Hey folks,
So the PCs faced off against a group of desert cultists. Think 'partially mummified monks'. This was their first encounter with them but it will not be the last - I plan on having them be recurring villains.
As part of their mystique, I designed them to degrade into dust and sand upon their death. I thought it was a pretty cool visual and helps make them more mysterious.
So, after the battle, one of the spellcasters of the group says "I gather up the sand remains of one of them".
I say sure. the PC is played as kind of an oddball, poor social skills, kinda guy - this certainly helps his image of being a weirdo.
Then he says "I cast create treasure map. So I look up the spell and decide that a pile of sand cannot be used as remains for the spell.. it says clearly it has to be some manner of flat surface that can have a map drawn on it.
'Ok' he says 'I take the sand to a glass-blower and pay him to make it into a sheet of glass."
...huh. Well, he can certainly do that. The battle took place inside the big city and though it was late at night, he basically strong-armed/bribed the glass-blower into opening his shop and taking the job by paying him in gold. Also, even though the spell has a 24 hour limit, I am pretty sure it would not take that long to make a very basic sheet of glass.
Now I am unsure as to if this should work or not. On the one hand, it seems like trying to work around the restrictions of the spell. On the other, it seems like very clever thinking.
I can handle it if it does work - this isn't about trying to keep the party from using its resources to find answers/solve mysteries before I want them to.. it's about whether or not this should work.
I want to be able to reward the PC for his outside-the-box thinking but at the same time, I don't want to just break the spell and make it too good.
What are your thoughts?
- Not all sand can be turned into glass (and you need salt too).
- Once it's a sheet of glass, it's no longer the remains of a sand monk.
- These monks are actually a particular form of Simulacrum, and over time the sand simply vanishes into nothingness.
- It works, but what constitutes "treasure" to a demi-mummy-monk may not really be of interest to an oddball spellcaster.
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Historically, flat sheet glass is a fairly recent invention. Be that as it may;
I don't really think this should work. There's a limit to how much you can destroy and reforge a critter before the spell doesn't take anymore, and I think it was reached when the monk decomposed into sand, and if not, then melting the sand and turning it into glass would certainly do it.
Otherwise you're basically throwing out all the limits. Why take the critter's skin if you can make a dough out of it's meat or bone? Say hello to the Meatball Map.
I'd say just let him succeed for clever thinking. Have the map take him to the monk's favorite meditation place or perhaps where his parents lived or the grave of his deceased wife. Weave a backstory for this monk for the player to explore or have it lead to some minor treasure. Let there be a pay off, but the pay off doesn't necessarily have to a magic item.
Make the glass itself serendipitously valuable? Maybe it has some unknown property that makes it useful as a crafting material, spell focus, or tool.
No treasure map, but treasure regardless.
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The process to create glass panes from sand takes longer than 24 hours. The process to melt the ingredients into a hot liquid takes some time, and once you have molton glass poured out in a sheet you need to wait an even longer period time for it to cool. In fact, you can't let it cool in a room temperature room or it will warp and shatter. You have to put it in a room or container that is very, very hot and slowly cool that room down to room temp.
You might have a glass sheet to work with the next day, but not within 24 hours.