Evil Idea. How do I pull it off?

[Julian Grimm]

After the running disaster that was Session 4 of my Raven's Loft Campaign I have decided that the players will now be 'punished' in one of the most vile ways possible . While this will not include the loss of life or limb it will end up with them having to pretty much 'start over' and lose everything they learned. In a nutshell they are going to have an 'accident' that leaves them dumped on Oerth right after the Greyhawk Wars.


I have already decided that the connecting factor will be something they did in a temple from the last session. The question is how to plausibly pull it off so it doesn't look forced. Any ideas?

[alcyone]

You can do it the classical way and have them strip themselves of their vestments and gifts as they go deeper into the underworld, defeating guardians along the way and leaving their possessions at each gate as a payment for the next level (and each will be a challenge based on what their current state is without their armor, their skills, or whatever.) Once at the center of it, they fall into/gain access to and find whatever terrible truth you want to inflict in this timeline and milieu in which you are placing them.

There, they must redeem themselves, find out something about themselves, undo the wrong, whatever, and their reward is maybe going back where they started, having their gifts restored, etc.

Or maybe that is the kind of being "forced" you mean.

[Acacius]

I like that Idea. Your players are lucky, both of you.

[Julian Grimm]

My two thoughts had been an accidental portal slip or finding out that they were in a demi-plane all along and not native to Aihrde. It would turn out that the one person they did not trust was trying to rescue them the whole time. A situation occurs where her hand is forced to bring them out quickly.

However, I kind of have cooled on the idea since last night and wonder if this really is the best course of action. Maybe letting themselves get into some real trouble due to their bickering and jockeying for position would be the better solution.

[Jyrdan Fairblade]

Are you talking about items, treasure, and memories, or actually wiping out their levels?

If the latter, yeah, I’d tread carefully. I think my players would mutiny if I just hoovered up their levels. Heck, some players get awfully attached to their favorite magical do-hickeys.

But really, if they’re getting so caught up in one-upmanship and squabbling, my experience is that they’ll punish themselves. Just make sure that events continue while they’re wasting time that could've be spend swording orcs.

[DMSamuel]

I would punish them with social problems - it is a hard world out there and if they don't have the support of the people, it could be difficult. This is especially true when they get arrested for things they did not do...

In other words, here is how I would do it:

While they are bickering and jockeying for position and superiority amongst themselves, their enemies are spending time setting them up for crimes they didn't commit and offenses with which they would not otherwise be associated.

It's really gonna suck when they need help from someone but the rumors in the village/town are so heavy with their misdeeds they cannot get anyone to trust them.

[Julian Grimm]

Are you talking about items, treasure, and memories, or actually wiping out their levels?

If the latter, yeah, I’d tread carefully. I think my players would mutiny if I just hoovered up their levels. Heck, some players get awfully attached to their favorite magical do-hickeys.

But really, if they’re getting so caught up in one-upmanship and squabbling, my experience is that they’ll punish themselves. Just make sure that events continue while they’re wasting time that could've be spend swording orcs.

Naw, I'm not that evil. It would be a basic world switch with everything they have done prior having to change. I was thinking something like they party was actually put into a magical stasis with some of the NPC's actually attempting to rescue them by going into their dreams/false reality. They are then awakened with their items but some confusion on what was real. Maybe Oerth was their world after all. Maybe not. Let them face some issues with where reality ends and begins. Maybe Airhde was a maze of sorts when they unwittingly crossed the Lady of Pain. She has more than enough power to do so.

The squabbling did get them to give away infor that the shouldn't. Yslar, as she has been played in the past, has her own agenda and will use a party to get needed info. She also has a history of seeming double and triple crosses to accomplish her own ends. The party will find that either way it plays out that they have been used.

Another thing I want to accomplish is the playing down of Unklar and a couple other plot threads and get them to adventuring more along the lines of a Greyhawk or Blackmoor type campaign. I have considered a time slip that puts them a few hundred years in the future as well.

[Jyrdan Fairblade]

Heh, that sounds like a cool idea. Pulling the rug out from under them like that might shake things up enough to get them back on track.

[Lurker]

Naw, I'm not that evil. It would be a basic world switch with everything they have done prior having to change. I was thinking something like they party was actually put into a magical stasis with some of the NPC's actually attempting to rescue them by going into their dreams/false reality. They are then awakened with their items but some confusion on what was real. Maybe Oerth was their world after all. Maybe not. Let them face some issues with where reality ends and begins. Maybe Airhde was a maze of sorts when they unwittingly crossed the Lady of Pain. She has more than enough power to do so.

...

That makes me think of a part of a CS Lewis story ... I can't remember which one, but the jest of it was that the goodguys were in a witch's cave, she casts a spell on them and they are confused ... is the world they see in her cave (maybe fire, it has been years sense I read it) real and the one they left a dream, or .... is her cave a dream ... To break the spell, one of them had to hurt himself (grabed a fire brand).

Now, I'm not sure how to translate that toyour scenario ...

[Julian Grimm]

I think I know how. . .

Starting off the party runs into this strange man with a wand that can do about anything. They meet him in the middle of town stepping out of a blue box with runes that spell "POLICE". . .

[Relaxo]

can any of them cast Teleport? just 'secretly roll' a teleport error next time they use it.
oh, and next time they kick open a door, it's a 10 x 10 room with 10,000 berzerking orcs... good thing that telepprt spell is handy.

[Julian Grimm]

I was doing some thinking and net browsing when I cam upon this quote from Die Vecna Die:

Even with Vecna's removal, his time in the crux effected change in superspace. Though the Lady of Pain attempts to heal the damage, the turmoil spawned by Vecna's time in Sigil cannot be entirely erased.Some Outer Planes drift off and are forever lost, others collide and merge, while at least one Inner Plane runs "aground" on a distant world of the Prime. Moreover, the very nature of the Prime Material Plane itself is altered. Half-worlds like those attached to Tovag Baragu multiply a millionfold, taking on parallel realism in what was before a unified Prime Material Plane. The concept of alternate dimensions rears its metaphorical head, but doesn't yet solidify, and perhaps it never will. New realms, both near and far, are revealed and realms never previously imagined make themselves known. Entities long thought lost emerge once more, while other creatures, both great and small, are inexplicably eradicated. Some common spells begin to work differently. The changes do not occur immediately, but instead are revealed during the subsequent months. However, one thing remains clear: Nothing will ever be the same again.

Now, let's assume that Aihrde inhabits the same universe as the other D&D worlds and that while they are adventuring the Lady of Pain banishes Vecna from Sigil and the changes start. They move not only through the multiverse but backwards and forwards through time. Part of the turmoil would be an in universe explanation for the parts of D&D I am using in C&C and the difference of the C&C rules from D&D.

The more personal effect would be the ripping of the PC's from Oerth and depositing them on Aihrde with memories of a group of people who died in the crusades (their parallel identities?). Further the reorganization of the multiverse results in Aihrde being a parallel world of Oerth which would allow for the crossing. As things calm it is discovered what happened to the PC's and someone is sent to retrieve them. They begin to discover this as they encounter a group of Iuz's Bonehearts in Blacktooth Ridge.