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| How big should this thing be? |
My first thought was, it could be a small but exquisite treasure (500 gp for selling it to a collector). The thought after that, naturally, was about this thing having some magic properties. Animation would be the most obvious (a collector would be willing to pay up to 1500 gp for such a thing). But somehow, I thought, that isn't enough. Sure, you can show the players a nice picture and tell a little story, maybe. But it will be just passing through. Item means gold, end of story.
Lets play a bit with the possibilities.
What if...
What if it was 20 by 20 feet, with the creatures as big as your average human? It's in the middle of the dungeon, blocking the passage. The creatures seem to be in a stasis. Detect magic will reveal, that the weapons seem to be enchanted. Damaging the dome will enter fresh air into it and revive the two frog men in 2d4 turns. Adding water will accelerate the process. If the characters steal the magic weapons, those guys will hunt them down. They are stealthy and deadly, able to hide and travel in shadows, hypnotize their prey and use their surprising leap attack with brutal accuracy (critical hit means a limb gets torn off).
Or...
Make it even bigger. Lets say it fills half a market place. The true story how this thing came to be is long lost in history. Elves every now and then visit the Dome, but they have vowed never to speak about it or the strange rites they hold in it's presence. there is whisper in the streets about a secret cult and the weird crimes they conduct in the name of a lost god that is somehow connected to the dome. What are their goals? And how much destruction will it bring to the city, if those old mechanisms inside the dome are brought back to life...
What else?
So what else could it be? A trap, maybe, with the victim being teleported into the position of the stabbed frog (save vs. death or victim is stabbed to death into the heart, otherwise 2d6 damage). The wizard responsible for it likes to display the fools stupid enough to challenge him...
Any more ideas?
It might be fun to have the item be sentient and speak with player after a period of say twenty four hours. Nothing too substantial at first. Maybe the player hears the noise of a dual up ahead or of a challenge being issued and of another dieing. Then slowly over time the item begins to invade the player's visual senses until it begins to dominate their waking moments as combats are played out time and again in front of their eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe slow burn always works better than something that's a one and done for me.
Good one! Could be the trapped soul of the dying one, eager to get away, but aware that lifting the stasis would end him proper. Maybe crazy by now because of the long time trapped that way. The one doing the stabbing could could influence another player. I like a slow burn, too. Maybe with time (and if the players don't do anything against it) it could result in the two players fighting each other and the looser gets to be placed in the dome (or the winner is possessed by the dying creature? both?), creating another problem for the players in the future...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like it. Thanks for adding another perspective to this!