Okay, so the party has returned from the Lucky Monkey...with Sarcem's body and that of their half-orc paladin companion (who got chopped and munched by Tongueater). There are only two priests in town powerful enough to do something about it: Embril Aloustani, and High Inquisitor Shebeleth (thanks, Delvesdeep!!!) of the Church of Pelor.
So, would Sarcem accept a Resurrection from either of them, considering he knows who they both really are? On the one hand, he's not going to want Adimarchus' help. On the other hand, he might want to come back to stop their plans.
Of course, that's assuming that anyone can afford the 10 Gs it would take to get one of them back in the first place. Which I doubt, even for the Cuthbertians; they've been stretched out a bit lately.
As for the fight with Tongueater...I really made a mistake giving my son's character that Wand of Scorching Ray. They actually fought Tongueater twice. I used the feralized version from the message boards, and he took the rogue-ranger down to about eight hit points in the first round. So far, so good, and the party has the fear of DM in them. Of course he's got the DR to keep them from getting serious hits on him...but it doesn't work on a Scorching Ray. And of course, my son rolls a 20 on his second attempt (first shot missed) and confirms a critical. So after getting a couple of hits from the party, Tongueater suddenly found himself in negative HP in the second round of the fight.
The party finishes off the baboons, but I wanted them to have a more memorable battle that 'fry him with a scorchy,' which will, I sense, become a recurring theme in the campaign now.
NEVER give a sorcerer a Wand of Scorching Ray.
Anyway, after they finish the baboons, I took advantage of DM fiat and Tongueater's Fast Healing ability and ruled that enough time had passed for him to get to 1 HP. I know, I cheated. Sue me. Anyway, as the rogue is ready to do some professional appraisal of the piles of loot, Tongueater jumps through the back door and escapes, trailing blood. The party lets him run off into the jungle, being abused enough that they don't want to mess with him so soon.
So they head down to the basement and rescue Shensen, then return to the kitchen to pack up Sarcem's body and head back to Cauldron. The rogue looks out the back door and hears the baboons in the jungle, chittering angrily at the two dinosaurs chomping on the body pile in the back. Shensen rolls a good Animal Empathy check, and the dinos end up going for some fresh meat in the jungle instead. As they're heading off into the trees, Tongueater returns, this time with his trusty falchion sword. The battle was on again. He knocked the cleric down to single digits in the first round, who backed out and healed himself. The paladin stepped forward and took a swing, which (typically) ended up embedded in the door frame (this player's dice are loaded to roll 1s, it seems). Tongueater took advantage and on a natural 20 (confirmed crit), killed him with a single blow (he was already wounded). I misread the critical hit description and thought that only the weapon damage was doubled, which took him to -3 hp, and the bite damage only did 5 points, keeping him alive. The cleric pointed out that everything except additional damage dice is doubled, which meant that the paladin was, in fact, dead, and the bite attack was Tongueater ripping out and swallowing the paladin's tongue.
Then my son rolled yet ANOTHER frickin' natural 20 and critted him again, putting him in single digits. Shensen hit him with a Stunning Fist, and the cleric did a two-handed slam with his morning star right on his pointy head, staving in his skull. This time they chose to forego any looting until after they'd made sure Tongueater was very dead. Very, very dead. They cut out his heart, decapitated him, stabbed the body another dozen or so times with the silver spear and silver dagger, then burned it to a char broil.
NEVER give a sorcerer a wand of scorching ray.
I don't know about the Resurrection question, but bear in mind that if they spring for a Raise Dead for the paladin, he'll still be missing his tongue. Body parts missing when raised are still missing after raise dead.
I don't know about the Resurrection question, but bear in mind that if they spring for a Raise Dead for the paladin, he'll still be missing his tongue. Body parts missing when raised are still missing after raise dead.
