I am DMing Tomb of Annihilation and last night my group met one of The Sewn Sisters and it went terribly for them.
Short version: the party fled in terror from The Night Hag Peggy Deadbells and 2 Gigantic Mimics. Letting Ol' Peg teleport away with the unconscious monk whose backstory had encountered Old Peg before and NPC Meskia (from City on The Edge/Lost City of Mezro.
The monk was unconscious and adhered inside the mouth of the mimic under the hags control, he wasn't going anywhere except down - and the player is okay with how this played out - he's rolling up a temp sorceror until I return his monk to him with a tonne of lore dumps half remembered dreams of NPCs teased locations important info dumps. I want to REWARD him for getting captured. BUT also mess with the party a whole bunch - now The Sewn Sisters have their scent and several clones.
So I'm looking for advice, ideas, fellow DMs who've run a kidnapped PC plot before who can help me work out what is the best I can do with this opportunity to wrap one of my players deep into the plot of the game. Because this is my my first adventure I've DM'd and I was improvising. This was not planned.
I'm working up some deep deep reveals I can tease about the final dungeon and what the hell is really going on.
Have the monk come back next session with "no memories". Only, it's not the actual monk. Talk to the player and see if they're up for playing a slightly wrong version of their character. Maybe the hags created some kind of messed up clone to spy better on the party and get the drop on them. Give the player ideas on how to hint that he's not REALLY the monk.
Then after the big reveal (in a few sessions), have it end with some kind of lore dump and location for going to rescue the monk.
Or course, that's how I would do it anyway. I love to bring players to my side every once in a while as the DM and give them a chance to collude with me for fun RP and lore stuff. Regardless, good luck with however it goes!
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Part of the problem in figuring out an approach is that I'm not sure how you have changed up the story in ToA. After escaping with the prisoner, the monk is unlikely to escape. The only thing I can think of is the Hag intentionally letting them go. If the party was fighting a CR5 hag and two CR6 giant mimics then they are likely at least level 5? Maybe 6? So, only a few levels from Omu and the tomb?
So, if the hag lets them go - why? Likely to mess up the party in some way, perhaps with false information that will cause great amusement for the hags and perhaps the death of a character or two.
I've included an idea in the spoiler below.
Scenario -
The hag takes the monk back to the tomb to work them over and implant some false memories. However, one of the spirits of the nine gods senses the presence of a stranger in the tomb and latches onto their mind hoping to escape the tomb this way. The hags continue with their torture and implanting false memories while the part of the spirit partly blunts and confuses the efforts in its attempt to stay attached.
If you want to reward the monk then you could have some of the abilities of the spirit remain with the monk when they leave the tomb, however, the magic of the tomb prevents the spirit itself from leaving. The monk has both the false visions from the hags and some true ones from the spirit that may conflict in some details, which may leave the player confused when you tell them two different memories for the same situation when they encounter it. Anyway, the monk is left with a burning desire to reach the tomb and free the spirit that attached itself to them (you could pick any but I'jin might be a good choice - you could give the character both the flaw and power associated with I'jin along with a Geas to rescue this spirit from the tomb - I would avoid giving the monk too much information though so that everything remains confused and mysterious). If you think the power is too much before entering the tomb then you could give them the flaw and some memories and perhaps an idea of the power that I'jin offers when they come to the tomb to rescue them. The monk would automatically fail any die roll to resist possession by I'jin.
P.S. One idea for a false memory is that the mouth of blackness is the way out of the room of bones (Room 57?). (It is actually a sphere of annihilation that will disintegrate the character) but this memory could come with a massive fear of the black mouth and a strong desire not to touch it instilled by the spirit fragment.
Some extra comments though you probably know them:
The Sewn Sisters are the guardians and protectors of the Atropal at the bottom of the tomb. They can't get in or out of the tomb since the spell/ability restrictions in place prevent teleportation and leaving the tomb via the ethereal plane. (However, the random encounter table does include running into one of the Night Hags so even the story itself isn't consistent on this one - though in that case, the hag just takes samples instead of attacking the party).
The Night Hags do have a prisoner in room 78 after the Atropal and Acerak have been defeated which is intended to be sacrificed to the newly created death god. So, if you want the character back at the very end of the adventure that is an option.
Normally, Night Hags don't have teleport, even if the coven is present, though they do have Planeshift which might be good enough for your story purposes depending on how much you want to change up the monsters.
I realize you want to keep the monk alive, but why would the hag keep the monk alive? That might help answer the question. And does the rest of the party plan to drop everything and go save the monk? The more time the monk is with the hag, the more options you have for what she’s doing with him.
Have the monk come back next session with "no memories". Only, it's not the actual monk. Talk to the player and see if they're up for playing a slightly wrong version of their character. Maybe the hags created some kind of messed up clone to spy better on the party and get the drop on them. Give the player ideas on how to hint that he's not REALLY the monk.
