Druid Atonement I need some suggestions.

[BornofHate]

Players please stay out!:

Where to begin...?

Well I guess I should start with what is familiar: My group of 4 PCs have just defeated the Baron and Imeckus Stroon. The group consists of all good friends. Three are (or should be) seasoned players one is relatively new to the game.

Between 4 players, my group has experienced 5 character deaths and 2 cohort deaths since entering Hooktongue Slough. Although I know that my players like to blame me for their characters deaths, I can't stress enough that at each character death, the less advisable route was chosen by the player.
After the long and drawn out series of failed attempts and PC deaths, the PCs decide that a full frontal assault on the Keep may be unadvisable and subtlety will win the day. Huzah!

When the group decided to take this route I was overly ecstatic.
In the middle of the night the PCs casted a series of see through stone, fly, and invisibility.
To reward them, and encourage clever thinking in the future, I decided that the Baron and his elite were comfortable in their security. The Baroness was sleeping, Stroon was studying late and the Baron and his mistress were in a series of very compromising positions.
(Normally I run a very mature game, but I really wanted to drive home the vulnerability that the enemy was in and stress the payout for proper planning and critical thinking. I also wanted to test the limits to which my group would go. Everything free comes with consequence...)

So the group then Dimension Doors into the keep and begins to literally slaughter everyone. No questions asked and no quarter was given.
For the most part the group was justified in their actions. Most characters are Chaotic and worship Calistria.

But one player is playing a NG Druid of Erastil (LG)
He is the newer player that I mentioned earlier and this is his first campaign.
During the combat he really didn't do much. There was no attacking the nude baron or his mistress and he really only attacked armed guards that eventually ran.

So it is my opinion, that this not only goes against the NG alignment, but it also violates the ideals of Erastil. I shortly thereafter described his wildshape as failing and his spells as fizzling out as he attempted to cast them. His animal companion (a large roc) is no where to be found.

So I need help in this situation.
I need help with ideas on what a druid should do in order to atone for these misdeeds.
(Please don't post on alignment. According to my game his actions were bad enough to draw the attention of his god and not in a good way.
Please just focus on the atonement aspect.

[BornofHate]

Im so sorry Mods. My computer just went crazy.

I am so so sorry

[Movin]

*blink* wait.
You want to punish the NG noobie for going along with a plan by your group to murder a bunch of folks that the book already states are kinda jerks to begin with?

*blink*
Fine. I shall make it knows that I disagree with your interpretation of the alignment and the god you are speaking of. I will not let that stop me from helping the poor sap in question though.

First of all if you want the game to proceed at a remotely decent keel I suggest you stop and do a kingdom session or two. you need the time to let the druid character do his atonement and not punish him and the rest of his party with a useless lodestone of a character for the end pieces of the adventure.

Have the druid given a quest to return the land he just plunged into a power vacuum back to a happy community.
Do a small group of vignettes, the druid having to use his reduced abilities to convince some groups in the city to fall under the banner of new leadership and pull together instead of fighting the regime change and causing even more suffering to the villagers and innocents of the town.
focus on haughty nobles, down to earth farmers and tradesmen with dreams of nobility in their eyes.
taking the city he just pushed to anarchy back to even keeled harmony ought to appease the god of community and family.

hope it helps.

[Hassy]

Just in case you want to reconsider or do things differently next time... Unlike Clerics, Druids don't (according to the RAW) lose their abilities for just going against their deity's dogma.

Feel free to ignore:

Quote:

Ex-Clerics

A cleric who grossly violates the code of conduct required by her god loses all spells and class features, except for armor and shield proficiencies and proficiency with simple weapons. She cannot thereafter gain levels as a cleric of that god until she atones for her deeds (see the atonement spell description).

Quote:

Ex-Druids

A druid who ceases to revere nature, changes to a prohibited alignment, or teaches the Druidic language to a nondruid loses all spells and druid abilities (including her animal companion, but not including weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She cannot thereafter gain levels as a druid until she atones (see the atonement spell description).

