#4021
A non-magical book like a novel that describes how to do the invocation.
A non-magical book like a novel that describes how to do the invocation.
Change the game progression significantly so that the player cannot descend below the castle without all the invocation items; once they do, they must perform the invocation at the Castle and fall directly into Moloch’s Sanctum. Exploring Gehennom after that is therefore done for the first time and from the bottom up.
The quest leader either sometimes or always asks for the quest artifact back when you return with it, to replace the weird flavor in most quests that the leader is desperate to get the artifact back but is then completely fine with you adventuring off with it after retrieving it.
If you refuse to give them the artifact back, they turn hostile. If it’s a chance-based system, the chance might be dependent on your alignment record, so a character that has misbehaved is less likely to be found worthy of keeping the artifact. However, since you must have +20 alignment to enter the quest and get a massive amount of alignment from killing the nemesis, it’s questionable whether anyone’s alignment will ever be in a bad enough state to increase the chances. Luck has also been suggested as a variable that influences the chance, but most players will already have maxed their luck by the end of the quest.
In order to keep the player from just dodging the quest leader on their way out of the quest so that they can keep the artifact, various enforcement mechanisms have been proposed:
Allow the player to complete the Invocation as long as they have ‘‘ever had 7 different candles in the game’’, even if they don’t have any right now. Flavoring this as the candle stubs being kept around and sputtering to life for long enough to do the invocation, immediately snuffing them afterward.
If you have all three invocation items and have not yet performed the invocation, the Oracle always gives you the message about going to the bottom of Gehennom and performing the invocation. If you are missing one or two of the items, she will give you a message focused on (one of) the missing items. If you have the Amulet, she will give you an otherwise unreceivable message about continuing upward through the Elemental Planes.