Towards the end of the last session,my players encountered the Temple of Erastil and its guardian...
By the time it was badly injured, they heard a yell from the bear that sounded somewhat human, so they switched to non-lethal damage and now have an unconscious bear tied up. They've detected necromancy (curse) magic on it, but aren't high enough level to do anything about that even if the curse hadn't been placed by a god.
I'd kind of like to reward them for sparing it, but by the RAW, nothing positive happens until they kill it. Erastil doesn't strike me as a champion of mercy, so I can't see him interceding.
The fight was somewhat ridiculous, with the bear being hit by grease, mudball and ray of sickening (I ruled that the latter did stack with the existing sickened condition since it was from a different source), so I can see some friendly fey getting involved after watching that. The party have encountered their first pranks from Tyg and Perlivash, but haven't yet made any attempt to contact them, so if they reveal themselves now all the more involved pranks will go to waste.
I wouldn't have the fey reveal themselves, but I could see them leaving the party some kind of token of appreciation, kind of a "nice job guys, thanks for the entertainment" present.
Perhaps have Erastil appear in someone's dream or something, if they rest in the temple for the night? Maybe give them some kind of mission, or tell them what to do with the bear, instead of killing it. The guy did grossly violate his deity's principles, which is what got him in this situation in the first place, but if the party were to somehow redeem him he might be a useful ally, since he'd be familiar with some of the Greenbelt's history from prior colonization attempts.
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There's no reason you have to run the encounter as written. Your party went through a lot of effort to capture the bear, so I'd play it out. If they've befriended Jhod, they may want to consult him. He might have a divine vision to a quest to remove the curse so the bear can achieve rest. You could tie this into an existing encounter or make up one of your own.
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I agree that Jhod would be a useful conduit for more information.
Or you could have one of Erastil's minions pop up to tell players what's going on. Has the old priest learned from his time as a bear and is he ready to contribute again? There's a lot of things you could do, depending on what makes the best story. Maybe the old priest knows of something, or has quests for hidden treasures or lost objects.
I would definitely try to reward players for being creative and merciful. Remember: you get more of what you reward!
And never, ever, think you have to runi it just like it's written. It's simpler that way, yes, and there's nothing wrong with it, but it's your story and your players', Do what's fun.
Also note that players WILL come up with things you, or module designers, never predicted. Learn to roll with this and improvise on the spot.
Also note that players WILL come up with things you, or module designers, never predicted. Learn to roll with this and improvise on the spot.
Oh, I'm well aware of that, my group have broken several campaigns by going out of their way to avoid the plot, and it's one of the reasons we're sticking with APs instead of DM-written campaigns for a while. It's just that being nice was the last thing I expected from them! This kind of balances out the incident where they dealt with the mite lair by setting fire to The Old Sycamore.
Have they meet Jhod yet? The bear could be a cursed Jhod and a break enchantment frees him. (Maybe the hag by the lake in book #2 did it. Or it could be a prank curse that went awry by some fey.)
Or it's another of the hunters that was laying traps. Again, cursed by the fey for his bad deeds.
Or the statue of Erastil to the SW. Perhaps this hunter desecrated it in some way?
Have they meet Jhod yet?
They have met Jhod, though they already had a vague idea where the ruins were before he asked them to find the temple.
The problem I have is that I need an on-the-spot resolution. The bear is not far unconscious and should wake up in an hour or two (though they don't know that for sure so I could fudge it), in which case if it's still acting under the curse, it shouldn't have too much trouble breaking its bonds and resuming the fight. I either need to have it wake up in a different frame of mind, or have something else happen at the temple, because they're not going to go back for help until this is resolved.
It's possible that Jhod could have had another vision and followed them, but I don't really want to involve him because the healing pool isn't much of a reward if they already have a higher-level cleric present.
Erastil is, in some respects, rather hands-on. I'd have his two-headed eagle show up to tell players what was going on. Say "he's learned his lesson, his punishment is over", and revert him. Whether he then dies of old age ornit is up to you! But I might keep him around briefly to teach the players some old lore. Maybe a quest hook, mayb a forgotten spell they can tell Jhod about, maybe some lore about the fey.
