How to bring one back to sanity?

[cstyle]

OK, here's the situation. I have an npc that has lost it, is insane to the point where she can not, for the most part, be communicated with, and I want my players to have to find a way to 'bring her back.' Ideally this would be like solving a puzzle. There will be clues for them to piece together, and once they figure it out, then they should be able to bring her back to the real world. Now, I just need a puzzle!

Here's the back story, in a nut shell. A few months back the PCs were witnesses to a druidic ritual that went badly, and a major devil was accidentally released. Later, do to circumstances not directly related, the PCs fled the area. Now they've come back, and all hell's broken loose. They've found an old ritual that can imprison the devil, but none of them are powerful enough to lead the ritual.

Ciona, the highest spell caster in the area, one of the druids in the aforementioned ritual, has "never been the same" since the devil was released. The one time the PCs went to visit Ciona (last session) she was being taken care of by her granddaughter. She was in her nightgown, in the middle of the day, her hair unkept, eyes all crazy, was eating her food with her hands, and only half the food was actually getting in her mouth. One of the PCs (who was a bit more involved in the ritual than the others) was trying to talk to her, and she ignored him. When he tried to get her attention, her eyes came into focus and she looked at him. It appeared she was really seeing him and trying to remember something for a few seconds, and then she just flipped out: crying, tossing her bowl of food, cowering from him. The PC decided it was time to leave.

That's pretty much it. Please help me brainstorm! Any good ideas for how the party can get her to snap out of it? I'm drawing blanks here!

Thanks in advance,
Cstyle

 

[helium3]

OK, here's the situation. I have an npc that has lost it, is insane to the point where she can not, for the most part, be communicated with, and I want my players to have to find a way to 'bring her back.' Ideally this would be like solving a puzzle. There will be clues for them to piece together, and once they figure it out, then they should be able to bring her back to the real world. Now, I just need a puzzle!

Here's the back story, in a nut shell. A few months back the PCs were witnesses to a druidic ritual that went badly, and a major devil was accidentally released. Later, do to circumstances not directly related, the PCs fled the area. Now they've come back, and all hell's broken loose. They've found an old ritual that can imprison the devil, but none of them are powerful enough to lead the ritual.

Ciona, the highest spell caster in the area, one of the druids in the aforementioned ritual, has "never been the same" since the devil was released. The one time the PCs went to visit Ciona (last session) she was being taken care of by her granddaughter. She was in her nightgown, in the middle of the day, her hair unkept, eyes all crazy, was eating her food with her hands, and only half the food was actually getting in her mouth. One of the PCs (who was a bit more involved in the ritual than the others) was trying to talk to her, and she ignored him. When he tried to get her attention, her eyes came into focus and she looked at him. It appeared she was really seeing him and trying to remember something for a few seconds, and then she just flipped out: crying, tossing her bowl of food, cowering from him. The PC decided it was time to leave.

That's pretty much it. Please help me brainstorm! Any good ideas for how the party can get her to snap out of it? I'm drawing blanks here!

Thanks in advance,
Cstyle

Ummm. Isn't there a spell that they could cast to 'fix' her? Maybe a wish?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Well, you could try a Heal spell.

I imagine that the PCs aren't powerful enough to cast it. It's a shame that the local church isn't on speaking terms with the druidic faith - though perhaps they could be persuaded to help, should the PCs take care of a minor problem they've been having ...

 

[jmichels]

Hmm here is an interesting idea. Have the PCs do some sort of thing to enter her mind in a dream or something. Maybe by entering the realm of dreams or some similar thing. Then they have to go in there and heal her shattered mind by going through a dream scape-like journey. Kind of like the video game Psychonauts.

You can make it similar to a dungeon made from plants (since she is a druid) and populate it with monsters that she fears. Or maybe the monsters can be aspects of her personality or represent something in her past. Perhaps her parents disappointment at her not carrying on the family business can be made manifest.

You can add some dark secrets about her past like having an illigimate child with a fiend (maybe with that greater devil that was summoned) or other stuff that no one was meant to know. It would be interesting to know the PCs reaction when depending on how dark and disturbing the secret was.