Then after the big reveal (in a few sessions), have it end with some kind of lore dump and location for going to rescue the monk.
Or course, that's how I would do it anyway. I love to bring players to my side every once in a while as the DM and give them a chance to collude with me for fun RP and lore stuff. Regardless, good luck with however it goes!
Thanks for the encouragement!
I made up some roll tables at lunch that broadly told me how his imprisonment would play out and asked the player to roll so I now have an outline of events snd can tweak and alter as necessary.
As a result I will return the monk to the group in about two in-game weeks. I am definitely going to be playing with the idea that he is a clone. Might save that one until the hags lair. You see yourself naked and caged. Who is the "real" Magta????
Part of the problem in figuring out an approach is that I'm not sure how you have changed up the story in ToA. After escaping with the prisoner, the monk is unlikely to escape. The only thing I can think of is the Hag intentionally letting them go. If the party was fighting a CR5 hag and two CR6 giant mimics then they are likely at least level 5? Maybe 6? So, only a few levels from Omu and the tomb?
So, if the hag lets them go - why? Likely to mess up the party in some way, perhaps with false information that will cause great amusement for the hags and perhaps the death of a character or two.
I've included an idea in the spoiler below.
Scenario -
The hag takes the monk back to the tomb to work them over and implant some false memories. However, one of the spirits of the nine gods senses the presence of a stranger in the tomb and latches onto their mind hoping to escape the tomb this way. The hags continue with their torture and implanting false memories while the part of the spirit partly blunts and confuses the efforts in its attempt to stay attached.
If you want to reward the monk then you could have some of the abilities of the spirit remain with the monk when they leave the tomb, however, the magic of the tomb prevents the spirit itself from leaving. The monk has both the false visions from the hags and some true ones from the spirit that may conflict in some details, which may leave the player confused when you tell them two different memories for the same situation when they encounter it. Anyway, the monk is left with a burning desire to reach the tomb and free the spirit that attached itself to them (you could pick any but I'jin might be a good choice - you could give the character both the flaw and power associated with I'jin along with a Geas to rescue this spirit from the tomb - I would avoid giving the monk too much information though so that everything remains confused and mysterious). If you think the power is too much before entering the tomb then you could give them the flaw and some memories and perhaps an idea of the power that I'jin offers when they come to the tomb to rescue them. The monk would automatically fail any die roll to resist possession by I'jin.
P.S. One idea for a false memory is that the mouth of blackness is the way out of the room of bones (Room 57?). (It is actually a sphere of annihilation that will disintegrate the character) but this memory could come with a massive fear of the black mouth and a strong desire not to touch it instilled by the spirit fragment.
Some extra comments though you probably know them:
The Sewn Sisters are the guardians and protectors of the Atropal at the bottom of the tomb. They can't get in or out of the tomb since the spell/ability restrictions in place prevent teleportation and leaving the tomb via the ethereal plane. (However, the random encounter table does include running into one of the Night Hags so even the story itself isn't consistent on this one - though in that case, the hag just takes samples instead of attacking the party).
The Night Hags do have a prisoner in room 78 after the Atropal and Acerak have been defeated which is intended to be sacrificed to the newly created death god. So, if you want the character back at the very end of the adventure that is an option.
Normally, Night Hags don't have teleport, even if the coven is present, though they do have Planeshift which might be good enough for your story purposes depending on how much you want to change up the monsters.
I see statblocks as suggestions to be tweaked as necessary. I've made the hags elder night hags from Monster Manual Expanded so they are far more dangerous I want them to be serial antagonists from here on.
I **really** love the idea of piggybacking one of the dead gods into this. That's Brilliant! That gives him something to search for and can introduce the Trickster Gods in a most natural way. Love it!
As for False Memories I will think about ways of subverting the traps in the T9G moving things around so when, if, they get there it's not as he remembers it. The conflict with the Trickster god is perfect as well.
I was going to leave Meskia in Mezro but I might now entrap her in the mirror or let her be in the body bag at the end.
I realize you want to keep the monk alive, but why would the hag keep the monk alive? That might help answer the question. And does the rest of the party plan to drop everything and go save the monk? The more time the monk is with the hag, the more options you have for what she’s doing with him.
The PC had encountered the same hag in his backstory she had killed his lizardfolk Tribe and left him for dead. He trained as a monk to gain revenge. I thought it would be cool to have a hag appear at the mimic farm and oh why not make it the hag from the monks backstory. And to my immense surprise I wound up kidnapping him instead! Whoops!
Now why would she keep him alive: to torment him of course! revisit all his past failures, make him feel like a failure not a hero, compromised not whole. And ultimately to use him to get to the others.
Based on some rolls I made at lunch today with the players help his ordeal will last two in game weeks, which is plenty.
I created some story prompts and ranges for me to work out the kind of events that played out for him
How Many Nightmares did you endure? (1D20 Advantage)
How long until they broke you? (1d20) 1 - 5 (3 nights) 6 - 10 (5 nights) 11-15 (over a week) 16 - 19 (up to 2 weeks) Nat 20 - you never broke.
