| tandembiketerry |
My group of level 1 PCs just discovered the inert Blood of Belcorra at the base of Gauntlight in a daytime excursion. They noticed it rippling, and an inquisitive PC decided to run some experiments that ended in the PC drinking a couple ounces of the blood to see what would happen.
Although there's nothing written into the adventure about the Blood being dangerous to consume, it seems like a fun opportunity to throw some shenanigans into the mix. I could simply say it tasted like blood and move on, but that doesn't seem satisfying for anyone. Instead, there are three main ideas I'm thinking of:
1) the Blood imparts a curse. In particular, I'm looking at the Curse of the Rotting Heart. This seems flavorful and appropriate for a couple reasons. First is that it grows a ghostly heart in the PC. This fits nicely with the campaign's horror themes, and it could be flavored as a small piece of Belcorra growing into the PC, perhaps looking for another way to escape and take her revenge. Second, it's a level 9 curse, reflective of Belcorra's great power (compared to the PCs).
Obviously, this is a very powerful curse, and the player would only be able to receive healing from alchemical or mundane means. But it could give them a nice little side quest for removing the curse in the dungeon and make Belcorra feel like a present threat throughout the adventure. Or it could just drain all of their gold if they decide to go the Remove Curse route, which will be less fun for everyone, potentially.
I'm also toying with lowering the level of the curse to about 6, which would make the save easier and reduce the effects. Maybe positive healing requires a DC11 flat check to heal, otherwise it harms.
2) For something a little less long lasting, I could go for a poison. This isn't as flashy as the above option, but it sure can be scary. I'm thinking about a powered down version of Lich Dust with a longer onset time to build some tension.
3) We established through the PC's experiment that taking blood out of the room and releasing it causes the blood to rush back to the haunt in A11 quite quickly. This leaves me with the option that they, perhaps, are most expecting, which is that the blood violently forces itself out of the PC's body, causing some damage (possibly bleed) on the way out.
So, have any of you had a PC drink the Blood of Belcorra? What did you do? What do you think is the most fun and also "realistic" way to handle this situation?