Shut the Damn Gate

It is not uncommon for characters to be able to summon creatures and even demons. The demonic spells start at 10th level and by 20th level you are summoning in some quite powerful demons.

So given the average life span of a demon why have none of them spent a mere decade or so researching a Summon Humanoid spell? A bit of hand waving and mumbling and ^poof^ there is a player character appearing before you. With a bit of opportune scrying and you summon the PC while taking their bath so they don’t have their +50 demon slaying sword and mithril armour of imperviousness with them either.

Surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say, so if PCs can summon demons then it works the other way around.

Imagine you are running a high level campaign, you start intermittently asking your PCs to make resistance rolls vs channeling (with a nod to BriH’s post yesterday).  If they fail then the rest of the party see a rift open around the character and they disappear.

The summoning demon has assembled a squad of demonic minions waiting for the summoning to succeed and when it does then let battle commence. One rather unprepared PC vs an adequate number of demons of your choice.

You could even try and arrange it so that the PC is summoned during a battle. One which the PCs were probably going to win but was also a close run thing. You then yank one PC out of it. It disrupts the PCs strategic planning, changes the odds and puts one PC in a very dangerous situation.

You suddenly get another interesting option as well. Can the party rescue their friend from a different plane? Can they even find them?

For the, now solo, PC how do they cope without their party to fall back on?

I have lost count of the number of times that I have been on a quest for a specific item and when I finally get it I get raided by the forces of evil and they steal it from me. This is just a more impressive version of the same thing.

Spell research can be a wonderful thing, especially in the wrong hands!

6 Replies to “Shut the Damn Gate”

  1. If you’re gonna research something like this, I’d suggest starting with the RMFRP Channeling Companion list Teleportals.
    The restriction here is that you must first “know” the target using the 1st level spell.
    I have allowed it to be used with a Symbol, using spell mastery, so that the symbol can “know” the caster, and it works as a kind of return point.
    If you’re going to summon non-demonic entities, I guess the requirement would be some sort of True Name, if not you wouldn’t target the right Human. Maybe the enemy needs to meet the player, cast some Learn True Name spell (something like the Runemage spells from RMFRP Essence Companion ) and then could summon at a later time.
    And now for an adventure hook: if the players know they will be summoned, and have some idea of when this would happen (on an evil holiday?) the quest would be to reach a holy site before the time comes, to block the enemy summons.

    1. That book is not one I have seen as I am a RMC bunny. I like the idea though and many spell lists have that concept of having to somehow know your target or who you are going to adopt the appearance of for example.

  2. Interesting meta-physical question! I played around with Summoning in “Summon Followers”: http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=16688.0;attach=3383, but that was predicated on summoning someone of your own religion who had a obligation/loyalty.
    I’m working on a “Book of Pales” for SW and have been pondering how all of this works. (I’ll note some inspiration from Charles Stross’ work!).
    Curious on everyone else’s thoughts.

    BTW: I have our new Rolemasterblog challenge after 50in50 and 5of50….”13 Evil Adventures”

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