So I'm running Curse of Strahd for some friends, and it's everyone's (including me) first time playing D&D. Last session they found a Bag of Holding. They don't know anything about it, other than that it's magical and that people can fit inside of it (which they discovered by first the half elf ranger climbing into the bag, followed by the gnome bard; they were both expelled from the bag by the paladin turning the bag inside out). Just after they found the bag I threw the Night Hag/Morgantha/Bonegrinder encounter at them. Some point in the battle, the paladin threw the bag over a grappled Morgantha and after a strength roll off she was stuck in the bag. Later I let her 2 daughters get away, discouraged by their mother's capture (this is because I was really starting the cream the party, I should have listened to things I saw online about changing the hags to green hags, my level 4 party couldn't handle a night coven). They're planning on using Morgantha as leverage if the other hags pop back up and cause problems.
But, Morgantha has totally suffocated in the bag at this point. They don't know this, though, since they don't actually know anything about the bag. When our last session ended, they started talking and throwing around ideas about what they would do our next session. Their "main quest" right now is escorting Ireena and her brother to Vallaki and protecting Ireena from Strahd. The ranger had the idea to maybe put Ireena in the bag in case the vampire shows up so they can just be like "Ireena who?" Also, our paladin won't be able to make our next session, so someone also threw out the idea of putting him in the Bag of Holding, too (the guy playing the paladin has been kind of troublesome with flaking out last minute on making it to session with no real explanation, and everyone has gotten tired of playing his character for him - last session he missed, he got ditched blackout drunk at a tavern).
So, do I warn them about what a bad idea it is to put people in the bag? They've made no attempts to ascertain the true nature of the bag, and they haven't really been playing smartly or thinking through the consequences of their actions (they've been robbed because they keep neglecting to have someone keep watch when they camp, they're pissing people off in town because they think they can do whatever they want, etc). Part of me wants to just let them be stupid so that maybe they start thinking things through, but I'm not sure if that's fair. It would be hilarious, in my opinion, but again, I don't know if that makes it right.
TL;DR: My group just found a Bag of Holding; they've already killed one person in it, and they're potentially going to kill a main character and one of the PCs inside it, too.
Do remember that even a [magicalitem]Bag of Holding[/magicalitem] has storage limits, namely:
The bag can hold up to 500 pounds, not exceeding a volume of 64 cubic feet.
So, if it's got a dead body in it already, plus whatever else they put in it, the bag may not be able to hold too many more people (alive or dead).
That being said, maybe you want to inform them about some of the bag's properties through observation? Like, if they open it to store something or retrieve an item, a whiff of death stench wafts out of the bag too. Then if they check on their captive they find that she has died. This may deter them from wanting to store live people in the bag for long periods of time.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
The unforgiving DM who makes their players use their brains: You either go ahead and let the hag be suffocated and dead by the time they open the bag, and don't warn them, letting/forcing them to figure the world around them out as they go
or, if you want to be more forgiving: Have their captured hag start off your next session alive, but warn them that from this point on, leaving living things in the bag will make them suffocate.
Combining aspects of these two routes will only send your players mixed signals, leading to unnecessary frustration.
I guess I'm leaning more towards being unforgiving; I want them to think about things and figure stuff out on their own.
I feel like I should mention, the paladin player has expressed interest in rolling a different toon, so I don't feel particularly bad about his character dying since he's not really attached to it.
Do your players have access to the IDENTIFY spell? If not, maybe they find a scroll of identify next session.
IMO, you HAVE TO run CoS as an "unforgiving" DM. No other way to do it. And you are right, despite the party's best intentions, morgantha is now dead. I wouldn't warn them, just wait and see what happens.
Normally I would agree with "have to be unforgiving" for CoS. But, with this being everyone's first time, maybe some leeway ought be granted until players adjust to the overarching learning curve of that game's mechanics.
A bag of holding is pretty much just a big Santa Claus bag (at least it was in 1E and I've never shaken that image). There's also no magically summoning something by reaching in with your hand. It's clearly bigger on the inside and you need to rummage around to find it. It's best used to just throw in all the assorted crap you find in the dungeon and then dump it in the inn room/hideout when you get done. If you turn it upside down, stuff falls out. If you look in it, it's not real clear what you see, but I'd lean towards a bag-sized window with whatever the most recent loot added visible on top and just far enough down to make it make sense to bunch up the top and wrap some cord around it. Anyway, I digress...
I have a hard time imagining a way for Ireena to get into the bag without either dumping the hag, showing her corpse, or just plain stepping on her -- maybe if they had a ton of coins tossed in on top, but I've run CoS and money really isn't a thing. I'm also at a loss as to why the PCs think it's safer to stick their "damsel in distress" in a bag with a fiendish witch than any other means of disguise -- not a cuddle I'd volunteer for. So, I think it's logical that the PCs will notice the corpse before Ireena gets in. But, players come up with the darnedest things, so I try not to think too hard. Watch what the players do with the bag and narrate accordingly.
