As a player, as one of your characters... whatever.
In all cases, assume they are clean, clearly maintained, but otherwise no ones home.
What would you do... if you stumbled across a wizards clone hold.
What would you do... if you stumbled across an alchemists lab.
Man, that really depends.
Is there any reason for me to believe the owner is at odds with my current goals or general moral philosophy?
If not, I'd probably wait around to meet them or carry on my way, depending on what other stuff I've got going on. Maybe poke around a bit out of idle curiosity.
If they are, in fact, some sort of Enemy, then I'd want to mess with their stuff.
How confident am I that I could physically destroy or sabotage the place without suffering consequences beyond my ability to deal with?
If I'm level 3 and run into a "clone hold", I'm running right back out again, praying I didn't set off a psychic alarm so the crazy-powerful wizard can scry on me and summon a demon in my chamber pot, but if I'm a living Saint and a Champion of the Violet Grail, wielder of the wyrm-blade and Blesséd of the White Lady, I'll probably smash up the place.
It depends on the character. If they know enough to recognize a difference in power, they'd probably go back the way they came and quietly close the door behind them. If not, some may try to rob the place, others examine the materials and attempt to learn from them, and some would just break everything. I could even see one or two looking for the owner reasoning that they wouldn't have been permitted entry if the owner didn't need help.
Shinoskay wrote: As a player, as one of your characters... whatever.
In all cases, assume they are clean, clearly maintained, but otherwise no ones home.
What would you do... if you stumbled across a wizards clone hold.
What would you do... if you stumbled across an alchemists lab.
In both cases, the answer is EXPLOSIONS
No where near enough details to make a decision. Each of my characters is a character, has a personality, and gets shaped by the stuff happening around them.
Especially where you find the labs. In a farm house? Under a farm house? Hidden in a ruin you're killing monsters in? In a city? Hidden in the sewers of a city? A tuning fork that opens a passage to the lab? Seriously, how you find it should bias your actions.
And different character gives different results.
My Wizard from the Kingmaker AP would investigate both locations. Especially the clone. He wouldn't rest until he knew everything about the person with the clone, and he'd take immediate action to trap them if it activated before he found out who they were. Also the wizard would want to plunder both locations for their secrets, not their wealth.
The druid from the Strange Aeons campaign would probably opt to loot both locations and not care about the consequences. He would also probably leave the clone active. Sure this could end up biting him later. So? He honestly doesn't care.
The fighter I played for Iron Gods would be freaked out about both locations. Mostly he'd see both of them as potential problems. If the location could be controlled he'd probably take them over. If they can't, they must be destroyed. Unless anyone objects. Then its their problem and their fault if anything goes wrong. Oh, and that clone...lets leave it alone until we figure out who it is. Or maybe we can find a use for that body? Maybe download an AI into it?
Meirril wrote: No where near enough details to make a decision. Each of my characters is a character, has a personality, and gets shaped by the stuff happening around them. Yeah, the house is clearly not a ruin beckoning to explore, but clearly someone's house. Almost all my characters would respect that, but stay away, not necessarily.
Is my character on an important mission?
Is the party lost and/or starving?
Are we at leisure, in the mood for a friendly visit? Is this a friendly visit kind of neighborhood?
Am I in an evil campaign?
Is my character a Rogue?
These are all considerations before I go by the house without a second thought, case the building prior to a stealthy home invasion, knock politely, or kick in the door.
Flye the Kobold, would likely poke one to see if it's ripe, proceed to eating after disarming magical and mechanical traps. Animate skeletons clean up his mess and then after taking things of value, leave skeletons to fight each other.
Veldrin would likely alter the clones to fit some perverse/wicked humor. (He is a Drow Transmuter) and likely to drop/create an antimagic trap and then seal the entrance with a wall of stone.
Edwyn of house Merrosett, would likely investigate to see if everything is working properly. If not, he'll check to see if he can fix it before going on his way.
Clones are useless except as food or raw materials for alchemy or spellcasting. Any one of my PCs would enter the wizard's hold, fight monsters or remove traps guarding it, steal all valuables, and leave unless I'm specifically playing a PC that makes use of said food or raw materials, a type of character I rarely play.
An alchemist's lab is worth money. I'd follow the same process of removing the threats, then meticulously dismantle the lab storing it in magical carrying devices.
The same process for the alchemist's lab goes for a fighter's weapons vault, a monk's dojo, a cleric's shrine, etc. Basically if there's anything besides bodies, it's "Remove threats and loot everything" time.
Weirdly, this is the same process for ANY character I play, regardless of alignment, class or campaign setting. Wow, I'm a really 2-dimensional player. Also, have all my LG or LN PCs been completely ignoring property rights and laws in every setting?
Think about it: you find a goblin alchemist's cobbled together lab in a cave, you loot it without question, I get that, but you succeed in finding a mastermind wizard's clone bank when said wizard is, say, secretly a member of the town council and TECHNICALLY a noble property owner of the settlement?
Taking a single thing out of that place would make you a criminal wouldn't it? Then if you're playing, say, a LG paladin or a LN cleric of Abadar you've got the moral quandary of illegally seizing the goods of an intelligent, legally-protected foe for your own use, justifying that robbery as part of the "greater good" you serve. Even if your GM rules you don't suffer any character detriment like losing your Palidanhood for your actions, the wizard is still within their rights to call all manner of the local authorities to bear against you, further complicating your adventuring life.
I think that's why when I run games as a GM these days, my adventures basically boil down to Munchkin rules. Yeah, it's pretty generic and boring but my players don't have a lot of running from the government either.
fascinating perspective, Mark
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