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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5602169" data-attributes="member: 75065">I have done this once in my current campaign, quite recently actually.The PCs had to find a certain sword powerful enough to break the curse that held them and all the inhabitants of the castle they were trapped in (trapped in both space and time having to live the same day out over and over again). At least 3 different NPCs had tried to get them to retrieve the sword for them with differing promises of reward/aid etc.The sword was a +3 evil Artifact. This was the first +3 weapon to appear in the game, with some pretty nifty powers attached to boot. Every time the Barbarian who took it and wielded it killed an enemy te sword would become more pleased and whisper bloody thoughts inside his head. He got on board with it and began to play his character becoming increasingly cold, distant and cruel. This same sword had driven the Eladrin King of the castle himself to commit unspeakably cruel and evil acts. It began to work the same effect on the Barbarian. But it was still a very cool and powerful toy.The moment came when they broke the curse themselves using the sword to destroy the essence of these evil acts which took the shape of a dragon made from the stained glass windows depicting with pride said evil acts.When they returned to their own time and space, causing the eladrin of the castle to crumble and turn to dust as they lived a thousand lost years in a moment, the servants of Zehir, who had held the portal to the cursed castle open so they could enter in the first place, were waiting for them. These snakemen had sent the PCs after the sword in the first place at the behest of their god as it contains a shard of the dead godess of magic's body. My PCs had earlier made a pact with Zehir, gaining power and a gift that would come at a later price. Each PC that pacted with him would, when bid by Zehir, complete a task. One of these tasks was to retrieve this sword.So they got to play around with a massively powerful, but evil and potentially very dangerous sword that inspired loads of neat roleplay, resolved their quest and then brought them back to a point where they were faced with the consequences of an earlier decision. The barbarian was very loathe to give up his new toy. I would have been cool with him not giving it up actually. I left it to him and the group (who pressured him) to decide what they would do with this double edged sword. They came very close to breaking their pact with Zehir, which would have opened up new inroads to epic adventure, I'm sure.In the end they decided to give it up. Probably a wise decision.Along the lines of giving, taking away, and then giving back, there was a second non artifact sword found in the same castle. It was powerful but a large part of its tip was snapped off. Before even going to the castle they had found the broken tip. Eventually with a very elaborate (elaborate because it was so expensive and I allowed the group to come up with a creative way to get around the GP cost using their unwanted magic items) Repair ritual turning it from a +2 flaming Greatsword into a +3 Fullblade with all its original powers but also with a daily ability to send the now repaired tip flying magically off giving a melee reach of 5 to any power, before rejoing with the sword.The barbarian had to invest a feat to use a Fullblade, but he was pretty stoked with his alternative toy (being still the only person in the group with a +3 weapon).It worked well. I think part of that was that the taking away was something they knew was coming, was part of the story and made sense, and in the end it was their own decision, a decision they weren't obliged to make (although it was a good decision). Giving back again sealed the deal.</blockquote>

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