Ideas to keep artifacts away from BBEG? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Ideas to keep artifacts away from BBEG?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
cc103
Dec 29, 2012 22:27:54 Hey everyone,

I'm looking for ideas, magical or otherwise, to hide some artifacts from a BBEG thats seeking them. Our DM has a great world going, and we're collecting these dragon orbs and the bad guys are collecting them as well. (yes, weve made all the dragon ball jokes already)

Our main problem is the BBEG is coming for what we've collected. Does anyone know of any wonderous items or other things you could suggest that we could use to hide them? We're in a pretty high magic city at the moment so I think he'd make stuff available in shops or tracking down someone to make it.

If you need more info let me know. Posting half asleep at the moment, but any help would be super appreciated! Thanks!
#2
Matyr
Dec 29, 2012 22:58:57 Character level and system?
#3
Neutronium_Dragon
Dec 30, 2012 2:08:54 And setting? (It's a very different picture if you're playing Dragonlance...)
#4
EnglishLanguage
Dec 30, 2012 3:23:19 Bag of Holding

Use the Self-Holding Bag ritual to pretty much put the Bag of Holding inside itself(and you can pull it out anytime by simply grabbing the air and pulling out, or putting it back in the same way). It lasts 24 hours though, so it does have to be recast each morning.
#5
cc103
Dec 30, 2012 8:50:03
Character level and system?

4E and we're all level 15. It's a homebrew world but similiar to the points of light world the DM guide sets up, we have access to the shadowfell and feywild.
#6
cc103
Dec 30, 2012 9:00:42
Bag of Holding

Use the Self-Holding Bag ritual to pretty much put the Bag of Holding inside itself(and you can pull it out anytime by simply grabbing the air and pulling out, or putting it back in the same way). It lasts 24 hours though, so it does have to be recast each morning.

That ritual looks good. Looking for something with a bit longer duration but this'll be good in a pinch. Thanks!
#7
Matyr
Dec 30, 2012 10:33:33 Why not fight the BBEG and take him down? If you know where he is going to be when he comes at you can you not lay-in-wait for him?

Also, how big is everything you are hiding? Is it possible for you to open a portal to the astral sea, toss everything in a Leomund's Chest and chuck the chest through the portal?
#8
cc103
Dec 30, 2012 18:35:51
Why not fight the BBEG and take him down? If you know where he is going to be when he comes at you can you not lay-in-wait for him?

Also, how big is everything you are hiding? Is it possible for you to open a portal to the astral sea, toss everything in a Leomund's Chest and chuck the chest through the portal?

At this point he's just too tough for us to take out.

The orbs can change size and be taken down to the size of a marble. Checking out that ritual now, thanks for pointing me in that direction!
#9
salla
Dec 30, 2012 18:39:04 Do you need them for some purpose of your own, or are you just trying to keep the BBEG from doing things with them?

If it's the latter, do some research on them and figure out how to destroy the ones you've collected. If he needs all of them for some nefarious purpose, that officially renders him hosed.
#10
0akenshield9
Dec 30, 2012 19:11:00 My familiarity with dragon orbs is that of Dragonlance: It is JUST easier to smash em if you dont need em. Maybe use them to get a dragon to go kill BBEG for you, since you then dont need to actually be strong enough for him.

No-one can fight a couple dragons at once...
#11
vitamin_q
Jan 01, 2013 0:27:26 The ritual 'Hallowed Temple' and the magic item 'Exodus knife" could each allow you to protect them for 8 hours.
I second the recomendation of opening a portal to the astral sea, and hiding them in a leomunds chest on some distant earth mote. You could also use the item "gloves of storing" to hold 2 of them a piece. This ensures that he will not get them without incapacitating the party.
#12
merb101
Jan 02, 2013 7:26:44 The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point.

It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ...
#13
salla
Jan 02, 2013 10:19:21
The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point.

It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ...

This is definitely one of those cases where my first thought would be 'Let's see if we can destroy this thing'.
#14
merb101
Jan 02, 2013 10:37:32
The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point.

It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ...

This is definitely one of those cases where my first thought would be 'Let's see if we can destroy this thing'.

Yeah, they are looking into that, but it leads them into much more dangerous territory, and the group decided the weapon still would be safer with them than trying to hide it somewhere.

