D&D 5E How to gather ingredients?

[Kelly Kellogg]

I'm working on a ritual spell for my big bad in my campaign, and need help figuring out how to get him what he needs.

The spell is inspired by the wizard of oz tale. He'll need our hero's courage (a totem of courage), their heart (symbolic can work), and their brain.

With the courage, i was going to use a fear demon from dragon age, and have them fight it. Hopefully vanquish it. The weapon will then become the symbol of courage for having bested fear itself.

Now the heart and brains, i'm lost. Help please.

 

[Nevvur]

It might be helpful if you could go into a little more detail about your plans, but in the meantime...

For the heart, an act of compassion could result in an unexpected reward from the recipient of said compassion. For example, the party spares the life of a young bandit who fell in with a gang of outlaws out of fear and desperation. He gives them a trinket before heading off and turning his life around.

Alternately, a token of affection from a loved one, perhaps a family heirloom if none of them are romantically engaged.

No ideas immediately leap to mind for brains, but I'll revisit this thread later if something occurs to me. Good luck!

 

[Eltab]

Brains? Think mind flayers.

They eat brains, after all. A party with no Good-aligned characters might be able to deliver a sacrifice to the mind flayers, let it eat the brain, then kill the flayer after it has had a bit of time to digest its meal. BBEG needs the digested soup.

Capture an Intellect Devourer and bring it back to BBEG - it used to be somebody's brain. Maybe BBEG has a spare body (a clone or simulacrum or Frankenstein's Monster?) he wants to put a brain back into.

Or perhaps the BBEG needs a copy of Dark Side of the Moon, which has several lyrics that just happen to provide clever commentary on the events happening in Wizard of Oz, if you start both running with correct timing.
For instance, while the Scarecrow is pointing at his head and singing "if I only had a brain" Pink Floyd sings "The lunatic is in my head."

 

[Kelly Kellogg]

It might be helpful if you could go into a little more detail about your plans, but in the meantime...

For the heart, an act of compassion could result in an unexpected reward from the recipient of said compassion. For example, the party spares the life of a young bandit who fell in with a gang of outlaws out of fear and desperation. He gives them a trinket before heading off and turning his life around.

Alternately, a token of affection from a loved one, perhaps a family heirloom if none of them are romantically engaged.

No ideas immediately leap to mind for brains, but I'll revisit this thread later if something occurs to me. Good luck!

The big bad is an arch fey who fell in love with a dragon who was slain. He's trying to resurrect her, turn back her time as it were to bring her back. So that she's not undead. Her bones are the focus of the spell, her body, and he has a fey tree sprouting from them, each leaf is the lost soul of a child meant as fuel for the spell.

The power of courage for strength to turn back time, a hearts desire for focus, and brains for the intelligence and will to cast. The children's soul are pure energy, youthfulness for life.

 

[cbwjm]

And here I was thinking you were needing to gather ingredients for a some kind of new cereal.

 

[Nevvur]

Okay, I was a little confused about the setup. Just to assure clarity, we're talking about things the big bad can do to acquire the ingredients for his spell? As in, things that can or will happen without involving the PCs?

A point of interest, that fear demon would have to be rather strong to challenge an archfey, who are normally described as a mere step or two away from godhood. Otherwise, the sort of fear he's overcoming is rather akin to a person afraid of arachnids squashing a garden spider.

Personally, I would forego the idea of collecting objects as ingredients and switch to collecting people who exemplify the qualities. A brave knight, a loving priest, a brilliant mage, or whatever. Use their souls as the meat and potatoes for his soup, while the children's souls serve as the liquid base.

 

[Kelly Kellogg]

Okay, I was a little confused about the setup. Just to assure clarity, we're talking about things the big bad can do to acquire the ingredients for his spell? As in, things that can or will happen without involving the PCs?

A point of interest, that fear demon would have to be rather strong to challenge an archfey, who are normally described as a mere step or two away from godhood. Otherwise, the sort of fear he's overcoming is rather akin to a person afraid of arachnids squashing a garden spider.

Personally, I would forego the idea of collecting objects as ingredients and switch to collecting people who exemplify the qualities. A brave knight, a loving priest, a brilliant mage, or whatever. Use their souls as the meat and potatoes for his soup, while the children's souls serve as the liquid base.

My hope is to have the party unknowingly help him gather what he needs to do this spell. He's breaking time itself. Being one or two steps away from godhood itself, he's not quite there. In my world, he wouldnt be able to reverse the clock on something thats clock has already stopped.

The fear demon would be summoned, a starving beast who will literally feed on their fears, and be sent after our heroes, because, what does the fey have to fear? In his mind nothing. So no courage totem can be made. He would need our heroes for that, whom he'll find early on. To overcome their own fears, and give him what he needs. They are hopefully not going to know his plan until the end. If they find out, great! If not, the chaos will be fun lol

I worry if i use people, i'd kill my PCs and we'd get no where. I was liking the idea of a loved one for the heart , maybe have them bring him the mind he needs too in "exchange' for the loved one, a lie?