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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 5201919" data-attributes="member: 7533">The problem here is that the players didn't really seem to have a choice in the matter.  Judging just from what you posted here, it seems like the players had made the choice to not use the compass, thereby giving up fabulous treasure but keeping everyone alive.  The consequence for doing this was that they ended up with a curse anyway (by way of penalties), they ran across fabulous treasure by accident, and someone died anyway.In the end, the player's choice made no difference.  That is the biggest sin an aspiring RBDM can make.Here's an example of a similar situation I had with my players recently...The players are hunting down a dark gnome from the Shadowfell who had been selling mercenaries and weapons to orc tribes that are at war with a dwarven kingdom.  He hard to find, and eventually the PCs are directed to inquire at the lair of a red dragon in a nearby volcano.When they arrive, they soon realize that dragon is a Vecnite -- in fact, the PCs strongly suspect that one of the dragon's eyes is the legendary and infamous Eye of Vecna.  (It is...  The dragon is a holdover from a bit of rat bastardry in a previous campaign, where the players unknowingly got a hold of the Eye of Vecna, and then accidentally let this dragon get a hold of it before they realized what it was.)  The dragon is being as hospitable as dragons ever are, and so they start dealing with him.They ask him if he can tell them what they want to know...  He counters by offering them what they need to know.  They ask his price.  "Him," the dragon says, pointing to the priestly PC with the tattoo of Ioun on his forehead (a PC, incidentally, that was going to be retired and replaced anyway).  After a lengthy discussion, they decline.  "Are you certain?" he asks.  "Yes," they insist.  "Very well, I'll tell you what you want to know in exchange for your brass key."  (The brass key is one of a few that activates a portal that leads back to the material plane.)  They agree, since they know where to get another one, and he tells him where this dark gnome will be and when so they can go catch him.Now, there's two difficult decisions going on...  The first is whether it was worth trading the life of a PC for the information they need (the who, what, where and when of an extra-planar invasion that they've heard vague rumors about).  The second is whether or not to give a dragon on his way to demi-lichdom access to the material plane in exchange for the location of a bounty they were hunting.They made their decisions, and there will be long-lasting consequences for both decisions...  By the time learn the details of the invasion, it may very well be too late, and thousands may have already died.  Not to mention the fact that they have unleashed the future avatar of Vecna upon the world, who will surely turn up again either in this campaign or the next.So what could you have done?  Let it go...  let them sell it to some chump.  Some chump, who is far less scrupulous than the PCs and is willing wantonly kill people to find the fabulous treasure.  Someone who becomes wealthy and powerful, and is much later a thorn in the sides of the PCs.  Far down the road, long after they've forgotten the compass, it resurfaces to cause them trouble again...  And, of course, it's all their own fault, because they're the ones who decided to sell it to this up-and-coming villain.</blockquote>

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