Half-baked dungeon encounter idea -- just something I've been kicking around in my head. It evolved from a piece of dungeon dressing I included in a session: a partially preserved woman encased in a jelly-like substance (an NPC goblin child referred to her as the "icky jelly lady"). The following involves some of my musings about a possible backstory for this woman.
"Bootstraps and Butterflies: The Nechronomantic Oracle" (with apologies to the spellchecker)
While traveling through unexplored territory, the party encounters inscriptions/monuments from some long-forgotten civilization. Most/all are dedicated to some ancient ruler -- the inscriptions (so far as they can be understood) are of the "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings" variety. Of course, the party has never heard of him/her.
The party eventually discovers this ruler's tomb, which is guarded by level-appropriate undead. These undead creatures were servants of the ruler who were entombed with him/her to ensure the ruler's tomb and legacy would be preserved. But moments before the party encounters these guardians, they first encounter the very much dead but partially preserved Nechronomantic Oracle (a.k.a. the "icky jelly lady").
When the party encounters the oracle, those present roll a Charisma (or Wisdom?) saving throw, and the lowest result will become temporarily enthralled by the oracle. The party member thus enchanted enters a sort of split-consciousness:
- One part remains aware of their surroundings but is unable to speak or act.
- The other part is whisked back in time to the day our "Ozymandias" is to be entombed, and find themselves "co-inhabiting" a strange body which in a reflection reveals itself to be the living version of the dead woman in the dungeon (the "icky jelly lady"). The player shares the experiences of the woman, but is unable to take independent action unless the woman should cede control to the player -- this would then become a sort of Ramtha situation, I guess. The player can, however, communicate with the woman mentally/telepathically. Sitting across from the woman/player is a priest/priestess, and standing off to the side is a row of servants/warriors who hope to receive the honor of being entombed with their ruler. Some or all of these folks will end up being the undead protectors of the tomb.
The oracle "taking possession" (and vice versa) of a player triggers the tomb's undead guardians to animate and attack the party. The enthralled player is aware of the combat, but is unable to participate in it directly. This player can, however, exert a sort of influence on the combat as will be explained below.
In the 'entombment day' version of the enthralled player, the task of the priest/priestess is to use the 'icky jelly lady' as an oracle to determine which servants will be effective guardians of the tomb. The people the enthralled player sees lined up next to the priest/priestess can be identified with their undead versions by stature, clothing, armor, and weapons. The enthralled player can help their comrades by persuading the oracle and priest/priestess that certain servants will make poor guardians.
In game terms -- and this could become a record-keeping nightmare -- the combat would be run as straight-forward combat, and the enthralled players turn would be a conversation in the deep past. If the player successfully persuades the oracle to tell the priest/priestess that a particular servant is unworthy to be a guardian, the corresponding undead would be removed from the combat as if it were never there, and any damage dealt by that undead would be negated. (It's cheesy, I know, but what're you going to do?)
There's a wrinkle that can come into play: the 'oracle' is not aware that she, too, is to be entombed. If the enthralled player should mention that she will be encased in jelly (perhaps later that same day), she will not welcome the news and may try to conspire with the player to try to avoid that fate. This could have ramifications large or small for the campaign world; it's possible that the woman successfully avoids her fate, and the encounter with the 'icky jelly lady' never happens at all. Maybe there isn't even a tomb for the players to discover. Or maybe the woman goes on to achieve greatness in her own right, and commissions inscriptions expressing gratitude to the player that the party can stumble across.
Anyway, that's about as far as I've gotten in my musings. There's a decent chance the whole thing could fall flat; I don't expect I'll ever use it, but it's been kind of fun to think about.
But mostly I wanted to use this as an excuse to resurrect this thread.
