Testing PCs

[Gilladian]

I'm going to be running a brief session soon for a group of six experienced players (L10-11ish), and I want some help in fleshing out the scenario. Can anyone offer some fun suggestions?

The situation is as follows: this is a world that is being destroyed. There was a brief war about 5 years ago, in which the "good" god was awakened from sleep, blasted what he thought was the evil god (it wasn't; he was called in error) and then realized his mistake. Unfortunately, he did major damage in the process to the world. Now, the evil god is slowly being freed by the fears of the people of the world, who are convinced the end times are upon them.

Indeed, the end times are near. All the gods (standard PH pantheon) are soon to leave the world and go on, seeding new worlds with life, and leaving this one to fresh gods. There will be an ultimate battle between the two forces of good and evil, in which "shards" of godhood will be scattered across the realms. These shards will be able to be used by powerful mortals to pull themselves into the power level of the gods. We figure this will happen when the PCs reach about 20th level.

But of course the Gods that now exist know what is going to happen. They are eagerly awaiting the chance to go on and find new worlds to rule. And they want to know how apt their replacements will be. So they are searching out powerful mortals now, sampling them to see what they may be like later.

In this case, I thought it would be neat to have one powerful neutral or evil god or goddess "test" the PCs. I want suggestions on how he/she might test them. The party consists of six characters:

A dwarven priest (Faruque) (L10) of Moradin, who is known as the "Protector of the Dwarven Hearth". He's brave, bold, rude, gruff, and speaks very little. He's definitely lawful good, but always puts the good of the dwarven race at the top of his priorities. He's not exactly greedy...

Ulfgar (L9) is a dwarven fighter, sworn bodyguard of Faruque. He's short-tempered, amazingly tough, very ready with his axe, and not very clever, but LOYAL and trustworthy.

Rogar (L10) is a gnome wizard. Loves fireballs, treasure and trees, in that order! Is reliably unreliable, but usually makes a difference in the end. He enjoys teasing children, but is never cruel. They love him. He has a bad reputation with the local wizard's guild, but is living it down by saving the kingdom on a regular basis.

Evyn (L10) is the elven ranger/sorcerer/arcane archer. She's quite fey, very loyal, reserved, and positively deadly. She's Queen's champion of the elves, having saved the Queen from a deadly enchantment of many years duration and thus revitalized her dying race. She's too shy to take the credit she deserves.

Archie (Archimedes Obliviax) is a L10 Paladin. He's older than the rest of the group, but still naive as all heck. He's nearly blind without his glasses, which Buttercup (see below) only gives him when he needs to fight, or when she's done with her part in things. He's not so clever, but very handsome. He gives most of his money to care for orphans in Buttercup's "Uncle Ogre's" orphanage.

Buttercup is a L7 Rogue, L3 Shadowdancer. A halfling, she was a "mafia princess" most of her young life, until the time of troubles 5 years ago destroyed the guild and killed her parents. Rescued by Uncle Ogre (a human), she's been his able assistant ever since. She's chaotic and most definitely out for herself, but only does "bad things" when she believes that failing to do them would bring about worse trouble. She keeps Archie's glasses so she can let him ignore what he doesn't need to know about. Uncle Ogre's orphanage is a guild training facility, and she is one of the master trainers.

Buttercup and Archie are a team, as are the dwarves. The elf and the gnome thus naturally fall together, and really get along well. Rogar has taught Evyn to master her natural magical ability, and thus formed a bond. Archie has been appointed Acting Baron for a local region, and Faruque is building a temple there. Buttercup's orphanage is nearby, in a town that Uncle Ogre has been elected Mayor of. Evyn is replanting nearby forests, and Rogar dreams of rebuilding the school of wizardry which recently got blown to smithereens (oops!). Ulfgar appears to have no aspirations.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Gilladian

 

[Rastfar]

Do you have any ideas of your own already? What kind of 'test'? Something that will result in the death of a player(s)? Neutral or evil gods I assume may care little for such things, even though these are your long-term characters.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

The one constant thing in the "world" should be the planet itself. It should be the planet and the Druids who speak for it who are testing the worthy.

The Paladin should have his eye sight corrected and be forced to "see" what the halfling has done. it will either sunder thier partnership (His lawful Goodness will not tollerate her) or it will cause him to possibly loose his Paladinhood.

The fighter: Put him by himself. If he is so dedicated to the Cleric have that tested. he will have to make a choice between the cleric of a hand full of Dwraven children. something like that.

Mage: Have the elementals of earth, water, and air come to him and demand they get equal treatment. Deny him the use of his firemagics. force him to use his other spells more effectivly.

Thief: Have her find information that leads her to suspect "Uncle Ogre" of selling the orphans to slavers. Force her to confront the Paladin with this information.

A. Archer: he obvious is to have the Queen decide to make her the Heir to the throne. She will be forced into the limelight and not have a moments peace. when the villens show up have the crowd get in the way of her shots. See how she reacts.

Priest: Basicly force him into a dilema that he has to choose either the dwarven people or all the other races combined. Make it something long lasting like maybe finding a specialised artifact that will grant a wish but the wish can be for everyone but your own race or just your race.


These are just some ideas.

 

[Gilladian]

Thanks, this does help. You hit the nail exactly on the head. Here's what I eventually decided to do, in brief.

Archie: will be exposed to the results of one of Buttercup's thieving activities, which he helped her with, in his belief that she was merely testing someone's security precautions. This should broaden his view of evil, and lower his trust level, though hopefully not destroy it.

Buttercup: she will have a choice between telling truth and lying. If she lies she gets a reward, but in the end it causes true harm to her and her friends.

Faruque; must choose whether to honor Moradin in a ceremony he is to lead, or abandon the ceremony and go heal a sick half-elf. If he fails to do so, a plague begins, which Moradin will inform him is not in his power to stop; only the proper god (Pelor) can do so. This will hopefully demonstrate to Faruque that even the gods must acknowledge and work with other gods.

Ulfgar will be given an axe which he thinks is a dwarven artifact, and it will lead him to believe everyone is out to destroy the dwarves. If he puts it down and stops attacking them, he'll realize it is cursed. If not, he'll be driven to kill his friends, one at a time... Ulfgar must choose between dwarven glory and non-dwarven friends, and also realize that violence is not the answer every time.

Evyn will be presented with a woman in serious danger from her spouse. She will have a chance to interfere and save the woman, but the rest of the party will tell her not to get involved; turn the problem over to the authorities, and leave to finish their mission. If she does so, the woman will soon be found beaten to death. Evyn must sometimes decide what to do on her own.

Lastly, Rogar will be in a situation where the party fights a monster he knows nothing about. Each time he starts to use a spell or item the monster TELLS him it won't work, and he will probably not use it. PCs die while he dawdles. Eventually he's the only survivor, and then the creature tells him that ANYTHING he had done would have killed it, before it eats him. Plainly, indecision is his weakness, and he should learn to act despite the potential for a bad result occasionally.

These are all dream-visions, of course; none of the deaths or bad results are real, so they result in moral lessons only. In fact, most of the decisions are pre-programmed, so I hope they don't get irritated, but the discussion afterwards should be fun.

Gilladian