D&D 5E How to reverse the BALANCE card from a Deck of many Things

[iribaar 7]

At the end of the last story arc, I gave my players the chance to let their characters draw from a Deck of Many Things. I told them beforehand that this could up their characters and the whole campaign. They knew the risks and their characters knew too. Nonetheless, one character decided to draw a card, alongside with two NPCs.

And just as expected, the results were horrible and ed up the whole campaign. So the next story arc will focus on how the rest of the group deals with the problems. And they have A LOT of problems now. But I found a way to link all those problems together, so they can go on an epic quest to fix everything.

Everything except one thing. A very important NPC (and member/sidekick of the party) drew the BALANCE card. I don’t like to define alignments for NPCs, so I decided that the card wouldn’t just change his alignment, but completely alter his personality. Before, he was funny, genuine and a little insecure. Now he’s serious, deceiving and confident. And the players HATE it ^^. They want their old friend back.

So now I’m looking for a way to reverse the effect of the BALANCE card. I want to give the players the opportunity and chance to fix their friend. And this solution should be plausible and hard to achieve. I described the Deck of Many Things as this mystic and powerful artifact, which could change the world. So it shouldn’t be too easy to reverse its doings.

Are there any artifacts, spells, locations, events, deities, races, monsters or historical figures associated with changing ones personality? We play D&D 5e in the Forgotten Realms Setting, but I’m open to suggestions from every edition or setting.

I know that there is a helmet that can change the alignment of its wearer, but I’m looking for a more permanent (and epic) solution. Some planes can affect ones alignment, but that’s not really what I’m looking for. And of course they could try to find another Deck of any Things and draw the right card, but my players will never ever draw a card from such a deck again ^^. (They’re not that stupid).

Your suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

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(P.S.: HELLO to whoever edited my post. It's okay that you exchanged all the swear words with smileys. Fine by me. But next time I would REALLY appreciate it, if you would not mess up my whole post in the process. You left behind a real mess. Strange symbol instead of line breaks. Not good. No wonder nobody answered so far. Be more careful, thx).

 

[Tormyr]

Gosh, so much opportunity here for a permanent consequence to an action. Your effect from the balance card is great. Having him turn into a behind the scenes villain would also work nicely. I know you are looking for a way to fix it, but it seems like this is going to be one of the great stories of your group.

What does the NPC want? Does he want to be "fixed"? Would he try to fight it? Would he view the attempt to fix him as a betrayal?

A simple wish spell could reverse this effect, but it could cause unintended consequences if worded poorly.

EDIT: I think the forum software automatically censors certain words. If it is edited by a moderator, I think it would have said, "last edited by...". As for loss of formatting there was some weirdness happening on the forums last night. I am not sure anyone actually edited your post, but I could be wrong.

 

[mellored]

Destroy the deck of many things, which can only be done from inside the deck itself.

Make a dungeon for each card and have them battle their way through it (in random order). At the end of each dungeon, they can activate that card's power (and thus use balance again to restore their friend). Though they still need to go through the whole deck to get back out.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I would say:

1. The Fates card from the Deck of Many Things would certainly work.

2. The Vizier card from the Deck of Many Things would let you learn exactly how to reverse the effects.

Beyond that you're looking at wishes and divine intervention.

(P.S.: HELLO to whoever edited my post. It's okay that you exchanged all the swear words with smileys. Fine by me. But next time I would REALLY appreciate it, if you would not mess up my whole post in the process. You left behind a real mess. Strange symbol instead of line breaks. Not good. No wonder nobody answered so far. Be more careful, thx).

This is built into the software that runs the forums. The boards try to be open to all ages.

Personally, I think it's a waste of time on a sentiment left over from 10 years ago. Kids don't use discussion forums. They use Reddit. It would be much less irritating if it just asterisked them out.

 

[aco175]

I smell a quest and good roleplaying opportunity coming up. Great job getting the players to want to strike up a quest. Ask them what their characters are doing to find something out about altering the NPC. I usually get good ideas from listening to the players talk among themselves- and then steal the ideas.

I think a quest to a lost library to find information on a secret pool. A portal that needs to be opened, and finding a way to open it, that leads to the fey realm. A negotiation with the keeper of the pool entrance and a battle with the monsters who have hijacked the pool. Of course, the NPC may need to be kept in the dark about why they are going to this place or he may not want to go. He may look on his personality as fine and not need changing.

 

[Maxperson]

Destroy the deck of many things, which can only be done from inside the deck itself.

Make a dungeon for each card and have them battle their way through it (in random order). At the end of each dungeon, they can activate that card's power (and thus use balance again to restore their friend). Though they still need to go through the whole deck to get back out.

I'd do a variant of this. Each dungeon is themed to the card. Beat the dungeon and that card is destroyed. They can try to destroy all the cards, or just proceed until the balance card is gone. Up to them.