TL;DR - I need help devising trials for a petitioner in a Nethys-themed maze
Ive been preparing to run a Legacy of Fire campaign..although it will probably never happen..and stumbled upon the thought that one of the PCs might meet an untimely end a bit too early.
And instead of pondering upon how to get a new character into the party in his place I came upon the idea of having both the party and the dead person get a small, two-sided adventure.
Remembering how there's a nethyssian ruin near the main site of book 1 this is the concept I came up with:
The party will find the means for their friend to come back to life at the end of the nethyssian ruin..along with someone they may, or may not have to fight, but the main part is up to the dead guy
The dead person ends up as a petitioner at the entrance to a maze. If he accepts its challenge he can win his life back and more..although the life he will get might as well end up different from the one he'd lost.
All the fun with Nethys being a double-faced entity.
The main idea is that the "maze" isn't exactly about finding ones way among twisted corridors, but more about choices made at intersections - each intersection is a small test.
Each test should optimally have 2 or 3 predicted ways of solving and choosing one way or another most often will point towards one end of a light-dark alignment scale..or not if there's a 3rd option and the character picks that one (thus Id prefer if there are at least 3 ways of solving each trial or at least that a custom solution can be categorised among 3 outcomes). Some choices may also give a small boost or swap in the characters statistics after rebirth..or other boons/banes.
Also, if the character gathers a lot of points in one direction he may end up resurrecting with a achanged alignment, or even be reborn as a different creature characteristic to the chosen end of the scale (as in - take a big chart of reincarnation options and roll, skipping races that dont fit the alignment "earned")
And here's where I need help - ideas or at least inspirations for the trials.
So far ive devised just a single complete one and two that will need some work
- a simple choice of corridors - one with a light in the end, one shrouded in darkness and one that looks like there's a fan at the end - about half of it rotating between being lit and shadowed. An obvious alignment choice, but we're not explaining that to the petitioner.
A chamber with the exit sealed by a stone slab, with magic stoneworking tools giving their wielder proffessional sculpting talents in plain sight, stone statues with one of them missing a face (easy to repair with said tools if anyone simply bothers to do so, we're not telling that either) and plenty of other stones of many shapes and sizes littering the room. I predicted a 'good' solution of fixing the statue and an 'evil' one of simply breaking the exit seal with brute force..and perhaps said tools. This room might earn a specific stat point depending on solution.
Not sure if that's complete enough about this challenge.
The last is a meeting with the BBEG of the place AND the nethyssian ruin in the material world at the same time. If it is handled well the dead person might save his living comrades a tough fight. Provoking a fight is definitely not a good idea - that thing would probably shred a petitioner and the GM should have a bypass ready (most likely ending up with the living having that fight)
That challenge could surely use some detailing as well
And I still need more trials, probably to get the whole mini-adventure to some 6-9 tests total to cover enough alignment point for a potentially complete shift
Anyone eager to share a piece of imagination?