Here is the quick of it. My group is playing a pirate themed homebrew campaign where we take turns being the DM (it takes the load off of one person immensly) and we sometimes introduce props for more emersive play. The last session, the players were actually given a rolled up piece of parchment and were told "this will lead you to the sandman (our lv5 boss)." Now in actuality the DM gave us a beautiful blank rolled up piece of nicely stained and aged looking paper and said that I can do whatever I want with it.
So here's the question.
I have a mysterious piece of paper that will lead me to the boss. What is on it when the crew opens it up?
Something must be done to it to reveal its secrets (heat-revealed ink, salt-revealed markings, runes reveals by magical light, whatever). Once revealed, the contents (could be a riddle, map, star chart, whatever) lead to a location that'll complete the information (points of light line up to reveal something, a charcoal rubbing fills in the missing parts or omits irrelevant parts, whatever) to the location. (2FA and all that.)
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
The parchments discolouration is due to sand. When the parchment is submerged in sea water a map is revealed pointing the way to the location of "the Sandman". If touched whilst wet the map seeps off the parchment onto the flesh of whoever touches it and becomes a tattoo which grants them the ability to use the Arcane Eye spell once per long rest without using a spell slot or material components.
This should then give the party a way to locate the where-abouts of the sandman and also do some information gathering ahead of time. I would assume this item was created by a rival to the Sandman so you might also have them come looking for it which might lead to a very uncomfortable siuation if they want the map back.
EDIT: the parchment might also need to radiate a combination of Divination and Transmutation magic to hint there is more to it.
Here is the quick of it. My group is playing a pirate themed homebrew campaign where we take turns being the DM (it takes the load off of one person immensly) and we sometimes introduce props for more emersive play. The last session, the players were actually given a rolled up piece of parchment and were told "this will lead you to the sandman (our lv5 boss)." Now in actuality the DM gave us a beautiful blank rolled up piece of nicely stained and aged looking paper and said that I can do whatever I want with it.
So here's the question.
I have a mysterious piece of paper that will lead me to the boss. What is on it when the crew opens it up?
It looks blank.
Something must be done to it to reveal its secrets (heat-revealed ink, salt-revealed markings, runes reveals by magical light, whatever). Once revealed, the contents (could be a riddle, map, star chart, whatever) lead to a location that'll complete the information (points of light line up to reveal something, a charcoal rubbing fills in the missing parts or omits irrelevant parts, whatever) to the location. (2FA and all that.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
How about this:
The parchments discolouration is due to sand. When the parchment is submerged in sea water a map is revealed pointing the way to the location of "the Sandman". If touched whilst wet the map seeps off the parchment onto the flesh of whoever touches it and becomes a tattoo which grants them the ability to use the Arcane Eye spell once per long rest without using a spell slot or material components.
This should then give the party a way to locate the where-abouts of the sandman and also do some information gathering ahead of time. I would assume this item was created by a rival to the Sandman so you might also have them come looking for it which might lead to a very uncomfortable siuation if they want the map back.
EDIT: the parchment might also need to radiate a combination of Divination and Transmutation magic to hint there is more to it.