Questions about consequences

[drewkitty ~..~]

(a) question: to which god was the temple that they stole the relic from?
(side-note: the coL&D is more a conglomeration label placed on the temples of the gods from the pantheon of the PF setting.(i.e.: each god has their own set of temples.) so this is why I asked the above question the way I did.)
(b) question: what was the relic?(what does it look like? Name?) does it have curses associated with it? (as in which ones) Is it in a requriary? (is it in a box? is it the box that is warded?)

1) they would need "At Least" to return it to a temple of the same god who's temple they stole it from to get that god's followers off their tails. Their should be additional tasks that they should have to take to get any curses that stayed with them off.
There will be temples of other god's of the same pantheon that will gladly take the relic off their hands to 'snub' the other god's followers.

Remember most pantheons are just big dysfunctional families and like to get each other's goats from time to time.

2) no they will not be wanted by All the different temples for using magic. They will be wanted by the people Inside the Middle Kingdoms for violating their laws. But If they return the relic, then only the most 'hardcore' of those seeking them out will follow them outside the Middle Kingdoms.
Remember the pursuers start off behind them so only if they stay in the Middle Kingdoms will they have to watch out for every bush, because there 'might be' a bounty hunter there after them.

[The Dark Elf]

I love questions like this AND its about PFRPG! Cool.

Heres what I would do -

The relic (whatever it is) is cursed as well as warded (incidentally why havent the wards gone off?). Only priests of L& are unaffected by the curses. Make these curses minor.

Do they players have curses already? What WAS the purpose for the theft? What are their intentions (ask them outright)? Do they need alignment adjustments? Is the pychosis of being a common thief playing on them make them save vs insanity)? Let them have discussions about it in their group as to who is remourseful (could be none of them, but alignments depending...).

Once they get out of the middle kingdoms have them enter a border town where they see a wanted poster for themselves (or the relic if the players are NOT known to be the theives). They will then know danger is imminent and start to think about consequences. -side note for all GMs: you CAN be harsh and kill players but ONLY after lots of opportunities for the players to have made the right choice and saved themselves. That way they dont feel cheated to death. -

In the town they may witness a master collector (ET book) and his group of hired mercs. this group can be made up of ANY OCCs best suited to catching the players. The collector of his troop will be the RETURNING villains in this man hunt. Returning vilains are much better than a bounty hunter or soldier patrol at every turn and provide more exotic OCCs to pit the group against. If the players are more powerful than the hunting group then have some means of escape (teleport ring? Flying mount?) for the collector to regroup and continue the chase.

But these players didnt just steal a possession. They stole from a church. They stole from the Gods!
So lets have some intervention!! One of the lesser gods from the church of L&D (Sebek?) actually appears (or send a Tauton in his place) and gives them deific curses! Serious ones like metamorphosis, god blind, pox etc. (any regrets yet naughty players?). AND he COMMANDS that they take the relic SAFELY back to where they stole it from!

Yep, a god just told you to return to the scene of the crime, whilst you are being hunted and gave you some cruel penalties in which to obstruct you success. Good luck!

There's a lesson in there somewhere thieves...

I really wanna play my own idea now.

[The Dark Elf]

Thanks for the ideas. I will give some of these ideas a try.

As for the wards that haven't gone off they are on a box inside another box (a matroska doll situation sorta). I may be wrong but I thought wards only activated if you touched the thing they were attached to. In this case the players survived the wards on the ground and the ones attached to the outer box. They were running out of time and were concerned about surviving another round of wards so they took the whole chest with the inner box undisturbed.

I haven't figured out what the relic is quite yet. I really wasn't expecting them to rob a church of the pantheon I thought they were helping. I see two options ahead, first is them not dealing with the wards and handing it off to someone else or them surviving the wards and then dealing with a dangerous relic. I've been toying with the idea that it might be something very evil that was sealed in the temple to protect the outside world rather than something protected from it.

Thats how wards work, youre right.

Make the artifact a part of Osiris (if its L&D). That will lead to so much more adventure!

[drewkitty ~..~]

Thanks for the ideas. I will give some of these ideas a try.

As for the wards that haven't gone off they are on a box inside another box (a matroska doll situation sorta). I may be wrong but I thought wards only activated if you touched the thing they were attached to. In this case the players survived the wards on the ground and the ones attached to the outer box. They were running out of time and were concerned about surviving another round of wards so they took the whole chest with the inner box undisturbed.

I haven't figured out what the relic is quite yet. I really wasn't expecting them to rob a church of the pantheon I thought they were helping. I see two options ahead, first is them not dealing with the wards and handing it off to someone else or them surviving the wards and then dealing with a dangerous relic. I've been toying with the idea that it might be something very evil that was sealed in the temple to protect the outside world rather than something protected from it.

That did not answer my question about which god was the temple (that they stole the relic from) dedicated to? That in itself will shape what wards are used, what curses are on the relic and what the relic is.

Having the relic being a bit of Osiris would have the temple dedicated to Osiris, Isis, or a god trying to prevent Osiris from being put back together.

If you have the relic a rune book on magic, then it thoth would be the most likely god for the temple to be dedicated to.

It is those little details that will give vercimultited to the story and provide a path for the story.

example
the robbers stole from a bank and are pursued
vs
The three men & woman stole $100,00 from the wells fargo branch in Irwindale this morning. The branch manager has hired a team of bounty hunters to track down the thieves and recover the stolen money.