Here goes: New to D&D - 50yr old lady, always wanted to play as a kid and never got the chance - The "Campaign" started with a silly little one-shot I created to see if I liked doing the homebrew DM thing and we loved it so much I built a town around it. I have been learning and figuring stuff out as we go along but, I have not had a chance to really read everything available.
Current conundrum: I have a story idea but not enough knowledge of the overall D&D world/history to flesh it out completely.
They are arriving in a town that has an Academy for the creative arts - Painting, sculpture and such...
The Academy Gallery has a bunch of art that makes the character start to "feel" something deeply when they look at it (joy, comfort, loss/grief, lonely, love, etc.)
The party will meet an older student whose boyfriend says his formerly exciting, creative, & vibrant woman is now cold, joyless, not even sad, just going through the motions on auto-pilot...
There's "something" that has been trapped or enslaved to this area where the school was built (maybe by the long dead Headmaster who started the Academy several generations ago). That something would be an old or ancient being that, because of the way it was trapped makes anyone tinkering or making something in the area of effect (the campus) suffuse their own emotions into the thing they are making, taking the ability to experience that emotion from the artist and giving it to the viewer of the final product.
I planned to introduce a greedy Headmaster who charges exorbitant tuition and sells the student's works in the Gallery to pay said tuition (red herring) - He is just a greedy dude taking advantage of what he sees as 'miraculously talented students'. I know my players and they are going to blame this guy right away so, I'll let them wriggle through that until they meet a teacher who will be struggling with the morality of it all. He/she will lead them to the first clue about the true source of the magic (whatever that turns out to be), and knowing my players, they will want to free the trapped being, whatever that ends up to be...
So...Here is what I need - I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions:
What is this old or ancient "something"? - Some kind of monster, demon, or ancient demi-god? - Is there already a "thing" in the world of Toril that fits this idea of emotional transference and could be trapped by some kind of McGuffin scheme? (find the 6 crystals hidden in the catacombs below the school and bring them together to release the spirit of the...)
I'm not familiar with anything in Toril specifically, but this is your world, so you can make it up. If you need anything specifically:
An angry spirit, such as a Wraith, maybe the remnants of the headmaster you mentioned? Or maybe the school was built on a graveyard-cliche, and there are a lot of spirits?
A malevolent undead, such as a Lich, had the school built over their tomb as part of a foul scheme to trap the X (probably souls) of students who put too much of themselves into their art.
A portal to the abyss. The demon lord Graz'zt is associated with indulgence, so maybe leftover energies from demonic rituals, or energy seeping out of a portal to the Abyss has been affecting the art? It could also be a portal to another outer plane, such as Arborea or Limbo, realms of strong emotion
Maybe it's something entirely benevolent? Maybe an Enigmirror or has been trying to help students improve their art, but is going about it in typical "Doesn't understand mortals"-way?
Building on the above, maybe a Beholder or Aboleth or other aberration is doing it as part of its foul plots?
As for ways to free it if it's trapped, it may be bound by chains that can only be broken by powerful magicks, such as a Dispel Magic cast at lv.9, requiring the players to hunt down a scroll (unless they have a. lv.17 spell caster), or a powerful weapon, such as a Nine Lives Stealer, Flame Tongue, or even the Sword of Kas or Sword of Zariel, if you want to give them the really powerful stuff. Getting these items could spin of into its own mini-campaign. Or it could be easy, but they need to pass difficult puzzles and dungeons in order to get close enough
Assuming you want the players to be questing to free something that is good, but that has been pressed into servitude in some manner, I searched for good aligned creatures and found the markeen, and more specifically the hayan variant. With little adjustment, it seems to fit what you want to a tee. You could have one (or a whole slew of them!) trapped with your mcGuffin scheme -
A special group of markeen, called hayan, were the doubles of bards and poets. If hayan found their human then the human was inspired to write immortal poetry or song.
That sounds like a great idea for an adventure! And kudos to you for having the courage to step up to being a homebrew DM!
