[Eberron] Mask of Nyarlathotep - sort of

[Mark Causey]

Here's the sitch:

My group of players managed to get themselves onboard an airship traveling from Regalport to Karrlakton. Whilst on board, an evil minion (a Choker) with a magical item (a Khyber Crystal Mask of Disguise (Self)) infiltrated the ship and pretended to be a halfling waitress and attempted to serve up a nasty surprise for a diplomat and her assistant. The players managed to foil the attempt and the warforged monk was able to leap high enough and succeed(!) at grappling her on her way out along the ceiling. Finally, it was all over and the villain revealed.

The party's rogue let further confusion set it and took the mask. I had the player roll (and, incidentally, fail miserably) a Will Save. I told him that he didn't know what had happened. Being a the kind of guy that loves my plot twists, and he's looking forward to something nasty and evil and not generic.

Looking for ideas on how his character is now screwed over ... any help?

AtR

 

[Hand of Evil]

The mask can disguise the person but the longer you use it the longer you remain in that disguise, slowly transforming, this can be done with a DC roll to reture to self.

Another option is that the mask makes you viewable on the Dal Quor plane (or whatever plane feels right to the DM), this means the Inspired or the quori become interested in the mask/player.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Maybe the mask acts as a conduit to a daelkyr, who begins making...changes...to the wearer.

 

[Mark Causey]

The mask can disguise the person but the longer you use it the longer you remain in that disguise, slowly transforming, this can be done with a DC roll to return to self.

Hmm, interesting thought. So far, timeline wise, he has used it twice for about two hours total so far ... still, creating a new mechanic isn't necessarily what I'm looking for.

Another option is that the mask makes you viewable on the Dal Quor plane (or whatever plane feels right to the DM), this means the Inspired or the quori become interested in the mask/player.

Interesting you should mention that. The Church of the Silver Flame cleric of the party had attempted to exorcise the poor halfling and ended up spending an action point to do so, which happened to exorcise the Quori from the diplomat he was trying to protect >D

Maybe the mask acts as a conduit to a daelkyr, who begins making...changes...to the wearer.

I had looked at the pseudonatural template, and am running a game where cthulu like things are pretty much the big theme. HOWEVER, I don't want this to be a reward, per se. Finally, the rogue is a +1 level adjustment creature to begin with, and he's playing through all that XP just to get a second character level, so adding a level adjustment for him to play through seems like a possible torture. It is something I've considered, though. Any other ideas for what he could be turned into, though?

AtR

 

[Amaroq]

a.) How good of an "in character" actor is the player? A good actor might enjoy being given an "alter ego" which "takes over" for brief periods of time; a note passed indicates to him when the alter ego takes over and what its nature or short-term goal is... he can have fun both acting the alter ego, or striving to reach the alter ego's goal without revealing that he's acting out of character, and then has more fun acting his character's confusion when he comes to, whether he remembers the action (but not why he thought it was a good idea) or whether he just doesn't remember what has happened. (We killed the dragon? Really?) This could also be useful if the player misses sessions frequently - each missed session, you run the character, and he, um, acquires certain things, now noted on the character sheet, with no idea where they came from... and occasionally with somebody somewhere particularly annoyed that they've ended up in his hands.

b.) A simple one: character now detects as extremely evil, leading to confusion the next time somebody casts a 'Detect Evil' in his presence, whether PC or NPC. Let them sweat as to what's causing it.

c.) There's the Tolkein cliche where he actually DOES become more evil the longer he wears it; an increasing-DC save to remove the mask each time - it starts becoming obvious when he detects as evil or refuses to remove the mask.

d.) A riff on that: pick some number of hours; the longer he wears it, the more "undead" he becomes, with complete undeath coming at hour N? Let clues build - he starts detecting to 'detect undead', he starts in fear when the cleric 'turns undead'. Eventually, an evil cleric's 'turn undead' might allow it to control him, or he might actually flee his party's cleric... if this hasn't sparked off every warning signal in the book for the characters, he's now refusing to take off the mask, has ceased cooking his food, and is looking over the party with a look that can only be described as avarice.

