Qeas/Quest

[Jacob]

Sounds like some personal issues there...of course we don't know what you did : )

I first considered writing this via a blog at some point, but I suppose there's no harm in writing about it now and revising later. Helps clear the head a little.

It was a brand new game, and only lasted two sessions due to the outburst that occurred. The premise of the game to give the PCs situations where it was plainly obvious outright confrontation would get them killed. There was going to be silliness thrown in as well, and an intended attitude of not taking it too seriously or over thinking it.

Which is why the cook of the famous restaurant serving humans for dinner was a Balor. No no, don't worry, they took care of him just fine. They managed to convince him they were putting on a play of good cop bad cop, with him being the scared and helpless criminal face first on the table. A coup de grace from his vorpal hand axe took care of him...and them, and the rest of the restaurant as the Balor exploded.

They met Heironeous in the afterlife (could have been any god, but because one of the PCs sought him out for help against the Balor...worked out well enough). He thanked them for what they did, and was willing to bring them back to life...if they accepted his quest, and revive 30 select people from that Balor explosion for some unknown reason. They resisted a bit, and then Heironeous smiled (for I know one of the players enjoyed his PS3), and stated that for every 10 they brought back, they would get a trophy (bronze, silver, gold). It was quipped if there would be a platinum, to which I smiled some more and said yes, but it would be a secret who that 31st person was. They accepted, and were brought back via True Resurrection.

This is of course where things got whack. During the entire conversation with Heironeous, they thought they were being given a quest, not a "Quest" quest. If they had asked questions regarding it as such, he would have told them. And as far as I remember from that conversation, I didn't contradict myself, or misspeak in response to their questions. If I did, I regret so much, but because I'm sure I didn't, all I can really do is hang my head in shame as the PC realizes he's under a Quest spell and bluntly says he's not playing anymore if that's what happened.

Was screamed at for 30 minutes about how a LG god would never do that (even though Paladins sometimes ask to be given a Quest, and this PC was considering to become a Paladin at some point), how I didn't appreciate what he was doing in the game (actually found him to be funny if just a little different from what I've done), and how it's wrong to kill PCs who have so much effort and work put into them. Which I head desk over, because what do you say to the PC who knows a door is trapped, then proceeds to walk into said door and die? Do you scream at the DM as well when you roll low and he rolls high? This PC was told he would be given a Quest, and Heironeous didn't lie: the PC just forgot to ask what that meant.

The game fell apart after that, with one PC immediately saying she was done, and another saying he would rather play another game on the same night...run by the guy who refused to play a PC under a Quest. So yes, that really hurt, but I suppose I can be proud of standing my ground. And for the record, they didn't have to take the quest either. The afterlife is full of adventure, and Heironeous is more than willing to Plane Shift the rest of the living party to the other two that died as they traveled the Outlands towards the Spire (or away? though we will never know, now will we?).

What does y'all think on what went down?

 

[Jhaelen]

The game fell apart after that, with one PC immediately saying she was done, and another saying he would rather play another game on the same night...run by the guy who refused to play a PC under a Quest.

Sounds like two jerks to me - but something like this is difficult to judge without hearing about their version of the story.

 

[Jacob]

Sounds like two jerks to me - but something like this is difficult to judge without hearing about their version of the story.

Those two thought I was out to kill their characters, even though I pointed out they accepted the Quest without question. The one who freaked insists I retroactively applied the Quest because of what he was doing in the game, which of course isn't true. To this day he still thinks this, no matter what I say.

There was also the issue of appropriating funds to complete the quest, even though the bully was using the funds to fund a black hole he would never be able to fill (really, don't ask what that is, as it's incredibly inappropriate for the forum). I realized this, but he didn't, and therefore...here we are. Shame, because if he stuck around, his plans would have been a cash cow in the long run, and then they could complete the quest. But again...

Perhaps I should have let it run it's course, and show him that it was a black hole? From there, instead of reviving the 30 people (of whom were backers of the theater he wanted to fund), he would try to find other backers, and eventually discover the only people who would fund his project are the ones he's on a quest to revive? But that's hindsight I suppose, and again, I still made the call. I knew the circumstances of what was happening in the world, and because I don't lay everything out on the table, they drew a conclusion that I was being a jerk. Because that's what DMs do I suppose?

I've given up on trying to explain myself to them, and just accept the entire PC party was more willing to accept I was trying to railroad them than to actually sit down for a moment and take responsibility for their own actions.

 

[TanisFrey]

The background I wrote for my last PC (priestess of Sharress) has her suffering from a quest spell that ties her to one person in the party, she needs to help him produce an heir for his barony. I did this to give her a reason to start adventuring again with this particular group and a reason for the baron to keep her around.

The Baron is CG paladin of Sune, and will not want to see her suffer the ill effects she will suffer from not completing her quest. And to keep this from being a simple one remove curse from freeing her, I suggested that the person whom cast the quest be more than 4-7 levels more than the party. The party is 13 level, however several of us can boost caster level by up to +6 level, the quest layer needed to be 18-20 level before she boost her own caster level.

 

[CuRoi]

What does y'all think on what went down?

Not to hijack the thread but- I've rarely seen this type of thing work out well (even with a subsequent True Ress.) One of my recent games invovled an inexperienced DM and a group of experienced Players. A very similar situation happened and too many of the players were not at all on board with being "beholden to a god"...especially the cleric who worshipped a different god of only similar alignment.

As far as how everyone reacted in your scenario, not sure what to tell you. You should be able to talk it out rationally - the whole point is for everyone to have fun.

