I know my players are going to want to try to drink a tankard of Norah's tank water when they visit The Hagfish.
Has anybody worked up the save or saves needed to succeed?
I was thinking about an initial Will Save for the first taste. Followed by another Will Save to continue drinking after the first few swallows. And finish the saves off with a Fort Save to not throw it all up before finishing the tankard.
It's gotta be difficult right?
I know my players are going to want to try to drink a tankard of Norah's tank water when they visit The Hagfish.
Has anybody worked up the save or saves needed to succeed?
I was thinking about an initial Will Save for the first taste. Followed by another Will Save to continue drinking after the first few swallows. And finish the saves off with a Fort Save to not throw it all up before finishing the tankard.
It's gotta be difficult right?
I like the Initial Will save idea - but I think following with just Fort saves would be better. DC? That depends - do you want your players to have a realistic chance at first level? A dwarf (who is the one who's visited that Tavern in my game) could have quite a good Fort save at first level... +2 class, +2 race, +3 Con for +7. Will save of up to +4.
DC: Chance making saves: Chance of finishing
DC15: 50%, 65%, 65% : 21% (So if your party was all Dwarves, one would make it on average).
DC18: 35%, 50%, 50% : 9% (So not too likely, about 50/50 if a whole party tries)
DC20: 25%, 40%, 40% : 4% - Probably won't happen at first level.
Saves of +3 (semi-average character):
DC15: 45%, 45%, 45% : 9%
DC18: 30%, 30%, 30% : 2.7%
DC20: 20%, 20%, 20% : .8%
Personally, I'll go with the 18, maybe 20 with a +2 to the Will save for previous successes.
Thanks for the very thorough response Majuba!
I think I will use your DC:18 suggestion.
I want it very difficult but possible and the 9% chance works well for that.
I will also be assigning a circumstance penalty if they fail and decide they want to try it again... at least that same evening.
I know a lot of people that won't eat something because they threw up after eating it before.
Creative Director
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Norah's a hagfish. Which is a real-world HORRIFIC DISGUSTING NASTY fish that turns water into slime. If you're feeling particularly evil, and have a computer handy... you might want to show the PCs the following video after they drink from her tank just so they can see what it is that they've put inside themselves:
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Here's how I'm planning to handle it:
Hagfish Slime
Poison
Type: Ingested, DC: 21, Initial and Secondary Damage: sickened
Notes: A character who fails both saves is nauseated rather than sickened. The effects last for (6 - Con modifier) hours, minimum 30 minutes.
Price: 1 sp at the Hagfish, and may Desna have mercy on you.
Anybody who gets nauseated fails the Norah test and likely suffers a violent reaction all over the bar to boot.
I think poison is a better mechanic than a straight saving throw. I just presented it like a sucker's bet, and my players all knew better than to even make the attempt. This may be influenced by the fact that we're gaming on an island in the Pacific and most of my players already knew what a hagfish was.
Reactions to to this encounter might vary quite a bit with the real-world location of the game. :)
*cough, cough* *gag*
That video puts it in to much better perspective.
Thanks!
One of my player's wanted to try too, so I just gave it a DC 25 fortitude saving throw. With only 28 people having finished a mug, it has to be difficult to do.
If a 20 always succeeds, you might as well set it at like DC 30 or higher. That stuff is NASTY.
I saw the buggers in a documentary.
Scraping the hide/flesh from a dead whale. Yuck
there were dozens of the criters on the now dead whale.
And according to the TV, six months later too.......
I think the 3 saves for how far you get works much better. That way a lucky 20 wouldn't succeed automatically and people with better Fortitude saves would have a much better chance of success. I like DC set at 18 for the 3 saves...improbable but possible.
If a PC successfully drinks the stuff, I might even be tempted to throw a permanent "+1 to saves against nausea/sickness" their way.
Just a fun little benny for actually drinking it, that wouldn't be unbalancing.
That's a fun idea. I'll do that too.
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How important those 28 names are depends on how often people try to drink it. F'r instance, if it's a save that can reasonably be said to be only possible with a natural 20, that would mean that 560 attempts have been made over the course of the Hagfish's ten year history, or approximately one every week. (Successes would happen two or three times a year.)
Does that seem reasonable? How often would a town of 1200 see someone willing to try to drink hagfish slime?
That's a fun idea. I'll do that too.If a PC successfully drinks the stuff, I might even be tempted to throw a permanent "+1 to saves against nausea/sickness" their way.
Just a fun little benny for actually drinking it, that wouldn't be unbalancing.
Seconded. Our half-orc barb did it. Our gnome jester... not so much.
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Creative Director
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How often would a town of 1200 see someone willing to try to drink hagfish slime?
I suspect all of the locals know what that stuff is, and none of them would try it because they know better. It's more of a joke that they play on visitors, really; I suspect most of the names carved up there are people from elsewhere thinking that drinking hagfish slime will get them respect of the locals, when really, it just marks them as one of those freaks who drank hagfish slime.
I photoshopped up some pictures to use for my group (we play online). They are by no means professional quality, but they could be useful!
One is Norah in her tank, the other is someone scooping out a mug full of slimy water.