 

[cstyle]

I should have clarified earlier that the party is low level and doesn't have access to spells like remove disease or wish. The party cleric tried a standard cure light on her, which had no effect. Likewise, the local NPCs do not have access to such spells. This village is quite remote and was the opening setting for the game. The ritual to free the devil actually happened back in the first session, and they're now getting to the point where things are coming full circle. With that in mind, I intentionally made the number of mid and high level NPCs low, making it easy for the PCs to be heroes when things turn bad, as there are not a number of better (higher level) candidates running around. Ciona is a mid to high level druid, and there are two other members of her order around, but they are low level. The old village cleric died, and his young understudy has since taken over. He is too low of level to have access to remove disease as well.

So that tells you the resources they are dealing with: not much. This is fine. Ideally I would like the solution to be puzzle oriented, which requires just brain power to solve. A first level commoner could have what it takes to solve the puzzle!

The dream idea has merit. Perhaps the “oh so close” encounter with this creature of hell (understandably) scared the bajeesis out of her, and her mind has retreated into a dream world. I picture the PCs entering her dream, which would be an old and beautiful forest. They would come across Ciona, who would appear to them as a child, playing at the edge of a stream or pool. They would then have to reason with the child to get her to come back. If they used any kind of force used against her she would turn into a huge bear, take a few rather powerful swipes at them, and gallop off. Or the forest could come alive and defend her. At any rate, attempting to use force would be a step backward.

Assuming I go the dream route, that just leaves three problems. One, I need some clues to give the PCs that she might be lost in a dream. I suppose this is as simple as a heal, knowledge religion, or knowledge the planes check. Although it would be nice if I had some clue that was a bit more tangible than they make a dice roll and then just know it! It would be even better if that clue was also a hint for problem number two. Problem two, what do they have to do to convince her to come back? Three, how do they actually enter the world of dreams, or enter into Ciona's specific dream? For this last problem, I may have to give the party additional resources in the form of an NPC. Perhaps one of the other druids performs some group hypnosis on them and some how links them to Ciona, getting them into her dream?

Speaking of which, hypnosis is a simple (though less visual) way to accomplish the same thing. It doesn’t require the PCs to enter the world of dreams, so that problem is eliminated. Perhaps one of the druids has hypnotized Ciona a number of times, and tried to convince Ciona to return to them. So far she’s had no luck. There are a number of oddities that come out during the hypnosis, pieces of the puzzle, but the druid is unable to piece them together. She asks the PCs to sit in and see what they think. If I go this route, the only real problem I have is coming up with a puzzle for them to piece together.

Your thoughts?

And thanks!

 

[cstyle]

The solution

Ok, this is coming along nicely. Much props to jmichels for the ‘entering her dream’ idea and to noskov for helping me work out the details (outside of this post). Here’s what I’ve got:

The shock and fright of the ritual that released the devil was enough that Ciona’s mind retreated inside itself. She is now locked in a dream world, her reasoning self (which appears as her adult, rather old, self) held prisoner by the irrational scared part of her (which appears as Ciona did as a child).

Back in the opening sessions, Ciona was proclaiming that one of the PCs was their savior sent by her god, Chauntea. “He is the chosen one, as I have dreamed of. Chauntea has sent him to us!” This actually ties in nicely as she had what she considered prophetic dreams about the PC, and now she’s trapped in a dream. At any rate, she still thinks he is the savior, and when he came to visit earlier that jarred her. Adult Ciona actually surfaced and recognized him (the whole really seeing him thing, trying to remember something), but then child Ciona came in and stamped her down (the throwing a fit and then cowering thing).

So now adult Ciona has a slight crack in her prison. She uses it (and magic) to enter into the dreams of the PC. In the dream, he will see Ciona (as he knows her, an old woman) sitting cross legged in a forest glade on a sunny morning, across from a small child, say five years old, that bears some resemblance to old Ciona.

Child: “Tell me another riddle, Nana!”
Ciona: “OK, how about this.