Not everyone is prepared to march into Mordor ;)
#15
Hengeyokai
Jan 04, 2013 6:01:16 I'd do the cool bag trick and then make a load of fakes and give them out to the party. Make sure that nobody knows about the fakes outside the party. If a party member is then in a situation where they have to give up an orb they can just yell "NEVER!" and distroy it, or better yet make him think you ported it to another dimention so he has a chance of running off on a pointless quest. Make sure you all have clear plans on how to distroy the fakes in a way that looks real. (Villan running off and leaving his home base ungarded is also a cool plot-hook)
#16
dorandorx
Jan 04, 2013 10:03:22 Swallow them
#17
Matyr
Jan 04, 2013 10:19:28
Swallow them

Holy simple and awesome bat-man.
#18
Beldak_Serpenthelm
Jan 04, 2013 10:22:57 And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right?
#19
salla
Jan 04, 2013 12:45:55
And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right?

Or waiting for a while ...
#20
WolfLordBran
Jan 04, 2013 14:27:33
And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right?

Or waiting for a while ...

Cut back on fiber consumption and eat some hardtack. That'll keep those bad boys backed up for a while
#21
Hengeyokai
Jan 04, 2013 15:41:01 One fun thing you could do with that sword (if DM lets you) is raid a dungeon and then turn all the monsters undead and find some way to lure the Necros in (well, they wanted undead monsters, right?). Maybe you could make it seem like the sword was in there with magic or spread a rumour it was. Hell, you could even use ilusion to make it look like a litch killed the party and walked off towards the cave with the sword. Then all you have to do is hide the sword and wait until the necromancers go looking in the cave to spring a trap while they are fighting their way through the hordes.
#22
salla
Jan 04, 2013 15:53:19
And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right?

Or waiting for a while ...

Cut back on fiber consumption and eat some hardtack. That'll keep those bad boys backed up for a while

"The world shall be saved ... by cheese."