You should be able to find them HERE .
I hope I did that right -- never used flickr before.
All three of the characters in my fist session drank the slime water last night... or tried too. I required two fortitude saves... the first was to beable to finish the cup, the second was to aviod vomiting... both DC 15 (I gave dwarves thier poison bonus as well)... none of the chracters could finish it, and both dwraves threw up (the human couldn't finish the cup but only ended up nausiated for a while). I am positive that the characters were more intersted in the pouch of money then in impressing the locals. They met one local who drank the stuff and got his name on the beam (Gressel Tanniwar form the Fatman's Feedbag) but none of the other names are local.
Doing it as a poison is likely the best way to do it. Thats some noxious stuff (I'm glad I skipped lunch today), then have a Will save to psych themselves up enough to consume such willingly. The Will Save and the first Poison save go hand-in hand, not spewing outright, the second is how crummy you feel afterwards and holding it down. With a DC of like 18 combined with the penalties for being sicked bumps the second save by 2 in effect to a 20.
Perhaps if you wanted to draw it out some.. roll a D10 or D100 to see what 'percentage' you were able to gulp down. Each gulp requiring a new Will Save with a increased save DC (regardless of if they got sick or not).
Here's how I'm planning to handle it:
Hagfish Slime
Poison
Type: Ingested, DC: 21, Initial and Secondary Damage: sickened
Notes: A character who fails both saves is nauseated rather than sickened. The effects last for (6 - Con modifier) hours, minimum 30 minutes.
Price: 1 sp at the Hagfish, and may Desna have mercy on you.Anybody who gets nauseated fails the Norah test and likely suffers a violent reaction all over the bar to boot.
I want'ed to make a high Con have more of an effect, so I'm adding the following to Shisumo's poison.
Norah Test:
The mug takes you 2 gulps. Each gulp requires an initial damage roll, and then only one secondary damage roll if you take the second gulp within 1 minute.
Some calculations showed the following chances for % chance winning the Norah test:
Fighter/Barbarian Lvl 2:
Con %chance
8 3%
10 5%
12 10%
14 14%
16 19%
18 26%
20 33%
Wizard Lvl 2:
Con %chance
8 1%
10 1%
12 1%
14 3%
16 7%
18 11%
20 17%
I figure only drunk or high Con / Ftr types would ever even try. And for them its not too hard, but there aren't many takers.
Norah's a hagfish. Which is a real-world HORRIFIC DISGUSTING NASTY fish that turns water into slime. If you're feeling particularly evil, and have a computer handy... you might want to show the PCs the following video after they drink from her tank just so they can see what it is that they've put inside themselves:
When I read about the attic whisperer, or how that goblin eats off that kid's father's face, I thought you guys were quite evil. But make someone drink THAT? Do you share a circle of Hell or do you all have your own? :D
How often would a town of 1200 see someone willing to try to drink hagfish slime?I suspect all of the locals know what that stuff is, and none of them would try it because they know better. It's more of a joke that they play on visitors, really; I suspect most of the names carved up there are people from elsewhere thinking that drinking hagfish slime will get them respect of the locals, when really, it just marks them as one of those freaks who drank hagfish slime.
A time honoured tradition, way up there with serving disgusting animal parts as a "local delicacy" and see who eats it. I like Sandpoint more and more!
My group just played, and I HAD to give them success when our GNOME RANGER made 2 straight DC 20 fortitude saves (one to choke it down, bartender then sat patiently, when asked, said "it ain't hard to get it down, it sure as hell is hard to keep it down"...she made the second though)...won them 35 gp, and respect of the hagfish...
Norah's a hagfish. Which is a real-world HORRIFIC DISGUSTING NASTY fish that turns water into slime. If you're feeling particularly evil, and have a computer handy... you might want to show the PCs the following video after they drink from her tank just so they can see what it is that they've put inside themselves:
Uh... that almost look as bad as the swa... I mean bath water in me scu... ummm clean water filled pon... tub. Yeah tub.
Mike Rowe will be dealing with hagfish (called slime eels on the show) on the January 22nd episode of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. Enjoy!
I saw the commercial for that today and came here to post it.
I was too late again. :-)
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Amazing the 5+ year old threads you can necro when you come here looking for information and search for the name "Norah". Is there any sort of standard for the save DCs to get this done?
I kind of like the idea of a will save, then two fort saves, all with DCs of at least 18. Also, this whole thing seems like a way of baiting PCs into getting a pride point.
My dwarven cleric did the test - and actually won - rolled a natural 20 on his save.
After this he asked for 'just a tad' of the slime in his beer and made it a point to visit for this special drink every time he came in.
Once the parties rep had gone up enough I figured that they added the drink to the menu and the locals were drinking the stuff too (although just a tad is a little less for everyone else).
It was weird - but the players loved it - and yes they saw the video - but really who can understand why dwarves like anything?
I used two DC 20 fortitude saves. The first to drink it all, the second to keep it down. I also allowed a second try. Unfortunately the dwarf failed both and had to keep his side of the bet he'd made, and shaved off his beard!
Next attempt i'm going to augment it with making the player have a large shot of something nasty, such as Fernet Branca.