D&D General Sunday Fun: The PCs are left holding the bag. What's in it?

[Reynard]

I had an idea for a loose campaign background and structure and thought it would be fun to come up with the details here collectively.

One their very first adventure, the PCs end in possession of something extremely valuable. Whatever it is, there are going to be a lot of factions and individuals, from elder dragons to archmages to crime lords to angelic hosts, that are going to want it. The PCs need to keep it out of everyone's hands. Maybe they couldn't give it up if they tried. Maybe they need it to live. I'm not sure.

So if this was the basic idea handed to you as GM, or you were a player in such a game, what should the Thing be? What would be the most fun McGuffin to center such a campaign around? And with that, who would you use as the major players who want to get ahold of it, and how would they aim to do that?

 

[Nutation]

First, I would stretch out the suspense. The box can't be opened, the inscription can't be interpreted, etc. Eventually, I would either (1) tie it in to a character background or (2) introduce the grateful and powerful patron who reclaims the item and spurs the next phase of the campaign.

 

[Seramus]

A bottled wish is the easiest answer, the glass of the bottle swaddled with warnings that the wish will end in misfortune. But everyone thinks they can word it right, or try to keep it from the hands of people who won't heed the warnings, or use it to smite their enemies in spite of the consequences.

 

[ilgatto]

I suppose my first question would be what level the PCs are. If the adventure in question would actually be their very first adventure ever, does that make them first level? If so, the item may well have to provide the PCs with some form of protection from the various elder dragons, archmages, crime lords, and angelic hosts that are gonna be hot on their tail, especially if the PCs have no clue as to what they've been handed.

 

[J.Quondam]

Baby Yoda.

 

[Reynard]

I suppose my first question would be what level the PCs are. If the adventure in question would actually be their very first adventure ever, does that make them first level? If so, the item may well have to provide the PCs with some form of protection from the various elder dragons, archmages, crime lords, and angelic hosts that are gonna be hot on their tail, especially if the PCs have no clue as to what they've been handed.

That was my idea, yes: 1st level characters neck deep in major faction issues. D&D directed by the Coen Brothers.

 

[ilgatto]

Hmm... so how to go about preventing the PCs from being obliterated the second one of the crime lords or evil versions of the archmages et al. get wind of what they have?
Maybe the item hides its own presence until certain conditions are met - i.e., the PCs have some flesh on their bones?
Maybe the item can only function at peak efficiency if it is in the shared possession of multiple entities/parties, with the first to find it required to be one of these parties?
Maybe the item is so obscure that no entity alive, dead, or deific even remembers it exists? With the exception of this one (mad?) creature/entity that will always be around as long as the item exists and can be used to start the ball rolling?
Just thinking out loud, mind you.

 

[TwoSix]

I recently started a Dark Sun game with a similar premise, where at the end of the first session the PCs found a hidden underground aquifer being continually replenished with multiple decanters of endless water.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A statuette of a bird of prey, painted black.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

I like the Wish idea, and here's a twist:

So some person, the Instigator, encountered a very powerful genie in his travels across the planes. He made a wish, and a wish of some incredible magnitude. Not just something minor, but rather something like "The Great Wheel shall be under my control".

Someone, possibly a deity, said "Screw this crap" and interrupted the wish's fulfillment and froze it in time, to destroy it, but something happened and before the deity could destroy the wish, it was lost on the material plane.

Someone mishandling the wish by, for example, breaking the item it is contained within, will resume the process that was begun by the Instigator, and make the Instigator the lord of the multiverse.

Faction ideas

• The Instigator: He controls one faction that he manipulates in order to find the wish and unfreeze it
• The Interloper: Someone who wants to take the wish and magically transform it so that HE/SHE is the new benefactor once it is complete
• The Deity: Wants to prevent the wish from being reactivated