I once had to back down on a "capture the PCs" scenario because they chose to commit group suicide (via intense fire making a ress difficult) as opposed to being taken alive. As players I don't think anyone was pissed off - they had been under surveillance by enemy casters and such for a while so they knew (and were dreading) something was coming. This big dark evil was so creepy, they felt death was the best option. I patted myself on the back for making the PCs scared of my bad guys and allowed a bit of fudging to let them escape to which they were very relieved. I mean they would have oddly, gladly died I think but playing on when it looked like there was hope was suddenly a better idea, heh.

Sure, it altered the story quite a bit (they never made it to the enemy fortress on the unexplored continent and we started a companion campaign fo PCs on that continent...) but it was fun for all nontheless. Point being - the player "pearly gates railroad" is tricky. From experience its maybe even better to kill the group and leave them dead as opposed to trying to hold it over the party's head.

 

[the Jester]

Beware the gamer that screams at you for 30 minutes because you're being unfair to him and what he wants to do. Had it. It sucks.

No matter what the situation, that gamer leaves my table and does not come back.

Tantrums at all are obnoxious, but 30 minute tantrums are unforgivable. To me, anyway.

 

[Jacob]

Not to hijack the thread but- I've rarely seen this type of thing work out well (even with a subsequent True Ress.) One of my recent games invovled an inexperienced DM and a group of experienced Players. A very similar situation happened and too many of the players were not at all on board with being "beholden to a god"...especially the cleric who worshipped a different god of only similar alignment..

I'm very curious as to how this came to be and turned out. I assume the DM was presenting a storyline he wanted to try out, only to find out the the PCs refused to go on such a path? I know it's the PCs who run the show in almost all aspects, but I tend to root for the DM a little more than the PC, if only because I know the PC is never going to get what they want.

I don't say this because the DM is a jerk who is always pulling the carpet out from under you, because that's the last thing a DM is. I say it because getting what you want is boring. If you wanted to get exactly what you wanted, why are you playing a game based around dice and role play? Way I feel at least.

 

[CuRoi]

I'm very curious as to how this came to be and turned out..

Ok, sorta long story so...

I was actually co-DMing - mainly just trying to give advice (which was almost universally ignored) and help the new DM run encounters because he had asked me to. We eventually divided functions between story and combat. The story was his along with the NPC creation and such. I was just providing the tactical side of things for combat to make sure the much more experienced players were still challenged.

He wanted to start the campaign with a TPK that would lead into the main quest. I thought it was interesting, but maybe too complex so I warned him it would be very tough to pull off. I mentioned if he really wanted to do it, he probably needed to either just tell the players at the start how they died or steam roll them with overwhelming force. Players in every campaign I have been in are very tenacious when it comes to combat. They do not appreciate a DM slowly torturing them and they rarely accept total defeat.

We talked a little about it and I didn't hear anything again until he showed up at the game with the "army" that was going to kill the party. Well, long story short, the randomly generated (I mean -completely- randomly generated...we're talking sorcerers with "Stealthy" feat and such) army of his had trouble finishing off the party. (This is about the point I took over the tactics and started making many of the key encounters.)

So we have a campaign starting off with players being slowly roasted over an hour+ long combat. Most of them die (one actually managed to escape though not the one that I figured). They then "awake" in the audience of a Lawful Good god. Wherein the next huge problem begins. We have one cleric and the god is not her deity. The rest of the party is already behaving pretty solidly neutral and being beholden to a good deity is not high on their list of life achievements.

I got several angry emails after the first game. I defended my fellow DM's decision to try a complex story hook and think I calmed people down enough to give him a chance. Otherwise, I think the game would have ended that night. Frankly, it might have been best.

The campaign sputtered along for a bit as the PCs acted their alignment (which as mentioned was mostly neutral.) My fellow DM wanted to punish everyone since they were on a quest in the name of this lawful good god and behaving a bit badly. I agreed that the god would probably not be pleased, however, these characters were sort of forced into service and "punishment" may backfire.

The DM decided to magically brand everyone with the symbol of this god to show his displeasure. This angered the party (especially the good cleric and the druid who were at this point the only ones acting co-operatively and trying to go along with the story). It was bad enough that one character dramatically chose to die instead of live with the mark.

This pretty much signalled the end of the campaign. I left town for several weeks and when I got back the camapign still somehow sputtering along (I think no one else wanted to run anything). Everyone looked burned out, even the DM, so I volunteered to run something else. The group leapt at the chance and I started up a Serenity camapign (which got some good feedback and a welcome break from DnD).

 

[frankthedm]

The spell probably pulls a lot from this story bu C. A. Smith.

The Seven Geases by Clark Ashton Smith

"Harken then to your geas, O Ralibar Vooz," he fulminated. "For this is the geas, that you must cast aside all your weapons and go unarmed into the dens of the Voormis; and fighting bare-handed against the Voormis and against their females and their young, you must win to that secret cave in the bowels of Voormithadreth, beyond the dens, wherein abides from eldermost eons the god Tsathoggua. You shall know Tsathoggua by his great girth and his batlike furriness and the look of a sleepy black toad which he has eternally. He will rise not from his place, even in the ravening of hunger, but will wait in divine slothfulness for the sacrifice. And, going close to Lord Tsathoggua, you must say to him: "I am the blood-offering sent by the sorcerer Ezdagor.' Then, if it be his pleasure, Tsathoggua will avail himself of the offering."

 

[CuRoi]

Possibly, however the word "Geas" is of Gaelic origin (particularly the Scottish "Geis" and the Irish "Gessa" - pronounced "gesh" acording to a native speaker) and is used extensively in ancient celtic mythology. If you want some other great examples I reccommend:

The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge by Unknown - Project Gutenberg - Táin Bó Cúalnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley)
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne - The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne

Every hero has some sort of Geas or obligation which is magically enforced and often placed on them by a "witch" or faerie. Violating your geas often meant death or in some cases scarring of the cheeks/face and other nasty consequences.