If Medusa dies, do petrified players/NPCs come back from stone?

[LuisCarlos17f]

My homebred subrace (for lower levels) is medusa's gaze attack only cause cold+poisoned damage, and the victim only is petrified when all hit point are lost. Other option would to cause a magic disease like the grayscale from "Games of Thrones". Killed by this disease would become zombie-like minions mind-controlled by the medusa.

 

[fjw70]

In my current campaign, one of the PCs was turned to stone by a Medusa and after the rest of the group killed the Medusa they took some of her blood and found an alchemist to make a potion to restore the stoned PC. Something like that could work.

 

[Klaudius Rex]

Thanks for all the responses here, you guys got a lot of good advice...

But,I 'm not so much worried about allowing players getting their old characters back by what many of you suggested or even other means. There are a lot of other ways to bring these old characters back to flesh, which i am not opposed to.

I'm just concerned about the death of medusa being one of those possibilities. I'm not even entirely sure why i feel this way actually. I just don't see it as a feasible way, and think some of the suggestions i've heard on these boards as more feasible. But the players insist that the medusa's death be the main reason the old characters become un-petrified. ...They dont want any other reason!!

To add more depth, we are playing Tomb of Annihilation, and the players original characters got petrified in Nangalore by the medusa there. This is a very remote part of the jungle that doesn't get a lot of traffic by the world at large. The players new characters valiantly defeated the medusa, and now want thier old characters to suddenly become un-petrified.

I have previously allowed the old petrified PCs to become un-petrified by the Red Wizards, an evil group of mages who are competitively focused on the same quest and might discern the statues as potential helpers, ...AND... ive even given the players new characters access to an item with the Greater Restoration spell (3 charges max), so they can pick and choose who they want to bring back... Im even willing to spin some of the other suggestions offered by you guys here in this post.

but for some reason, they dont like or want those other ideas...they want the death of the medusa to un-petrify everyone. To me, i just dont think its plausible for the death of the medusa to revert the old characters back to flesh. And believe me, i see no problem with them having their old characters back...i just want it to make sense...and for some reason, im struggling with the death of the medusa as making sense for that.

My players just want me to "go with it" and DM override any rule, which i am reluctant (but willing) to do...i just think its a sucky answer, and hoping that someone/anyone can spin me a better reason besides DM override why the death of a medusa would suddenly bring back "everyone she's ever petrified" in her life (including the characters)

 

[Older Beholder]

Thanks for all the responses here, you guys got a lot of good advice...

My players just want me to "go with it" and DM override any rule, which i am reluctant (but willing) to do...i just think its a sucky answer, and hoping that someone/anyone can spin me a better reason besides DM override why the death of a medusa would suddenly bring back "everyone she's ever petrified" in her life (including the characters)

Yeah, I can see how it's not a good fit for ToA. I like your version. What the players want is a little bit fairytale in tone.

 

[S'mon]

Let them make medusa blood stone-to-flesh potions.

Edit: Technically "oils".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's not the players' job to dictate what works and what doesn't. They just get to say what their characters do and the DM tells them what happens.

There isn't any reason to suppose killing a medusa (or basilisk) restores the victim, and a good many examples of slaying the medusa not restoring the victims.

Original myth: Perseus slays Medusa - none of her victims are restored.
Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets: Basilisk victims are restored by a Mandrake potion (the basilisk is dead at the time, but that isn't what cured them)
D&D CRPGs: in the Baldur's Gate games their are several examples of stoned characters being restored by Stone to Flesh scrolls, long after the creature that stoned them died. If a party member is stoned killing the medusa does not restore them.

Your player's need to learn that the DM is boss: let them kill the medusa, and the statues get smashed during the fight.