e.) Something somewhere can now "see" through his eyes - pick a villain, and let it build over a number of episodes; let party wonder why their every plan seems to be perfectly planned against, after several narrow escapes from cunningly laid traps.

f.) I always enjoyed Lovecraft's creature's which come from the corners. Riffing on that - he's becoming a stronger and stronger focus for things from such-and-such plane to enter his; at first, its just weak things, but the more he wears it, the stronger the conduit becomes, keeping pace with or outstripping the party's level growth... The conduit is strongly enough rooted that merely ditching the mask won't help, and the standard 'remove curse' doesn't dent it either. You've now got roots for a quest-to-remove-the-item series AND a time pressure, when the party learns that one of the powerful denizens on that plane is licking its chops towards the moment when it can come through.

g.) Its costing him his soul. Literally. The longer he wears it, the weaker his soul becomes (tell him that, although he doesn't know why, he's now at "minus 1" on all will saves.... "minus 2".... etc...) Let some NPC discover this, and point out that even True Ressurrect can't recover someone whose soul has been destroyed... "We could just remove the curse, but you would never recover those portions of your soul... but they may be going somewhere (a la magic jar) and if we could only find that item, we might be able to restore your soul and THEN remove the curse." Now queue the quest-to-remove-item from above.

 

[Mark Causey]

a.) How good of an "in character" actor is the player? A good actor might enjoy being given an "alter ego" which "takes over" for brief periods of time;

There's a good possibility of this; I'll discuss it with him to be sure!

b.) A simple one: character now detects as extremely evil, leading to confusion the next time somebody casts a 'Detect Evil' in his presence, whether PC or NPC. Let them sweat as to what's causing it.

The group is too Neutral and somewhat Evil to really care. Besides, what with the alignment bending nature of Eberron ... but good idea; I'll have to remember that if we ever get a Paladin for items that I want to resonate as evil.

c.) There's the Tolkein cliche where he actually DOES become more evil the longer he wears it; an increasing-DC save to remove the mask each time - it starts becoming obvious when he detects as evil or refuses to remove the mask.

I think that'd work pretty well; I think I'll make it depend on how long he's been in disguise.

d.) A riff on that: pick some number of hours; the longer he wears it, the more "undead" he becomes, with complete undeath coming at hour N? Let clues build - he starts detecting to 'detect undead', he starts in fear when the cleric 'turns undead'. Eventually, an evil cleric's 'turn undead' might allow it to control him, or he might actually flee his party's cleric... if this hasn't sparked off every warning signal in the book for the characters, he's now refusing to take off the mask, has ceased cooking his food, and is looking over the party with a look that can only be described as avarice.

Did I mention that one of the party members is already a covert undead? You're definitely thinking along the same lines as I am, which is reassuring. I just don't want to steal the other player's thunder.

e.) Something somewhere can now "see" through his eyes - pick a villain, and let it build over a number of episodes; let party wonder why their every plan seems to be perfectly planned against, after several narrow escapes from cunningly laid traps.

Wow, a perfect excuse to be entirely too evil. I like it so much >D

f.) I always enjoyed Lovecraft's creature's which come from the corners. Riffing on that - he's becoming a stronger and stronger focus for things from such-and-such plane to enter his; at first, its just weak things, but the more he wears it, the stronger the conduit becomes, keeping pace with or outstripping the party's level growth... The conduit is strongly enough rooted that merely ditching the mask won't help, and the standard 'remove curse' doesn't dent it either. You've now got roots for a quest-to-remove-the-item series AND a time pressure, when the party learns that one of the powerful denizens on that plane is licking its chops towards the moment when it can come through.

