The Undiscovered Country

By Reverend K.

"To absent friends." Lasker said as he drained his fifth horn of mead. Murghrom the Dwarf muttered the same and Cassanae Bellwinter once again looked as if she would burst into tears. " I never thought," he said after a long silence, "that a dragon could move that fast., If I had known that, Garrick would be with us still."

The only sound was that of the storm howling outside as each privately blamed themselves for the loss of their friend Garrick Truesilver.

Without warning, the door of the Lonesome Wench was smashed to flinders. Even addled as he was, Lasker still possessed reflexes born of many a tavern brawl. He stood,drew his sword Selar, and kicked his chair backward in one smooth motion. Just as quickly, Murghrom had landed on the floor and had batted his chair aside with his battle axe. Cassanae had merely moved to cover and had taken out her spell components and began to scout for targets and escape routes. Grief had never slowed her hands before. Nor would it now.

A cloaked figure merely stood in the door ,leaning against the frame and regarded them for a long moment. the rain and the shadows and the lightning making it terrifying to behold. At length, it began to shamble forward, towards the party.

"Hold apparition! ", Lasker called," What seek you here?" Another long moment passed and then ...It began to chuckle breathlessly and then in a bass voice that no one could mistake it said, " Why, I seek naught but the company of my friends as well you should know Lasker Brightsword. "

Murghrom smiled, (a Rare thing) and said, " Sainted Mother...Is it really you Garrick?"

Cassanae finally found her voice and said," I...We...I...thought you were dead."

As Garrick Truesilver stepped into the meager firelight they collectively gasped. Where Garrick's right eye had been there was now a glowing red orb with no pupil. where Garrick's right arm had been there was now a prosthetic arm made of shining mithril with razor sharp nails, and on every available inch of visible skin on Garrick's body were these swirling blue tattoos. He looked odd...

" I was Dead." he said, doffing his cloak," I can't say as I cared for it much. "

There comes a time in the life of every campaign when Death rears up his bony countenance. At times it happens at high level. When your characters know at least one or two people who can either Raise,Resurrect,or Reincarnate you, Death tends to lose it's sting. Death is, at worst, a temporary nap.

However, Death often comes for the low and medium level character and in these cases is a little more permanent. Unfortunately, it can come at the most inopportune times. Picture this situation... Your players have battled their way across forest and wasteland to slay the evil wizard who is the party's sworn enemy. They camp for the night and you roll a wandering monster encounter. Unfortunately the monster decimates half of the party. Now what do you do? Wandering high level priests who are interested in Resurrecting complete strangers are about as rare as conscience in a beholder. You can only pull that " your work on earth is not yet finished" routine so many time before your players start to take it for granted. Once in a game of mine, some players had ventured to a nearby town to battle some undead at the behest of the local lord and with the aid of the town cleric. They acquitted themselves well, and were now a bit richer and on the way home. While camping in a stand of trees, they were set upon by a wandering monster. This wandering monster happened to be a wild boar.( Notice, I did not say, a giant boar. Nor did I say a psionic,blink,displacer,Pyro-boar either. It was a plain old garden variety boar.)

This wild pig, destroyed three quarters of the party. Including the leader and the cleric. if you think I was nonplused, you should have seen their faces.

Personally, I do not like to kill characters. I think it is much more interesting to change a character and make him into a role- playing challenge. Polymorphs and curses are really good for this. However, sometimes character's die through bad tactics,stupidity, or simple bad luck. It makes it tough on you if you want to continue with the story. Darn those pesky players for dying at the wrong time!

Or does it? Even Death can work out for the players and dungeon masters benefit if it's done right. Below are some ideas for quick fixing your newly dead players so that the story may go on. In some cases the dead player may be forced to solo adventure for a bit, and in a few cases the quest to return to his particular body may span several games in a campaign. In some, he can jump right back into the action.

1) Deific Seduction:

Setup: Read up on character's deity.

Best used: on clerics,paladins,druids,rangers,or others who are pious.

Repeatable: not on the same character

Solo Required:not likely.