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 cc103 Dec 29, 2012 22:27:54	Hey everyone, I'm looking for ideas, magical or otherwise, to hide some artifacts from a BBEG thats seeking them. Our DM has a great world going, and we're collecting these dragon orbs and the bad guys are collecting them as well. (yes, weve made all the dragon ball jokes already) Our main problem is the BBEG is coming for what we've collected. Does anyone know of any wonderous items or other things you could suggest that we could use to hide them? We're in a pretty high magic city at the moment so I think he'd make stuff available in shops or tracking down someone to make it. If you need more info let me know. Posting half asleep at the moment, but any help would be super appreciated! Thanks!
#2 Matyr Dec 29, 2012 22:58:57	Character level and system?
#3 Neutronium_Dragon Dec 30, 2012 2:08:54	And setting? (It's a very different picture if you're playing Dragonlance...)
#4 EnglishLanguage Dec 30, 2012 3:23:19	Bag of Holding Use the Self-Holding Bag ritual to pretty much put the Bag of Holding inside itself(and you can pull it out anytime by simply grabbing the air and pulling out, or putting it back in the same way). It lasts 24 hours though, so it does have to be recast each morning.
#5 cc103 Dec 30, 2012 8:50:03	Character level and system? 4E and we're all level 15. It's a homebrew world but similiar to the points of light world the DM guide sets up, we have access to the shadowfell and feywild.
#6 cc103 Dec 30, 2012 9:00:42	Bag of Holding Use the Self-Holding Bag ritual to pretty much put the Bag of Holding inside itself(and you can pull it out anytime by simply grabbing the air and pulling out, or putting it back in the same way). It lasts 24 hours though, so it does have to be recast each morning. That ritual looks good. Looking for something with a bit longer duration but this'll be good in a pinch. Thanks!
#7 Matyr Dec 30, 2012 10:33:33	Why not fight the BBEG and take him down? If you know where he is going to be when he comes at you can you not lay-in-wait for him? Also, how big is everything you are hiding? Is it possible for you to open a portal to the astral sea, toss everything in a Leomund's Chest and chuck the chest through the portal?
#8 cc103 Dec 30, 2012 18:35:51	Why not fight the BBEG and take him down? If you know where he is going to be when he comes at you can you not lay-in-wait for him? Also, how big is everything you are hiding? Is it possible for you to open a portal to the astral sea, toss everything in a Leomund's Chest and chuck the chest through the portal? At this point he's just too tough for us to take out. The orbs can change size and be taken down to the size of a marble. Checking out that ritual now, thanks for pointing me in that direction!
#9 salla Dec 30, 2012 18:39:04	Do you need them for some purpose of your own, or are you just trying to keep the BBEG from doing things with them? If it's the latter, do some research on them and figure out how to destroy the ones you've collected. If he needs all of them for some nefarious purpose, that officially renders him hosed.
#10 0akenshield9 Dec 30, 2012 19:11:00	My familiarity with dragon orbs is that of Dragonlance: It is JUST easier to smash em if you dont need em. Maybe use them to get a dragon to go kill BBEG for you, since you then dont need to actually be strong enough for him. No-one can fight a couple dragons at once...
#11 vitamin_q Jan 01, 2013 0:27:26	The ritual 'Hallowed Temple' and the magic item 'Exodus knife" could each allow you to protect them for 8 hours. I second the recomendation of opening a portal to the astral sea, and hiding them in a leomunds chest on some distant earth mote. You could also use the item "gloves of storing" to hold 2 of them a piece. This ensures that he will not get them without incapacitating the party.
#12 merb101 Jan 02, 2013 7:26:44	The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point. It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ...
#13 salla Jan 02, 2013 10:19:21	The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point. It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ... This is definitely one of those cases where my first thought would be 'Let's see if we can destroy this thing'.
#14 merb101 Jan 02, 2013 10:37:32	The group I DM for are trying to keep a sword with a necroshard away from a group of Necromancers who want to use the shard to raise an army. They found a higher level wizard who cast Aura Mask (lvl 8 ritual) on the sword to make it appear nonmagical. They also secured a golden eye to the scabbard, so as long as the sword is sheathed or within 20 squares of the sheathe, the ritual remains in effect. He taught one of the group's casters the ritual, but since it uses an arcana role to set the DC of magically detecting the sword, the original caster's DC is probably higher than the players can achieve at this point. It does not, however, prevent the bad guys from tracking the PCs themselves ... This is definitely one of those cases where my first thought would be 'Let's see if we can destroy this thing'. Yeah, they are looking into that, but it leads them into much more dangerous territory, and the group decided the weapon still would be safer with them than trying to hide it somewhere. Not everyone is prepared to march into Mordor ;)
#15 Hengeyokai Jan 04, 2013 6:01:16	I'd do the cool bag trick and then make a load of fakes and give them out to the party. Make sure that nobody knows about the fakes outside the party. If a party member is then in a situation where they have to give up an orb they can just yell "NEVER!" and distroy it, or better yet make him think you ported it to another dimention so he has a chance of running off on a pointless quest. Make sure you all have clear plans on how to distroy the fakes in a way that looks real. (Villan running off and leaving his home base ungarded is also a cool plot-hook)
#16 dorandorx Jan 04, 2013 10:03:22	Swallow them
#17 Matyr Jan 04, 2013 10:19:28	Swallow them Holy simple and awesome bat-man.
#18 Beldak_Serpenthelm Jan 04, 2013 10:22:57	And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right?
#19 salla Jan 04, 2013 12:45:55	And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right? Or waiting for a while ...
#20 WolfLordBran Jan 04, 2013 14:27:33	And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right? Or waiting for a while ... Cut back on fiber consumption and eat some hardtack. That'll keep those bad boys backed up for a while
#21 Hengeyokai Jan 04, 2013 15:41:01	One fun thing you could do with that sword (if DM lets you) is raid a dungeon and then turn all the monsters undead and find some way to lure the Necros in (well, they wanted undead monsters, right?). Maybe you could make it seem like the sword was in there with magic or spread a rumour it was. Hell, you could even use ilusion to make it look like a litch killed the party and walked off towards the cave with the sword. Then all you have to do is hide the sword and wait until the necromancers go looking in the cave to spring a trap while they are fighting their way through the hordes.
#22 salla Jan 04, 2013 15:53:19	And then he can't get it without a cutting weapon and a willingness to hurt people, and he doesn't have any of those, right? Or waiting for a while ... Cut back on fiber consumption and eat some hardtack. That'll keep those bad boys backed up for a while "The world shall be saved ... by cheese."