Help me mess with my player

[Jindy]

I like the idea that it's all a set up to make the guy think he's cursed.

But... going to the truename thing. Your name, spoken from your own lips... well that would give any particularly powerful magical being a great deal of control over you.

I think I'd flip through the monster manual and find some epic level demon or devil and one night have that PC wake to find himself in the Abyss or some other pleasant location, in the center of a summoning circle, with some legendary demon/devil type standing before him (one that is so far out of the PCs league as to not be suicide to attack and the PC knows it).

The demon/devil offers the PC a simple deal - Perform one small favor for him on the mortal realm, or spend the rest of eternity in hell. Give the PC x days to find an artifact and deliver it to a group of loyal evil cultists. Failure, and the PC will be spending some quality time in the Demon's dungeon. Then whoosh... he's back to the campfire.

Any time you feel lazy or run out of ideas, have the demon summon the PC back for another side quest. Eventually everything that the PC helps the evil cultists with might set up an interesting adventure (how to stop that, while the Demon can summon one member of the party at-will). Or perhaps once the party gets into epic levels, they can venture to the Demon's domain to liberate the Ranger (steal the jar).

 

[Ruslanchik]

The Name Collector uses the PC's name to create a copy of the PC, alike in all respects except totally under the Name Collector's control. The PC starts to notice that some of his abilities are missing or don't work like they should. This gets worse and worse until he starts losing hit points (telling the player to reduce his maximum hit points would be a good metagame action to let the player know that something is up). In the next town the PCs go to everyone is afraid of this PC or the authorities come to arrest him and accuse him of theft or something (the Name Collector has to get his magic items somewhere). Of course the PC goes back to normal once his kills his double.

I don't see any reason why you should go easy on the player. Saying your name into a jar held by someone you don't know at a crossroads is seriously risky behavior. You could just send him to hell or put a geas on him to kill a friendly and powerful NPC. The player has basically traded his soul for some wine and cheese and clearly does not think there will be any consequences.

 

[Rechan]

Some delicious suggestions here.

Jindy's notion is more in line of what I had originally intended. The PC being compelled to do something. Clearly for something unsavory. The first real adventure arc that is in the background is the PCs trying to stop an infernal ritual that will release a potent devil; thus the devil that summons them could be seeking to undermine the ritual/devil, but in a different fashion. (But I might avoid this, as I said, too much infernal entities...)

Ginnel's idea is really fantastic, because it plays to the character's affinity to the Feywild. The character "misses home" a lot, and thus to be further disconnected would really trouble him. Especially if for instance the owner is a Shadar-kai or some ancient fey trapped in the Feywild... Mm. Even better, I can foreshadow (fore-shadow, get it?) because the PCs are seeking a knowledgable monster hunter, who is currently trapped by a "Shadow Stealer".

Boarstorm's also works. In fact, it could start happening on the PCs way back.

Foxen, I would go that route, were this a longer campaign, but as it stands, this is just a casual 4 hour-a-week online thing. However, I will keep that in mind for later - that's too good to pass up.

 

[Ginnel]

Heh, much obliged

Maybe the name is the first part of stealing his shadow as well

if you use it fancy letting me know how it works out?

 

[Rechan]

Will Do!

 

[the Jester]

Perhaps nobody knows who the guy who whispered his name in the jar is now?

 

[haakon1]

Two thoughts -- truenames is the first one, "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" is the second. That is, the traveller is looking very hard for someone who he knows only by name, so seeks the names of everyone he meets.

That or he's trying to transfer a curse with a special password that's a name he can't remember/can't say, but if someone says that name into the jar, it goes to them. That name belongs to the next character to try this, the next time they meet the traveller, after a few episodes of no ill-effects on the first two.

 

[hopeless]

Off the top of my head they can effectively steal the voice of the one who spoke into the jar and give it to say an assassin ro some entity who uses it to commit a number of crimes the pc is blamed for since it would target their nearest and dearest since only one of them actually spoke into the jar.

I believe there's a certain spell that requires the name of the target to work on them something like soul jar i think but that might be from an earlier edition.

Then there's that magical item whose to say it wasn't stolen from someone and that someone is now looking for their stolen property... I remember a KODT scene where a certain Hackmater wielder wished for the scabbard of his sword which was in the possession of a demon and when it was provided it also brought its current owner...

Well thats it for now anyway...

 

[hopeless]

The deal...

He stole his name. From now on, no NPC will be able to remember his name or much about him beyond a physical description. ("That elf with the... well, he was sort of... He was an elf!")

Think of the weird effects that would cause, good and bad. He will never become a famous hero until he gets his name back from this gentleman. Villains' plans will never include him. He'll be able to get away with crimes obviously, tempting him, but that will put his immortal soul and alignment in danger.

What if he lost his voice?

Rendered mute until he can recover it by breaking or opening that jar before the dealer makes another deal and that voice is swapped for another's...

Hmm what if the next morning he finds his voice has been changed and he seems to be talking in tongues except its another language he has to learn and then relearn his own native tongue unless he recovers his voice...
Imagine discovering eventually that he was speaking say Abyssal or even Gnomish for example but whilst he can still read his native language he can't speak it...

 

[Alcamtar]

The player knows he walked right into a DM plot device, and is expecting (hoping?) to get yanked around, so no reason to hold back.

Here are a few ideas...

- The character is now a slave to the jar in the same fashion as a genie. Anyone who owns the jar can summon him up to three times and compel a service. He is freed if the jar is broken, but he cannot break it himself.

- The owner of the jar can assume the character identity, appearance, and voice. Since its his True Name, divination or other magic will point to the character, not the jar owner.

- Since the jar now holds the character's True Name spoken in his own voice, it can be used to give the character's magically binding verbal consent. Want to make a pact with an unpleasant being? Need to swear an awful oath? Need to cast a spell that requires a willing target? Use the jar, Luke!

- The magic item requested was magically stolen from someone else. The old peddler can now bargain the name to that person, so they can track down the character and demand it back.

- Whenever the character speaks his name, the holder of the jar is aware of it and can listen to the ensuing conversation. (Or, whenever anyone speaks that character's name...) (Or, the jar now records ALL the character's speech from now on, like a tape recorder, and can be reviewed/replayed at any time by the owner)

- The character obviously did not care to protect his name. The jar can be used to "shift blame" for any deed to the character. Once blame is shifted, reality is altered so the character really did do the deed and now bears any resulting guilt. Obviously the jar will be valuable to anyone with a haunted past.

- The jar is now a prepared soul jar. If the character is killed, his soul goes into the soul jar instead of to its eternal rest. That means he cannot be resurrected, and his soul is trapped in the jar. The soul jar can be used similar to a Magic Jar if you know how, and precautions are not taken by the owner. It could also be used by the character to become a lich, again if he knows how.

- All of the above are true, and the entity plans to sell the jar to the highest bidder on the interplanar black market. The jar may pass from owner to owner, and could be put to a variety of uses at various times.

I'd play up the nuisance aspect of it rather than hamstringing the character. These can crop up from time to time, occasionally be annoying, sometimes just interesting or even funny, and sometimes a problem he has to get out of somehow. If you leave it vague and open ended, you can use it as a device to stall the characters in the future..