How many times did you awaken and regain consciousness? 1d20 <10 3 - 4 times, >10 5 - 6 times.
Did you see your own clone? 1d20 <10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you hear reference to "the Deverourer" (Acererak) 1D20 <10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you see The Black Marble? 1d20 <10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you see The Ebon Pool? <10 Yes, >10 No.
How Many times did you try to escape and fail? 1d20 <10 Yes, >10 No.
I intend to match up those escapes and periods of clarity to several vignettes featuring future monsters or NPCs or connecting elements of the plot.
e.g.
You saw/heard Widow Groat leading a Nothic into the Hag's Lair - and pointing at you.
You see elements of a Steel Predator (Red Eyes, sliding metal plates, talons scaping on stone.)
"Those yellow fools are upstairs looking for The Eye of Zaltec. The Guardians have already collected their precious lantern - Ijin ate the dwarf, they are lost and desperate. Death will find them quickly and if does not Napaka will finish them off soon."
"Get Gorra down here!" "What with Withers want with him?" "Oh nothing I just wanted to gloat."
"Put the Navel of the Moon in with Unkh. He can watch over it for all time." "Put the Chalice in The Chamber of Horrors - no better idea, put it it with that ouffed up paccyderm of his!"
You hear a distant terrifying wail. You hear the resonant clanking of distant machines
Clay-no-face pokes out his own eyes and pulls open his mouth: "Are you my mummy?" "Are you hungry?"
Example of a Nightmare:
You are training in the Temple of the Seven-eyed Lizard under the watchful bug eyed stare of the chamelon Ikaru. You are practicing the Kata you have been developing your awareness of your astral self, precise movements connecting to your inner flow of energy.
"Again." says Ziakne a lithe Chameleon but with a cough you turn and she is coughing up yellow smoke that turns into a dry cackle and looking at you with evil in her eyes.
Zaxl, the gecko, is stood still with a hessian sack tied around his neck with leather chord - suddenly they began to shake and convulse and from within the bag you hear the sound of monsterous forms clawing and howling at in each other in mad scramble screams, howls, roars, barks, suddenly part of the bag tears open and a mad cockrel poke's it's head out and stares at you with a baleful yellow eye. "Not good enough" it says in a high imperious tone.
These are just ideas and images i threw together over lunch. I'll continue to work on this and with the ideas in this forum but I am pretty happy with the first draft as something to build on. Now I just need to write a dozen new nightmares.
Some of these seem a bit odd. In particular, the escape attempts. That seems like it would be up to the player if/how many times they attempted escape, not a die roll. And things like how long until they broke you sees like it would be more of a con save or something, not just a random number, ditto regaining consciousness. And if they are attempting an escape, that seems like the kind of thing to play out. Monks move fast and often have decent stealth. Depending on other skill and tool proficiencies, and just die luck, they might be able to get away.
Capturing a character can be really interesting, but the player still should have control over how their character acts while in captivity. Some of what's you've got seems like a railroad. And if you're going to go that route (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), you should just decide what you want them to have seen and heard, usually what will best fit the story, then narrate that information when he's eventually freed. Don't leave the plot up to a die roll.
This is some good DMing, I have to say. Always great to see a loss turned into a story.
I agree with Xalthu that some of those checks should be stat based. I'd suggest:
How long until they broke you? Three nights minimum, Constitution check, DC 10 (5 nights) / 15 (over a week) / 20 (up to 2 weeks) / 25 (never broke)
How many times did you awaken and regain consciousness? Constitution modifier + 1d4
Any of the "did you see/hear" questions: Wisdom (perception) checks, DC 15.
To the player: "Tell me if you would like to attempt to escape and how you'd like to approach it. Your attempt will not succeed, but you may gain information or other benefits, and you'll face some risk." Try to squeeze a couple of skill checks out of that, with advantage for relevant abilities or creative ideas. Drip-feed information on successes, capture them on failure, reward big success (maybe they snatch an item that can later come into play or learn something concretely useful) and penalize big failure (maybe one of the NPCs will develop a grudge and stalk them later).
Some of these seem a bit odd. In particular, the escape attempts. That seems like it would be up to the player if/how many times they attempted escape, not a die roll. And things like how long until they broke you sees like it would be more of a con save or something, not just a random number, ditto regaining consciousness. And if they are attempting an escape, that seems like the kind of thing to play out. Monks move fast and often have decent stealth. Depending on other skill and tool proficiencies, and just die luck, they might be able to get away.
Capturing a character can be really interesting, but the player still should have control over how their character acts while in captivity. Some of what's you've got seems like a railroad. And if you're going to go that route (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), you should just decide what you want them to have seen and heard, usually what will best fit the story, then narrate that information when he's eventually freed. Don't leave the plot up to a die roll.
Well it is only my first draft of an idea it could use some tweaking no doubt.