Since the druid didn't cease to revere nature or teach Druidic, he would have had to change into a prohibited alignment to lose his abilities. The actions were arguable evil, but even if he moved two steps to NE, that would still be allowed for druids.

Anyway, there's a statue of Erastil in part 1. Maybe that has been taken as a home by some monsters and needs to be restored?

[BornofHate]

Movin, please know that I appreciate your advice.

It is my firm belief that a NG character in any campaign should see murder as wrong.

It may be my interpretation of things but here is where I am coming from:
The character chose to revere a deity as opposed to getting his spells from a philosophy or natural forces (I.E. the green faith.) In the game I am running a divine caster that gets his spells by revering a god, must in turn abide by that gods ideals, cleric or not.

I like the ideas of having the druid reset the balance of the community. This will definitely be a big part of his redemption.

Let me know what you think of my tentative solution:

I have introduced Blackfeather as a messenger (found in the Erastil section of RRR) to intervene.
As a test, Blackfeather has told the Druid that he is to do two things to regain the favor of Erastil.

First, the Druid is to (bare with me a bit here because I might seem like a hypocrite at first) seek out a witch responsible for the murder of a druid who once watched over the plains (The same druid that awakened wind chaser.) He was told to "kill her or her power, in any case he is to deliver the final blow personally" Once this is done he will be granted his spells again.

Second, the druid is to reincarnate the bodies of two people that perished in the attempt to liberate Drelev. (Both former PCs one of which wants to continue playing the character.)

If the Druid chooses to redeem the witch and act in accordance with a LG diety, the bodies will be raised as they once were. If he murders the witch, then while casting the 10 minute long spell, Blackfeather will reappear and touch the target and the druid and act as a divine conduit. The body of the target will be raised and the form of the druid will forever be changed into a bugbear as a reminder to always walk the path of his god.

( If this course is taken, which I am almost certain it will be, it will also give the character some much needed depth for roleplaying and a needed stat boost for wild shaping)

In any case, Blackfeather may become a re-occuring guide for him and he will be charged with watching over the town.

It may only be in my game, but I am very critical of the alignment rules and really hold my players to roleplaying them carefully especially when dealing with divine spells.

please help me with some feedback.

[BornofHate]

Wow.... way to go community. Thanks for the help

: (

[Movin]

Use the rule of three to give the druid reason to think the witch might not be bad enough to deserve to die. That is give him three hints as he is likely to miss two of them and misconstrue the third.
EX: before detecting the druid the witch is having a conversation with her familiar, about some morally reprensible ritual the creature wants her to complete.
The witch has a journal in her home that a perception check will reveal
asking about the witch in olegs tavern will bring to light an old story of a little girl banished into the forest after her home burned down and she was the only survivor, the story says she was not even touched by the flame that killed the rest of her family.

The punishment sounds storybook and properly malicious for a god of the forest. Be sure to make up the actual history of the witch and have a howling ghost of the witch tell him it as he is turned into a monster for his actions.
Might make your druid go find a new god though, make sure to play up the negative aspects of being a bugbear in normal society and that it is a divine punishment with a few perks, not a power boost.
Apologies for not responding before but work saps most the life out of me most of the week.
I hope the best for your player and that together you manage to craft a good side arc out of his druids fall from the grace of his god.

[BornofHate]

Dig it!

I like your ideas. It seems that the witch in your interpretation might be less evil.

I think that having the witch maybe symbolize chaos more than law will help to fit into the side arch and the overall campaign more.

Thanks!

[DMFTodd]

I'd take on of the encounter hexes in the adventure and then tweak that so it's the druid's atonement mission.

[GM_Solspiral]

BornofHate wrote:

Wow.... way to go community. Thanks for the help

: (

No offense dude but I think you're being a bit heavy handed here. A simple warning of the alignment and strictures of NG and Erastil are all that's needed. You could also have a druid slide to True Neutral and lose their god. Druids could go completely godless without penalty and just respect nature and still get their spells. You're thinking of clerics.

My 2 coppers