/tg/ I DM'ed myself into a corner because I was doing it freestyle with no notes or plan.
While exploring the necromancer's lair, the PC's came across a room with a coffin, pierced by six spears and surrounded by a ring of salt.
It is not the necromancer, but something he has contained.
What is it? What would the BBEG need to keep so contained?
The PCs want to go back and open it at some point, they couldn't agree on when, though. What are some clues to the contents I can insert to try to sway them one way or another?
What is in the coffin?
>>43756718
Inside the coffin is a child.
She is a vampire.
Since she has not had any contact with the outside world, She will be surprised when the party objects to her feeding on them.
She is useless in a fight but quite the homebody.
She also has a disease that makes your dick fall off if you bring it near her.
Give us a few details on your setting to go off of. I'm thinking failed experiment may be a good idea, but perhaps a rival.
>>43756718
The PCs find the living embodiment of the apocalypse in the coffin. She is a cute little girl and completely oblivious to her role as the sign of the end times.To avert the apocalypse she needs to grow up happy. Game is now a parenting sitcom.
>>43757366
I'm running Dungeon World, and everything is pretty loose, rules-wise.
The campaign takes place in an area where small halfling village has become a boom town due to recent discovery of gold deposits in the nearby hills.
The PCs have pieced together that hundreds of years ago, the area was settled by a small dwarf clan who allied with the local elf tribe. The alliance was sabotaged by an evil gnome (now our necromancer BBEG) who wanted to keep the mountain's wealth for himself. The sudden influx of miners has roused the gnome from his solitary study and he has been forming a plot to poison all the wells and kill off the town. The PCs have managed to foil the poisoning plot and are closing in on his sanctuary.
I was thinking that maybe the coffin contained an elven hero of old, who is now undead (could be good or corrupted evil?)
>>43757467
Forgot to mention, the Necromancer managed to get the ancient dwarves and elves to kill each other off, so now all that's left are their ruins.
>>43756718
Leave some notes of a monster created by the necro. Real fucking powerful and more crazy than you can imagine. So powerful the necro had to seal it away with spears in its vitals to stop it from regenerating so it couldn't escape. When they open it theres nothing inside but dried blood and the walls and cover are lined with deep gouges. Some crude scrawling of an unknown language takes up most of the cover. Leave it as is or possible stat up some crazy frankensteinian monster.
>>43757467
>>43757487
Vampire Dwarf King. Trapped because even in undeath the will of a Dwarf cannot be broken.
>>43757545
>dorf kept alive through sheer dorfy stubbornness
>even the necromancer BBEG couldn't kill him
I like this, but actually letting him loose might auto-solve the campaign.
>>43757575
Dwarf King's obviously insane by now, and possibly to the point of ENDING IT ALL!!! Making him a bigger bad than the Necromancer.
Perhaps the players will have to team up with their once-enemy to stop the larger threat?
>>43757599
Good ideas.
To complicate things, the party has a "smite all evil" Paladin who would be really hard to convince to team up, a chaotic-stupid barbarian who will do the dumbest shit unless the other players shout him down, a pretty wily bard, a murderhobo thief who doesn't care unless he can backstab something, and generic cleric.
>>43756718
>>43757575
Since he's a dwarf - and to stop the players from just 'releasing' him - have it so that when they open the coffin, they find it empty, with a dwarf-sized hole in the bottom.
>The hole is incredibly deep, they lose sight of a torch if they throw one down. They don't hear it land.
> Any dwarves or kobolds in the party will notice that the hole has not been dug with any tools, or at least, any conventional ones.
>The spears still hold bloodstains. An appropriate skill check will reveal that they aren't much older than a week.
At this point, you can have the little bugger pop up somewhere, somewhen in the world, as required by the plot.
>>43756718
In the box is a female clay golem with a hole carved in its chest. In the hole is a beating heart.
>through an inscription in the bbeg's journal the party learns that the bbeg struck a deal with a dark god to become an immortal lunch that didn't age.
>the catch was that his phylactery had to be the living heart of his greatest love.
>in able to lice without her he recreated her body in clay and kept her heart in its chest.
>outside of being evil he's full on Mr.freeze/Pygmalion with the golem
>this also why he's a necromancer
>>43757722
>immortal lunch that didn't age
>>43757772
>"Inside this chest, young adventurer, is the greatest artifact known to mankind."
>"What is it, Master?"
>opens the box, pic related
>>43757772
>immortal lunch
where have I heard of this before...
>>43756718
Insects OP. Lots and lots of insects.
>>43756718
Inside the box are PC's dead corpses - Necromancer used time paradox to kill them. Now PC's must avert the evens in a way which would ensure the exclusion of the future line where they died.
>>43757343
Riffing off this, I'd say make it BBEGs daughter and make BBEG's ultimate quest to cure her of vampirism, which he has attempted to do through mastery of necromancy.
She doesn't recognize her father anymore because of him changing (from obsession and/or corruption) and her memory of her death and her life prior is very hazy.
She has better memories of her mother, as her father was obsessed with learning magic and didn't have enough time for her.
She does recognize BBEG as her keeper and the one who put her in the coffin. Probably 10-20 years took place between her death and her capture. BBEG killed her vampire master in the process of capturing her.
He speared and sealed her to keep her under control. He is hesitant to attack his daughter but will "for her own good."
If the heroes and his daughter act too close in his presence it fills him with jealousy.
>>43757722
>your party takes a quest to stop a necromancer from performing an demonic ritual to become immortal
>after weeks spent braving the twisted lands around his tower, you fight through waves of undead and summoned demons into the inner sanctum
>to your surprise you find nobody there, just a plain metal box sitting on the dark throne
>at your command the elf's keen eyes dart to the vaulted ceiling, the rogue starts tapping the floor and walls with a pole, the wizard intones magic syllables to dispel illusions. they find nothing.
>just then an ominous laugh echoes through the dank chamber
>"A valiant effort, but I fear your struggles have been for naught. You see, the ritual was completed hours ago. But your heroism has amused me and I will grant you one gift before you become my servants in death: a vision of your new god's true form. Gaze upon my omnipotence!"
>the box bursts open, and the last thing you see before the world goes black is a ham sandwich and a bag of sliced apples cackling with wicked glee
>>43757864
I hate tomatoes.
>>43756718
My hopes and dreams.