The rolling against an unknown target was really me giving just to give shape to the idea starting with a blank canvas. I might yet run some sessions with him trying to escape the hag's lair (sort of running the 6th lvl of T9G in reverse) now that I know he tried to escape twice. Thing is he wouldn't get very far by himself and I'd lock all the trial doors (because those aren't meant to be attempted solo) so his only routes out are up the stairs to the Mechanus Chain or turn right into the rotting metal hallway leading to the gear with the wardrobes and another locked door so either way the hags would get him but it would be a great informative experience.
I might hang some of the info dump on a perception check particularly the sensory clues about where he is. Other story stuff I want to give him for free but there is a balance to be struck between a narration and a gameable moment. I am still trying to work out what that is. And conversations like this are helping.
This is some good DMing, I have to say. Always great to see a loss turned into a story.
I agree with Xalthu that some of those checks should be stat based. I'd suggest:
How long until they broke you? Three nights minimum, Constitution check, DC 10 (5 nights) / 15 (over a week) / 20 (up to 2 weeks) / 25 (never broke)
How many times did you awaken and regain consciousness? Constitution modifier + 1d4
Any of the "did you see/hear" questions: Wisdom (perception) checks, DC 15.
To the player: "Tell me if you would like to attempt to escape and how you'd like to approach it. Your attempt will not succeed, but you may gain information or other benefits, and you'll face some risk." Try to squeeze a couple of skill checks out of that, with advantage for relevant abilities or creative ideas. Drip-feed information on successes, capture them on failure, reward big success (maybe they snatch an item that can later come into play or learn something concretely useful) and penalize big failure (maybe one of the NPCs will develop a grudge and stalk them later).
Thanks! I'd built that encounter up to be a bit of a punishing trap and my plan had no fixed goal other than let them experiencing fighting one of the hags. The massive mimics were there to complicate things. And it worked. Really well. The players quickly deduced they were outgunned, that their attempts to charm a fiend had failed that repeated lightning bolts had not pushed her below half health and in one turn she KO'd 3 of the party (not death but unconscious - still pretty bad!) The monk avoid being swallowed as the one mimic didn't roll above a 6 all evening So I decided she would leave, at the top of the turn of course she'd take the monk, oh and while we are about it, let's take my own NPC too.
These two comments have given me the idea to let the Player try to escape from captivity and as you say drip feed the info dump and putting something useful in the room for him to find is a very good idea. I just now need to work out what that something might be.
Ran the 1:1 for my monk player last night, escaping from the cage in the Sewn Sisters Lair. After a slew of nightmarish visions and overheard conversations* he awoke, naked and unsure how much time had passed. He made a pact with Kubuzan** to break the lock, receiving a temporary +7 to the roll. He had no dark vision (Lizard folk) and there is no light down there, save for the cauldren. He did find some drawings of The Atropal by Withers as it grew with approving notes on it's development Amazingly, he entirely missed The Skeleton Key door by jumping up to the galleries instead. Investigated the Octagon Trial door, before remembering his Astral Self Visage gave him 120ft darkvision!
As soon as he saw the stairs he bolted.
Grabbing a piece of torn fabric and folded it up to carry the scrolls and ran up to level 5.
I pulled him into the Mechanus Chain by describing a flash of Arcane lightning. His bag rotted in his hand. He totally ignored the Modron I had placed there to explain about The Mechanus chain.
He failed the Arcana check to understand what the portal was so decided to try riding the chain up into the Vortex. I decided that would be a crappy was for him to die so had a hag tear open a hole from the ethereal realm and try to grab him. That caused him to abandon that idea and flee tarzan-swinging across The Mechanus chain with his Astral arms and slow falling to the opposite balcony clutching Withers Drawings.
He crawled through the crawl space and climbed into the Armarillary Sphere and began slamming the controls, released the Nycaloth who began pacing the room welding its vorpal axe. Finally he slammed one of the levers in reverse, so I describe the sun and moon as being at Noon at Nine, respectively.
On his own he then said "I line 'em up." "You create a conjuction?" I clarified. "Yes."
Roll a d100.
He rolled a 14.
So him and the Sphere teleported to a place of my choice.
Given how chaotic and frenetic this was I can totally see him Tardis-crashing through several different realities vworping into the lava chamber of Krakatoa causing it to erupt, crossing the event horizon of two colliding black holes. I'll think of some others.
My plan is to, of course, ultimately have him crash land next to the party (preferably on top of their current enemy) as they arrive vworping back into the forgotten realms pin-wheeling through the jungle .
Of course the moment the hags can sense he's back in Chult a full-on assault will follow as the hags will try to get back the Armarillary Sphere with a bunch of Tomb Dwarfs and maybe some extra monsters warped in to keep them busy.
* he saw a nothic. * clay-no-face spoke to him and he heard strawbundle speaking. * he overheard the fate of the yellow banner dying to Ijin's Tomb Defences and having to face "Nepaka". *he heard the Atropal Scream. *he knows The Navel of The Moon is with Unkh.
