I'm wondering how other groups have handled the possibility of becoming infected with the Vanishing in Jzadirune. My group just lost a character to it so I wonder if others have had similar experiences.
The group has discovered a number of infected items including the Bag of Tricks (or, as my group refers to it, the Fuzzy Ball of Animaliness). A couple uses of that item have resulted in the barbarian making his Fort save to avoid infection but the wizard failed his save. I was pretty concerned about this as the wizard, much like several members of the group, has used Charisma as basically their dump stat and at a 6 Charisma can't afford to lose much. In retrospect, it seems that the Vanishing was specifically created as a lesson about the hazards of using Charisma as a dump stat. Heh.
So, I was a little nervous about the next morning because, on the one hand, I wanted to stick with the original design as much as possible but, on the other hand, how bad would it suck to have your character just up and vanish with no way of combatting it. Fortunately, I rolled a 2 instead of a 6 and the wizard lost 2 points of Charisma, dropping him to a grand 4.
I figured they would spend some time addressing it, trying to figure out what they could do to cure it, talk to some priests or someone knowledgeable, or do something, but in the absence of a clear course of action, they basically just went about their daily activities, continuing to fight and explore.
Last meeting was the next game day and the wizard recovered 1 point of Charisma (since it's only damage and not drain) but when I rolled a 5 on the damage for that day, and he only had a 5 Charisma AFTER the 1 point was automatically restored... well, no more wizard.
I feel particularly cold-blooded about the fact that the wizard is just gone without being able to really fight it off, but they did have the opportunity to look into the matter and chose to just ignore it and go about their business. I could have stretched it out a little more using DM adjudication to have him drop down to a 2 or 1 Charisma but again I really did want to stay true to the original design. Besides, I didn't want to water down the potential for harm just because the group chose to make characters with extremely low Charisma (of the six party members, three of them have a 6 Charisma).
Any thoughts or feedback on what you have done with your groups? Did any characters in your groups become infected? How did they handle it? Did the DM just ignore the possibility completely? Thanks in advance.
Shannon
My party has decided to stay away from Jzadirune until they can deal with the curse themselves; they don't like going to the temple of Wee Jas for curing (the only priests strong enough to cast Break Enchantment, and Jenya's Remove Curse isn't strong enough to do it), since they charge quite a pretty penny for the privilege. Now that Shebeleth the Pelorian Inquisitor has arrived, of course, they're thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to head down and clear out what's left. After all, a highly-ranked priest of Pelor can certainly cast the necessary spells, can't he?
Any thoughts or feedback on what you have done with your groups? Did any characters in your groups become infected? How did they handle it? Did the DM just ignore the possibility completely? Thanks in advance.
Some months ago, in one of my players' group, the bard and the gnome wizardress became inflicted by the vanishing. Both of them had pretty high charisma score... but they were in panic when realizing the effects. I have to confess I boosted a little the consequences of the curse on their mind and body.
As a result, they ran straight outside Jzadirune (followed by their pissed off fellow adventurers) in order to fix what was happening to them. I guess you can imagine the mental sanity of a gnome with vanished ears and a "macho" bard even more concerned by a very important missing part of him... No need also to explain the various physical examinations and diagnosis I created on the fly with some of the NPC's.Great role play that time and a lot of fun. I'm still smiling when typing this! (Just one in a lot: The bard starting to raise a claim because what was coming back seemed - to him - a little bit tiny. In fact it was a fabulous role play of the player to try to obtain a permanent enlarge spell for free !)
To be honest it was not my first run of the SCAP that time so that I was ready for some changes. This one has been a great twist (from my players feelings). So I advise all the DM to be ready to use the Vanishing in another way than the "by the book" one.
Be creative
ArchAnjel, I don't think you need to stress out over that outcome. Death being an actual consequence of adventuring makes the game that much more enjoyable by raising the stakes for the remaining characters.
If I may ask: how the hell did three characters end up with a 6 stat? I've only seen one 6 stat in my entire life, and that was due to some horrible critical on the character ffrom some 2e crit chart. If you're using point buy and they're abusing the system, they're getting what they deserve, imo.
~Qualidar~
Borealis, why can't Jenya cure them? I don't remember any level requirement for the cure, but maybe I missed it (twice!), or is that something they might have changed in the hardcover version?
~Q~
Borealis, why can't Jenya cure them? I don't remember any level requirement for the cure, but maybe I missed it (twice!), or is that something they might have changed in the hardcover version?
No miss at all and you are right as usual Q.
Jenya did it for sure but only the day after (no change in the HC here). Because I played she has'nt the spell readied when the two came to beg her.Just after they turned upside down the city to find an alternative. Blue Crater Academy scholars and scientists were very interrested by this very exotic new plague and it was even proposed to have the gnome and bard serving as guinea pig for money ! and other stories... :-)))
The next morning they were cured by Jenya but she gave them also a Quest from a scroll (recovering the orphans ASAP) because these two were very reluctant to go back to Jzadirune.
The bard was pissed of and he prepared his revenge during the next hours ... eventually he came back with the story of the size complaint in trying to hit two birds with one stone.;-)
Be creative
I am fully convinced the Vanishing was used to punish charisma dump staters. And in that regard, it's perfect. Wouldn't change a thing.