If you want to get really technical, raise dead won't work if the target's body is incomplete. So a swallowed tongue means your paladin cannot be raised. However, if your party manages to track down tongue eater fast enough and remove the tongue from his stomache before it is digested, I think your paladin may stand a chance :)
I don't know about the Resurrection question, but bear in mind that if they spring for a Raise Dead for the paladin, he'll still be missing his tongue. Body parts missing when raised are still missing after raise dead.If you want to get really technical, raise dead won't work if the target's body is incomplete. So a swallowed tongue means your paladin cannot be raised. However, if your party manages to track down tongue eater fast enough and remove the tongue from his stomache before it is digested, I think your paladin may stand a chance :)
Oh, they tracked him down, alright; they killed him in the same round that he took down the Paladin. But they're trying to see if they can convince Shebeleth to resurrect Sarcem; they don't trust Embril for some reason. I have no doubt that they're going to have a more difficult time convincing Shebeleth as well, and I'm thinking that even if they do, Sarcem won't want a priest of Adimarchus to be the one bringing him back.
|
I can think of a few options;
Shebeleth claims not to be powerful enough to cast resurrection;
Shebeleth refuses to raise a priest of a rival faith (but this might turn the PCs against him earlier than you want);
Jenya makes it clear that Sarcem it would be against Sarcem's wishes to be resurrected by a priest of a rival faith;
Shebeleth pretends to raise Sarcem, but claims the spell failed;
Shebeleth pretends to raise Sarcem, but instead summons up some nasty spirit or demon to inhabit the corpse. This idea just came to me, so I'm not yet sure how this would be done, but I'm sure you could wreak a lot of havoc with this one...
I can think of a few options;
Shebeleth claims not to be powerful enough to cast resurrection;
Shebeleth refuses to raise a priest of a rival faith (but this might turn the PCs against him earlier than you want);
Jenya makes it clear that Sarcem it would be against Sarcem's wishes to be resurrected by a priest of a rival faith;
Shebeleth pretends to raise Sarcem, but claims the spell failed;
Shebeleth pretends to raise Sarcem, but instead summons up some nasty spirit or demon to inhabit the corpse. This idea just came to me, so I'm not yet sure how this would be done, but I'm sure you could wreak a lot of havoc with this one...
That sounds like a great idea Mothman! I think the book of vile darkness has some suggestions on the mechanics of demonic possession.
I can only immagine how much trouble Sarcem can cause for the party. On the other hand, If you make the changes subtle, this could be a great long-term sub-plot!
In my campaign I used some extra adventures that pointed out the sharp rivalry between the different churches in town, which was enough to convince the players that none of the other faiths would raise the fallen highpriest.
Later in the campaign, when the PCs died and we played an episode in the afterlife, I had them meet Sarcem, who had become some kind of angel in heaven. He told the PCs that his new place was here, confirming they had made the right choice not to look for ways to resurrect him (which they considered because one of the PCs is a priest of Sarcem's faith - Ilmater in my Forgotten Realms campaign). This heavenly encounter provided closure for the Sarcem chapter.
|
|
That sounds like a great idea Mothman! I think the book of vile darkness has some suggestions on the mechanics of demonic possession.
I think those rules are updated somewhere too, possibly Heroes of Horror? And there was an article in Dragon magazine I think in the last couple of years (sorry, no idea which issue - probably an October one) about ways of making resurrection more difficult / scarier etc, one of those had suggestions for "something else" coming back instead of the departed's spirit.
In my campaign I used some extra adventures that pointed out the sharp rivalry between the different churches in town, which was enough to convince the players that none of the other faiths would raise the fallen highpriest.
Unfortunately that won't work; the Pelorians owe the Cuthbertians big time after Kristoff (the Pelorian high priest) contracted the Vanishing after the party handed him some items for safekeeping. Seizing the opportunity to introduce Shebeleth, I said that the Kord and Cuthbert temples were helping Kristoff resist (but not cure) the Vanishing until such time as the High Inquisitor could arrive. So I'm thinking that Sarcem will just refuse to be resurrected by a priest of Adimarchus, without explaining why.