As far as the source of this emotion magic... perhaps it's the original Headmaster himself from generations ago, still imprisoned under the school. Check out the 9th level wizard spell "Imprisonment". https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/imprisonment
So maybe the current Headmaster is actually older than he seems. Or maybe he just found a one-time magic item that allowed him to cast the Imprisonment spell to imprison the original Headmaster and take over the school.
So to free the original Headmaster, they would first have to figure out that he's imprisoned, then figure out that the current Headmaster is the cause, then "convince" him to dispel the spell.
One of the means of Imprisonment available in that spell is "slumber". So maybe in their investigation they find a secret door leading down a long stairway into a deep forgotten dungeon, and in one of the rooms they find the original Headmaster chained to an old dusty bed, asleep. like TOTALLY asleep. Like Sleeping Beauty asleep. Nothing can or will wake him up. Also - he never ages or deteriorates while the spell is active. So he's just laying there in an absolute coma, in stasis. And maybe there's a magical shimmer covering him, or maybe covering just the shackles. And maybe the party finds a specific glyph or magical sigil in that magical shimmer. And they later learn that the sigil is the personal sigil of the current Headmaster. That's how they learn that's he's the one who imprisoned the guy.
There's also the option of "Minimus Containment", so maybe the current Headmaster imprisoned the former Headmaster inside a gemstone. The former Headmaster is now just a half inch tall, and trapped inside a beautiful expensive ruby. And maybe that ruby is displayed inside a locked trophy case inside the current Headmaster's office. And maybe it catches the eye of the rogue or bard of the group and maybe they try to steal it (and succeed) and that's how they discover ... "Hey! There's a guy trapped in this thing!"
And if they "convince" the current guy to let the guy out, or maybe if they just kill the current guy the spell may be released, the former Headmaster will be restored and he will certainly be grateful!
Whatever you choose, you've already got a great idea, so just HAVE FUN!
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
What I suggest is don't worry about doing things right. There is no right. There is only fun.
An alternative to finding some monster that fits the sort of monster that you want to be behind the mystery, you can make a new one. Just take a monster that has interesting abilities and "change how it looks". Maybe give it an ability to charm people or inflict fright. Then you've just created a whole new type of monster. I think that solution gives your adventure a lot of character and personality, rather than just trying to retell the stories other people have already told. A good way to think about it is that you aren't running an adventure in Toril, but rather your Toril. You can change things, you can make decisions about the ultimate mysteries of the world, you can do anything to make it your own.
Thanks so much to each of you! I am going to combine several of your suggestions into the full scheme.
The original Headmaster, originally from Zakhara, was found by his markeen-hayan just as he reached adulthood. Before completing his inspired "immortal work", he used a series of spell scrolls to cast Imprisonment on the markeen and trap it in Slumber. He kept it with him, using it's inspirational magic to enhance his own artistic endeavors as he traveled the world until eventually settling here in SaltEnd Landing where he built an underground tomb with the school above. He convinced one of the original teachers, a powerful wizard, to create a ritual whereby they siphoned the markeen's inspirational magic and imparted it to all of their students.
Our morally challenged teacher of today will tell them that she had been searching for answers and found an old diary in the library written by the original Headmaster. The diary led her to discover the entrance to this tomb but, she has not worked up the courage to investigate it.
They'll eventually find a slumbering person, looking exactly like the portrait of the original headmaster hanging in the library. I will have the tomb guarded by a version of the Enigmirror who has adopted the sleeping markeen and kept the siphon working after the Wizard teacher passed away. This modified version would not incorporate the "ordinary object" & "in their dreams" aspect but instead simply remain in the tomb to protect its curiosity & maternal attachment to the sleeping creature. The theft of emotion was/is an unintended consequence of it's benevolent intentions. The current, and all other Headmasters before him, were unaware of the tomb & ritual and had no explanation for the loss of emotion from the students, simply assuming that intense creativity/skill in a creature cannot last forever...
My players have a Level 11 Cleric NPC that they could ask for assistance to Dispel the magic but, she lives near their home location (4 days away unless she uses a spell to travel) and, it looks like she is limited to Level 6 spells so, she would fail. This still provides a great opportunity be creative & explore even though it wouldn't work, they would feel accomplished for thinking of it - I'll make sure she makes them feel good about it, they love her and she has always encouraged them well.