The character dies and as is usual goes to his deity. The god or goddess is surprised to see you. "I didn't think you were due yet... oh well, come on in." The Deity begins showing the character around paradise. Every time the character sees a new wonder he should make a wisdom check. (try not to do more than six of these.) If he fails a check he won't be willing to go. If the character wants to see earth again he must somehow convince his deity that it is his duty to act as his agent on earth and that in order to bring more worship to his name he must be allowed to go back to his old body. The character must use tact as Deities sometimes insult easily. ("What? My paradise not good enough for you is it?") This bargaining session must be roleplayed in private as the players own arguments must stand on their merits.( in other words, no kibitzing from the peanut gallery.)

Naturally the alignment of the Deity will come into play here. Good Deities may want to hang on to characters but will let them go if the cause is good enough and may reward the character for his attention to duty. Neutral deities may not care one way or the other. And evil deities might send you back but with some kind of curse for being stupid enough to die in the first place.

If the player succeeds, the deity will Resurrect and then Heal the character. The whole process might take some minutes and if the character was in battle, the fight might or might not be over. The Deity might also grant the character some minor power and might thereafter be interested in that characters affairs. If the character does not succeed then he might be faced with the unenviable task of trying to escape from paradise. And even if he manages that, he still has to figure out how to re-animate his body.( don't make either of these things completely impossible. Don't encourage them to try either.)

2) Deific Demand:

Setup:None, initially.

Best used:On characters who have shown less than exemplary faith

Repeatable: Yes.

Solo Required:No

This one is similar to Deific Seduction in that your character dies and meets his deity. However this one works best on followers that are not particularly devout. This is also good for characters who have been through Deific Seduction and have died again and still want to go back. Or for those who went through Deific Seduction and then did things later that went against his deities will.

The Deity appears and is more than mildly ticked at you. He(or She) sits atop her Throne of Judgment and shows the character the punishment that he could receive. ( Be very creative here.The writing of the Marquis De Sade are very instructive in this sort of thing.) At some point the Deity will say to the character. that he arranged for the character to die so that they could speak directly. The Deity gives the character a choice. Roast in torment for a short time, a couple of centuries max, and then maybe proceed on to the paradise, Or... Go back to your old body and perform certain tasks for me that I will chose. If the character is not a cleric, the Deity may insist that as soon as he is able he must seek out a temple and become a first level cleric. this of course makes the character dual classed. If the character has a kit it remains unchanged but he is not allowed to take a kit for the cleric class.(this action however is pretty extreme)

Examples of good missions would include:

A) A quest of Extreme Danger and Peril! (the usual, ho hum...)

B) Enforced servitude to some high level cleric of the aforementioned deity.( who is almost invariably a jerk of some kind. Whether the cleric is benignly inept or actively malevolent is up to you. This allows you to make the players stay in one area long enough for you to develop it. and has the added bonus of allowing the cleric in charge to order to character to run errands for him. some are just demeaning and degrading, others involve extreme danger and peril, and some are both!) If you like, The deity might command the character to lead an erring priest back to the path of righteous-ness.This would probably be difficult as the priest has control over the character and the character didn't have great faith to begin with.

C) Protecting the life of someone who is special to the deity. ( this might be a young child, or baby or some other helpless person who is beloved of the deity. They may not be aware of this attention. the young child option might involve that child growing up to be one of the most powerful champions of that deity. Naturally rival gods,Tanar'ri, Baatezu and other clerics might not want to see that happen. Feel free to throw in some extreme danger and peril here as well. It is also possible that the deity has become infatuated with a mortal and wishes the character to guard them. Any discovery of this deific connection might put the mortal in danger... and maybe some peril too. If the character is particularly heroic and dashing, the mortal in question might fall in love with him and then you'll see some real peril!

D) Do something ( this involves going out and doing something specific for the deity. This is not the same as a quest which generally is about going out and hunting down some great evil. This is more esoteric, and is not directly dangerous, or even perilous. for instance, A god of healing might demand that the character gather clerics and medicine and go heal a neighboring town of the plague that is ravaging it. A god of justice might insist that the character go out a bring a system of government to the completely uninterested barbarians living to the north. Deities might even ask for bizarre things.

" Go and build me my greatest temple in the middle of the desert..."

"Why?"

" Do not seek to question me mortal!"

Generally, missions of this sort, while long term, are finite in nature.)

