A Sacrifice/Bargain to Raise the Dead

[Stoat]

Last night, the Dwarf Paladin of Moradin in my game agreed to make some sacrifice or enter into a bargain with some supernatural entity in order to return one of his companions from the dead.

I was winging it, and in the cold light of the next day, I've got to think of some appropriate sacrifice/bargain to impose. Anybody have any ideas?

For background, it's a 4E game, low heroic tier. The PC's are adventuring in a jungle area with a central American theme. The dead PC had been drawn into a Mictlan-ish afterlife controlled by an Aztec-ish pantheon of gods.

I don't want to cripple the Paladin, and I'm not particularly interested in playing alignment games.

 

[On Puget Sound]

a soul for a soul. someone who has defied the natural order and escaped from death's clutches - a vampire or other free-willed undead solo of about level 8 (the level of a raise dead ritual) - needs to be destroyed. The raised character's "death penalty" is reflavored to a geas; it will not go away until this quest is completed (or if you want to be kind, it goes away while they are actively working on the quest but returns if they do anything else).

 

[Asmor]

Just to go another tack, blood demands blood: the paladin's debt can only be repaid with a ritual sacrifice. Presumably, he would refuse to give such a sacrifice for a variety of reasons, and then the gods would send out their lackeys to hunt down the paladin. A marut, I think, would work very well. I always thought they had a slight aztec flavor, which works here...

There are three things PCs can never have in quantities too large: gold, magic items, and enemies.

 

[Dausuul]

a soul for a soul. someone who has defied the natural order and escaped from death's clutches - a vampire or other free-willed undead solo of about level 8 (the level of a raise dead ritual) - needs to be destroyed. The raised character's "death penalty" is reflavored to a geas; it will not go away until this quest is completed (or if you want to be kind, it goes away while they are actively working on the quest but returns if they do anything else).

I like this one. I suggest that the undead solo's level should be equal to the level of the resurrected character, possibly adding some constant value based on your group's tactical skills. Also, the death penalty should progressively worsen until the target is defeated.

You might consider swapping the death penalty as written, which is a nuisance to track, for a single permanent failed death save which goes away once the quest is complete. Ignoring the quest can lead to the addition of a second failed death save, and eventually a third (which kills the character).

 

[LostSoul]

You could do something like having the crops fail, a drought, or plague, depending on the god's portfolio. When the priests ask why, the god will tell them what's going on.

Then you could have a bounty hunting party chasing the PCs to sacrifice one of them to set the balance back in order again. If the PCs aren't caught in time, many villagers are going to be sacrificed to appease the gods. Maybe there is something else the PCs can find to appease the gods, but that will be difficult, an adventure in itself.

Or they could just ignore it and deal with the consequences.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Depends on where you want the fun to be and how willing the two players involved are willing to RP stuff. Some ideas

• Perhaps more then one soul returned to the PC's body...
• Perhaps the raised PC no longer has a soul and you need to adventure to recover it...
• Perhaps the Paladin needs to unlock a door for the entity and is compelled to do so...
• Perhaps Moridan doesn't look to fondly upon one of his paladins making deals with "entities"...
• Perhaps the entity demands two living eyes, one to look for the dead PC's soul and raise him, one to look for another soul the entity wants raised. The eyes, the entity explains, will be returned after they've been "used"...

BTW, I love evil bargains

 

[Minicol]

Thou should watch the first Conan movie again, specifically the part about the circle of stones.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The Aztec gods were a pretty bloodthirsty bunch, other than that I do not know much about them. Ordinarly I would say that they would require a sacrifice of a person or three to seal such a bargin.
However, dealing with a paladin of Moradin they know that they are not going to get anywhere so they get the paladin to sacrifice something else dear to him. His ability to craft and forge if he is a dwarf for example.
If the god is evil then there may be a rider, something else comes back hidden within the dead pc.
When the character next falls to 0 then the revenant takes over and flees the battle. They find the character some time later wandering dazed with no menory of what happened.
Later they find out a family was killed nearby and their hearts removed... da da doom.....

 

[GSHamster]

I'm not so sure you should "screw" the paladin. Consider playing it simple, and having the god send the paladin to foil a plot of a rival.

For example, keeping with the Aztec theme, suppose a rival has captured a high priestess of this god, and is going to sacrifice her on the night of the full moon. The paladin and his team is sent to get her back. If the priestess is sacrificed, both the risen character and the paladin's souls will be claimed.

 

[john112364]

a soul for a soul. someone who has defied the natural order and escaped from death's clutches - a vampire or other free-willed undead solo of about level 8 (the level of a raise dead ritual) - needs to be destroyed. The raised character's "death penalty" is reflavored to a geas; it will not go away until this quest is completed (or if you want to be kind, it goes away while they are actively working on the quest but returns if they do anything else).

I think this is a good idea. Maybe this undead has something that needs to be returned as well. That way it's not just a seek and destroy quest, you also need to find a lair for it's hidden goodies.

On a side note, I personally like what you (Stoat that is) did with the bargain in the first place. I don't think raising people from the dead should be just cash. There should always be consequences!