She could then make a helpful suggestion that they should tour the school with detect magic "on repeat" so they might follow the threads of the siphon and see if they lead them to the source of the spell. Most threads will simply lead to students but, a few will lead to secret doors and locked cabinets tucked away in obscure locations about the campus containing scrolls with sigils that can be combined to break the spell and free the Markeen who will want nothing more than to go back to Zakhara and seek his own kind. If the Enigmirror is still alive, it will of course want to go with him...
Thanks so much to all of you for the helpful suggestions. I won't be embarrassed or afraid next time I get stymied!
Here goes: New to D&D - 50yr old lady, always wanted to play as a kid and never got the chance - The "Campaign" started with a silly little one-shot I created to see if I liked doing the homebrew DM thing and we loved it so much I built a town around it. I have been learning and figuring stuff out as we go along but, I have not had a chance to really read everything available.
Current conundrum: I have a story idea but not enough knowledge of the overall D&D world/history to flesh it out completely.
There's "something" that has been trapped or enslaved to this area where the school was built (maybe by the long dead Headmaster who started the Academy several generations ago). That something would be an old or ancient being that, because of the way it was trapped makes anyone tinkering or making something in the area of effect (the campus) suffuse their own emotions into the thing they are making, taking the ability to experience that emotion from the artist and giving it to the viewer of the final product.
I planned to introduce a greedy Headmaster who charges exorbitant tuition and sells the student's works in the Gallery to pay said tuition (red herring) - He is just a greedy dude taking advantage of what he sees as 'miraculously talented students'. I know my players and they are going to blame this guy right away so, I'll let them wriggle through that until they meet a teacher who will be struggling with the morality of it all. He/she will lead them to the first clue about the true source of the magic (whatever that turns out to be), and knowing my players, they will want to free the trapped being, whatever that ends up to be...
So...Here is what I need - I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions:
What is this old or ancient "something"? - Some kind of monster, demon, or ancient demi-god? - Is there already a "thing" in the world of Toril that fits this idea of emotional transference and could be trapped by some kind of McGuffin scheme? (find the 6 crystals hidden in the catacombs below the school and bring them together to release the spirit of the...)
I'm not familiar with anything in Toril specifically, but this is your world, so you can make it up. If you need anything specifically:
As for ways to free it if it's trapped, it may be bound by chains that can only be broken by powerful magicks, such as a Dispel Magic cast at lv.9, requiring the players to hunt down a scroll (unless they have a. lv.17 spell caster), or a powerful weapon, such as a Nine Lives Stealer, Flame Tongue, or even the Sword of Kas or Sword of Zariel, if you want to give them the really powerful stuff. Getting these items could spin of into its own mini-campaign. Or it could be easy, but they need to pass difficult puzzles and dungeons in order to get close enough
Assuming you want the players to be questing to free something that is good, but that has been pressed into servitude in some manner, I searched for good aligned creatures and found the markeen, and more specifically the hayan variant. With little adjustment, it seems to fit what you want to a tee. You could have one (or a whole slew of them!) trapped with your mcGuffin scheme -
A special group of markeen, called hayan, were the doubles of bards and poets. If hayan found their human then the human was inspired to write immortal poetry or song.
[Edited to fix formatting mess]
That sounds like a great idea for an adventure! And kudos to you for having the courage to step up to being a homebrew DM!
As far as the source of this emotion magic... perhaps it's the original Headmaster himself from generations ago, still imprisoned under the school. Check out the 9th level wizard spell "Imprisonment". https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/imprisonment
So maybe the current Headmaster is actually older than he seems. Or maybe he just found a one-time magic item that allowed him to cast the Imprisonment spell to imprison the original Headmaster and take over the school.
So to free the original Headmaster, they would first have to figure out that he's imprisoned, then figure out that the current Headmaster is the cause, then "convince" him to dispel the spell.