3)Monster summoning:

Setup:None

Best used:Anytime

Repeatable:Never,

Solo Required:No

This option can be used give the whole party a breather and a nasty surprise. If a player or players has been whining and puling about losing Hit points and one does finally bite the dust, you can back track a bit and say that before the fatal blow strikes all of the monsters disappear! ( our hapless heroes have been the unwitting benefactors of a high level monster summoning spell cast nearby. Give them 5 rounds to do anything they like,healing most likely. ( you never can tell what players will do.) In 5 rounds the monsters return, Depending on how vicious you are they can be a little more beat up or full strength. If the players puttered around and didn't heal them- selves, show no mercy. If the party is still in the spot where they were originally fighting then the party will have to roll for surprise at -6 on the die. if the monsters have to go find them after the original fight then surprise is checked normally. Only pull this one with massed groups of monsters not singular monsters and Never do this more than once!

The not so obvious flip side of this is that it could also happen to players. There are a few magical items that summon monsters. If your character is a humanoid you might be saved. If your character is a newly dead warrior he might be saved by the winding of a horn of Valhalla. The transport heals all wounds both ways. If however, you die again during the other fight you will not be returned. A particularly nasty side effect of this is that you are compelled to do whatever the summoner commands. This could result in the loss of paladinhood or ranger abilities.(at least temporarily.)

4) The Owl

Setup: A series of questions.

Best used: Anytime

Repeatable: Yes

Solo Required: No

A character dies and instead of being transported to his deity he finds himself wandering around the Twin Paradises. A forest path leads to a clearing where the character encounters a gigantic owl. This owl is actually a Noctral (c.f. Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes appendix) who has used magic to bring the character here. The Noctral is curious about things, either humans in general or the character in particular. He begins to ask the character a series of questions, ranging from philosophical, (" What do you think the meaning of life is?") to the downright strange. ("why do you humans bother to cook your food? Can you not eat animals alive?")

Because the character is mystically bound to the Noctral he will not be able to run away, and while the Noctral is supernaturally patient he will defend himself against attack. If the owl is attacked or if the character is singularly uncooperative then the owl will simply sigh and release him to his final destination. If however the character is friendly and answers or tries to answer the questions. That character will find that he has been returned to his body. It will be a few hours later and might frighten his compatriots. The character will find that he has gained a permanent ability to speak to owls. He will also find that occasionally the Noctral might visit him in dreams to continue the conversation. This is one of the few that is usable more than once, but not on the same character. (" Hello, you must be Lasker. Garrick has told me so much about you".)

5) Fudge Factor:

Setup: None,

Best used: When conditions are met.

Repeatable:Possibly but not likely.

Solo Required:Varies

This one is one that many D.M.'s can end up overlooking. In some cases the actual cause of death might not be nearly as fatal as first assumed. For instance drowning in subzero water in some cases in the real world has led to occasional resuscitation ,even if the person has been dead over an hour. Drowning in freezing water and/or being flash frozen by a cone of cold or dragon breath might not be totally fatal to the character if they can be revived by someone with the healing proficiency or healing spells, and a knowledge of how to defrost the character slowly. These forms of death may cause frostbite( Con check at -4) however and spellcasters who lose digits may lose spell abilities until a regenerate spell can be cast. warrior and thieves with lost finger or toes might also have severe difficulties. There is also a real danger of brain damage. The player must make two hard constitution checks,( not more than -6) The first will determine whether the character loses half his intelligence, and the second determines whether the character will lose 1d4 of his intelligence. This damage may of course be healed later. The game master may also feel free to penalize the character a constitution point if he does not make a resurrection survival and a system shock role. (fudging doesn't come cheap.)

Another possible Fudge concerns poison. The poison needle in the trap may not actually kill the thief, but may render him cataleptic, making him appear dead. The D.M. might have to run the character in a short solo adventure to enable him to escape from his coffin...Not to mention that he might encounter undead in the graveyard as well. If the character cannot escape from the coffin, ghouls might break in. Out of the frying pan and into the fire! More on this later.

6)Ghost Blade

Setup: a mage, a fighter, and a magic sword.

Best used: for fighters,

Repeatable:No

Solo Required:Yes.

While dying, the characters soul is snagged by a mage who is trying to chain a spirit to a blade. The nature of the mage casting the spell is up to the D.M. of course.The character is incompletely chained to the blade. He can manifest a physical form for 1 round for every two points of constitution that he possessed in life. he may do this once a day or he may elect to magic jar into the wielder for 1 round for each point of con. The spirit may not travel farther than 60' from the blade.