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So I'm running Curse of Strahd for some friends, and it's everyone's (including me) first time playing D&D. Last session they found a Bag of Holding. They don't know anything about it, other than that it's magical and that people can fit inside of it (which they discovered by first the half elf ranger climbing into the bag, followed by the gnome bard; they were both expelled from the bag by the paladin turning the bag inside out). Just after they found the bag I threw the Night Hag/Morgantha/Bonegrinder encounter at them. Some point in the battle, the paladin threw the bag over a grappled Morgantha and after a strength roll off she was stuck in the bag. Later I let her 2 daughters get away, discouraged by their mother's capture (this is because I was really starting the cream the party, I should have listened to things I saw online about changing the hags to green hags, my level 4 party couldn't handle a night coven). They're planning on using Morgantha as leverage if the other hags pop back up and cause problems.
But, Morgantha has totally suffocated in the bag at this point. They don't know this, though, since they don't actually know anything about the bag. When our last session ended, they started talking and throwing around ideas about what they would do our next session. Their "main quest" right now is escorting Ireena and her brother to Vallaki and protecting Ireena from Strahd. The ranger had the idea to maybe put Ireena in the bag in case the vampire shows up so they can just be like "Ireena who?" Also, our paladin won't be able to make our next session, so someone also threw out the idea of putting him in the Bag of Holding, too (the guy playing the paladin has been kind of troublesome with flaking out last minute on making it to session with no real explanation, and everyone has gotten tired of playing his character for him - last session he missed, he got ditched blackout drunk at a tavern).
So, do I warn them about what a bad idea it is to put people in the bag? They've made no attempts to ascertain the true nature of the bag, and they haven't really been playing smartly or thinking through the consequences of their actions (they've been robbed because they keep neglecting to have someone keep watch when they camp, they're pissing people off in town because they think they can do whatever they want, etc). Part of me wants to just let them be stupid so that maybe they start thinking things through, but I'm not sure if that's fair. It would be hilarious, in my opinion, but again, I don't know if that makes it right.
TL;DR: My group just found a Bag of Holding; they've already killed one person in it, and they're potentially going to kill a main character and one of the PCs inside it, too.
Do remember that even a [magicalitem]Bag of Holding[/magicalitem] has storage limits, namely:
So, if it's got a dead body in it already, plus whatever else they put in it, the bag may not be able to hold too many more people (alive or dead).
That being said, maybe you want to inform them about some of the bag's properties through observation? Like, if they open it to store something or retrieve an item, a whiff of death stench wafts out of the bag too. Then if they check on their captive they find that she has died. This may deter them from wanting to store live people in the bag for long periods of time.
What kind of DM do you want to be?
The unforgiving DM who makes their players use their brains: You either go ahead and let the hag be suffocated and dead by the time they open the bag, and don't warn them, letting/forcing them to figure the world around them out as they go
or, if you want to be more forgiving: Have their captured hag start off your next session alive, but warn them that from this point on, leaving living things in the bag will make them suffocate.
Combining aspects of these two routes will only send your players mixed signals, leading to unnecessary frustration.
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I guess I'm leaning more towards being unforgiving; I want them to think about things and figure stuff out on their own.
I feel like I should mention, the paladin player has expressed interest in rolling a different toon, so I don't feel particularly bad about his character dying since he's not really attached to it.
Do your players have access to the IDENTIFY spell? If not, maybe they find a scroll of identify next session.
IMO, you HAVE TO run CoS as an "unforgiving" DM. No other way to do it. And you are right, despite the party's best intentions, morgantha is now dead. I wouldn't warn them, just wait and see what happens.
Normally I would agree with "have to be unforgiving" for CoS. But, with this being everyone's first time, maybe some leeway ought be granted until players adjust to the overarching learning curve of that game's mechanics.
Current Projects: The Mimic Book of Mimics :: SHARK WEEK
Completed Projects: The Trick-or-Treat Table
My Homebrews: Races :: Classes :: Spells :: Items :: Monsters
A bag of holding is pretty much just a big Santa Claus bag (at least it was in 1E and I've never shaken that image). There's also no magically summoning something by reaching in with your hand. It's clearly bigger on the inside and you need to rummage around to find it. It's best used to just throw in all the assorted crap you find in the dungeon and then dump it in the inn room/hideout when you get done. If you turn it upside down, stuff falls out. If you look in it, it's not real clear what you see, but I'd lean towards a bag-sized window with whatever the most recent loot added visible on top and just far enough down to make it make sense to bunch up the top and wrap some cord around it. Anyway, I digress...
I have a hard time imagining a way for Ireena to get into the bag without either dumping the hag, showing her corpse, or just plain stepping on her -- maybe if they had a ton of coins tossed in on top, but I've run CoS and money really isn't a thing. I'm also at a loss as to why the PCs think it's safer to stick their "damsel in distress" in a bag with a fiendish witch than any other means of disguise -- not a cuddle I'd volunteer for. So, I think it's logical that the PCs will notice the corpse before Ireena gets in. But, players come up with the darnedest things, so I try not to think too hard. Watch what the players do with the bag and narrate accordingly.