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

[Vaalingrade]

The briefcase from Pulp Fiction.

 

[payn]

Another McGuffin adventure? Why not flip it on its head? Ever seen that film The Gods Must be Crazy? The skinny is folks think a piece of trash is some gift from heaven but causes all kinds of problems so one brave soul is charged with a quest to Toss it over the edge of the world.

 

[bedir than]

One of the keys when you start the pursuit of the PCs those pursuing should be minions and third lieutenants looking to climb the power ladder of the organization. When the actual leaders of the factions learn of the item the PCs are tier appropriate.

Also, I like payn's idea a lot. It's not a useful item at all. It's just a thing that fed the rumor mill.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I like the idea of combining all of these.

The Hoozit is functionally indestructible and is immune to divination magic (short of a god's avatar being on the same plane). It behaves like a cursed item, always returning to its owner...until they die. Whoever picks it up next becomes its owner.

The Hoozit isn't jewelry, shield or a primary weapon, though it could be used as a simple weapon doing d3 damage. It looks valuable (I.e. golden/shiny) but isn't made of any known material. It doesn't have a clear use but might be used as several simple tools. Think an ahnk about a foot across with some weird curves and oddly sharp bits but its either oddly heavy or oddly light. It's awkward for everyone to hold...at least everyone humanoid...

The Hoozit has no visible effects but is attributed numerous non-visible powers. Improved defenses, attributes, skills, precognition and more.

The Hoozit is surrounded by contradictory prophecies (it will restore the crown to the House of Dalos, it will take topple the House of Dalos from the throne, etc) which are either all hokum or are all true but separated by millenia.

The Hoozit has been lost for more than a century. Until the PCs find it...not that they should realize it at first. To make it funny, have the PCs have to work together to pull the Hoozit loose from a glacier or a rock so it belongs to all of them. Which has its own set of prophecies....

Then as a GM every so often roll an extra die during a fight, frown, and say "huh....the monster missed...." Watch them lose their mind trying to figure out what's happening.

 

[Oofta]

A statuette of a bird of prey, painted black.

A falcon perhaps?

 

[Oofta]

The McGuffin is a perfectly preserved head. Occasionally it talks, sometimes coherently, sometimes babbling. It seems to be confused that it's only a head.

In theory it's valuable because of some secrets that it knows, the location of a great treasure that only it can access or some power it has. Maybe it's gone insane, maybe it doesn't really know anything. Most likely? It's pretending to be insane but doesn't know who the PCs are and it doesn't trust them. Perhaps that can change.

 

[monsmord]

Baby Yoda.

Taking this one step...down...

How about a nondescript service animal, like a pony or mule? It bears a special mark, deformity, or other feature that endears it to the party, and may seem smarter, stronger, more hardy, or more capable than others of its kind, though not supernaturally so, just enough of an "NPC" to make selling it distasteful. Somehow it miraculously survives every encounter, and may even aid the party in some rudimentary way. If they do sell it, or its stolen, it somehow escapes and returns to them, or comes back to them via some darkly coincidental event (sold to a caravan, which the PCs later overtake and find obliterated, all but their friend there...)

Unknown even to the animal, at first, is that it's not the animal, or not exactly. A previously dead god or demigod being re-planed? A polymorphed amnesiac dragon, or one that can't undo the spell and secretly guides its "owners" on a path to find the cure (and therefore maybe its the source of the rumors)? An artifact or relic that assumes whatever form it needs to obtain its own power-mongering or dimension-hopping objective? The prophecied beast that will end, or feed, a great evil? Etc.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

Another idea.

The Incomprehensible Machine.

The item in question is a box, inside of which is some kind of mechanical contraption. The box is convenient to carry, having a carrying handle and the insides are padded. Inside is this weird thing made from gears and everything you can imagine, and the thing looks expensive as heck. The handiwork is amazing. This was not made by an amateur.

The Machine in question is a creation of Zenzen the Arcane (no longer alive), the greatest mechanical genius of the multiverse. Alas the machine is unfinished. The true purpose of a completed machine is probably known only to Zenzen himself.

There is a trick here. Zenzen had an apprentice, Garland the Great. Garland was an artificer of minimal renown. The truth is that Garland was a spy on a mission and he found being Zenzen's apprentice a convenient position for his current job.

Garland stole The Documents from some important dignitaries. Whatever they are they are of IMMENSE value. They are not magical nor of magical importance. Rather they are bureaucratically important to a small group of people who can put their contents to use. They might be a map of portals ideal for a valuable trade route, they might be war plans for invading Sembia. Whatever they are they are valuable and extremely mundane... And they are hidden inside the padding of the box the machine is stored in.

• One faction wants the box in order to recover the secret documents
• One faction wants the box because they believe the machine itself is very valuable and possibly magical

For best effect the players should not know that there are secret documents inside the padding.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

You've read the Colour of Magic, right? Take something akin to the spell that's stuck in Rincewind's head, and either multiply it so each party member has one of their own (possibly with slightly conflicting motivations) or keep it at one cosmically-potent semi-sentient arcane formula and have it move around between the PCs as it likes so no one's ever quite positive who's hosting at the moment. Don't take it too literally, no need to de-power your poor casters, but having the spell(s) grant the host nigh-immunity to death or serious maiming through absurd improbabilities in exchange for some bad luck/weirdness magnet effects could be okay.

 

[Reynard]

Is it more fun if the PCs know what they have right off the bat, or not? In your typical inept caper film, the crew realizes they have a duffle bag full of cocaine worth millions and the fun is them trying to dodge mobsters, feds, bounty hunters and each others' ambitions while trying to figure out how to sell it. In this D&D scenario, if they find the Orb of Dragonkind, they should know what they have and know that wizards, dragons, dragon cults and paladins will be trying to get it from them. it isn't really worth anything on its own to the 1st level party, but they could possibly sell it...

Or, it is more fun if they don't know what they have? Say they find an ornate box with a dragon motif, but can't open it or divine what is inside. Yet, wizards, dragons, dragon cultists and paladins keep showing up trying to get box.