This particular option might involve one or more game sessions of solo play. The Ghost Blade is promptly entrusted to a bumbling,well meaning, and completely hapless fighter of low level. The Ghost must convince the fighter to help him regain his body. While the Ghost can manifest and can also possess the fighter, he cannot do either one of these long enough to get back to his body. ( an amount of travel might be involved.) One thing is for sure. The Ghost knows intuitively and without a doubt that if the Blade is stabbed into his former body he will be returned to life. He doesn't know how he knows this, but he does. It happens to be true. However, there is a snag.

As time passes, the binding of the spirit to the blade becomes more complete. The first inkling that any thing is wrong is when the ghost tries to remember details from it's life.( Progressively harder Intelligence checks can simulate this.) The fighter might also begin to notice that the ghost's spirit form is losing color and detail.

They had better step lively or the binding will complete and the Ghost will lose his personality. Even if the blade is stabbed into the former body, it will have no memory of it's former life. ( play this as a race against time.)

A special note about the fighter, While he may be dumb,or stubborn, or inept, the Fighter is eventually going to have to be someone that the Ghost has to or wants to take under his wing. Eventually when the two of them discover what is happening to the Ghost only the most cold hearted of individuals will not want to help even if it does mean the loss of a magical item. If the Ghost manages to get reunited with his body He may find he has won a friend and loyal retainer.

It might be possible to have another player play the fighter. In fact it might be an interesting way to get a neophyte player introduced into the game as well as one of the members of the party that they'll be adventuring with.

If the Ghost happened to be a spellcaster in life then he or she has access to spells. While clerics will still be able to pray to get spells back,mages will be unable to relearn spells unless he somehow has access to a spellbook. every three days the spell caster will be unable to remember his highest spell level of spells until he cannot cast any spells. While a part of the blade the spell will not require components of any sort.

Please remember that the body may have been moved from where it fell. If the party was able to save it, they will discover it's utter resistance to resurrection. If this is so, he may be buried. If the party was unable to recover the body, it may be hanging in some Ogre's smokehouse... curing for dinner.

7) Golem

Setup:A mage,a golem, and probably little else.

Best used:anytime, but not recommended for the middle of an adventure.

Repeatable:No

Solo Required:Yes.

Similar to Ghost Blade, The dying character is snagged by a mage trying to imbue a golem with intelligence. The mage may be horrified to discover that he has chained a free soul and may seek to help the character regain his true form or he may be an evil fiend who will torment the character.

Unlike Ghost Blade however, there is no easy answer to this thorny conundrum. A Soulshift spell from the Old Empires supplement might do the trick and it is rumored that mages of Halruaa can work the kind of magic necessary to fix this problem. a Wish is the only sure bet. Good luck finding anybody willing to help...

Your big problem is the fact that you must do whatever your creator orders you to do. Thus making escape imperative in the case of an evil mage. Only fighters are completely unhampered in their new bodies. Paladins and rangers will find their abilities curtailed.(rangers especially, most animals won't go near a golem.Except pigeons, of course.) Wizards and Priests will find that they are unable to cast any magic at all due to the antimagical nature of the Golem. Thieves and Bards will find that their abilities are largely untouched, (except for spellcasting) but are now much more difficult.

On the plus side, the character will find that his body is darn near indestructible and magic resistant. It is completely tireless and can perform repetitive tasks while the characters mind sleeps. If somebody had to have a loaner body while his body was being fixed this would be the one to pick. Again, this option might involve the character playing a solo adventure or two in order to escape his master and/or find his compatriots.

8) Reincarnated

Setup:A rival group of adventurers must be created.

Best used:anytime,

Repeatable:Not likely but possible.

Solo Required:No

Granted, the idea of coming back to life as a woodchuck after living as a powerful mage is enough to give even the most hardened adventurer the shivers. But it is possible to Reincarnate into a human or demi-human body. Of course, if your party had access to that kind of magic your D.M. wouldn't need to read this article.

