I'm running a classic Greyhawk campaign for my son and his friends as their first campaign. It's set before Greyhawk Wars in Furyondy with a lot of stuff about Iuz and Iggwilv. They went through Fiends Embrace and the hiring sage is now an enemy who feels the party wronged him. I like to have the game world interconnected and have their actions affect other things.
That leads me to them now starting Lost Caverns of Tjsocanth. If they live, they will get Daoud's Lanthorn. It's pretty powerful and I don't want them keeping it. I'm trying to research on Daoud and who would care that his Lanthorn is back. I know:
1)-Iggwilv looted the arch mage Daoud's tomb and took the Lanthorn. This got her kicked out of Baklunish lands and she went to Greyhawk to become Tasha.
2)- Daoud is listed as a minor Baklunish diety.
That makes me think Baklunish powers would want the Lanthorn pretty badly. I don't know much about the Baklunish part of the world. Who would go after it and how? I assume different players would vie for it. Maybe some try asking and some try to take it. Any suggestions on who might take it and how? Any suggestions for adventures around it? Maybe take them into Baklunish lands? I have all the Living Greyhawk stuff for the area to at least have a few adventures.
I understand your delima, HeyChadwick. When I ran the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for my friends waaaay back when, the mage in the party claimed the Lanthorne and caused all kinds of imbalance with it. I tried all kinds of ways to rid him of it, but we were young and it caused lots of arguments. Same thing happened with Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor from White Plume Mountain.
I suggest you devise a way for them not to be able to use it. Warn them beforehand that powerful entities will be after it. If they don't willingly give it up, have a powerful demon, devil, etc. take it from them and leave them all at negative hit points. Or, you could center your entire campaign around them possessing the artifact and every powerful entity in the Flanaess and beyond keeps sending minions to take it from them.
If memory serves me right, the lanthorn requires gem lenses (and some kind of fuel?) for the powers to work. The lenses can always be made difficult/impossible to acquire/make to limit the powers of the item. Or, of course, the available lenses can be cherry picked by the DM. _________________ Dartamian
Excellent info! Thanks so much for all of it. It helps a lot. That other thread was very helpful.
So, the Lanthorn was not in Daoud's tomb, but his Vault. That must be his previous sanctum before he gave up possessions. That does matter a bit.
The other thread had discussions on the how the Church of Daoud might not want the Lanthorn due to it being part of what Daoud gave up. That gets me thinking, though, of how people always mess up things. Philosophically the dogma of the religion might not approve of the Lanthorn, but when seeing a powerful artifact that once belonged to your culture....some people might have a different idea. I think of how Borimir wanted the One Ring to fight the evil of his homeland. I think of flawed people who would want the Lanthorn as it was made by one of their own and should be in their hands, as opposed to some outlanders who will surely mis-use it. So, I can see some people wanting to acquire the Lanthorn even if it's not in the ethos of the Church of Daoud. In fact, there could be competing interests who would want to acquire it.
Instead of forcing my players to have limited use of the Lanthorn, I want to see what they would do if some Baklunish group politely asked for it back. My players are young and invested in the story more than they are power hungry. They already gave up the Fiends Embrace minor artifact as it was too powerful and evil. In the 5e version of the artifact, it does cause the owner to become paranoid with continued use.so, the party will eventually see it as a bad thing. I think I just need to create the right opportunity for someone to ask for it back.
Upon further thought, I might even make a plot line about different groups that approach the party wanting it. Some will try to bribe. Others will try to steal. Some will politely ask. They will have to make the moral choice as to who to give it to. Make a powerful ruler that wants it who will surely abuse it. Have a powerful figure want to steal it. Maybe a good group that wants to use it to fight evil. Maybe then have the Church of Daoud want it back to just keep it away from people. It can be a perfect example of how things are bad for people. Remove the temptation from the equation.
Ok.....cool. I might have to have them head into Baklunish lands for a bit!
When I ran my Lost Caverns saga, I had a competing rival faction loyal to Iuz the Old as major antagonists against the party. In my campaign, they actively sought out the hidden treasures in the Caverns, just as the party (loyal to the Archclericy of Veluna) was doing. You could do something similar and have the rival faction vying for the Lanthorn and all the other loot (primarily Iggwilv's tomes!) as well.
Or...if your party serves a country, the local government could confiscate the Lanthorn as being too dangerous to be left in the hands of the party. Whether or not you decide to 'compensate' them is up to you.
I'm running a classic Greyhawk campaign for my son and his friends as their first campaign. It's set before Greyhawk Wars in Furyondy with a lot of stuff about Iuz and Iggwilv. They went through Fiends Embrace and the hiring sage is now an enemy who feels the party wronged him. I like to have the game world interconnected and have their actions affect other things.
That leads me to them now starting Lost Caverns of Tjsocanth. If they live, they will get Daoud's Lanthorn. It's pretty powerful and I don't want them keeping it.
Also remember that if the PCs are being sponsored by one of the various nearby nations, that their sponsors may specifically be seeking the artifact, too. Some ruminations and ideas on this @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_s4.html#mordy and following.
Allan. _________________ Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/
The other idea is to LET them keep the Lanthorn, and suffer the full effects of its cursed nature.
As the old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it!"
Bear in mind the PCs won't know the true and full extent of the Lanthorn's powers at all. Only full research will reveal some of its secrets (and you could toss in a curve ball by misleading them based on what they discover), and it will take powerful and consistent uses of Divination magicks (such as Identify, Contact other Plane, Legend Lore, etc.) to reveal some of its powers.
In short, keeping the Lanthorn might end up being more 'costly' in the long run just trying to discover all of its powers. You could make it an adventure unto itself!
And then there's the monetary cost just in fueling the darned thing...and if it burns out, the owner perishes (this might be something you do NOT reveal to the PCs until it's too late...or unless they get a critical success on magical research or some-such result)!
Again, perhaps letting them keep the seemingly wonderful artifact is justice enough.
Also remember that if the PCs are being sponsored by one of the various nearby nations, that their sponsors may specifically be seeking the artifact, too. Some ruminations and ideas on this @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_s4.html#mordy and following.
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