Need story advice for tonight's game!

[Panthanas]

I'm looking for a little story advice for my game tonight. I'll keep it fairly generic but the gist is this:

The party has recovered a minor artifact (a +2 Longsword which grants the wielder an SR 18, continual True Seeing, and acts a bane weapon versus anyone/thing with levels in any arcane spellcasting class) for a well known, powerful, LG church. There was a curse on the weapon, which the church has had removed. The church plans to grant the weapon to a noteworthy member of the church.

Now, I would like to be fairly generous and give it to the party cleric since he is a cleric of this church and is able to wield a longsword.

The party is 13th level and has helped the church out in the past in addition to this most recent recovery of the sword.

I'm looking for a "valid" way to give the sword to the party cleric, be it some form of test, or something along those lines.

I figure it would be to easy to just have the church hand it over.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What kind of validation do you need? The cleric presumably qualifies as "a noteworthy member of the church."

Perhaps...

1) an acolyte can point out how the cleric strongly resembles past wielders of the sword.

2) the sword itself asks to be given to the cleric.

3) while discussing the sword, some kind of attack occurs, and the cleric uses it during the ensuing melee. Afterwards, he seems unwilling or unable to return it.

 

[Panthanas]

Well, he does qualify, but I guess I just don't want to make it a gimme, that's all.

There could be some political ramifications as well.

 

[Piratecat]

I'd suggest this: the church invites the PCs to the investiture ceremony. It's a huge deal, and with great fanfare they present it to their holy champion...

...and it teleports to the PC's hand.

Oh, so sorry, they say, and they try again, and again it returns to the PC. After five tries they finally give up. The sword wants to be with the PC, but no one is sure why. The church is confounded, and asks the PCs to see what they can do to find out the reason.

That holy champion is publicly humiliated, though. Later, after something corrupts him, he's going to be trying to track down the PC and teach the sword a lesson. In addition, a group of LN church scholars and historians believe they should imprison the PC and find out what makes him special (there's precedent as it happened once 400 years ago, so it's part of church canon; they might expect the PC to voluntarily surrender himself, and are upset when he doesn't.) And enemies of the church have a prophecy about this, and the news makes them put their plan into action.

This way you don't need any better reason than the sword wants to be with him, even if it throws the church into a tizzy.

 

[ExploderWizard]

What's the nature of the LG church? How the church handles such things might depend on the nature of the particular deity.

 

[Wystan]

I'd suggest this: the church invites the PCs to the investiture ceremony. It's a huge deal, and with great fanfare they present it to their holy champion...

...and it teleports to the PC's hand.

Oh, so sorry, they say, and they try again, and again it returns to the PC. After five tries they finally give up. The sword wants to be with the PC, but no one is sure why. The church is confounded, and asks the PCs to see what they can do to find out the reason.

That holy champion is publicly humiliated, though.

This except the following: The 'Holy Champion' is a changeling/imposter that has stolen the life of the original and is actually Not even Good at all... Just not evil either.... He will challenge the wielder of the sword to an honor duel and/or just attack outright. He will try to escape before the event of his death and will become a recurring enemy that needs the sword to complete an ancient ritual that will allow him to bring an army of his Kin from an interdimensional space that is inhabited by Neutral Horrors... Like the outer realms, just not even caring, not evil....

The sword also would then gain the returning power (teleports to the owners hand in moments of greatest need).

 

[Herobizkit]

Seems like the PC has already earned the sword (by slaying its monster guardians and removing the sword's curse). Depending on your campaign, the political ramifications could be the most interesting result of handing over the sword to the PC... especially if someone or some others was expecting to receive it.

If you really want to be a tightwad, allow the PC to carry it only while performing quests assigned by the church.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you really want to be a tightwad, allow the PC to carry it only while performing quests assigned by the church.

As I recall, this was done in RttToEE, and it worked just fine!

 

[Panthanas]

You guys are all awesome! Speedy replies and great ideas!

I'm not sure I'll be "tightwad" enough to make them only use it for church missions, but that is a great idea too.

Thanks again for the help, you all have probably made my player's night.

 

[Piratecat]

Let us know what you decide to do. And glad to help.