hey guys,
I've got a little bit of a problem. One of my characters is playing a magister, a class from Monte Cooks Arcana Evolved, thats simular to a wizard. Anyway, When the PC's made it to Ft. Green Rock I described it a little differently. My re-write made greenrock a testing grounds for a Savage tide pearl prototype. Hence, they used the remote outpost as a testing ground to see the effects of one of the pearls. The Druids and Monks of Ft greenrock devoured each other...then turned on the nearby lizardman tribes and were, luckily, destroyed.
AAAAaannnnnyway, Long story short, I allowed my PC's to locte the cracked opened already spent Pearl. The Magister has a spell called Object Loresight. If casted multiple times it gives a LOT of info on a magic item.
-Age of object
-Name of the last creature to touch the object.
-Race of the last creature to touch item
-Name of the objects creator
-Race of objects creator
-Objects purpose
-Materials that make up the object
-Location of objects creation
-Name of the most recent owner of the object
-Magical ability of the object
I've bolded the ones above that I think might give away too much info for upcomming mysteries in the STAP...
What do you guys think...should I give this info out this early in the game? We are currently almost done with Sea Wyvrens wake.
Thanks in advance guys...
The pearls are artifact level items. It would be simplest to rule that the spell doesn't work on them. Another option, which I find to be more flavorful, is to say that since the pearl is an artifact, using such divination spells on the pearl draws the eye of Demogorgon. Tell the players that the more they use the spell on pearl, the more likely it is that they will draw the wrath of "a powerful outsider" or something along those lines. If they do use the spell, allow them to get some background info, but if they try to use it repeatedly, I'd have tough demons gate in to attack them. During the fight, have the demons grab the pearl and teleport away.
1. Race of object's creator - check the spell description and see what is says about the multiple creators because the shadow pearls were created by a fiendish oyster and by additional processes by the kopru and two different types of demon (don't have the adventures in front of me right now). If the spell allows you to generalize, then say kopru as the primary creators. Chances are, kopru will not be that meaningful to the players unless they are familar with them.
2. Object's purpose - warhead or delivery system
3. Location of object's creation - the name of the aboleth city or more specific, the temple is meaningless to the players at this point. By the time it at that point in the AP for them to explore the aboleth city, parties without object loresight will already have put connected the dots that the aboleth city is a probable location of where the shadow pearls are created
4. Magic ability of the object - transformation
Odds are, 2 and 4 reveals nothing new that the party hasn't already deduced by talking with Captain Harliss in the second adventure.
Point 1 doesn't reveal too much and point 3 will not mean anything without context since it is a name that 99.9999% of surface dwellers will not have heard of.
Telling the caster it was made by a fiendish oyester is just gotta be funny though. What does a fiendish oyster think about? did the casters object lore sight trigger a portion of sentience in the pearl? What do oysters eat? What do they want? I think this woould be a great comedic tool and would have a field day with it. A fiendish oysters shadow pearl that talks like Mini Driver with an agenda of global domination and a penchant for seafood and... SHOPPING!
all good suggestions...except the Feindish Oysters one :P LOL
I might make the PC make a will save or suffer the same backlash as casting a scroll thats too powerfull for him to cast... just to emphasize that this is/was a powerful item... posibly comeup with some more foreshadowing affects like after he reads it he is subject to scrying from Demogorgon or minions... and he constantly sees 2 sets of glowing bestial eyes watching him whenever he closes his eyes to sleep... Dunno...