Hi everyone,

This is just a general discussion to discuss the feasibility of an idea I had.

My players are currently on/in/at (not sure of the term) Sigil.  They went there because they somehow need to find away into one of the Lady of Pains mazes, to recover the first of 7 legendary "sacred treasures".

Some of the players have read up about Sigil and the Lady of Pain and they suggested that the best way to get into a maze was just to annoy her.  They've read she hates being worshipped, so they suggested the party try to get some of the local inhabitants to openly worship her as a Goddess.

The other party members didn't like that idea because they want to try and get her to help them of her own free will.  Especially since there is no telling which maze she will send them to, or even if they'll end up in the same one.

I've been thinking about this dilemma that my players have and I came up with a solution for them.

They whole story (over multiple campaigns) will be about how the players save the world, or not, from the abyss and the demon lords.

So what if I had a demon lord mess with some of the lady's mazes and help some of her "prisoners" escape.  These escapees will escape back to the prime with secrets about Sigil that the Lady doesn't want to fall in mortal hands, or any hands come to that.

The problem is, she cant persue them because she can't leave Sigil or it will be left open to attack and hostile takeover (the demon lords plan - as the city of doors, Sigil is the perfect staging ground for a demon army) and her power doesn't extend beyond Sigil, so she can't reach into the prime and re-maze them.

Sensing what the players characters are really doing in Sigil, she manifests herself before and offers then a one time deal.

If they persue and capture (alive or dead) all of the escapees and bring them back to Sigil so she can deal with the threat, she will send them to the maze where the legendary artifact is that they are after.  

Although she doesn't promise they will survive, she will give them a way to summon a spectral form of her in the maze, who will be able to unmaze them back to Sigil, once the artifact is recovered.

Just curious what you guys this about the feasibility of this?

Remember: The Lady of Pain *never* speaks. She also isn't much of a 'dealmaker' - more likely it'd be an ultimatum, delivered by one of her Dabus.

I think you're going to need to modify what you have here in order to fit with her canonical personality/behavior.

EDIT: Check out the Wiki page on her; it'll give you good insight into her personality.

Also, worshiping her is apparently a terrible idea if what they want is to be mazed.

Quote from LangyMD >>

Remember: The Lady of Pain *never* speaks. She also isn't much of a 'dealmaker' - more likely it'd be an ultimatum, delivered by one of her Dabus.

I think you're going to need to modify what you have here in order to fit with her canonical personality/behavior.

EDIT: Check out the Wiki page on her; it'll give you good insight into her personality.

Also, worshiping her is apparently a terrible idea if what they want is to be mazed.

Thanks for your response. 

I have sort of backed myself into a corner with this because I never expected my players to meta the hell out of Sigil and the Lady of Pain and then be all like "we need to annoy her, yep that's a plan."  So now I am stuck because the Lady isn't going to be happy with this plan of theirs - yes they will annoy her, but if I play her to form, she isn't going to maze them, she is going to disintegrate them and then they will be dead.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT TO KILL MY PLAYERS

So, now I am left with coming up with a way around this really bad plan of theirs.  That's why I sort of thought about having her manifest herself.  So they can come face to face with her and she can scare the bejesus out of them, so the won't want to to through this stupid plan of theirs and end up with dead characters.  Then I will offer them this "deal" as a way forward.

Well pointed out though that she doesn't actually speak to anyone but the Dabus and even then, not in any way others could understand, even if she did choose to speak to them, which she never does.  She is also not one for giving things away really, but I was thinking that she cares little for the artifact and greatly about keeping the secrets of Sigil.  So under those circumstances, she would make a trade and give let the part acquire the artifact as a sort of payment/reward for doing something for her.

I think I need to think more about what I am going to do if my players do decide to go ahead with this plan of theirs.

Or maybe I should just tell them that of they do this, they will end up dead.

Was trying to come up with a way that didn't seem like I was railroading or shutting down their creativity though.

Maybe suggest that they talk to a citizen of Sigil about what the Lady does to people who annoy or worship her, and you can have them explain how she messily kills any who worship her while 'lesser crimes' like being in her way could have them messily killed *or* just mazed depending upon her ineffable whims.

Another option would be instead of the Lady 'offering a deal' after she senses what the group is doing there she just manifests herself in front of the group and straight-up mazes them directly to the maze they need to go to. The one problem I see with this is it short-circuits any cool adventures in Sigil you may have planned; otherwise, it'd probably work just fine.

Ideally, I'd wait until they discuss the plan while they're in Sigil and then spring it upon them immediately afterwards.