Redryhno said:I'll say, if they're seeing chinks in your story/plot/setup/etc., then start intentionally leaving 2 or 3 chinks in it, and when/if they exploit them, make sure you have the back-up that really messes with them, maybe not kill one of them, but make it unpleasant.
As for the Book Break you're talking about, you could make it a bit of a long arc, with them first having to find an artifact to destroy it. Give them a choice, either going after a shard of the Sword of Kas(Vecna's homebody if you don't know/remember, just say that it was destroyed in a battle against St. Cuthbert, or...it's been years since I played in Greyhawk...uh...Pelor maybe and that parts of it have been recovered by his worshippers) OR, they can go after the easier of the two, and go on a holy war against Iuz, with the intention of getting Cuthbert's favor and get him to destroy the book, which incidentally, could also get them out of trouble with the city guards that are angry at them. I've found that giving your players at the very least the illusion of choice very effective.
The Curse, on the other hand, could grant them the attention of Vecna(or they become inundated with a part of his magic/soul). Not always necessarily bad, but not good either. Critical miss, make up a table of six possibilities, which you then have them roll on, behind your GM screen of course, with 1-5 being varying levels of bad shit - lightning bolt strikes the nearest thing, ally or enemy, with half the power of their combined levels, A flamestrike centered on the character, A Bigby's Interposing hand blocking them with the worst possible consequences that you can see, that kind of thing - with a roll of SIX doing nothing, just a regular critical miss, however you handle them in your games. Of course, followers of Vecna are immune to the effects.
Just trying to give you ideas, but with combat, I advise you to use every dirty trick in the book, go into each situation with the intention of, at the very least, seriously injuring the party. My players keep coming back despite there being other options around them, so it works for me.
Yeah, I like it. Thanks for the ideas.
I was also thinking they need to find a goblin shaman that knows how to lift the curse. But then some elves attack and they have to save the goblins life.