In this option, a character dies. At the same time, not far away, a druid or mage is casting Reincarnate on a fallen friend. Your party member revives and his or her wounds seal but they are the reincarnation of the other person with a drastically different personality. The only way to rectify this would be to track down the other party,( easy, because the new person can unerringly find their old body.) Reincarnate the other character,( also easy, because the druid or mage has Reincarnate as a spell and the body will be a lightning rod for that soul. No worrying about coming back as a woodchuck.) And then the two parties must figure out how to affect a switch.( not so easy, especially if you are mean,like me, and stage an attack by neighboring monsters.)

If you can, co-opt the player of the dead character, to play a completely different personality in his old body. This can also be an opportunity to introduce a rival adventuring company to the characters. they may become friendly or they may desire their immediate demise.

This gives the Player of the Reincarnated character a role playing challenge. imagine playing a human male fighter of good alignment as a female elf mage with evil tendencies and you can see that this could be fun.

Another possible side benefit of this is a psychic link between the two characters who switched bodies. If the rivals are friendly,the two could be lifelong friends. Thus the characters might be drawn together and be able to find one another. If the rivals are unfriendly, At least, the character will be able to sense the N.P.C. coming.

Unfortunately. While the two of them may fight, they will find it nearly impossible to kill one another.(wis check -14) as an added complication, regardless of whether, they are friends or enemies, If one dies, the other must make an immediate system shock roll. or perish as well. This happens regardless of distance.(unless they are on different planes)

9)Vengeance First:

Setup:The character in question must have a blood enemy of some sort.

Best used: on fighters of all types, and mages.

Repeatable: not really.

Solo Required:Sort of. It might be possible to run during a game session.

After feeling the killing stroke, Your character awakens in a warm bed and is being ministered to by a cleric. You hapless hero discovers that he has been magically kidnapped by his blood enemy. Rather than see anyone, other than he, slay the character, he teleported and healed the character in order to challenge the hero to a no-holds-barred, duel to the death.( Yeah, I know it's not rational,but villains don't have to be.) The villain might also have a hostage important to the character to keep him from chickening out or becoming balky. If the villain wins, the character might still survive, as the fiend might just teleport the loser back whence he came, laughing in his face.(and he still has the hostage.) If the hero wins. He can go free along with the hostage, but just remember one thing. That villain ain't likely to stay dead.

10)Lost Weekend:

Setup: Some serious setup required, but worth it.

Best used:During a large battle.

Repeatable:No

Solo Required:No

During a huge battle, the character is attacked with something that finally does him in. However, when he is attacked his body is engulfed in a blinding flash of light and a roaring explosion. Ten minutes later( or possibly one day later) the blinding flash and explosion happen again,and the character steps out of the crater, completely different in appearance, ten physical years older, and with absolutely no memory of where he has been.

Is there an explanation for this weirdness? You bet. A mage in the party might be able to piece together that the spells worked in the last battle in conjunction with some weird astronomical phenomena accidentally tore one of those pesky holes in the space-time continuum.The resultant rupture flooded the character with Positive material plane energy,(Resurrecting him and healing him fully), and propelled him gods-know-where.

While this enables the character to stay alive,it does open a rather large can of worms. Like, where did the character go?

Perhaps he was bounced to an alternate world like the Realms,or Greyhawk,or Dragonlance, perhaps he was bounced to one of the planes which he could survive in unaided like the Twin paradises or Ravenloft. Perhaps he was propelled across the world like to Maztica,or Kara-Tur, or Zakhara or perhaps he was lost in time in either the past or the future. Who knows, if you like or have Dark Sun or Spelljammer he could even be lost there. As to why he came back, he has been trying to figure a way back to here/now ever since he was lost. He simply stumbled onto the right thing at the right time.

How do you simulate this?

- First, change the characters look to coincide with the land he was lost in. The fighter might have left in plate mail but might return in rags, or a pirate uniform, or feathers, or a kimono, or a frock coat, or...

-Second, add one or two levels to the character. ( Some of you might be screaming " give him two levels?, for dying?" The character was not actually dead, and probably did some adventuring while he was gone for ten years. This is simply logical, and besides, you'll do other bad things to him.

- feel free to make changes to the character, Perhaps he walks with a limp now, or is missing an eye, or has a metal tail or something weird like that.

-give the character some new proficiencies but don't tell him what they are.(" hey! how do I know how to speak dragon turtle?") also make sure that any new weapons that the character is carrying he is proficient in, whether they are Katannas or starwheel pistols or what have you.

