The group I am dming is getting up there in levels and it's coming more and more apparent that they are really lacking a good arcane caster. Group consists of a cleric/holy vindicator, rogue, ranger, paladin, and magus.
To remedy this, they are trying to find an old companion to help them out with their current mission---a scry and die type surgical strike that they need to pull off quickly and efficiently.
The problems they have to face are that they are wanted throughout the world and that any allies they once had (they recently just got out of prison) are either dead or scattered to the wind. They are not in a location or have the means to hire what they need.
That being said, one of their previous adventuring companions was a witch that may or may not have been killed by their enemies. I want to give them a little side quest on this and I’m looking for advice on how to handle it. I’m thinking said witch who is going to be about 13th level used swarm skin to escape capture and execution but was not able to reform with his body afterwards. So he’s out there with his consciousness spread amongst multiple swarms.
What I’m looking for is opinions/advice on how the players would find this out and how they might bring him back. The witch had an imp familiar and I’m thinking about having the imp steal some of the bones and try and bargain something out of the PC’s with them. What ways could the PC’s track down this imp without having access to contact other plane or planar binding type spells? What clues would a fairly crafty witch leave behind to his friends to bring him back keeping in mind that said witch wouldn’t want enemies thinking he was still alive or anything? In other words, he'd take precautions against scrying but would somehow want to leave clues to his state of being to his allies.
Finally, I’m tinkering around with the idea that when they do bring said witch back, he’s not quite the same as before. Maybe they have to use some ‘replacement parts’ or being in swarm form for so long has had some effect on his being when he comes back together. In other words, he might not comeback human and might be a drider (if I choose to use spider forms for example) or something. Any ideas that might fit with other swarms are welcome.
I apologize for rambling and being so vague. I’m really just mining for ideas that make plausible sense given the PC’s limitations and the flavor behind the swarm skin spell.
Thanks
If you want to be badass you could have him come back as a worm-that-walks :D
This is my idea:
The witch escaped by using swarm skin, but he failed to turn back. He could feel his own existance fading away and he knew that if he didn't figure out some way to get back to normal he'd completely lose himself.
So he set out to find some way of turning normal when he encountered a group of druids tired of the old ways. These druids were more interested in insects than mammals and their leader could even speak to insects to a limited degree. Naturally, this meant the witch and he could communicate. The problem here was that what the druid could understand was only a vague interpretation of what the witch said.
The druids, never having encountered a creature such as this, believe they have something big on their hands and because the druid group was recently formed, they believe this to be a sign that the old ways are going to die replaced with this new druid insect ideology.
The witch now works as an oracle of sort, and he is trying to influence the druids to track down the players so that he can communicate with them and maybe find a way back to normal. The druids have other plans...