DNH
February 8th, 2008, 09:57
Here's a problem I am struggling with at the moment. I have recently started running "The Gates of Firestorm Peak" and my players are having a little difficulty with it, such that one of their number has died twice now (fortunately, their priest has a Rod of Resurrection). Now, normally I don't have a problem with character death, party wipes or what-have-you. Normally, the player generates a new character and I introduce it in some way. But how can I do this in GoFP? For those of you who don't know (if there are any!), this takes place in a subterranean complex in a mountainside which is all but hermetically (and magically) sealed, with the one entrance being heavily-defended gates which only open once every 27 years!
All my usual ploys are out.
I can't have someone just wander past, come in and come across the party: leave aside the remoteness of the location, but there is no way one character could get through that entrance alone.
I can't have a character as a prisoner: the place only opens to the outside world once every 27 years. The character would have to have been kidnapped as a child and held prisoner all that time, probably going mad in the process.
I can't have someone tunnel in: the Elder Elves who built the complex placed powerful magical protection against that sort of thing.
It's something of a dilemma. The thing is, that Rod of Resurrection ain't gonna last forever, or someone is going to fail a resurrection survival roll, or something. Sure, I can fudge rolls and fake things a bit, but there comes a point where that doesn't work anymore.
I was wondering if anyone else out there had faced this problem and come up with a solution. It's actually rather urgent for me to work this out; next Thursday, the player whose character has just been killed for the second time, plus one other player, will have to make resurrection survival rolls, and if one or both of them fail ... ?
All my usual ploys are out.
I can't have someone just wander past, come in and come across the party: leave aside the remoteness of the location, but there is no way one character could get through that entrance alone.
I can't have a character as a prisoner: the place only opens to the outside world once every 27 years. The character would have to have been kidnapped as a child and held prisoner all that time, probably going mad in the process.
I can't have someone tunnel in: the Elder Elves who built the complex placed powerful magical protection against that sort of thing.
It's something of a dilemma. The thing is, that Rod of Resurrection ain't gonna last forever, or someone is going to fail a resurrection survival roll, or something. Sure, I can fudge rolls and fake things a bit, but there comes a point where that doesn't work anymore.
I was wondering if anyone else out there had faced this problem and come up with a solution. It's actually rather urgent for me to work this out; next Thursday, the player whose character has just been killed for the second time, plus one other player, will have to make resurrection survival rolls, and if one or both of them fail ... ?