Something cool happened last night (at least, I thought it was cool LOL). My friend playing a wizard had been reading through the D&D Rules Cyclopedia and asked “Hey, there’s a Cleric spell called Sticks to Snakes. Can we make up a wizard spell for that?”
I told him no, but he could perform a ritual. He’d need a stick, a snake skin and some fresh snake venom. He’d need to place the skin over the stick and dribble the venom over it, then fuse it all together with the magic of the ritual. Then he could break the “magic snake-stick” and toss it into a pile of sticks and they’d turn into snakes. His reply was “I’M DOING IT!!”.
That’s what the entire session was about last night. The stick and snakeskin were easy to obtain (he picked up enough to make 6, but I told him if he wanted to make more than three at a time it would require a LOT more ritual time), he rolled poorly on a DD+DEX to avoid getting bitten while attempting to get some venom, but the fighter’s antitoxin took care of that. They had to battle a pair of harpies to get to a place of power he’d used before, and then he performed the ritual.
I usually just have a wizard describe what a ritual looks like, but last night I also had the rest of the party (Fighter and Thief) hold off three progressively more difficult waves of snakes (normal, venomous, constrictor) so that he could complete it.
Jason was really excited and I said we’d end the session there, but before we did he said “I want to pick up about a dozen good, straight sticks and wrap them up into a tight bundle and put them in my pack.” I can’t wait to see what he does with his new toy!
If there isn’t a “Let my people go!” riff in a later session I’ll be a little disappointed.
LOL Karlen Kendrick, I wasn’t even thinking about that (but maybe Jason is)! It may be difficult to weave the exodus into our narrative, but we’ll see what happens!
Maybe poke around in the St. Patrick history for some themes and metaphors? Are they the snake bringer or are they going to have to drive them out? Are they just going to leave the snake portal standing open? Fight a snake cult in a massive snake battle? Does anyone even have antivenom against these new kind of snakes?
That’s a great idea Marshall Miller, thanks! I really think he just wanted that spell because he thought it was cool. I have some ideas (the ritual angered the Yuan-ti in some way) but I’ll look into the St. Patrick history as well!
This reminds me of a the hex “Bones to Worms!” that the PCs were discussing with an old hermit witch in one of my old campaigns. We decided it might be one of the most painful/disgusting things you could do to someone. Yuck! No ritual was proposed to learn it themselves though… that would have been very interesting!
Snakes to stick is also useful like the evil wizard in Conan The Barbarian movie scene, that used a snake as an arrow to kill their enemies (sort of a sneaky arrow of slaying thing).
Thanks for sharing your experience!
That sounds cool Oney Clavijo! Knowing my players I’m sure the Thief will end up with one and use it as a diversion lol