I need help with plot ideas!!!

[beldar1215]

Hello All:
I'm looking for some help with a plot I'm working on. I'm using a cursed set of coins, called the coins of the dead. There are three matching coins in the set. They are gold, silver and copper. If someone falls asleep with any of the coins on their person, they must make a will save or fall into a coma. They will not awaken until both of the other coins are placed over their eyes. While in the coma, the person will not age.

Here's the start of the plot: A merchants wife in my main city has gotten one of the coins. That night she falls asleep and goes into the coma. The merchant finds here the next morning. He brings in the local cleric not find out what has happened to his wife. After much research he finds out about the coins. At this point he needs to find the other coins. This is where the PC come in.

I need help fleshing out the plot from this point.
Who has the other coins?
Where are they now?
What do the coins look like?
And so on!!!
I want the PC's to have to work to find the other coins!!!
Any help would be great!

 

[Robbert Raets]

Isn't it very likely that two other people are looking for the coins?

 

[der_kluge]

Yea, that'd be my guess. There are probably two other people in comas just like the merchant's wife.

If the coin is removed from the person, is the coma released? I'm guessing not.

First other person - the PCs find out about another person that went into a mysterious coma - a noble's wife, perhaps. And the noble paid to have her transported to a larger city in the hope that more powerful clerics would find a way to cure her. The PCs could travel to this other city, only to find out that her possessions are still in their estate in the first city.

Second other person - the city watch (if asked) indicates that several bums and other miscreants have come under the same coma. Seems the other coin is circulating its way through the underworld, until it lands in the hands of a thieve's guild leader, who suffers the same fate. The lackeys of the guild, seeking to revive their leader, find out that the PCs are hunting down the coin, and make them an offer they can't refuse....

Nice idea, btw. Very original.

 

[der_kluge]

Oh, I was gonna add, the noble has the gold coin, the merchant the silver, and the bums the copper.

 

[Cyclops]

The coins could also give a power, and the person who knopws enough NOT to sleep with a coin might be reluctant to give it up.

For example, the gold coin if left in a vial of wine for a month could create a potion of youth. A noble might be hesitant to give it up just to rescue some merchants wife.

Then again, a literate mage might be hunting the coins for the power they give, and a comatose victim might be just the beacon he needs to make a grab for them. Just when the heroes have all three...he makes his move...

 

[beldar1215]

Great ideas!! Keep them coming!

Thanks
Beldar

 

[NewbyDM]

If such a set of coins exists, shouldn't there be a lot of people in coma?... If that is not the case,
The money should have taken the route to a Treasure hoard (thief-guild, "dragon", something else) of some sort, thats why it didn't curse anyone anymore.
or
Maybe the coin is buried with a victim.... That was NOT dead yet, and the place is "haunted" by the still "living" spirit.
or
The coin made a tour around the city, cursing a lot of poor people.

You should have a history for the coins (i think): for example,
Not long ago a group of adventurers came back from a long adventure trip. They killed a "dragon" and brough his hoard with them... (And 2 of the coins where in it). After several days of festifals in the city sponsored by the group, 2 people mysteriously fell asleep.... one of them a beggar who got some money from the adventurers AND a city official. The temple first discovers the official and starts a investigation. They discover the "magic" coins, but can't make out what it does YET... Several days later, they discover that there is a mysterious disease under the beggars/poor of the city.... several have fallen into a coma, just like the official!
They find after some work the second coins....

Now they see a connection and find out what the coins do..... and they discover that they need a 3rd coin to cure it.
Then you could perhaps throw in a legend about a woman who fell into a deep sleep ages ago and never woke up (her lving spirit haunts the place now. They buried her in some tomb far away....
They have to use the coins they have to remove the curse.... They also find the last coin there (or have to ask the whitch where it could be, since she knows who tried to trick her, making it even a longer adventure to track the "party" of long-dead-adventurers down to where they were buried)... but she actually is a witch who was tricked into the curse... (this part of the story was lost) and now is freed again to terrorize the region around her...

bla-di-bla-di-bla-di-bla...
Ummm, just throwing in my ideas hope you like them!

Robert.