- Replace many of the characters pieces of equipment.( get rid of all equipment with charges they will have burned out years ago, A fighter might leave with armor+3 and return with a Kimono that adds the same armor class. Arms and magical items might be the same but then again they might not. Your character might end up returning with equipment,magical and mundane, that he has only the vaguest idea about how to use.

- the game master should come up with a skeletal history of what the character did while he was away, this should include deeds done, money made and cached, and whether or not the character has friends and a family there. You can fill this in later.

Hideous, isn't it? Most folks could not stand not knowing about a missing past and will doubtlessly go in search of it. this opens up all sorts of adventuring and roleplaying possibilities.

A possible variation on this gambit involves time. Perhaps the character never left home at all but was thrown backward in time. It could be a rude shock to discover that you were at one time a legendary figure of the past, You could also discover, to your chagrin that you are your own ancestor, or worse yet, that your fellow party members are somehow related to you because of things you did in the past. You might even find that you cached a large amount of gold from a dragon you slew and your family never managed to find it. It might still be there. Now, if you could only remember where you put it.... You might also have some ancient enemies that you would be completely unaware of. ( Perhaps you once insulted a young and up and coming mage named Elminster. Hmmm.Maybe you made enemies of an entire clan of elves.)

Possibly an even weirder variant is being propelled into the future. You might return to here/now with some semi-exotic weaponry but the odd prescient flashes of the future will drive you up a wall. ("That's odd, I could have sworn there was a hundred year old temple on this very spot."

"You loony. The temple isn't scheduled to be built until next year. How could it be a hundred years old?"

"Err...Let me get back to you.")

11)Wild magic Megilla:

Setup:None

Best used:Anytime healing is attempted in a wild magic zone.

Repeatable:Possible but incredibly risky.

Solo Required:No

The riskiest quick fix, at least from the players point of view, is an attempt to heal while in a wild magic zone. I have let it be known that it might be possible to heal a character from death in a wild magic zone but that it can be extremely perilous.

Here is a short list of things that could happen:

- the character grows a third eye or arm.

- the character changes shape entirely.(Loxo?Pixie?Minotaur? Mix of all three?)

- the character finds himself 1-4 pts stupider or smarter.

- the character finds himself gifted with temporary magical powers or temporarily cursed or both at once.

- the character finds that he is unusually week or strong at certain times of day or in the presence of certain things.

- the character finds that his taste in food,clothing,music, and everything else has drastically altered. ( a teetotaler might become the hardest drinking member of the party.)

- the character changes sex, or race, or both.

Please keep in mind that you may add, change, revise, wad-up, and throw away this list at your convenience. Also, keep in mind that this sort of gambit can be worked also if your character is killed by a wild mage.(" he's not completely dead, only mostly dead.") Also keep in mind that with a few exceptions, these two causes of death could be the lead in to any of the gambits above or below.

12) Periapt of Mercy:

Setup: One of the characters has a gem that they have not identified yet, also create a high level cleric. More might be necessary later.

Best used: Anytime

Repeatable:No

Solo Required:No

This one is for the extremely soft hearted. As one of your characters is killed, a heretofore unsuspected magical gem in the possession of one of the characters is activated. Every person within 50' feet, including monsters, is whisked away magically to a faraway mountain monastery. The patriarch of the order will heal the character in exchange for the return of the Periapt and a service to be performed later by the party. The order is a non-violent one that takes great pride in rendering service to it's nearby village. (in the Realms, Lathanderites and priests of Eldath fulfill this role well.) suppose that village is threatened by a giant or somesuch. Well, I think you know where the adventurers come in. If you want to make it more interesting, have the monastery and the village snowed in for three months and develop the town and monastery N.P.C.'s as friends and enemies of the characters.

13)Animus!:

Setup:A bit of research, and the help of the player.

Best used:anytime.

Repeatable:yes.

Solo Required:no

A character dies and is possessed by a spirit that heals the character as an afterthought. In some cases the spirit is benign but in most the spirit is malevolent. in some cases the character is comatose and in some he might be able to fight the invader. There are a number of creatures and spirits that are capable of possession and a comprehensive list is hardly necessary here. Suffice it to say that many Demons are capable of this feat and even the good aligned spirits that can posses people can be seriously misguided in their attempts to do good. Most of these creatures however share a few common traits that can point up there identity. 1) A tendency to play their cards extremely close to their vests in terms of their relationships with their party. 2) an uncharacteristic coolness to the cleric or paladin in the party, 3) an utter fear of shukenja, and 4) an unwillingness to be near anything that could disrupt their control of their host, such as a protection from evil spell.