And maybe the eagle tells them "Erastil owes you something. Call on his name when you have need." Leave the boon suitably vague...
I'd leave him unconscious until the players are able to cast Speak With Animal
Heh. That might take a while. The only casters are a gnome Oracle and a Diviner Wizard, and the gnome took the fell magic option so she doesn't get it as a SLA. Having those two as spellcasters does give lots of opportunity for mysterious visions, though.
I think I'll have him wake up in his right mind. He'll be speaking slightly archaic common (and trying to do so using a bear's mouth) so the wizard will need linguistics or comprehend languages. And by the time they get back with help, he may have reverted, so they might have to do it all again, but I'll pump the rewards accordingly.
Could always go with curse lifts but instead of death the priest gets reincarnated on the spot with a "learned your lesson rebuff. The only thing keeping the bear alive is the curse.
Also, kinda dig your players, the burned the sycamore that's certainly one way to handle the mite issue.
Also, kinda dig your players, the burned the sycamore that's certainly one way to handle the mite issue.
I thought they were going to make a habit of it, and I'd have to give them a good talking to by way of a dryad encounter, but they've actually been very careful not to throw fire around since they started exploring forest hexes.
Stacking sickness is no good idea at all. No no no. You should not do that. No.
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The bear is simply beyond any reasoning, even with the speak with animals. Anything that makes noise will drive him into a frenzy. I do give kudos to the PCs for not going in for the kill right off the bat, but they are going to have one heck of a time trying to get any information out of that bear. I can see how the Fey in the area might do things differently with the PCs...if they are in the area and if they are watching. At this point everything depends on how you want things to go. My opinion is do nothing. Let the PCs try to figure out what to do. If however they talk to Jhod then have him reveal a tale about the Shrine as a story. Then sit back and see what occurs.
I do have to say that I disagree with taking out the mites with burning the sycamore down. If it was that easy to do why didn't the kobolds do it? I am sure that they thought of that. There are also a variety of reason why burning the tree wouldn't do the job. However the main thing is that this kind of action makes sense to you.
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Greetings, fellow travellers.
I like the idea of a herald of Erastil showing up - maybe the giant stag from the bestiary - and have it tell the players the background of the bear/priest. I also like the idea of having him reincarnated (pick race in advance). Or let the stag show up, touch him with its antlers, have the bear change back to human and die (peacefully) due to old age and then have the stag granting the party a boon or a charm (+1 to saves for a day, +1 to attack for a day, and +2 to handle animal, woodland stride for a day, or something similar).
Ruyan.
The sycamore was partly poor description on my part - they were under the impression that the lair extended into the tree itself when they set the fire. So I ruled that the fire put enough smoke and heat into the upper levels that the mites eventually came out to investigate. I also added a back entrance to give them a more dynamic encounter (plus, without a second entrance there's no way that lair is properly ventilated). So they never met the giant whiptail, but they did have to fight most of the mites, they just had the encounter in favourable rather than unfavourable terrain.
As for the bear, I had him retain his senses long enough to communicate that they should ask for guidance from a priest of Erastil. They spoke to Jhod, and the next day he was granted a form of atonement in place of his normal spells. So they had to escort an effectively spell-less Jhod back to the temple and get him in a position to touch the bear. And they had to do it all that day because Jhod couldn't guarantee he'd retain the spell any longer.
It worked, and the old priest is now effectively an awakened bear. But he's been told by Erastil to use the rest of his life as a bear defending nature, so he wont be at the PCs' beck and call (and may even come into conflict with their citizens later on).
On the way back, they managed to spot and identify the nest of a faerie dragon, so after a few more pranks they ordered a king-sized helping of pancakes from Svetlana and knew exactly where to leave them.
They're currently figuring out how to deal with a pair of Moss Trolls (an encounter I added). They know only fire will work, but the lair is in a forest hex and they're not sure how to deliver a decent amount of fire damage without setting the trees ablaze.
Wait for a rainy day. Maybe the trolls get +2 on their saves or something, but the fire won't spread.