We had a TPK in SWW at the sargasso.
A few months later I restarted the campaign at HTBM.
Now in ToD the new party doesn't have the bat idol.
Fishing for ideas on how to handle this. I have unfortunately been busy IRL to the point that I'm barely able to read ahead of where the party has progressed (not something I normally would do), so the reminder of the bat idol was kind of a surprise.
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Well, the bat idol was put there in the first place to be found by the players, so... you could just put the bat idol in a place that makes the players feel like they found it by their own luck and skill (like any other piece of treasure) so that they will have it when they meet Mr. Bat God.
You just need to make sure they actually keep it, even if you have to say it radiates some unknown magic, and perhaps the PC with the lowest charisma (this will be consistent for when they finally meet Mrs. Succubus) is convinced it has some significance.
Make sure they are aware that they can take the tooth for free when the time comes.
The bat idol is only there to get the PCs to Zotzilla's (I'm sure that's not quite the right name) lair. It's their they can recover the tooth of Ahazu. So any reason to get them to the lair will do. Note though that as written they are not supposed to fight Zot so if your answer is to fight him, then you need to tone him down.
You could change Zot into a creature that is terrorizing an Olman village. They need to go destroy Zot to get them on their side. That's a bit similar to some of the other quests though.
IMC, my PCs left the bat idol behind. I had changed it's location into a burial chamber and my PCs surprised me by not wanting to distrub the dead. Oops. Haven't exactly decided how I'll fix it. Having the same idol show up a second time might be interesting.
That's my "oops" moment in the current campaign. As I said, I've been so busy with real life garbage I'm barely keeping up with reading the STAP (and I am the only one willing to run a campaign right now - so its my sloppiness or nothing), so.... they just defeated the firebats in the village. Talk about putting myself on the spot.
Now, the PLAYERS might remember the idol from months ago. So I need a way to re-introduce the idol that seems plausible. The last the players knew, the idol was lost in a deadly living sargasso. If it just appears somewhere else it may tip them off that someone or something is at work to screw with them.
I could shortcut it in many ways, but I would like to keep the same idol as the key to this part of the adventure for those players that have been paying attention to the details, but not in some way that seems unlikely or contrived.
I thought about having the zombie master divine the location of the idol and send the new party back into the sargasso (which has moved closer to this end of the island because of an urge from the idol). But I don't know if the group would enjoy the reminder of the previous TPK.
Thanks for the ideas so far, I welcome more. I have until this coming Friday to decide on a plan.
Telekinesis is your freind. It can open backpacks, float idols into them, and close them, all with nary a sound, and from a good distance away!
And most demons have access to it!
>> If it just appears somewhere else it may tip them off that someone or something is at work to screw with them.
Is that really a problem? Learning at this point that someone is influencing them doesn't seem to bad. They eventually learn it is Mal.
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I'm not runing the STAP yet and I'm a little hazy on the details of this part, but I think it would be fun to have the PCs find their previous characters' bodies somewhere that they shouldn't be... maybe animated as zombies. Drop a few of their other bits of equipment into the area, and leave it as weird mystery.
If the bat idol keeps popping up, maybe someone in the party might decide that its from some sort of positive influence. Maybe have the group find the corpse with a Pelorian (or other good Deity) holy symbol or in some way obviously good where they find the bat idol.
I guess it depends on how jaded and/or paranoid your party/players are.
Cheers!
Combine the divination idea with a huge storm that washes the sargasso up on the shore of the Isle. Have a huge tempest buffet the isle for a day or two, then have the Olman shaman divine the location of the idol--maybe have the party fight some assassin vine/seaweed creatures. If you skipped over HTBM, you could run some choice encounters from that as the players head to whatever coastline of the Isle you've decided as the place where the idol washes up.
I'd have an Olman frantically running down the beach clutching something in his arms. Before the party has a chance to go see him some kinda monster (probably a dino) reaches out of the jungle and chomps off his head and proceeds to start devouring the rest. Now they have to fight for whatever treasure it was the Olman had (or just chase away the monster, unless it wanders away by itself having just eaten). And what the .. it's that bat idol?!
Of course it was all planned by someone. Of the olam to find the idol. For the hungry monster to be there when the olman ran by. Setting up a group of adventurers isn't easy but if they don't all get TPK'd it's worth it.
I'd have an Olman frantically running down the beach clutching something in his arms. Before the party has a chance to go see him some kinda monster (probably a dino) reaches out of the jungle and chomps off his head and proceeds to start devouring the rest. Now they have to fight for whatever treasure it was the Olman had (or just chase away the monster, unless it wanders away by itself having just eaten). And what the .. it's that bat idol?!
Of course it was all planned by someone. Of the olam to find the idol. For the hungry monster to be there when the olman ran by. Setting up a group of adventurers isn't easy but if they don't all get TPK'd it's worth it.
A series of dream sequences from the different PCs (Mal inspired dreams? uhhm not this thread :)
1. Crimson fleet pirate escaping the sargosso.2. Crimson fleet pirate swallowed by megalodon.
3. Storm beaches megalodon in narrow small cove.
4. Mashers feed on megalodon.
5. Gargoyles have mashers-bake.
6. Olmans raid gargoyles.
7. Dino encounters Olman.
Give them each (draw from a hat?) a little sheet with their respective dreams on it that also says keep it to yourself until relevant. the first person's would not have this stipulation on it. You could even add a later encounter to the dream sequences party meats flaming bat god or kopru, troglodyte, in prison...
I think having it sitting on a dusty shelf in a Farshore shop can be spooky too. I would simply place a second (3rd, 4th...) bat idol in other treasures, but change the size, shape, or material.