**Kubuzan's intervention disrupted one of the hag's nightmares which showed The False Tomb Entrance while Kubuzan revealed the true. After that he made a pact got the strength he needed to break open the cage then rolled a 1 against a Geas spell as Kubuzan told him:
"Take my name and message to civilisation and bring others that we might find and defeat Death itself!"
Another thing that would be a twisted torture delight the night hag has secretely made to the monk is permanently charm him so that when he reunites with the party, now regards Peggy Deadbells as a friendly acquaintance and may even try to lure them to go somewhere or do something specific of the hag's choice for obscure reasons.
They hags revived him and after some RP he made a deal with them to serve them in exchange for his life. They plucked out his eye, one of them rolled it around in their mouth then shoved it back in the socket. He now has a "hags eye" that the hags can see out of (it looks weird). The race changed to hexblood and they got a dark gift, slightly modified version of the "symbiote" one from Van Richten's guide.
You can have the sisters wanting to use the PC to try to get rid of Acererack so they can take over the area. To do so they give him some extra powers.
If the PC wants to try to free themselves from the Hag, having the hags eye allows for an option for that since if it is destroyed it weakens the hags severely and would give the party a shot a defeating them.
(I asked the player if they wanted to roll a new character or see what happened with the hags)
Another thing that would be a twisted torture delight the night hag has secretely made to the monk is permanently charm him so that when he reunites with the party, now regards Peggy Deadbells as a friendly acquaintance and may even try to lure them to go somewhere or do something specific of the hag's choice for obscure reasons.
Given his backstory (Peggy killed his entire tribe fleeing a lizard king from The Chultengar; he trained as a monk upon recovery to gain revenge) - a charm seems unlikely. What I am doing is I have unbeknown to him cloned him so the hags always have a means now of tracking where the party are and what they are doing. Will try not to abuse but will for sure come in handy when I choose to pull that trigger.
They hags revived him and after some RP he made a deal with them to serve them in exchange for his life. They plucked out his eye, one of them rolled it around in their mouth then shoved it back in the socket. He now has a "hags eye" that the hags can see out of (it looks weird). The race changed to hexblood and they got a dark gift, slightly modified version of the "symbiote" one from Van Richten's guide.
You can have the sisters wanting to use the PC to try to get rid of Acererack so they can take over the area. To do so they give him some extra powers.
If the PC wants to try to free themselves from the Hag, having the hags eye allows for an option for that since if it is destroyed it weakens the hags severely and would give the party a shot a defeating them.
(I asked the player if they wanted to roll a new character or see what happened with the hags)
The hags eye thing is cool I was going with the clone knows what he knows but similar. - he wasn't killed just tortured by unceasing nightmares.
I honestly see the hags as loyal servants of Acererak - if the plan to use the soulmonger the create a new death god works they will have billions of souls to harvest. They wouldn;t risk that.
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I am DMing Tomb of Annihilation and last night my group met one of The Sewn Sisters and it went terribly for them.
Short version: the party fled in terror from The Night Hag Peggy Deadbells and 2 Gigantic Mimics. Letting Ol' Peg teleport away with the unconscious monk whose backstory had encountered Old Peg before and NPC Meskia (from City on The Edge/Lost City of Mezro.
The monk was unconscious and adhered inside the mouth of the mimic under the hags control, he wasn't going anywhere except down - and the player is okay with how this played out - he's rolling up a temp sorceror until I return his monk to him with a tonne of lore dumps half remembered dreams of NPCs teased locations important info dumps. I want to REWARD him for getting captured. BUT also mess with the party a whole bunch - now The Sewn Sisters have their scent and several clones.
So I'm looking for advice, ideas, fellow DMs who've run a kidnapped PC plot before who can help me work out what is the best I can do with this opportunity to wrap one of my players deep into the plot of the game. Because this is my my first adventure I've DM'd and I was improvising. This was not planned.
I'm working up some deep deep reveals I can tease about the final dungeon and what the hell is really going on.
But I need help and seek the wisdom of the crowd.
Have the monk come back next session with "no memories". Only, it's not the actual monk. Talk to the player and see if they're up for playing a slightly wrong version of their character. Maybe the hags created some kind of messed up clone to spy better on the party and get the drop on them. Give the player ideas on how to hint that he's not REALLY the monk.
Then after the big reveal (in a few sessions), have it end with some kind of lore dump and location for going to rescue the monk.
Or course, that's how I would do it anyway. I love to bring players to my side every once in a while as the DM and give them a chance to collude with me for fun RP and lore stuff. Regardless, good luck with however it goes!
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Part of the problem in figuring out an approach is that I'm not sure how you have changed up the story in ToA. After escaping with the prisoner, the monk is unlikely to escape. The only thing I can think of is the Hag intentionally letting them go. If the party was fighting a CR5 hag and two CR6 giant mimics then they are likely at least level 5? Maybe 6? So, only a few levels from Omu and the tomb?