This particular gambit ends when the party gets wise and exorcises or otherwise banishes the intruder. This absolutely works best when the D.M. gets the player to play the Intruder.

It's not the cough that carries you off...

O.k. So you swung the sword left when you should have swung it right,and now you are in pine box. and because of one of the above gambits you discover that you might not be on the way to your final reward after all. Death can be an adventure all it's own. Here's a number of things to think about.:

1) odds are pretty good that you weren't buried with your Vorpal sword or your Cap of Teleportation. In the old days, lords and kings might have been buried with their loot but it is likely that your compatriots have divvied up your gear and gone on. Thus, unless you have equipment that is well hidden and unknown to the rest of the party, you are unlikely to be buried with anything even remotely useful. it could make things difficult when you try to ...

2) Break out of your coffin, or worse yet crypt . Of course, if you have trouble, there is a chance that the friendly, neighborhood,flesh-eating ghouls might bust you out.

3) Most cemeteries are in the middle of nowhere. Good luck making it back to town with nothing but the clothes on your back and a boneyard full of spooks howling for your soul. ("you said you wanted adventure boy! stop yer whining.")

4) You might be mistaken for an undead.( cut up, bloody,and reeking of grave dirt does tend to make a certain impression.)

5) Upon arriving at home you might discover that not only have your friends have scattered to the four winds but your gold and your manor house have been inherited by persons who do not wish to give it up.

6) Some bureaucrats find it hard to reverse the paperwork that says that you are dead and some are unwilling to even try through laziness, intransigence, plain old rattlesnake meanness, or because they have been bribed by your inheritors,with your gold no less!

7) Buck up though. There is a good side to all of this. Your enemies probably think you are dead. And until you slip up or rudely disabuse them of that notion, they will continue to think that.

8) How much time has passed since you went into the ground? 2 days? 2 months? what has happened since you went out of the loop.? Has your spouse remarried? has the farm been sold?

9) Will your friends and family be happy to see you or will they freak?

10) Has somebody else in the party become attached to your old equipment?

11) Will you have a serious case of Claustrophobia from now on? Not to mention a fear of being buried alive and of undead.

And you thought dying was going to be easy...

A cautionary note.

While this might add considerably to your game, there are a couple of signs that you should watch out for.

- Don't ever play favorites! If you bring some people back and not others, chances are those others won't return to your game. Campaigns die this way.

-Check your respect. Some players might catch on to what you are doing. While some will simply be gratefull that you are not a killer D.M., there are other people, who will begin to believe that they are invincible. They will push the envelope and try the stupidest things because they are convinced that no matter what they do,they cannot die. This indicates a lack of respect for the Game Master and will soon lead to worse things. A sword through the vitals usually clears up this erroneous notion. You might have to kill the character too... I don't like to kill characters, but sometimes, No Mercy!

-We've all got to go sometime. Some find this hard to believe, but in some cases, a player wants his character to die. I've only noticed two reasons for this. One is player boredom and is usually spottable by the characters willingness to chug-a-lug all the found potions and his unnerving habit of leaping into spike filled pits. The player is bored with the character and possibly the game too. keeping a character alive when this is the case is simply a waste of time and energy.

The second reason that a player might do something suicidal is of course the Last Blaze of Glory. This of course is usually spottable when the party's paladin armed with nothing more than a jar of mentholated salve and a butter knife, leaps onto the Pit Fiend and knocks him, and himself, into the Abyssal gate, thus sealing the breech and ensuring his place in the ballads and histories for centuries to come. Thrilling isn't it?

Players who do this sort of thing, may do it for a number of reasons which are not exactly easy to articulate. However, if you meddle and bring the character back without asking first...They will have absolutely no difficulty in articulating their livid rage and may go to provide helpful suggestions as to where you could stick your game, as well as provide interesting speculation as to the nature of your parentage. Ask first. when a character says" You get out, I'll hold them off." it may just be his way of saying goodbye.