So, I introduced a mid-level bad guy that I thought would be a thorn in my party's side for a while - kind of a 'for-hire' leader of a gang of thieves.
Well, parties being as they are, they surprised me and killed him. But I had put a lot of thought into the character (not plot essential, but plot interesting) and in a moment of DM improvisation, I secretly messaged the player that killed him that a strange origami tattoo had appeared on his hand. I had established that this dude was covered in these type of tattoos and folded paper to cast devastating spells - so somehow, one of these tattoos had transferred to him.
Didn't really have an idea of how I want to play it yet.
Since then, whenever the player has rolled to attack, I've given him the option of having advantage on it. Each time he did, the player would wake up with more tattoos, slowly trailing up his arm. He used the advantage like 9 times before he connected the dots.
Still don't know what I want the end game to be.
I've established that it's very magical and likely sentient. So my instinct is to have it be the guy he killed, and the tattoos will slowly cover him and eventually take over his body. I'll probably start having a little voice start babbling in his head on occasion once he uses that advantage a couple more times and causes more tattoos to appear (he's now only using the advantage power for 'emergencies').
Questions:
1) Is this an interesting idea for a curse? Do you have any good idea of how to improve upon it or enhance the 'end-game' of it?
2) What's a cool way that he could get rid of it (besides the obvious of chopping off his arm)? He's talked to some high-up wizarding professors but they couldn't tell him anything about it until they had time to research it more.
3) What are some cool other ways that I could mess with the player? Arm acting on it's own sometimes? Maybe unexpectedly sleep-walking?
have it every ten or so he gets a new ability, but every stronger ability costs one more. If you had it so he unlocked the Eldritch Blast for being at ten tattoos but it costs him 2 points to cast it. Then, at 50, they completely cover his body and he is slowly taken over, making a DC 15 con save each day. On a success, roll 2d6, that many tattoos disappear. On a failed save, one of his limbs is taken over by the guy he killed, except it is not the guy. It is a minor devil hopping from body to body with these symbols.
It might be worth you investign 90 mins of your time to watcha film called the Tattooist, its about a tatto artist that unwittingly unleashes a evil spirit.
Other option would be somehting like the Black Spot form pirate myth, taking the Pirates of the Carribean view of "The Black Spot was a mark given to an individual who owed their servitude to Davy Jones. Those marked with the Black Spot would be hunted across the Seven Seas by the Kraken". You could amend that to be the more tatoo's you have the closer a demon/devil/spirit is to finding you. If you fight it one one one and win (kind of like the Death card from the deck of many things) the tattos reset to 1 and slowly build up again.
To get rid of them you need to travel to a demiplane or one of the hells and defeat it on its "home turf", taking the pirate motive then the devil in question could be a pirate Merrenoloth (pg250 of Mordenkains tome of foes).
Other options could be:
To get rid of the tattoos you need to bath in a pool of water that has been blessed (via the ceremony spell) by 3+ clerics of different faiths (possibly corrupting the water and cursing anyone...or thing...that drinks from it in the future).
The Tattoos are actually a map and the co-ordinates for an ancient teleportation circle, the circle is a lock holding an Arcane Gate or Rift closed and using it opens the doorway and allows "something" out but removes the tattoos.
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Well, Greater Restoration says it removes a curse, so that could be one solution, but its probably not as flavorful as you are looking for. But if you start calling it a curse, expect that if your party cleric is worth much, they'll think to try it at least. Could be that each casting of it takes off one of the tattoos. That could allow them to buy some time while they hunt for a more permanent solution, but since the spell requires 100 gp of diamond dust, it would be pretty pricy, so not something they'd want to use too often.
How about they need to find a way to re-trap the curse on a sheet of paper? But it's got to be some special paper or parchment, prepared by the ancient enemy of the creator of the curse. Maybe a cleric of a god opposed to whatever or whoever created the curse. They need to wrap the paper around the affected area (the more he uses it, the more affected area, so the harder it will be to have enough paper) and then cast greater restoration. But the cleric doesn't have enough of that paper, or the parchment is made from the skin of some rare creature, so they'll need to quest for the items needed to make it. And there will be the question of what to do with the paper after they have it trapped, or if the cleric will insist on keeping control of it. And of course, after its all done, then they'll owe that cleric a favor or two.
I realize I'm probably late to the party here, but I would have a thief recognize some of the tattoos and conclude this guy is connected with his "band." Then have things happen where the thieves are trying to make contact with him to find out what he is up to and see how they might help. Eventually the thieves might practically kidnap him and ask him directly, "What in the hell is going on, dude?" Because they are convinced he is in their town to do a job but he works with an allied group so that's why they don't know him. All sorts of mayhem can start from there.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
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So, I introduced a mid-level bad guy that I thought would be a thorn in my party's side for a while - kind of a 'for-hire' leader of a gang of thieves.