So, if the hag lets them go - why? Likely to mess up the party in some way, perhaps with false information that will cause great amusement for the hags and perhaps the death of a character or two.
I've included an idea in the spoiler below.
Scenario -
The hag takes the monk back to the tomb to work them over and implant some false memories. However, one of the spirits of the nine gods senses the presence of a stranger in the tomb and latches onto their mind hoping to escape the tomb this way. The hags continue with their torture and implanting false memories while the part of the spirit partly blunts and confuses the efforts in its attempt to stay attached.
If you want to reward the monk then you could have some of the abilities of the spirit remain with the monk when they leave the tomb, however, the magic of the tomb prevents the spirit itself from leaving. The monk has both the false visions from the hags and some true ones from the spirit that may conflict in some details, which may leave the player confused when you tell them two different memories for the same situation when they encounter it. Anyway, the monk is left with a burning desire to reach the tomb and free the spirit that attached itself to them (you could pick any but I'jin might be a good choice - you could give the character both the flaw and power associated with I'jin along with a Geas to rescue this spirit from the tomb - I would avoid giving the monk too much information though so that everything remains confused and mysterious). If you think the power is too much before entering the tomb then you could give them the flaw and some memories and perhaps an idea of the power that I'jin offers when they come to the tomb to rescue them. The monk would automatically fail any die roll to resist possession by I'jin.
P.S. One idea for a false memory is that the mouth of blackness is the way out of the room of bones (Room 57?). (It is actually a sphere of annihilation that will disintegrate the character) but this memory could come with a massive fear of the black mouth and a strong desire not to touch it instilled by the spirit fragment.
Some extra comments though you probably know them:
The Sewn Sisters are the guardians and protectors of the Atropal at the bottom of the tomb. They can't get in or out of the tomb since the spell/ability restrictions in place prevent teleportation and leaving the tomb via the ethereal plane. (However, the random encounter table does include running into one of the Night Hags so even the story itself isn't consistent on this one - though in that case, the hag just takes samples instead of attacking the party).
The Night Hags do have a prisoner in room 78 after the Atropal and Acerak have been defeated which is intended to be sacrificed to the newly created death god. So, if you want the character back at the very end of the adventure that is an option.
Normally, Night Hags don't have teleport, even if the coven is present, though they do have Planeshift which might be good enough for your story purposes depending on how much you want to change up the monsters.
I realize you want to keep the monk alive, but why would the hag keep the monk alive? That might help answer the question.
And does the rest of the party plan to drop everything and go save the monk? The more time the monk is with the hag, the more options you have for what she’s doing with him.
Thanks for the encouragement!
I made up some roll tables at lunch that broadly told me how his imprisonment would play out and asked the player to roll so I now have an outline of events snd can tweak and alter as necessary.
As a result I will return the monk to the group in about two in-game weeks. I am definitely going to be playing with the idea that he is a clone. Might save that one until the hags lair. You see yourself naked and caged. Who is the "real" Magta????
I see statblocks as suggestions to be tweaked as necessary. I've made the hags elder night hags from Monster Manual Expanded so they are far more dangerous I want them to be serial antagonists from here on.
I **really** love the idea of piggybacking one of the dead gods into this. That's Brilliant! That gives him something to search for and can introduce the Trickster Gods in a most natural way. Love it!
As for False Memories I will think about ways of subverting the traps in the T9G moving things around so when, if, they get there it's not as he remembers it. The conflict with the Trickster god is perfect as well.
I was going to leave Meskia in Mezro but I might now entrap her in the mirror or let her be in the body bag at the end.
Subscribed. I want to know how this plays out.
The PC had encountered the same hag in his backstory she had killed his lizardfolk Tribe and left him for dead. He trained as a monk to gain revenge. I thought it would be cool to have a hag appear at the mimic farm and oh why not make it the hag from the monks backstory. And to my immense surprise I wound up kidnapping him instead! Whoops!
Now why would she keep him alive: to torment him of course! revisit all his past failures, make him feel like a failure not a hero, compromised not whole. And ultimately to use him to get to the others.
Based on some rolls I made at lunch today with the players help his ordeal will last two in game weeks, which is plenty.
I created some story prompts and ranges for me to work out the kind of events that played out for him
How Many Nightmares did you endure? (1D20 Advantage)
How long until they broke you? (1d20)
1 - 5 (3 nights) 6 - 10 (5 nights) 11-15 (over a week) 16 - 19 (up to 2 weeks) Nat 20 - you never broke.
How many times did you awaken and regain consciousness? 1d20
<10 3 - 4 times, >10 5 - 6 times.
Did you see your own clone? 1d20
<10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you hear reference to "the Deverourer" (Acererak) 1D20
<10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you see The Black Marble? 1d20
<10 Yes, >10 No.
Did you see The Ebon Pool?
<10 Yes, >10 No.
