Hello good people of D&D beyond, I am looking for some advice.
My players recently became owners of a former wizards keep, in the wizards office is a female elven ghost who says nothing to them but drifts up and down the empty bookcases reaching out as if to take a book but when finding nothing there looks sad and moves on. This repeats over and over and she does not respond to the PC's at all.
In my mind when they put books on the shelf she will take them off and read them and it was just going to be this cool, if odd, thing they had in their new keep. Pure flavour.
Now I am wondering if I can make more use of this and I am looking for advice.
For example:
She will respond to them if they ask her question about any book she has read (she has an eidetic memory) so is some kind of librarian of sorts.
She has a great deal of knowledge from previous books former tenants of the keep had put on the shelves so. In effect she becomes a great source of information for the players....mechanically a History roll for her and she may have knowledge?
Or is that giving too much 'easy' access to the PC's and keeping her as a quirk is better?
Here's the thing: She has access to precisely as much information as you want her to. If the PCs ask for something that's too over-the-top, she simply doesn't know it. The information access is only easy if you dole it out like that.
Also, in fantasy, a lot of information is cryptic or in the form of riddles or inexact prophecies. Instead of just saying the answer to a question, it could be more like, "I read something about that a few hundred years ago ... it was strange. It said ..." And then you drop a hint/puzzle/riddle to push the PCs in generally the right direction without handing them the solution on a silver platter.
Also Part The Second, no reason to assume ghosts have photographic memories. Just 'cause she read it doesn't mean she's going to remember it flawlessly. Let her be wrong once in a while.
Personally, I think you should jump at the opportunity to turn a normally hostile creature into a potentially friendly plot hook. The ghost should want something. She might want closure--a decent burial for her skeleton. Maybe revenge against the one who killed her? Maybe there was some unfulfilled mission in life that was so desperately important that her soul could not leave it unfinished. Perhaps her body is stored in a long-forgotten hidden room of the keep along with some other interesting things.
Don't worry about the risks. Look at the opportunities.
She can be a big or small plot device and maybe send your PC's on a big quest and example:
The ghost of this librarian is reading all these books because she is looking for the one her lover was sent to bring back from some place, lets say a temple/keep. But he/she was killed and is now haunting the temple/keep as a ghost themselves and is a malevolent force because of the years of loneliness and anger at not be able to move on/see his one true love. The idea here is the PC's go and defeat the ghost and bring the book back for their friendly ghost and the two are reunited and in the joy, boom a new section of the PC's keep open's up like say a vault they didn't know about or was hidden and loot.
You can use her to create youre own lore and flavour to the world. One idea could be she isn't actually a ghost shes trapped between dimensions only half existing in each maybe opens up future campaign potential to pull her free or open up a portal into some kind of mirror world? Thats how id play it
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Hello good people of D&D beyond, I am looking for some advice.
My players recently became owners of a former wizards keep, in the wizards office is a female elven ghost who says nothing to them but drifts up and down the empty bookcases reaching out as if to take a book but when finding nothing there looks sad and moves on. This repeats over and over and she does not respond to the PC's at all.
In my mind when they put books on the shelf she will take them off and read them and it was just going to be this cool, if odd, thing they had in their new keep. Pure flavour.
Now I am wondering if I can make more use of this and I am looking for advice.
For example:
She will respond to them if they ask her question about any book she has read (she has an eidetic memory) so is some kind of librarian of sorts.
She has a great deal of knowledge from previous books former tenants of the keep had put on the shelves so. In effect she becomes a great source of information for the players....mechanically a History roll for her and she may have knowledge?
Or is that giving too much 'easy' access to the PC's and keeping her as a quirk is better?
Thanks for taking the time to read my question
Phill
Here's the thing: She has access to precisely as much information as you want her to. If the PCs ask for something that's too over-the-top, she simply doesn't know it. The information access is only easy if you dole it out like that.
Also, in fantasy, a lot of information is cryptic or in the form of riddles or inexact prophecies. Instead of just saying the answer to a question, it could be more like, "I read something about that a few hundred years ago ... it was strange. It said ..." And then you drop a hint/puzzle/riddle to push the PCs in generally the right direction without handing them the solution on a silver platter.
Also Part The Second, no reason to assume ghosts have photographic memories. Just 'cause she read it doesn't mean she's going to remember it flawlessly. Let her be wrong once in a while.
No reason why she can't trigger some stories and adventure hooks. What long lost books would she want the party to find for her?
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Personally, I think you should jump at the opportunity to turn a normally hostile creature into a potentially friendly plot hook. The ghost should want something. She might want closure--a decent burial for her skeleton. Maybe revenge against the one who killed her? Maybe there was some unfulfilled mission in life that was so desperately important that her soul could not leave it unfinished. Perhaps her body is stored in a long-forgotten hidden room of the keep along with some other interesting things.
Don't worry about the risks. Look at the opportunities.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Thanks for all the excellent advice!
She can be a big or small plot device and maybe send your PC's on a big quest and example:
The ghost of this librarian is reading all these books because she is looking for the one her lover was sent to bring back from some place, lets say a temple/keep. But he/she was killed and is now haunting the temple/keep as a ghost themselves and is a malevolent force because of the years of loneliness and anger at not be able to move on/see his one true love. The idea here is the PC's go and defeat the ghost and bring the book back for their friendly ghost and the two are reunited and in the joy, boom a new section of the PC's keep open's up like say a vault they didn't know about or was hidden and loot.
Hope this helps
You can use her to create youre own lore and flavour to the world. One idea could be she isn't actually a ghost shes trapped between dimensions only half existing in each maybe opens up future campaign potential to pull her free or open up a portal into some kind of mirror world? Thats how id play it