Here is an example of how I would use shamanic principles to deal with an

attack by the Banshee.



1) Your player’s character believes he alone and making his way to a temple for

a holiday festival or some other important journey appropriate to the

character. On his way past a bridge that crosses a river that flows from a

lake, he finds a young noble girl crying. She claims she was walking with her

grandmother and got lost. The PC should bring the girl to some safe place

where the grandmother appears and invites the PC to their home. If the PC is

not inclined to follow the course of the dream, there are two checks to be

made. First, try to tie the girl’s welfare into the purpose of the journey.

The religious festival will not be auspicious if the girl is neglected.

Perhaps if that doesn’t fit, she may identify herself with a name that connects

her to a principle the PC wants to impress. She claims when asked that she is

the principle’s niece. She is lying. Second, if the PC still resists, he

should make a Will save of a DC that is sufficiently hard that the PC only has

a roughly a 25% chance to make the check. If that is made, the PC should be

told that he is dreaming, and despite his will, his dream is going on without

his control. To avoid doing this the player needs to make a lucid dreaming

check DC 20. Controlling your dreams is a difficult task to perform. If the PC

ends up bringing the girl to safety, the grandmother appears and invites the PC

back home. Again, use internal logic to persuade the player first. Dreams

often offer explanations, though many of them are unconvincing to a wakeful

person. Second the Will save. Finally the lucid dreaming check. At the home

of the girl the mother comes downstairs and greets the PC and thanks him. She

is dressed all in white (or if the PC is not familiar with the background of

the Banshee, she can appear to be her normal self and the child’s persuasion is

her connection to the ruler). After some small talk, the child suggests that

her mother take the PC as her bridegroom. The mother agrees and orders a feast

prepared. The PC again may reject this course of action, but should be

restrained if possible by persuasion, Will checks, and lucid dreaming. His

opportunity for escape must wait for a second. The feat he should find out is

the Banshee’s former bridegroom, who is butchered and cooked for the marriage

feast. Only now should the PC’s attempts to escape what is obviously a bad

situation occur unobstructed by heavy-handed DM intervention. Here are some

suggestions. The girl (having power in her own right) appears uneasy and if

the PC asks her for help, she carries him off to safety by flying away with him

while mother turns to give directions. The PC could try to fight his way out,

but in addition to the Banshee, the grandmother and the daughter are powerful

entities who can assist the Banshee. Fighting should result in the capture of

the PC, the Banshee and allies should be more than a match for the PC. The PC

might try to Bluff his way out or use other persuasive skills. If the PC has

an idea for escape that doesn’t rely on confronting the Banshee, it should be

possible to make an escape. The dream isn’t over. If the PC opted for

confrontation and lost, or whether he escaped and is in a safe location this is

the end phase. The Banshee appears again (or has defeated the PC) in the

refuge and demands his marriage. At this point, another player (priestly or

spirit-aware) is told that the PC is under attack in the dream world. It’s

very dangerous to awaken a person at such a moment because his spirit could be

captured if he does not possess it in the dream. The priest should cast spells

to drive away the harmful spirit or at least aid the PC. The Banshee should

not be defeated but if she is magically driven away the priest ally can wake

the dreamer. If the Banshee can be persuaded that the PC is now being aided by

a magically powerful ally “on the other side” (i.e. in the waking world) the

Banshee will withdraw threateningly.



This dream can be repeated, and the PC may recognize that this is a dream

earlier but unless he is a skilled lucid dreamer, its not going to be easy to

escape and must run through the dream and hope that his priest ally can

intervene. A prepared priest (right spells memorized) might appear in the

dream by passing into the ethereal plane and confront the Banshee directly with

banishing spells. You can work in any agendas you want with regard to the

Banshee that effect the regular gaming world. That might be name dropping or

outlining a plan she intends to take. If the PC is able to avoid helping the

girl in the first place, go to the end phase where the Banshee attacks, but her

anger is over the refusal to help the child not the scorned marriage.



2) In the first case, the PC was restricted by the nature of the dream state,

in this example, he is enabled. The PC is engaging in some normal activity

near water. It should be something the PC would expect to be doing and so not

immediately suspect a dream. Upon the water is a fisherman in a small rowboat

or canoe. What the PC does not observe is that the fisherman’s eyes are on his

knees, so he can see the PC while his head is not oriented towards to PC. The

fisherman has a curious method of fishing since he uses a bow and arrow. The

sound of the arrow’s flight is strange, a bit louder than most flights. At

some point, the fisherman (Banshee) sees the PC and fires an arrow, as the

arrow approaches the arrow’s loud scream is the scream of the Banshee. The

arrow automatically hits, the PC makes a Will save to resist the death blow of

the arrow. When the PC awakes, they have a bruise where the arrow struck them

in the dream and have lost a temporary level and d3 points of Con. This dream

is liable to recur, and the damage is temporary. If the PC saves against the

attack, or the dream happens again, the will seek to attack or take cover. If

they attack, they do normal damage and the Banshee does her death attack. If

the PC attempts to take cover, he can do extraordinary things if he makes a DC

10 lucid dream check. He can create cover where there was no cover, he can fly

away, hide underwater without running out of breath. With a DC 15 lucid

dreaming check the PC can change form (become a fish, bird, &c) and escape.

Skilled lucid dreamers would use the next step to change the dream and go on

the attack against the Banshee, but depending on the changes being made these

can require DC 20 or 25 checks or if they confine, banish, or otherwise

eliminate the Banshee the lucid dreaming check is a DC 20 check, and the amount

over 20 is applied as a DC for the Banshee’s Will check.



In the long run, the PC should look into wards and protections against dream

attacks. These are perfect, they tend to require a Will save be failed on the

part of the PC just to initiate the dream and may confer bonuses to certain

actions the PC takes during the dream. Other kinds of wards and protections

may be spell storage devices or long lasting spells.



The Banshee (and other dream spirits) normally don’t attack any more after a

sound defeat in a dream or by wards.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

> This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.

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> diablo wrote:

> Please stop.

> You are disturbing the peace of my heart.

> My dream is to see a Shogun game-type in Birthright world.

> Oh, wouldn`t I be online then.

>

>

>

>

>

>