When I’m young I sit and sun
I never run and play.
And then some nice whiskers come
Which I won’t shave away.
Tear me apart, find my hard heart
Really, I don’t mind.
Then with keen or even cream
Me you’ll surely find.”

Child: "Nana, that riddle is too easy. Ask me a harder one… Wait, why are you telling me THAT riddle?"

Ciona visibly starts to get nervous and shaky.

Ciona: "No reason. We're just playing a game! You love the riddle game!"
Child: "Don't lie to me!?!?"

The child stand up, begins growing larger with fire in her eyes (not literally), visibly getting angry. As she gets angry, the trees start to close in and vines start wrapping around Ciona, the sky darkens, and so on.

Ciona: "No, don't hurt me. Don't lock me up again!"

And the dream winks out.


When the PCs ask around, they will find that Ciona has a peach tree that she loved and tended well. If they dig around the tree, they will find a small box with some scrolls in it. One of the scrolls will have a spell to allow a group to enter someone’s dreams. If they mention riddles, they will find that Ciona use to love riddles as a child and would play the riddling game with her children and grandchildren. (And the scrolls provide me with a way to work some treasure into this encounter. If they free Ciona, she will gladly let them keep the scrolls.)

When they enter Ciona’s dream, they will be in an old and beautiful forest. They will find child Ciona playing at the edge of a pool or stream. Old Ciona will be no where to be found. If they ask the child to let Nana go, she'll ask "Why?" When they try to reason with her, she'll be all "This is boring. Tell me a riddle." Until they tell her a riddle/story/metaphor where the moral is that adult Ciona should be let go in order to stop the great evil that has been released, she won't let Ciona go. Any attempts to force her into anything, or if they continue to try and reason with her, she will get angry. (Ever try to reason with a child?) As she gets angry, the trees will begin to close in, and the sky will darken. If they continue to make her unhappy, the forest attacks and they are trapped in Ciona’s dream.

I haven’t decided what to do if it gets to the point where the forest attacks. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but if it does, I suppose I could have them make a will save. If they “succeed”, then they awaken and they blew their chance. If they “fail”, then they are trapped in the dream along with Ciona. When the child calms down sometime later, they might have another shot to try and free her as mentioned above. This time they’d have adult Ciona working with them. When they told her how they needed her to imprison the devil through this new ritual, she would give them the idea that they need to convince the child through riddle or story that she must release adult Ciona for the good of the world.

 

[cstyle]

Ran it, loved it!

I got a chance to run the group through this little adventure, and everyone loved it. When they first went into Ciona's dream and met the child, they asked for Nana. "She was bad, so you can't see her. Tell me a riddle." They told her a few that they could remember off the top of their heads. "Tell me another" was what they'd get after she solved the riddle. Finally they went back to trying to get her to free Nana, which of course, didn't work, and she started visibly getting angry (and the sky darkened). Their response? They started plugging her with arrows. **shaking head** That's my players for ya! Anyway, she just broke off the shafts of the arrows sticking out of her and said "You're bad!" The trees and earth closed around them, pulled them under, and they found themselves in darkness and extreme pain: being crushed and suffocated. This went on for what felt like an eternity.

Eventually they awoke to find themselves trapped in trees, with just their faces sticking out. They could see each other, and the elder Ciona, who was also trapped in a tree. Ciona told them that as best as she could figure, the little girl was the scared irrational part of her, and was holding her prisoner. "She will not free me. All she wants to do is play the riddle game!" My players decided to try and come up with a riddle about fear and that the only way to defeat it was to face it. They were all sitting around brainstorming, a couple of them writing, seeing what they could put together. They were reading off what they had, which were fairly poor, but sufficient riddles, when one of the players (who'd been quietly writing in the corner the whole time) goes "How about this?"

I am with you all your life
Throught Summer Days and Snow
I keep you from Your True Self
If I am Left to Grow
Many Overcome Me
And Live A life thats True
But Many I do Overwhelm
And Life does loose it's Hue.
All will see me time to time
and all will have the choice
to do exactly what I say
or Live by their Own Voice

The players all looked at each other for a second, and were like "We'll go with that one!"