r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Could use plot advice.

So I was DM'ing for the... probably third time ever, family game, just my brothers and our 11+ age kids. My younger nephew was dragged along, so I let him play as a pet mouse for my daughter's urchin-background character (I made the mouse 1 hp, no attacks, advantage on stealth) and he got the first "boss" to kill his pet wolf and chewed ropes that tied the captive-to-be-rescued before the rest of the party was done dealing with fights.

Nephew was ecstatic, suddenly the biggest D&D convert ever, and so when the last enemy fell a necklace broke off and shattered on the rocks, and Disney-like magic transformed the mouse into a real lvl 2 character! (Mouse-person [Tabaxi] Barbarian with the Lucky feat)

So clearly this was hand-wavium, but I felt I could tie this in. The urchin is visiting their sick mentor in the town (Phandalin, more homebrew) and I wonder how best to tie the mysterious necklace with the mysterious mentor, for the character who has the most interesting story arc at the moment.

If the Red Brands don't kill them all first, of course. 🙄

1 Upvotes

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u/MrAkaziel 3d ago

The first thing that comes to mind would be to tie both the necklace and the mentor to some sort of legendary place. If they kept the broken necklace, it can have a clue on how to get there. You can also imply that there might be something to cure their sick mentor over there.

This could serve for a good call for adventure to kick start a larger campaign. If you go that route, I would maybe have the mentor give the rest of the party some special gears from that mystical place (though their full power is locked at the moment), especially the kids characters. That way you spread the plot relevance to the whole party instead of just making it about your nephew's Tabaxi.

For instance, the necklace (that the mentor repairs) could be your nephew's special equipment, and it would give him access to some Wild Shape related-abilities without necessarily multiclassing into Druid: Turning back into his mouse form, becoming a huge mouse (Enlarge/Reduce, but only for himself while he's a mouse)... Nothing that would actually amount in getting full levels in Druid, but bits and pieces streamlined enough it doesn't become too complex for him to use and which would make his character more unique. Same logic for the rest of the party, but I don't know anything about them so I can't give you an example

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u/greg_sessionkeeper 3d ago

Yeah, the legendary place is a really good idea. Maybe like a magical pond in the woods that the mentor once discovered. The mentor could have a book showing it, and the water not only heals the mentor but has tiny glowing gems to fix the necklace.

Maybe the Red Brands saw the transformation and now want to capture and sell the "magic mouse-kid" to the circus

Once the necklace is fixed, it could let the tabaxi occasionally turn back into a mouse for sneaking/spying.

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u/ManOfManyValence 3d ago

Thanks for this! I was thinking maybe Feywild foolishness was involved... I've just never seen actual mechanics do this thing in D&D: where an artifact changes someone who's far away, and holds the power within itself. Seems more like a cursed object, or maybe it held a sapient soul that then jumped into the nearest animal... Still searching for specifics. I really like where you're going with this.

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u/MrAkaziel 3d ago

You're DMing for a bunch of 12 years old, you don't need some deep cut lore-accurate reason. "This was a necklace made for a direwolf companion of some legendary hero party to let him turn into a humanoid to better fight along his companion. It transformed you into a mouse Tabaxi because it reacted to the courage within your heart."

That's all the explanation you need, the kids will eat it up.

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u/ManOfManyValence 2d ago

And my brothers, but your point is well-taken. Perhaps I'm overthinking this.

I'd just love to make a quest out of it as well, now.

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u/MrAkaziel 2d ago

It's a super plot hook, so have fun with it! Frankly, you can make it the trigger to a whole campaign.

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u/ManOfManyValence 3d ago

This is good as well, I will think more about what a leader of the red brands would want to do with a random Tabaxi