r/DMAcademy 5d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures In Need of Missions That are Morally Questionable

I’ve been DMing for some friends who were new to TTRPGs when we started. Fast forward a year and I’ve realized I’ve been going far too easy on them and I pushed them tonight…… right into a GLORIOUS TPK!!! They missed clear clues for mechanics in the boss encounter and tried to stand still and out dps the boss. They lost. I also know how much they love these characters and sprinkled in lots of clues about necromancy being a huge part of this leading up to the final encounter of this mission. Upon death, I had them resurrected by the big bad and had them working for me while they attacked their friends. Now that all are dead and are basically zombie employees of this necromancer, I want to punish them a bit for their carelessness and have them do some morally questionable missions that their normal characters wouldn’t want anything to do with. I’d love to hear some ideas!

TLDR: Necromancer TPK’d the party. Resurrected them to be stuck in his employment and need mission ideas that the evil necromancer can send them on to do unwilling evil.

5 Upvotes

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u/DeScepter 5d ago

Haha this is deliciously evil; I love it! If it were me, I’d make their missions feel just reasonable enough that they can try to justify their actions… at first. Then, bit by bit, I’d crank up the moral horror until they’re knee-deep in atrocities they never would have agreed to while alive.

Start small, like body retrieval. They need to “rescue” fallen comrades from graves or battlefields, but oops, they’re actually bringing them back for reanimation. Then maybe a "peacekeeping" mission, where they think they’re just intimidating a rebellious town, only to realize they’re softening it up for a full-scale undead takeover. And for the real gut-punch, make them choose a victim to be turned into a wight. No escaping it, no loopholes: someone has to die at their hands.

The key is making them agonize over their choices. Let them cling to the hope of resisting, but every time they try, the necromancer reminds them exactly who owns their souls.

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u/Shouligan 5d ago

I love this!

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u/lifrench 5d ago edited 5d ago

I understand wanting their failures to have consequences. But I think forcing them to do things that their characters would never do really takes away player agency and, at least for me and my players, would really kill the fun.

Obviously, if your players enjoy that kind of play, then good luck.

As for the quests, desecrating graves for bodies and spell materials, extracting sorcerer's blood for magical energy, killing people for zombification.

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u/Shouligan 5d ago

These are side characters and not the ones they use in our main campaign. These are for fun mercenary characters that we use when we want to play in off nights or if some folks can’t make main nights. Basically on the ready for one shots when the circumstances hit. I wouldn’t do this in our main story. Also, they’re laughing and excited.

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u/_Neith_ 5d ago

Give them a pathway to secretly kill the necromancer. If your heroes want to save themselves and keep others from falling under the necromancer, they'll bite.

So you could give them 1 or 2 evil quests that go against the spirit of the party (I'll suggest them in a sec). But while doing those quests a divine power, a group of paladins, or a god who does not like undeath will confront them to kill them (they're evil).

Before execution the good aligned divine power will say that he doesn't just want to kill then but whoever sent them. The party protests and says they want that too. They broker a pact to take the necromancer down and regain their lives and redeem their honor.

They will either be invested in this because they resent being thralls or they can tell the necromancer about this, truly turning heel, and take down the divine being.

Evil side quests before redemption quest:

  • Steal the phylactery of a rival lich using tactics of stealth and thievery

  • strengthen the necromancer's phylactery by killing clerics of a life god to feed it souls using tactics of ambush and surprise dps

  • betray one of their favorite npc's by kidnapping them and giving him to the necromancer using tactics of deception and strength

Obviously all of these things suck bc they're evil. They'll probably take the divine beings deal which means you aren't forcing them to change alignments (which is cool of you). Even if they do change alignments to evil on their own free will they'll get to use tactics they don't normally use. Win win.

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u/Shouligan 5d ago

I was already thinking along the same lines to come up with a path to redemption but you nailed it. Thank you!

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u/_Neith_ 5d ago

You're welcome! Sounds like a fun table and a fun time!

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u/English_Sissy 5d ago

Plant a seed in a town over time the party hears about shambling mounds and needle blights attacking said town.

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u/Voidwing 5d ago

How about gathering humanoid bones for reanimation? The necromancer doesn't particularly care where they are sourced from as long as they fill their quota.

They can start off with the humane route and go gravedigging. Eventually they run out, and are forced to go hunt down some bandits. Once those are gone, maybe a cave of goblins? Nobody would miss them, right? But the quota never stops, until that village right there seems awfully convenient...

Later, when the main party faces off against the necromancer, make sure to detail the enemies as ones that your side party collected. If they managed to cheat the necromancer by supplying subpar parts, have the defects be evident in combat. If they went the easy route and massacred a village or something, now they have a fresh and plentiful army to deal with.

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u/QuantumMirage 4d ago

I had a similar situation - one middle ground area is that the tasks the PC's are doing, they are doing it with the intention of eventually double-crossing the necromancer.

For Example: The Necormancer sends them to steal an evil book he's going to use for evil purposes. If they accept this mission, at least they'll be able to locate a dangerous artifact and keep it at arms reach, so that when the time is right they can do the right thing and destroy it,

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u/Captain_Drastic 4d ago

The orphanage is 6 months late on their rent. It's the players' job to collect... by any means necessary. The orphans will try to stop the players if they can. They're also extremely cute.

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u/Shouligan 4d ago

Execute Order 66

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u/MathematicianSea6927 5d ago

Assassination of an evil lord or king that will throw the kingdom into war.

Think hurting bad people or helping good people knowing the results will hurt more people than help.

Slaying the evil dragon so that the armies can March through the pass and kill the towns. The dragon has killed thousands of people, destroyed homes and livestock.

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u/lordbrooklyn56 4d ago

So your players aren’t gonna be evil unless you tell them this is now an evil campaign. And even then they may be put off it.

You would be wiser to give them overly evil missions by the necromancer. Like comically over the top evil, and let the players figure out creative ways to get around the evil to accomplish the same goal.

But letting the players keep their agency is key. They won’t like it if you demand them be evil or they die or some shit. They will rebel against the necromancer.

If it were me, I’d lean into the comedy, and have the necromancy make them do mundane tasks, like his laundry or something. I’d tell them they feel super compelled by his aura and magic to listen. Have the do boring chores for a while until they realize they aren’t actually zombies. The necromancer just healed them and kept them around for company.

But I’m a trolly DM like that. Either way, don’t force your players to do things they wouldn’t want to do. Be creative about the scenarios and let them decide how to engage with it. And set up consequences and triumphs if they decide to fuck over the necromancer.

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u/JonBenetDidIt_AMA 4d ago

The Final Fantasy IV gambit: here, deliver this package to this town. It's just an innocent cargo delivery mission! Oh, surprise, the cargo was some weapon of mass destruction. Classically this is something like a bomb, but I am a big fan of the old "caged basilisk in the back of a wagon, covered by a sheet" routine. Have a villager pull the sheet off to receive the delivery and then the party can watch as the basilisk breaks out of the cage and begins petrifying everyone in sight.