Need game help -- my Players DO NOT READ

[Quasqueton]

The Players in my Exploring Novus Terrarum campaign - PLEASE DO NOT READ. SHOO! GO AWAY.






. . .space so any of my players who open this thread without noticing the subject line warning don't see the message. . .








I need help quickly.

The bard of the party died a couple months ago game time (grappled and crushed to death by a "grell"). The party used a raise dead scroll to bring him back, but the Player chose to not come back. So the party buried the dead bard.

The Player brought in a new character, but has since lost interest in it. The Player wants to bring back the dead character now. The Player originally let the bard stay dead in frustration (it was the bard's second death in about 4 game sessions), but she says she really enjoyed that character. I'm now looking for a way to bring back that character (literally from the grave). I'm willing to consider any strange/wierd idea, but I do want the come back to make sense in the game world. This could open up a new plot-line.

Some things to note: when the bard was raised the first time, the spell was from an ancient scroll found in an elemental temple. The raising added the [Water] subtype to the bard (by random roll, and unbeknownst to the party or the bard). The second scroll they used was from the same place, and would have added (another) random elemental subtype to the bard. [Ironic that both scrolls were used on the same character.]

Some ideas that come to mind immediately are:

The bard comes back as a ghost.

There was a delay to the raise dead effect for some reason (need a reason).

The raise dead scroll added the [Earth] subtype to the bard. So the bard can dig his way out of the grave.

Need a template or something to bump up the bard's ECL since the other PCs have gained a level or two since the bard's death.


So, please throw out some ideas for this. I've not guaranteed the Player that I'll let the bard come back, but I did say I'll think on it. I'm heavily leaning toward not allowing this, but if something interesting and sensible and legitimate (game-wise) can come of it, I'm open.

Quasqueton

 

[EricNoah]

I've had the remaining living PCs head down to wherever the dead wait for judgement (purgatory or whathaveyou) and convince the folks in charge that they've got the wrong person. Granted this was a Planescape game where hobnobbing with fiends and celestials was an every-day occurrance, but...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Water and Earth is mud.

Let her come back as a shape-shifter.

 

[diaglo]

ghost template from Ghostwalk would be nice.

the bard's spirit is restless. s(h)e was buried in the wrong place due to type. so has followed the PCs until an appropriate time could be found to assume form.

 

[diaglo]

Water and Earth is mud.

and mud spelled backwards is hong.

shape shifter or genesai sound like cool ideas too.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I like the idea of a ghost, or shapeshifter.

She should not be allowed to come back as a human. It sounds like too much time has gone by for that.

But a ghost could be fun. Say the bard has found some info out in the afterlife that might be useful to the party and she comes back to help them...

 

[Umbran]

I don't see anything in the Raise Dead spell that says that you only get one try. The simplest solution might be that someone else comes along and gives the bard a better reason to live again. And that opens up a whole new vista of plot possibilities.

The new raising would likely have to come from a more powerful caster, due to time constraints. Ressurection or True Ressurection might have been required. So you can also think about having the Bard under a Geas/Quest. to complete some task for the caster and/or the caster's deity.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

If you go with the ghost idea, then it will be fun for a bit, but does make interaction with the real world difficult and a little strange.

After a couple of sessions, I'd give them a living, souless body that they can permenantly inhabit... and that means you can pick almost anything for them... or if it's a 'normal' body - then perhaps they develop some kind of 'kewl powerz of the dead'?

You could have the Bard simply wander into the camp with no memory of what happened to them over the last few days. Pick the most dire, funny or just plain appealing of the possible explanations the PCs come up with... Twist it a tiny bit and that's what they've been doing. Add templates and so on as desired.

 

[der_kluge]

As much as I like the ghost, shape-shifter thing, I think you're going to be asking for trouble down the road with those abilities. Though, I don't know what the ghost thingy from Ghostwalk does, but I suspect it's powerful, and might potentially unbalance your game.

If the Bard had the water template, perhaps the spirit couldn't return in time for some reason (because of a conflict with the second template, perhaps?)

So, say the second template was [fire], and so for his spirit to traverse both planes was problematic. Ergo, the party waits, decides he has refused to return, and buries him. Then there is a problem, because now this fire/water bard is buried under earth, and the spirit becomes locked there. Or, the spirit simply can't reach the body since it can't penetrate the earth to get to him.

So, the only thing I can think of is that a really hard rain came through, and flooded the area where the grave was. This water was sufficient to pour through the soil above the grave, and released the corpse to where the spirits of fire and water could get to him.

Aside from applying the fire/water templates, I would probably look at replacing a lot of her spells with fire/water/smoke variations. Spells that are earth, or air based are lost. I would also give her the extraplanar subtype.

To the bard, it would not appear that she would have been buried for a month. She'd be like, "I woke up in a cloud of smoke, in a flooded area. Last thing I remember was being choked to death by a grell."

 

[janta]

Some things to note: when the bard was raised the first time, the spell was from an ancient scroll found in an elemental temple. The raising added the [Water] subtype to the bard (by random roll, and unbeknownst to the party or the bard). The second scroll they used was from the same place, and would have added (another) random elemental subtype to the bard. [Ironic that both scrolls were used on the same character.]

Quasqueton

Hopefully I can make this suggestion make some sort of sense. These scrolls came from an ancient temple, right? What if these scrolls have imbued the bard with the "essence" of the elemental deity (I'm assuming there were specific deities for each element here)? So the first time round, the bard gets the essence of the water elemental avatar. Seemingly no big deal, as the scroll is ancient and the avatar/deity is in a dormant/slumbering state. Next time round, the bard gets a second element imbued. The combination of the two causes both essences to awaken from their dormancy and vie for control of the host body. The magical force created by this raises the bard from the dead.

So now she's back, and maybe has no idea what has happened to her. You could then base a plot-line off this: she feels strange and alien impulses, perhaps seems to be possessed. The party must discover what the problem is and find a way to fix it.

The problems with this notion are that 1) a good deal of it depends on how amenable your player is to outside interference with the character (that is, will she roll with the punches if you rule that she's under the influence of the water elemental and must go jump in the sea) and 2) it may be inappropriately epic for your campaign. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd run a scenario like this one -- it would depend a LOT on the player.

Alas, I have no suggestion for a template, other than maybe one of the half-elemental ones.