Modus operandi for a Marut?

[Asha'man]

In my home campaign, there is a PC who's died and been resurrected, unless I miscount, six times. I figure such an excessive number of resurrections is sufficient grounds for a Marut inevitable to be dispatched against him. Now the question is, what would the Marut's response be? Killing him would be pretty stupid, since he could just be resurrected again. And in any case, the point isn't that he should die *now*, but that he must permanently die *eventually*. But spells like Geas can't prevent someone from responding to a Resurrection spell. One thought was lifetime imprisonment. Another, taking him to Mechanus to have a contingent Trap the Soul spell or some such cast on him. Thoughts?

Edit: I forgot to mention, the character is a wizard.

 

[Runestar]

Well, you could say that raise dead prevents the wizard's soul from "rightfully" passing on (though this is inconsistent with true resurrection working on bodies dead for hundreds of years). So the marut is there to claim the soul. He will personally "escort" the soul to the afterlife. So after he is done (you will need to do some handwaving here, but it would basically involve the wizard's death again), the body can no longer be raised.

 

[moritheil]

Geas Wizard to lead Marut to the clerics who keep raising him. Geas those clerics to not raise him any more in the future. Geas wizard's party members to destroy wizard's remains should the wizard die again, instead of getting him raised.

Of course, the Marut has to win to lay down all these geasa . . .

 

[javcs]

If he dies of Old Age, he cannot be returned. You also need part of the body unless you're using True Res.
Thus, IMC, when hunting not high level types who have True Res available, the Marut takes the body with them, along with all the bits that got sliced up, to the relevant afterlife. And, IMC, when hunting high level types with True Res available, the Marut is (a) an advanced Marut, and (b) issued an item (don't have stats on me right now) that can induce rapidly accelerated aging in a target.

 

[Shin Okada]

Ultimately, Marut have to do something on that PC's soul to keep him dying for sure.

By killing that person with a weapon made of Thinaun (Complete Warrior), the Marut can kidnap the soul of the victim.

Then, the Marut can bring the Thinaun weapon back to Mechanus and keep it for centuries until no mortal casters can resurrect him (Even True Resurrection must be cast within 10 years x CL).

If the Marut made success in this soul kidnapping, bringing back that comrade's soul can be another adventure. Though, the player of that dead character must use different PC during that adventure.

Marut can destroy the victim's soul by various ways (such as let a Barghest feed on the dead body). But IMHO that is what Marut should likely to do. The thing will prefer usual cycle of souls (dead souls eventurlly goes to some appropriate outer plane).

 

[Asha'man]

Shin Okada, your thinking matches mine almost perfectly. The only difference is, I didn't think of using Thinaun. That is what I will do.

Although I'm not quite sure, as I mentioned in the OP, if the Marut would actually kill him. It feels rather heavy-handed, and I reiterate, the point isn't that he must die *now*, but that he must not be raised again. But I suppose a specially prepared killing is the only way to ensure that for high-level characters.

 

[FEADIN]

SRD:

Maruts confront those who would try to deny the grave itself.
Any who use unnatural means to extend their life span could be targeted by a marut. Those who take extraordinary measures to cheat death in some other way might be labeled transgressors as well. Those who use magic to reverse death aren’t worthy of a marut’s attention unless they do so repeatedly or on a massive scale.

6 times seems not repeatedly enough for me and in fact the poor dying wizard is not "using" magic, he is the (willing) target.
But it can be a great adventure, why the cleric has been killed by this strange creature..... because he was always cheating death by raising the wizard.

 

[moritheil]

Thus my suggestion of using geasa on the clerics the party goes to. Yes, they can be removed, but the Marut is more making a point: the cleric has attracted unfavorable attention from the multiverse. Wise clerics (and by definition clerics are supposed to be wise) will take a hint and ease up on the number of resurrections they perform.

If you really wanted to get into it, I imagine that a cleric willing to cast raise dead for just anybody would do it a heck of a lot more than six times over the course of his/her career. Thus NPC clerics (who are casting the spell a lot) would be more likely to be targets than PC clerics (who are spending most of their spell slots on other spells, because they're adventuring.) Obviously cost is a factor, but for a cleric who lives near a major city, I'd be surprised if they didn't get a request from someone who could pay for it at least once a month. Let's say ten times per year, over 30 years . . . that works out to 300 times. Six is not a number that I personally would consider large compared to that, but that's not up to me, it's up to the OP as DM.

IMC I mostly send maruts after liches.