Well, parties being as they are, they surprised me and killed him. But I had put a lot of thought into the character (not plot essential, but plot interesting) and in a moment of DM improvisation, I secretly messaged the player that killed him that a strange origami tattoo had appeared on his hand. I had established that this dude was covered in these type of tattoos and folded paper to cast devastating spells - so somehow, one of these tattoos had transferred to him.
Didn't really have an idea of how I want to play it yet.
Since then, whenever the player has rolled to attack, I've given him the option of having advantage on it. Each time he did, the player would wake up with more tattoos, slowly trailing up his arm. He used the advantage like 9 times before he connected the dots.
Still don't know what I want the end game to be.
I've established that it's very magical and likely sentient. So my instinct is to have it be the guy he killed, and the tattoos will slowly cover him and eventually take over his body. I'll probably start having a little voice start babbling in his head on occasion once he uses that advantage a couple more times and causes more tattoos to appear (he's now only using the advantage power for 'emergencies').
Questions:
1) Is this an interesting idea for a curse? Do you have any good idea of how to improve upon it or enhance the 'end-game' of it?
2) What's a cool way that he could get rid of it (besides the obvious of chopping off his arm)? He's talked to some high-up wizarding professors but they couldn't tell him anything about it until they had time to research it more.
3) What are some cool other ways that I could mess with the player? Arm acting on it's own sometimes? Maybe unexpectedly sleep-walking?
have it every ten or so he gets a new ability, but every stronger ability costs one more. If you had it so he unlocked the Eldritch Blast for being at ten tattoos but it costs him 2 points to cast it. Then, at 50, they completely cover his body and he is slowly taken over, making a DC 15 con save each day. On a success, roll 2d6, that many tattoos disappear. On a failed save, one of his limbs is taken over by the guy he killed, except it is not the guy. It is a minor devil hopping from body to body with these symbols.
What would be an interesting way to get rid of the curse? Like story-wise, not just rolling dice?
It might be worth you investign 90 mins of your time to watcha film called the Tattooist, its about a tatto artist that unwittingly unleashes a evil spirit.
Other option would be somehting like the Black Spot form pirate myth, taking the Pirates of the Carribean view of "The Black Spot was a mark given to an individual who owed their servitude to Davy Jones. Those marked with the Black Spot would be hunted across the Seven Seas by the Kraken". You could amend that to be the more tatoo's you have the closer a demon/devil/spirit is to finding you. If you fight it one one one and win (kind of like the Death card from the deck of many things) the tattos reset to 1 and slowly build up again.
To get rid of them you need to travel to a demiplane or one of the hells and defeat it on its "home turf", taking the pirate motive then the devil in question could be a pirate Merrenoloth (pg250 of Mordenkains tome of foes).
Other options could be:
To get rid of the tattoos you need to bath in a pool of water that has been blessed (via the ceremony spell) by 3+ clerics of different faiths (possibly corrupting the water and cursing anyone...or thing...that drinks from it in the future).
The Tattoos are actually a map and the co-ordinates for an ancient teleportation circle, the circle is a lock holding an Arcane Gate or Rift closed and using it opens the doorway and allows "something" out but removes the tattoos.
Well, Greater Restoration says it removes a curse, so that could be one solution, but its probably not as flavorful as you are looking for. But if you start calling it a curse, expect that if your party cleric is worth much, they'll think to try it at least. Could be that each casting of it takes off one of the tattoos. That could allow them to buy some time while they hunt for a more permanent solution, but since the spell requires 100 gp of diamond dust, it would be pretty pricy, so not something they'd want to use too often.
How about they need to find a way to re-trap the curse on a sheet of paper? But it's got to be some special paper or parchment, prepared by the ancient enemy of the creator of the curse. Maybe a cleric of a god opposed to whatever or whoever created the curse. They need to wrap the paper around the affected area (the more he uses it, the more affected area, so the harder it will be to have enough paper) and then cast greater restoration. But the cleric doesn't have enough of that paper, or the parchment is made from the skin of some rare creature, so they'll need to quest for the items needed to make it. And there will be the question of what to do with the paper after they have it trapped, or if the cleric will insist on keeping control of it. And of course, after its all done, then they'll owe that cleric a favor or two.
I have never thought of making a curse sentient in and of itself. This was an inspired idea.
Bark side up, bark side down, it really, truly does not matter.
I realize I'm probably late to the party here, but I would have a thief recognize some of the tattoos and conclude this guy is connected with his "band." Then have things happen where the thieves are trying to make contact with him to find out what he is up to and see how they might help. Eventually the thieves might practically kidnap him and ask him directly, "What in the hell is going on, dude?" Because they are convinced he is in their town to do a job but he works with an allied group so that's why they don't know him. All sorts of mayhem can start from there.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt