Stuck in Discorporation

[Scorus]

One of my players was engaged in spirit combat when he got the following fumble result:

Combatant’s body and spirit become separated; combatant discorporates and may only be reunited by a successful Spirit Travel roll or the intervention of a shaman. The gamemaster
should determine the physical effects of long-term discorporation.

The character failed a Spirit Travel roll to find his own way back to his body. According to the rules, for each hour beyond the first 6, the character must roll POWx4 or lose D6 HP.  Questions:

• Can the characters watching over his unconscious body heal him as he takes damage from this source?
• How often would he get a Spirit Travel roll to find his own way back?
• What actions/rolls would be necessary for another discorporate character to lead him back?
• Any ideas on long-term repercussions from this experience, if any?

[jajagappa]

16 minutes ago, Scorus said:

Combatant’s body and spirit become separated; combatant discorporates and may only be reunited by a successful Spirit Travel roll or the intervention of a shaman. The gamemaster
should determine the physical effects of long-term discorporation.

The character failed a Spirit Travel roll to find his own way back to his body. According to the rules, for each hour beyond the first 6, the character must roll POWx4 or lose D6 HP.  Questions:

• Can the characters watching over his unconscious body heal him as he takes damage from this source?
• How often would he get a Spirit Travel roll to find his own way back?
• What actions/rolls would be necessary for another discorporate character to lead him back?
• Any ideas on long-term repercussions from this experience, if any?

1) yes - this would be in line with the Maximum Game Fun principle.  (One of my players has a PC in a similar situation right now - got dominantly possessed by a mad ghost, and they are having to keep his body alive until they can find a shaman to exorcise the spirit.)

2) I'd do it every hour - consistent with the potential HP loss.  On a success, they get back ok.  On a failure, they remain in the same Spirit World region, but I'd make it interesting - perhaps they've entered the Great Spirit Herd, or Tarndisi's Grove, or the Assembly of Small Spirits.  Give them the opportunity in this case to interact with an important or interesting spirit.  If they can Bargain successfully, give them a +20% bonus for their next Spirit Travel roll (but they must take a Taboo or Geas or aid the spirit in some other manner).

3) I'd require them to make a Spirit Travel roll to "find" and "track" their spirit trail.  On a failure, they find the trail of a hostile spirit, or enter some other Spirit World region.  On a success, they find the spirit, but must convince them who they are.

4) See item 2 above - give them the chance for significant encounters.

[Godlearner]

As a side question, if the trapped character know the Visibility spirit spell for some reason, would he be able to use it to get back?

[jajagappa]

52 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

As a side question, if the trapped character know the Visibility spirit spell for some reason, would he be able to use it to get back?

He could use it, but there's no guarantee that where he appears as anywhere near where his body is (the Spirit World is not necessarily a strict overlay).  I think what I'd have the character do in that case is make a Homeland Lore.  If successful, they recognize where they are "physically".  Then have them augment their Spirit Travel with their Track or Scan skill to move in the right direction towards their body.  But it may only work while the Visibility spell lasts.

[Godlearner]

1 minute ago, jajagappa said:

He could use it, but there's no guarantee that where he appears as anywhere near where his body is (the Spirit World is not necessarily a strict overlay). 

Finally a use for that spell for a PCs.

[jajagappa]

2 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

Finally a use for that spell for a PCs.

And could make for some humorous situations as the PC's spirit suddenly visibly pops up in various places across Sartar or Prax (Argrath's tent, Cragspider's den, a Uleria temple, the Jonstown Library, etc.).

[Godlearner]

3 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

And could make for some humorous situations as the PC's spirit suddenly visibly pops up in various places across Sartar or Prax (Argrath's tent, Cragspider's den, a Uleria temple, the Jonstown Library, etc.).

Way, way ahead of you on that 😁

[Godlearner]

Ahh .... remember those naked spirit runs in EverQuest or was it WOW??

LOL

Edited January 4, 2021 by Godlearner

[Scorus]

Just to report back for anyone interested. I generally followed the advice of @jajagappa.

I gave the player the option of staying put in hopes that someone would find them or exploring with their 20% Spirit Travel skill. As they are an adventurous sort who is not afraid of re-rolling their character, they went off in search of their body. Each hour they rolled their Spirit Travel, on a success they would find their way to their body. On a failure, they would roll their POWx4. If that is a success then they end up in a non-descript area in which there was only a 10% chance of there being a spirit interested in some kind of interaction. If they failed the POWx4, then they were drawn to a place of spiritual importance. I generated a table of 30 such places in a good sized range of Apple Lane (which I am sure I will use many times) including towns with temples, places with powerful spirits, powerful shamans, etc. and ranked them by a combination of distance and spirit activity (weighting the latter). Some were places where they could potentially find help, others were extremely dangerous.

The player had good luck, ending up where help was available and making the rolls and decisions necessary to take advantage of it. After a few trips to non-descript locations, they ended up in Runegate. The character is an Engizi worshipper and recognized the presence of water, engaged a water spirit there in Boatspeech and it summoned the naiad of the river who he had interacted with several times before. She helped him get back to Swanton where the clan shaman not only happened to be but was actually discorporate. She helped him back to Apple Lane, where the other players had brought his body back to.

The individual was discorporate for 6 hours, in all. Extended Discorporation is defined in the book as more than 6 hours, so there will be no significant effects. Though if anyone has ideas on relatively insignificant effects then I'm all ears. Thanks for the advice and help!

Edited January 8, 2021 by Scorus

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Scorus said:

Just to report back for anyone interested. I generally followed the advice of @jajagappa.

I gave the player the option of staying put in hopes that someone would find them or exploring with their 20% Spirit Travel skill. As they are an adventurous sort who is not afraid of re-rolling their character, they went off in search of their body....

The player had good luck, ending up where help was available and making the rolls and decisions necessary to take advantage of it. After a few trips to non-descript locations, they ended up in Runegate. The character is an Engizi worshipper and recognized the presence of water, engaged a water spirit there in Boatspeech and it summoned the naiad of the river who he had interacted with several times before. She helped him get back to Swanton where the clan shaman not only happened to be but was actually discorporate. She helped him back to Apple Lane, where the other players had brought his body back to.

The individual was discorporate for 6 hours, in all. Extended Discorporation is defined in the book as more than 6 hours, so there will be no significant effects. Though if anyone has ideas on relatively insignificant effects then I'm all ears. Thanks for the advice and help!

Sounds like it worked well and was good fun!  

As for insignificant effects, here's a few ideas:

• If they Discorporate in future, they may tend to be drawn by the "streams" within the Spirit Plane to places they already went to.  Except, their prior presence has attracted their "spiritual enemies" to the place, too.
• They now occasionally hear "whispers" from the Spirit World, particularly from places they passed through (even the "non-descript" ones!).
• Some "piece" of the character's spirit got "left behind" or stuck in the Spirit World.  Maybe it was their spiritual "left ear" or their "tongue" or their "little finger".  Perhaps that means that body part fades in and out of view.  Or that occasional "gibberish" words slip out when speaking.  Or that something in the Spirit World found that spirit part and as a consequence their body part changes to reflect it's "new owner".
• Or perhaps some "piece" of the Spirit World came back with them.  Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane has a great example of a nasty little spirit that hitched a "ride" back into the mundane world and begins a life of its own there.  Perhaps an Imp spirit that plagues the character with an occasional Hotfoot or Sours their Wine.  Or perhaps a spirit drawn from one of their Passions such as a Hate spirit that manifests as a rabid dog.