 

[André Soares]

One way you could go about this is skipping the quest by the new characters to unpetrify the old characters. Start the session with them coming back to life, and discovering magic was used to bring them back, and now they have a debt to pay, a favor to retribute, something like that,

 

[jasper]

I have no problem with killing the medusa ending the stoned state. Great of the old pcs. BUT what if the other statues who are no longer stone remember that Bob smashed their face in. Or 7 years have passed and they been declared legally dead. Or they find x years of pass due water bills waiting on them. And all the back taxes they owe.
"So Mr. S'mon you tell me you been a statue for 3 years? You got any proof?"
Or Boss Hogg has set up for moonshine running,
"So Mr Rex we found 1000 gallons of Moonshine, and a still in your flat. Come along quietly!".
Or
"Jasper you owe 15 years of back child support!". PS you son does not want to talk to you.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I'm just concerned about the death of medusa being one of those possibilities. I'm not even entirely sure why i feel this way actually. I just don't see it as a feasible way, and think some of the suggestions i've heard on these boards as more feasible. But the players insist that the medusa's death be the main reason the old characters become un-petrified. ...They dont want any other reason!!

The problem is their expectation over the whole span of their (new) adventure. Since they expected it to happen for so long they don't want it any other way anymore.

As DM it's better if you know what your players want ahead of time and prepare them to reach that goal. For example if you slowly prepared by talking about some famous adventurers who were petrified by a medusa and then provide directions to how undo the curse (Scroll, Potion, etc.), then players would be mentally prepared to have it all "Bam, Medusa dead, let's use the potion! Adventurers back, yay!"

But now you had them mentally prepared for that one epic moment they slay the Medusa and see everybody come back to life. So they kinda refuse to have it any other way.

 

[iserith]

Thanks for all the responses here, you guys got a lot of good advice...

But,I 'm not so much worried about allowing players getting their old characters back by what many of you suggested or even other means. There are a lot of other ways to bring these old characters back to flesh, which i am not opposed to.

I'm just concerned about the death of medusa being one of those possibilities. I'm not even entirely sure why i feel this way actually. I just don't see it as a feasible way, and think some of the suggestions i've heard on these boards as more feasible. But the players insist that the medusa's death be the main reason the old characters become un-petrified. ...They dont want any other reason!!

To add more depth, we are playing Tomb of Annihilation, and the players original characters got petrified in Nangalore by the medusa there. This is a very remote part of the jungle that doesn't get a lot of traffic by the world at large. The players new characters valiantly defeated the medusa, and now want thier old characters to suddenly become un-petrified.

I have previously allowed the old petrified PCs to become un-petrified by the Red Wizards, an evil group of mages who are competitively focused on the same quest and might discern the statues as potential helpers, ...AND... ive even given the players new characters access to an item with the Greater Restoration spell (3 charges max), so they can pick and choose who they want to bring back... Im even willing to spin some of the other suggestions offered by you guys here in this post.

but for some reason, they dont like or want those other ideas...they want the death of the medusa to un-petrify everyone. To me, i just dont think its plausible for the death of the medusa to revert the old characters back to flesh. And believe me, i see no problem with them having their old characters back...i just want it to make sense...and for some reason, im struggling with the death of the medusa as making sense for that.

My players just want me to "go with it" and DM override any rule, which i am reluctant (but willing) to do...i just think its a sucky answer, and hoping that someone/anyone can spin me a better reason besides DM override why the death of a medusa would suddenly bring back "everyone she's ever petrified" in her life (including the characters)

I'm a little confused by how you lay out who was petrified, whether the medusa has in fact been killed, where the Red Wizards got introduced, and where the PCs (old and new) are at this point. It's a bit of a jumble to me. But setting that aside for the moment, here's a good rule of thumb: If it hasn't been stated in game yet, then effectively it doesn't exist.

Therefore, if the PCs have not been told that a greater restoration spell is the only solution to removing the petrification, then it's really no issue to just go with what they think will work. If, however, they have been told that a greater restoration spell is the only solution to removing the petrification, then their theory about killing the medusa to achieve the same end cannot work as that would be contradicting what you already established about medusas and their petrification power.

And with that in mind, for any element of fiction that is important to framing the challenge, you want to get that out there up front as quickly as possible.