out into the unknown void of the astral, where he resides, in the hopes that at least one of them would fall into the hands of a spellcaster, somewhere, and apologizes for the compulsions placed upon the reader - but Shelatrox has little choice.
The party doesn't have the ability to cast the necessary spells - and at this point are dealing with the geas and delusion spells on the sorcerer, but I'm trying to figure out what to do when the spells *are* cast.
I was thinking that I could have a portal open, and the party enters finding themselves in a pocket dimension - then what?
Some ideas
the party actually enters the contents of the Efreeti's bag of holding or Handy haversack - and the "realm" consists of giant-sized gems and coins laying about. Taking even the smallest gem will require several people to lift and carry it out, only to find it becomes regular sized back on the prime material.
The party enters a floating island of some sort, drifting aimlessly amidst the astral plane. There, they find the skeleton remains of Shelatrox, who died countless millenia ago. Perhaps he leaves some small token of treasure behind for any who find his remains.
The party enters the plane, but has to fight the Efreeti in order to gain access to the pocket dimension - a difficult fight for a 4th level party, but the party is pretty large, so it would be very doable.
Shelatrox is alive - and they free him. This one gives me a bit of heartburn, because if this happens, the party (again, 4th level) gains an ancient wyrm Brass Dragon as their close personal ally. Now, I've scaled back dragons since this is an E8 (8th level max) game, but by my reckoning, an ancient wyrm brass dragon is still on the order of somewhere around CR 16. So, I'm either leaning on him being long dead, or him being unable to leave for some reason - maybe he's permanently trapped, or something else is in play.
Any ideas? I'm really stretching my creative juices at this point.
I need some advice on how to resolve this side-quest.
So, in a small town, my (4th level) players decided to help the reclusive map and book dealer. He was obviously entranced by some book, which he wouldn't relinquish under any circumstance.
Long story short, the players held him, and pried it from his hands, and the party sorcerer read it (it's written in Draconic).
The book cast 3 spells on her:
Lesser geas
a spell of my own design called delusion
and charm person.
She failed the first two. Now she has been geased to read the book, and do what it says.
The delusion basically makes her believe that everyone is out to take her book, and can't be trusted.
She made the save against the charm, which is the least of the enchantments anyway, which would basically make her believe the book is her best friend.
The book's contents detail the story of one Shelatrox, the Gleaming - who is being held prisoner against his well in some sort of pocket dimension. Shelatrox details out a very curious, but simply ritual involving casting rope trick inside another rope trick and then aligning the second rope trick to his pocket dimension with an included scroll from one of the pages of the book (which is currently missing, unfortunately).
The book instructs the reader that, if they are unable to cast the spells, to continue reading the book - which consists of 100 pages of random words written sideways and upside-down, which will consume the reader's time for more than 24 hours. The book then basically recasts all of its magic 1x/per day on the reader, basically ensuring that the wizard either memorize the spells in question to break the geas, or to learn them.
Unfortunately, for the bookstore owner, he just speaks Draconic, but he's not a spellcaster, so he's been stuck inside this insidious "trap" for nearly 3 years now. And "last time they removed the book from him, he nearly died" because his ability scores all dropped so low, they had no choice but to give the book back to him, which just repeated the cycle all over again. And the town's only cleric is 4th level - not high enough to cast remove curse. Curiously, a protection from Good spell will temporarily negate the effects of the Delusion and Geas spells, since Shelatrox is, in fact, an ancient brass dragon, but the book fails to mention this part.
Apparently, the story, as told briefly by the book, is that Shelatrox summoned a Janni, which angered an Efreeti, who in turn created a clever trap for Shelatrox, imprisoning him in a pocket dimension - where he's been trapped for countless years. Shelatrox survives by summoning Djinni's to his aid, to create food and water, since he lacks the ability himself.
But, destroying his spellbook in the process, Shelatrox created 3 identical books - each book is immune to fire, has DR 20/magic (or DR/+2 in 3.0 terms). Each casts lesser geas, delusion (placing the user into a delusional state) and charm person upon reading. Shelatrox tossed these out into the unknown void of the astral, where he resides, in the hopes that at least one of them would fall into the hands of a spellcaster, somewhere, and apologizes for the compulsions placed upon the reader - but Shelatrox has little choice.
The party doesn't have the ability to cast the necessary spells - and at this point are dealing with the geas and delusion spells on the sorcerer, but I'm trying to figure out what to do when the spells *are* cast.
I was thinking that I could have a portal open, and the party enters finding themselves in a pocket dimension - then what?
Some ideas
the party actually enters the contents of the Efreeti's bag of holding or Handy haversack - and the "realm" consists of giant-sized gems and coins laying about. Taking even the smallest gem will require several people to lift and carry it out, only to find it becomes regular sized back on the prime material.
The party enters a floating island of some sort, drifting aimlessly amidst the astral plane. There, they find the skeleton remains of Shelatrox, who died countless millenia ago. Perhaps he leaves some small token of treasure behind for any who find his remains.
The party enters the plane, but has to fight the Efreeti in order to gain access to the pocket dimension - a difficult fight for a 4th level party, but the party is pretty large, so it would be very doable.
Shelatrox is alive - and they free him. This one gives me a bit of heartburn, because if this happens, the party (again, 4th level) gains an ancient wyrm Brass Dragon as their close personal ally. Now, I've scaled back dragons since this is an E8 (8th level max) game, but by my reckoning, an ancient wyrm brass dragon is still on the order of somewhere around CR 16. So, I'm either leaning on him being long dead, or him being unable to leave for some reason - maybe he's permanently trapped, or something else is in play.
Any ideas? I'm really stretching my creative juices at this point.