I had originally planned to have a hazily defined cult working in an asylum they're going to end up visiting to 'pull on the psychic energy' within the patients to pull something from Xoriat -- but maybe I'll make things manifest off of the mask itself; I could even say that creatures have been hearing things from the mask and it has been 'travelling' toward the characters by profane design by means of murder and loot ... yes, the gears are working so well. You see, I hate generic magic items and things like that; I want all things to have a history, no matter how minor.

g.) Its costing him his soul. Literally. The longer he wears it, the weaker his soul becomes (tell him that, although he doesn't know why, he's now at "minus 1" on all will saves.... "minus 2".... etc...) Let some NPC discover this, and point out that even True Ressurrect can't recover someone whose soul has been destroyed... "We could just remove the curse, but you would never recover those portions of your soul... but they may be going somewhere (a la magic jar) and if we could only find that item, we might be able to restore your soul and THEN remove the curse." Now queue the quest-to-remove-item from above.

I might have him lose his soul or parts thereof if he fails to help contain the climactic rift that opens up in the asylum because of their presence ... good thougths all around. Thank you all very much.

AtR

 

[Mark Causey]

Survey Says ...

I spoke with the player last night, and he said:

Anything that helps me with burning things down [as I am playing a pyromaniac, after all] will be cool with me.

Looks like things are gonna get pretty interesting soon

Just thought I'd keep y'all informed!

AtR

 

[Taloras]

I like these ideas.....i think i might just try and put something like this in my game....

And make sure you keep us informed on what happens....i think everyone here would like to see how these suggestions get used.

 

[Mark Causey]

Will do ... I just sent everyone a cryptic email asking for their Wisdom scores so that I can calculate their Sanity scores (not that I told them that, obviously). We'll see how they react at the next game

AtR

 

[Mark Causey]

Update!

Well, things didn't go as planned. However, some goodness ensued.

• Mask
• 'Cursed' Book
• Evil monster - TPK too evil

1) Mask - well, the mask didn't play in as key as I thought it would, however I am using it as both a psychic beacon and eyes of a particularly evil creature (see sections 2 and 3). This began at the end of the last session and will be a key factor for keeping my BBEM around. As for the cursed part, I don't think the character or the player find it to be a curse. I'd planned on making 'suggestions' to the character through the mask with save DCs to ignore it. Guess what? The little pyro tried to obey it the first time around! The other characters stopped him from burning down the inn they were in. We'll see how far it goes (I bet I'll end up having him do far worse before long).

2) 'Cursed' Book - seeing as the Mask wasn't able to figure in as I'd hoped, I did give interesting powers to a book I'd only planned on being a clue. The players were inspecting the abandoned apartment of a now committed man. Discovering a locked strong box, the half-giant took a crowbar and ripped it open, finding normal things like gold and the spell components for Summon Monster. Then he found ... the book. Playing his character to the hilt, he opened it and started reading. This summoned forth a creature (which will now be stalking them), and now he's so frightened he may never open a book again (see below).

3) Evil Monster - TPK too evil - I know what you're thinking. TPK? This worked its way into an interesting vision that the half-giant may suffer from forever. He unwittingly summoned forth a Runehound (MMIII). The players and I know each other well; when we all saw (much like in stories from the Cthulu mythos) that I'd brought out an ugly that no one could hope to handle, we decided to do something about it. Thus, a TPK became the worst 'curse' that I could give a player (and saved us from starting over) by taking the entire fight scene go away and have the characters trying to stop the half-giant from strangling the dromite. So, you all tell me, does:

• 5 hit dice
• 2d6+5 damage on a reach attack given to a medium creature (on average, 11 HP of damage per attack)
• fast healing 3
• DR 5/silver
• uncanny blindsight
• a 100 ft. ranged acid attack
• 50 ft. movement

equal a CR 3 creature to you? My party of 6 second level characters were whooped in 6 rounds flat. Just a heads up to others out there.

By the way, I've added a Will Save before making Sanity checks, which will reduce the sanity loss down the chart if successful. Makes it a little more heroic.

AtR