How Many times did you try to escape and fail? 1d20
<10 Yes, >10 No.
I intend to match up those escapes and periods of clarity to several vignettes featuring future monsters or NPCs or connecting elements of the plot.
e.g.
You saw/heard Widow Groat leading a Nothic into the Hag's Lair - and pointing at you.
You see elements of a Steel Predator (Red Eyes, sliding metal plates, talons scaping on stone.)
"Those yellow fools are upstairs looking for The Eye of Zaltec. The Guardians have already collected their precious lantern - Ijin ate the dwarf, they are lost and desperate. Death will find them quickly and if does not Napaka will finish them off soon."
"Get Gorra down here!" "What with Withers want with him?" "Oh nothing I just wanted to gloat."
"Put the Navel of the Moon in with Unkh. He can watch over it for all time."
"Put the Chalice in The Chamber of Horrors - no better idea, put it it with that ouffed up paccyderm of his!"
You hear a distant terrifying wail.
You hear the resonant clanking of distant machines
Clay-no-face pokes out his own eyes and pulls open his mouth: "Are you my mummy?" "Are you hungry?"
Example of a Nightmare:
You are training in the Temple of the Seven-eyed Lizard under the watchful bug eyed stare of the chamelon Ikaru. You are practicing the Kata you have been developing your awareness of your astral self, precise movements connecting to your inner flow of energy.
"Again." says Ziakne a lithe Chameleon but with a cough you turn and she is coughing up yellow smoke that turns into a dry cackle and looking at you with evil in her eyes.
Zaxl, the gecko, is stood still with a hessian sack tied around his neck with leather chord - suddenly they began to shake and convulse and from within the bag you hear the sound of monsterous forms clawing and howling at in each other in mad scramble screams, howls, roars, barks, suddenly part of the bag tears open and a mad cockrel poke's it's head out and stares at you with a baleful yellow eye. "Not good enough" it says in a high imperious tone.
These are just ideas and images i threw together over lunch. I'll continue to work on this and with the ideas in this forum but I am pretty happy with the first draft as something to build on. Now I just need to write a dozen new nightmares.
Some of these seem a bit odd. In particular, the escape attempts. That seems like it would be up to the player if/how many times they attempted escape, not a die roll. And things like how long until they broke you sees like it would be more of a con save or something, not just a random number, ditto regaining consciousness. And if they are attempting an escape, that seems like the kind of thing to play out. Monks move fast and often have decent stealth. Depending on other skill and tool proficiencies, and just die luck, they might be able to get away.
Capturing a character can be really interesting, but the player still should have control over how their character acts while in captivity. Some of what's you've got seems like a railroad. And if you're going to go that route (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), you should just decide what you want them to have seen and heard, usually what will best fit the story, then narrate that information when he's eventually freed. Don't leave the plot up to a die roll.
This is some good DMing, I have to say. Always great to see a loss turned into a story.
I agree with Xalthu that some of those checks should be stat based. I'd suggest:
How long until they broke you? Three nights minimum, Constitution check, DC 10 (5 nights) / 15 (over a week) / 20 (up to 2 weeks) / 25 (never broke)
How many times did you awaken and regain consciousness? Constitution modifier + 1d4
Any of the "did you see/hear" questions: Wisdom (perception) checks, DC 15.
To the player: "Tell me if you would like to attempt to escape and how you'd like to approach it. Your attempt will not succeed, but you may gain information or other benefits, and you'll face some risk." Try to squeeze a couple of skill checks out of that, with advantage for relevant abilities or creative ideas. Drip-feed information on successes, capture them on failure, reward big success (maybe they snatch an item that can later come into play or learn something concretely useful) and penalize big failure (maybe one of the NPCs will develop a grudge and stalk them later).
Well it is only my first draft of an idea it could use some tweaking no doubt.
The rolling against an unknown target was really me giving just to give shape to the idea starting with a blank canvas. I might yet run some sessions with him trying to escape the hag's lair (sort of running the 6th lvl of T9G in reverse) now that I know he tried to escape twice. Thing is he wouldn't get very far by himself and I'd lock all the trial doors (because those aren't meant to be attempted solo) so his only routes out are up the stairs to the Mechanus Chain or turn right into the rotting metal hallway leading to the gear with the wardrobes and another locked door so either way the hags would get him but it would be a great informative experience.
I might hang some of the info dump on a perception check particularly the sensory clues about where he is. Other story stuff I want to give him for free but there is a balance to be struck between a narration and a gameable moment. I am still trying to work out what that is. And conversations like this are helping.
Thanks! I'd built that encounter up to be a bit of a punishing trap and my plan had no fixed goal other than let them experiencing fighting one of the hags. The massive mimics were there to complicate things. And it worked. Really well. The players quickly deduced they were outgunned, that their attempts to charm a fiend had failed that repeated lightning bolts had not pushed her below half health and in one turn she KO'd 3 of the party (not death but unconscious - still pretty bad!) The monk avoid being swallowed as the one mimic didn't roll above a 6 all evening So I decided she would leave, at the top of the turn of course she'd take the monk, oh and while we are about it, let's take my own NPC too.
