Ideas for a side quest ending. - Dungeon Masters Only - Dungeons & Dragons Discussion - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

Hey all!

So I'm a pretty new DM. Started off a campaign (Adapted Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) the other week and the first chapter was really successful!

One of my PCs is a halfling monk who's also a raging alcoholic. I gave him a vague personal quest from his god to go to Stormwreck Isle to find his destiny. This aligns with his personality traits and simply gave him a reason to be going to the isle where he'll meet the rest of the party.

On his arrival to the island he discovers a simple glass bottle with the word destiny written on it. When he drinks from it, it's whatever their favourite alcoholic drink is. It never runs out, and it if someone else drinks from it, they'll get their own favourite alcoholic drink. He's extremely happy about it, and so far not suspicious that it could lead to a quest etc. which is great! I plan on using dream sequences to give him hints etc.

I want him to find a way to shrink down and get to the bottom of the bottle (playing on the whole "you won't find any answers at the bottle of the bottle" phrase".

I'm looking for ideas for what happens in the bottle please.

I think it would be great if there's a clear danger that encourages the rest of the party to go into the bottle after him?

If he ever drinks too much from the bottle, have a Con or Wis save or something. On a fail, he gets sucked into the bottle. There could be a whole dungeon in there! Maybe an enterprising alcoholic archmage made their demiplane inside this bottle, similar to the HappyFunBall in C2 of Critical Role if you've seen it.

The point is that I think you should look at the How they get in first, and have it be a replicable act that anyone in the party can do (that way they can follow the player in). They'd definitely follow the PC, especially if they know about the magic nature of the bottle (maybe that it's a little sketchy too - play up that it's too good to be true?) and how much the PC drinks from it.

I do have the player make constitution checks when he drinks from it, but it's primarily to determine if he's heavily intoxicated and thus has any kind of disadvantage. I'm hesitant to have a failed roll result in him being pulled in as I want him to think about entering the bottle naturally through subtle hints I provide. Also, we've only had one session so far and I don't want this quest being spent right away.

I guess the challenge for me is to ensure I provide methods to shrink himself down (or indeed make the bottle massive!). But I'd certainly like to see him theorise the idea that he has to go into the bottle and devise methods for doing this with the other PCs.

The obvious method of shrinking down is providing some kind of plant or herb that can be used directly or made into a potion etc. or of course a spell scroll.

Another side quest I have for them will reward them with Bag of beans. If I make it so the bottles size adapts to the character holding it. Then if they were to climb a beanstalk and find a cloud giant to handle the bottle, it'll get massive!

Quote from CondorianFirestone >>

I absolutely love this! I'd originally designed this quest thinking that he'd come out of the other side of it sober and focused. But going the other way with it iseven better!As I said, I'm a new DM so my source data is pretty thin and I haven't really delved into the worlds of subclasses etc so I can't thank you enough for flagging this up to me.

I think it could play well either way. Perhaps the side quest giver in the bottle offers but does not demand. Then it's an option for the player, but not a mandate. Either way, it's a good story.