One of the means of Imprisonment available in that spell is "slumber". So maybe in their investigation they find a secret door leading down a long stairway into a deep forgotten dungeon, and in one of the rooms they find the original Headmaster chained to an old dusty bed, asleep. like TOTALLY asleep. Like Sleeping Beauty asleep. Nothing can or will wake him up. Also - he never ages or deteriorates while the spell is active. So he's just laying there in an absolute coma, in stasis. And maybe there's a magical shimmer covering him, or maybe covering just the shackles. And maybe the party finds a specific glyph or magical sigil in that magical shimmer. And they later learn that the sigil is the personal sigil of the current Headmaster. That's how they learn that's he's the one who imprisoned the guy.
There's also the option of "Minimus Containment", so maybe the current Headmaster imprisoned the former Headmaster inside a gemstone. The former Headmaster is now just a half inch tall, and trapped inside a beautiful expensive ruby. And maybe that ruby is displayed inside a locked trophy case inside the current Headmaster's office. And maybe it catches the eye of the rogue or bard of the group and maybe they try to steal it (and succeed) and that's how they discover ... "Hey! There's a guy trapped in this thing!"
And if they "convince" the current guy to let the guy out, or maybe if they just kill the current guy the spell may be released, the former Headmaster will be restored and he will certainly be grateful!
Whatever you choose, you've already got a great idea, so just HAVE FUN!
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
What I suggest is don't worry about doing things right. There is no right. There is only fun.
An alternative to finding some monster that fits the sort of monster that you want to be behind the mystery, you can make a new one. Just take a monster that has interesting abilities and "change how it looks". Maybe give it an ability to charm people or inflict fright. Then you've just created a whole new type of monster. I think that solution gives your adventure a lot of character and personality, rather than just trying to retell the stories other people have already told. A good way to think about it is that you aren't running an adventure in Toril, but rather your Toril. You can change things, you can make decisions about the ultimate mysteries of the world, you can do anything to make it your own.
Thanks so much to each of you! I am going to combine several of your suggestions into the full scheme.
The original Headmaster, originally from Zakhara, was found by his markeen-hayan just as he reached adulthood. Before completing his inspired "immortal work", he used a series of spell scrolls to cast Imprisonment on the markeen and trap it in Slumber. He kept it with him, using it's inspirational magic to enhance his own artistic endeavors as he traveled the world until eventually settling here in SaltEnd Landing where he built an underground tomb with the school above. He convinced one of the original teachers, a powerful wizard, to create a ritual whereby they siphoned the markeen's inspirational magic and imparted it to all of their students.
Our morally challenged teacher of today will tell them that she had been searching for answers and found an old diary in the library written by the original Headmaster. The diary led her to discover the entrance to this tomb but, she has not worked up the courage to investigate it.
They'll eventually find a slumbering person, looking exactly like the portrait of the original headmaster hanging in the library. I will have the tomb guarded by a version of the Enigmirror who has adopted the sleeping markeen and kept the siphon working after the Wizard teacher passed away. This modified version would not incorporate the "ordinary object" & "in their dreams" aspect but instead simply remain in the tomb to protect its curiosity & maternal attachment to the sleeping creature. The theft of emotion was/is an unintended consequence of it's benevolent intentions. The current, and all other Headmasters before him, were unaware of the tomb & ritual and had no explanation for the loss of emotion from the students, simply assuming that intense creativity/skill in a creature cannot last forever...
My players have a Level 11 Cleric NPC that they could ask for assistance to Dispel the magic but, she lives near their home location (4 days away unless she uses a spell to travel) and, it looks like she is limited to Level 6 spells so, she would fail. This still provides a great opportunity be creative & explore even though it wouldn't work, they would feel accomplished for thinking of it - I'll make sure she makes them feel good about it, they love her and she has always encouraged them well.
She could then make a helpful suggestion that they should tour the school with detect magic "on repeat" so they might follow the threads of the siphon and see if they lead them to the source of the spell. Most threads will simply lead to students but, a few will lead to secret doors and locked cabinets tucked away in obscure locations about the campus containing scrolls with sigils that can be combined to break the spell and free the Markeen who will want nothing more than to go back to Zakhara and seek his own kind. If the Enigmirror is still alive, it will of course want to go with him...
Thanks so much to all of you for the helpful suggestions. I won't be embarrassed or afraid next time I get stymied!
Sounds like a fantastic storyline. Your players are lucky to have such an awesome DM.