New Banes

[Tumbler]

I am currently running Malhavoc's Banewarrens mega-adventure. I want to expand the levels a bit and include more banes. My characters are being tempted to loot items, and I both want to encourage this and punish them for it. Their actually aren't that many vaults, so I am adding a couple of sections. If you don't know the adventure, basically this cleric collected evil items and locked them all up in vaults. I need more evil items and if desired, how they would have been locked up for eternity.

Thanks

 

[Voadam]

Banes are typified by evil, power, and the threat of spreading corruption.

Basically really dark items/creatures locked away in rooms with lots of powerful traps. For traps I'd look at Traps and Treachery I & II from FFG or the old Grimtooth Series if you don't mind getting a little sillier. For items look in sourcebooks like Book of Vile Darkness (WotC), Evil (AEG), Slayer's guide to Demons (Mongoose), etc. For creatures that can be locked up use a lot of immortal outsiders and undead. There are a number of types of creatures that possess items. Use really exotic things that haven't been seen on your world for 10,000 years. This is an excuse to pull out all the odd monster books and magic item sourcebooks you have.

Intelligent evil weapons would be common.

In our campaign one of the banes that was taken out by an NPC is a demon bound in a dagger that infects any who are struck by it with an infectious possessing demonic disease. This leads straight into a modified Demon God's Fane module I will be running.

 

[Tallfellow]

I played in a Scarred Lands campaign in which the DM inserted the Banewarrens under the Lich city of Hollowfaust. My character managed to pull off the stupidest (and perhaps most dangerous) move of his checkered career by, in a moment of stress, quaffing a random potion he'd been carrying around unidentified for months. It transformed him into a Nishruu or Hakeshar or something -- a magic-eating demon. I can't even begin to explain the kind of immense problems this caused. The whole of warrens were steadily opened by in the course of an hour or so...all the horrors released at once. A total nightmare. NPC heavy-hitter had to be called in to sort out the mess.

Hence:
A nice bane might be a Nishruu or the more powerful Hakeshar, trapped in some kind of stasis.

Though you might want to give the players plenty of warning before they make the misake of opening the sealed door...

 

[Tumbler]

They have had plenty of warning about taking the banes out and how dangerous that can be. One of the players is a loremaster (we are a bit higher level than supposed to be for the adventure). At the very beginning of the campaign I gave them a book of ancient history that has given them clues. They were completely focused on preventing the evil party from getting banes for two sessions, then they sank back into dungeoneer mode and started kicking down doors and stealing stuff. I will definitely use the demon in a bottle. I'm looking through the sources I have for other stuff now, and making more unique and nasty versions of the evil items in the DMG.

 

[Yair]

I once statted a "possessing demon", using a quasit as a base IIRC, that possessed a sword. It could only communicate with the person touching the sword, and could curse him as well, as well as anybody touching him. It could also bestow the effects of wonderous magic items, temporarily, up to a set cost, and could possess other items within 5'.
The demon blinded and cursed a few characters. They ended up wrapping it up in holy cloths (which I ruled prevented it from acting on or possessing other things), and gave it to some druidic temple to destroy.
Very similar to Voadam's offer, I know, but still.