My party finally finished EaBK and the Black Dragon Egg did not get destroyed in the final battle in the egg chamber.
So what do my PCs decide to do with it?
The paladin summons his Horse, straps the egg to it and then sends it back to the celestial realms until they need it again!
Anyone have any good ideas on the repercussions of an act like this?
I don't forsee any possibility of the heavens being over-run by this action.
Oh heck no, I don't either, I was thinking it was a pretty clever solution.
I may just take your advice and have a passing celestial deal with the egg and have the horse show up next time without it...that'll have them scratching their heads.
I don't forsee any possibility of the heavens being over-run by this action.Oh heck no, I don't either, I was thinking it was a pretty clever solution.
I may just take your advice and have a passing celestial deal with the egg and have the horse show up next time without it...that'll have them scratching their heads.
I don't think I would allow a Paladin to turn his mount into a walking, fighting bag of holding that way. Hmmm here's a thought. The egg may seem a tiny tiny bit EVIL to Mr. Paladin.
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I don't think I would allow a Paladin to turn his mount into a walking, fighting bag of holding that way. Hmmm here's a thought. The egg may seem a tiny tiny bit EVIL to Mr. Paladin.
My players tried to use their Paladin's war horse the same way. I ruled that a Paladin's war horse would not allow itself to be treated like a pack horse. Besides, can you dismiss it and sending it back with another live critter on it's back? I think not. The egg has dozens of little critters in it.
I guess seeing how it is done already, I would have the egg hatch as soon as the Paladin summons his horse again. Can you imagine the chaos of that, especially if they are already deep in combat.
*clip* ...Hmmm here's a thought. The egg may seem a tiny tiny bit EVIL to Mr. Paladin.
oh the party is aware the egg is evil--they just think its because its a baby black dragon.
They want to keep the egg handy so they can use it as leverage in case the eggs momma comes calling, but they wanted to stash it somewhere only they could get to it; and after they spent 40 minutes trying to figure out what the heck they were going to do I wanted to get the adventure moving along and didnt see anything in the rules preventing the paladin from taking this action so I just let it go.
I don't think I would allow a Paladin to turn his mount into a walking, fighting bag of holding that way. Hmmm here's a thought. The egg may seem a tiny tiny bit EVIL to Mr. Paladin.
My players tried to use their Paladin's war horse the same way. I ruled that a Paladin's war horse would not allow itself to be treated like a pack horse. Besides, can you dismiss it and sending it back with another live critter on it's back? I think not. The egg has dozens of little critters in it.
I guess seeing how it is done already, I would have the egg hatch as soon as the Paladin summons his horse again. Can you imagine the chaos of that, especially if they are already deep in combat.
Personally I wouldn't let a player abuse his ability to use a mount this way. Rather than retroactively try to figure out some response to why you as the DM slipped up, I would contact the player privately. Tell him/her that you mis-ruled when you allowed this action during play, and afterwards you realized this is a rules violation. Then tell him/her that they are carrying the egg in their arms until they reach Diamond Lake.
Then again at the start of play in front of the entire group you should give your explanation/apology for having to over rule yourself.Which ever way you handle this remember that we all make mistakes. Give yourself a way to save face yet rule the right way. If you go with 'Olmac's suggestion' let the players know after the egg hatches and hell breaks loose, that you had erred and you cannot use the mount as a pack horse. It will save you next time they try to 'tie up Filge, throw him over the Paladin's saddles and send him to the 7 Heavens or else.'
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I don't forsee any possibility of the heavens being over-run by this action.Oh heck no, I don't either, I was thinking it was a pretty clever solution.
I may just take your advice and have a passing celestial deal with the egg and have the horse show up next time without it...that'll have them scratching their heads.
Having it come back with a handwritten note from a celestial saying "Do not bring any more of this taint to our realm" and possibly a bad dream from the Player's God about taint or something... Something memorable that they won't use the horse as a bag of holding, story-wise. While it was a clever manipulation of the rules so I wouldn't punish them by having it open when they call it as mentioned above..
I bet the egg would make one heck of an omelet. Just food for thought.
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Screw the players.
Favored Spawn of Kyuss Hound Archons, anyone?
That's what snooty players get for passing their troubles onto a higher power.
Then again, I'm vindictive.
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Or the egg hatches in the other realms and the mount can't get away from the worms because the egg is strapped to him. Then, when summoned, Mr. Horsey comes back as a large barded Spawn of Kyuss. Mua ha ha ha!
I guess I'm vindictive too. I just love players' actions coming back to bite them in the ass.
This is one of those too clever for your own good things.
The rules problem with the action, as I see it, is that while you can equip the horse and send it back (the packhorse problem is secondary and up to the DM, I think), you shouldn't be able to send another living creature (kyuss worms/baby dragon) back to the celestial realms in that fashion. Otherwise, the paladin could effectively use his horse to plane shift to Celestia by "dismissing" it while he's in the saddle.
My solution would be: Horse goes "poof!" Egg stays behind and goes splat! Green worms crawl out and try to infest things. (Or die because there's no water--your call. I think these worms were special ones that can't infect a normal living creature, just lizardfolk eggs or some such. Best check the module there.)
If you've already let it happen, though, I'd say the horse comes back with the egg strapped to it. Every time the paladin wants his horse. Got to untie it and take it down (2 full rounds of actions) before you can hop in the saddle. Until they take the darn thing off and carry it. At some point, something will happen to break the egg and reveal the secret. Or you can have the worms come busting out at an inconvenient moment. Or, if they keep the egg secure all the way through to the confrontation with Ilthane, well, she'll just laugh when they try to blackmail her, obviously.
Oh... you could have soooooooooooo much fun with this!
Favored Spawn of Kyuss Hound Archons, anyone?
Or the egg hatches in the other realms and the mount can't get away from the worms because the egg is strapped to him.
Looooove these suggestions. It may not matter plot wise if the party left the marsh knowing that Ilithane was behind the corruption of the Lizardfold clutch, but it's STILL great flavor for them to know what was in that egg. If you're not wanting to have your paladin have to deal with the emotional weight of sending a booby trap to the celestial realms (or corrupting his horse), then at the very least I would give him a divine inspired dream like someone else suggested. A VISION of the egg cracking and corrupting his horse, even if that didn't really happen because somone else recognized the egg for what it was and cleaned up the party's mess for them, would be great.
Another option is to have the horse "panic" and reappear on its own, at some point when the party is awake but not busy - say, early in te evening, as they're making dinner or something. The egg is about to crack open, and the warhorse realizes there's something very, very wrong. It manages to communicate that something bad is about to happen with the egg, then have everyone roll initiative, and assign the egg to "crack open" on initiative count 10 (or at the very start of the next round, if you want to be generous). They've got only that long to get the egg loose before they have to deal with its contents.
Thanks for all of the great ideas everybody!
I've still got a couple weeks before we play again to figure this one out and all the ideas are definetly going to come in handy as I plan this out.