Help me brainstorm a better bargain from Death, please?
I had a druid whose primary forms were a bird of paradise and a “sapphire gorilla”, though he listed a few other creatures as well (including a python). He was swallowed whole by a giant serpent, the avatar of a serpent god. The serpent god was about sacrifices, and turning sacrifices into snake-like creatures, of course. 🙂
Death suggested the druid could return to the land of the living, if he swore himself to the serpent god, and lived in service of him. Without hesitation, he chose to die instead of serve such a god. The complete lack of hesitation told me I should’ve made the choice more difficult.
What would you have done? What better bargain could have been offered to make my sapphire druid friend think twice?
The first thing id want to know is what do you explicitly mean by ‘socrates himself to the serpant god, and lived in service to him’? Did you buddy know what that meant before he made up his mind?
I try not to ever do any Last Breath interactions with a good, because to me, the deal is made Death, not the serpant god. This gives you more latitude to play with. What would Death want out of returning your friend back to life? Maybe death makes your buddy to promise to kill the Serpant God within the next fortnight and hands your buddy a temporary be boon or weapon.
If you want to stick with the Last Breath deal being made by the serpant, maybe he makes your friend vow to sacrifice an innocent animal that is native to your buddies homeland every full moon, therefore removing that animal as a polymore option. Or the serpant requires your buddy to only turn into serpant type animals. Or the serpant requires a tribute of 3 hides of sacred animals from your druids home, etc.
Overall, remember these things:
1) Last Breaths are deals made by death to return the player back for some reason. That reason needs to be more appealing to Death than having the player go through to their after life. Death wants that player to achieve something that Death can’t do on their own. (The serpant can have anyone be a follower, but your druid friend is the only one who can X)
2) Last Breath deals need to lead to more story. Stay away from things like ‘Dude wants your dungeon rations’. Make it lead somewhere worth going, ‘Death wants you to bring him a Twice Baked Honey Cake, stolen from the King’s plate during his inauguration speech.’
3) Lastly, what ever entity is making the deal with your player for their life needs to have wants, goals, and existence outside of what your player sees. Related to number 1, why would Death even care to make a deal, but also, why would Death also want them dead in the first place. I like to show death having an argument with himself about if he should even be offering a deal at all. Ie, Death would really like to add the druid to his collection of souls, but he also thinks he can get an even more impressive trophy if the druid kills the Lich at Morgas Landing.
Hope this helps.
Thanks! We’re on the same page. Didn’t mean to indicate I’m new to DW, just interested in hearing other’s creative ideas. 🙂
Death said the god provided more souls to Death/the afterlife, suggesting maximizing the population of his/her kingdom was Death’s motivation. I thought that the Good druid serving a god represented by a large animal that takes sacrifices would lead to interesting story.
Of course, this was also a one shot. The character dying made for a dramatic ending. From that perspective, I succeeded. His narration of his epilogue was great, too.
I would enjoy hearing what other people might have come up with in that situation.
I would have suggested that because the snake god turns sacrifices into snakes, he takes souls away from Death, and I would have had Death bargain to have the druid kill another snake sect for his soul to be returned to him.
“You’re twin souled, my friend. Living the part of the civilized man and the beast of the wilds. I shall have my due, but I needn’t be cruel about it. Either of the yous within you will suffice.
Which of you comes with me, and which of you stays behind?”
(Probably take his/her speech if the animal half stays behind. Force a reclass going forward if the man half stays, heavily slanting the flavor towards a more controlling/dominating relationship instead of a mutually respectful one with nature whenever they do anything druidic. Animals snarl and sneer at them, trees try to drop limbs on them, they never fit in when in an animal form, etc.)
That is a good point, steelsmiter. Thanks!
I dig that, a lot, Sean Fager. There’s already been talk of introducing an intelligent gorilla race for this player to pick up. Thank you!