These two comments have given me the idea to let the Player try to escape from captivity and as you say drip feed the info dump and putting something useful in the room for him to find is a very good idea. I just now need to work out what that something might be.
Update:
Ran the 1:1 for my monk player last night, escaping from the cage in the Sewn Sisters Lair. After a slew of nightmarish visions and overheard conversations* he awoke, naked and unsure how much time had passed. He made a pact with Kubuzan** to break the lock, receiving a temporary +7 to the roll. He had no dark vision (Lizard folk) and there is no light down there, save for the cauldren. He did find some drawings of The Atropal by Withers as it grew with approving notes on it's development Amazingly, he entirely missed The Skeleton Key door by jumping up to the galleries instead. Investigated the Octagon Trial door, before remembering his Astral Self Visage gave him 120ft darkvision!
As soon as he saw the stairs he bolted.
Grabbing a piece of torn fabric and folded it up to carry the scrolls and ran up to level 5.
I pulled him into the Mechanus Chain by describing a flash of Arcane lightning.
His bag rotted in his hand. He totally ignored the Modron I had placed there to explain about The Mechanus chain.
He failed the Arcana check to understand what the portal was so decided to try riding the chain up into the Vortex.
I decided that would be a crappy was for him to die so had a hag tear open a hole from the ethereal realm and try to grab him. That caused him to abandon that idea and flee tarzan-swinging across The Mechanus chain with his Astral arms and slow falling to the opposite balcony clutching Withers Drawings.
He crawled through the crawl space and climbed into the Armarillary Sphere and began slamming the controls, released the Nycaloth who began pacing the room welding its vorpal axe. Finally he slammed one of the levers in reverse, so I describe the sun and moon as being at Noon at Nine, respectively.
On his own he then said "I line 'em up."
"You create a conjuction?" I clarified.
"Yes."
Roll a d100.
He rolled a 14.
So him and the Sphere teleported to a place of my choice.
Given how chaotic and frenetic this was I can totally see him Tardis-crashing through several different realities vworping into the lava chamber of Krakatoa causing it to erupt, crossing the event horizon of two colliding black holes. I'll think of some others.
My plan is to, of course, ultimately have him crash land next to the party (preferably on top of their current enemy) as they arrive vworping back into the forgotten realms pin-wheeling through the jungle .
Of course the moment the hags can sense he's back in Chult a full-on assault will follow as the hags will try to get back the Armarillary Sphere with a bunch of Tomb Dwarfs and maybe some extra monsters warped in to keep them busy.
* he saw a nothic.
* clay-no-face spoke to him and he heard strawbundle speaking.
* he overheard the fate of the yellow banner dying to Ijin's Tomb Defences and having to face "Nepaka".
*he heard the Atropal Scream.
*he knows The Navel of The Moon is with Unkh.
**Kubuzan's intervention disrupted one of the hag's nightmares which showed The False Tomb Entrance while Kubuzan revealed the true. After that he made a pact got the strength he needed to break open the cage then rolled a 1 against a Geas spell as Kubuzan told him:
"Take my name and message to civilisation and bring others that we might find and defeat Death itself!"
Another thing that would be a twisted torture delight the night hag has secretely made to the monk is permanently charm him so that when he reunites with the party, now regards Peggy Deadbells as a friendly acquaintance and may even try to lure them to go somewhere or do something specific of the hag's choice for obscure reasons.
I had a PC fall to a coven of hags in CoS.
They hags revived him and after some RP he made a deal with them to serve them in exchange for his life. They plucked out his eye, one of them rolled it around in their mouth then shoved it back in the socket. He now has a "hags eye" that the hags can see out of (it looks weird). The race changed to hexblood and they got a dark gift, slightly modified version of the "symbiote" one from Van Richten's guide.
You can have the sisters wanting to use the PC to try to get rid of Acererack so they can take over the area. To do so they give him some extra powers.
If the PC wants to try to free themselves from the Hag, having the hags eye allows for an option for that since if it is destroyed it weakens the hags severely and would give the party a shot a defeating them.
(I asked the player if they wanted to roll a new character or see what happened with the hags)
Given his backstory (Peggy killed his entire tribe fleeing a lizard king from The Chultengar; he trained as a monk upon recovery to gain revenge) - a charm seems unlikely.
What I am doing is I have unbeknown to him cloned him so the hags always have a means now of tracking where the party are and what they are doing. Will try not to abuse but will for sure come in handy when I choose to pull that trigger.
The hags eye thing is cool I was going with the clone knows what he knows but similar. - he wasn't killed just tortured by unceasing nightmares.
I honestly see the hags as loyal servants of Acererak - if the plan to use the soulmonger the create a new death god works they will have billions of souls to harvest. They wouldn;t risk that.