This was such an awesome awesome day trip out to da pea foh. The PeFo. Seriously, that’s what people call the Petrified Forest! At least according to their website, that’s the shorthand for the URL: nps.gov/pefo It’s crazy to think about how old the south west is in comparison to the south east. Think about it. Why hasn’t the Mississippi River carved a massive 5000 ft canyon into the earth? Is it because of the difference in sea level? Earth composition? River age? Turns out the answer to my question is basically all of those things. The Colorado River falls like several thousand feet in elevation from spring head to ocean end. The Mississippi River only falls about 700 ft. from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Also there’s this thing called plate tectonics. The Colorado River is located on the Colorado Plateau. Several thousand years of uplift and erosion based on the composition of the earth helped create the perfect environment. Apparently, the CR is actually a younger river than the Mississippi, meaning the canyons, if any, that the MR might have created have all eroded over time and smoothed out. INTERESTING.

So how does this all fit back into DND? Isn’t this supposed to be a DND Travel Blog? Not just your silly journal? Yes, yes alright. Maybe I have made too many simple travel video blogs recently. And they’re not even conforming to the algorithm of 2 minute (minimum) daily posts. So I’m not making anyone happy but myself (when has that ever changed)?

Well I can think of two stories that weren’t covered here since I took 0 video and mostly all photos with my cell. The first that relates to DND is the haunting! Yes apparently these old once logs are cursed and as haunted as the day is long. You can go buy petrified wood anywhere in AZ. As a matter of fact only 25% of all of the wood available is located in the park. So if everyone who visited the park yearly took one chunk back home with them, well there wouldn’t be any left for the rest of us to see next year. So, the park rangers came up with a story that you shouldn’t take them, not only because its not right, but also because you’ll be cursed. If you do take a rock, as the story goes, you’ll be cursed with back luck!

In DND there’s a spell called Remove Curse (3rd level) which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t which is actually a great talking point. First, why have a spell if your DM won’t allow it to work. I mean my character kicked over up a Kobold’s Alter to a pagan god and shoveled in their blood ritual pit. Now his feet keep feeling like his shoes are biting him or they’re stuck in a classic Kobold trap.

So back to the spell, Remove Curse.

Any 5th level Cleric (PHB pg 57) can prepare and cast this spell at will at the start of a new day (As clerics are gifted all spells in the cleric list divinely from their god, they just must prepare the spell at the beginning of a new day). A wizard must be level 5 and have access to the arcane spell, either in a spell scroll or another wizard’s spell book. A paladin must be level 9 in order to cast 3rd level spells (PHB pg 83). A warlock must choose the spell (highly situational) during level up, past level 5 (PHB pg 106). So this is basically a non-problem for adventuring parties of 5th level or higher.

Most DMs may see this spell as a simple mechanic that easily thwarts their latest plot hook of getting the adventuring party to do some quest to remove the curse from their afflicted party member or loveable NPC in need. I say let it happen. Really, the only way this kills the quest plot hook from the DM is if there’s a cleric in the group. My party that I just recently started playing with has 5 adventurers and no cleric. Yikes.

In real life, the quest to remove your bad luck is simply to write an apology letter to the nice folks at the PeFo national park and send the rock you stole back to them. They have a vehicle inspection point at the exit of the park as well, although I was never stopped on my way out. I still got nervous though.

So how can you, as a DM, utilize the fun story of a curse into your game? Well here’s a few examples:

• The Party has a cleric with access to the spell Remove Curse
  1. The casting of the spell removes the effects of the curse for the day but at noon each day, the curse re-animates.
     • This means that your party has the resources to suppress the effects of the curse but still must go on some quest to, return the slab or petition their god at their temple, or some other quest plot point that you as a DM have some purpose for moving the party from one side of the world, to another.
  2. The casting of the spell doesn’t work at all
     • This is a poor choice that robs the players of their agency, removes them of their resources unfairly, and just is kind of a power play that maybe you shouldn’t be running on your friends.
     • However, this may be an interesting way to punish a player for breaking their oath to their god, show the power of a big bad entity, or get your players to quit your game entirely. You should really know your group before you pull this one.
  3. The casting of the spell works in its entirety.
     • A bit underwhelming but your party will feel happy they have a cleric. Don’t forget the last bit of the spell though:
       • If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner’s attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded.
       • Wouldn’t that be something if the cursed object kept appearing in their pack every time they tossed it away, until they brought the cursed object to the big Scary Volcano and threw it in? Yeah that would be something wouldn’t it.
  4. The Casting of the spell doesn’t work as intended
     • The spell doesn’t work. The curse remains. However!
     • Through an avatar of the cleric’s god, they are imparted with the exact wisdom needed to break the curse by gathering sacred ingredients. The party member’s life is still on the line. A timer is still set and much is needed to be done to break the curse
     • Everyone kind of wins on this one. Especially if the curse is a passive one. The afflicted character just gets weaker and weaker until they eventually die, but with enough time for the party to travel, heal, and find all ingredients to make the curse breaking salsa. Best enjoyed with chips!
• The Party does not have a cleric but has a wizard:
  • The quest is now to find a wizard’s spell book with the spell, remove curse. Go ahead and make this as convoluted as possible.
  • Sure you’ve set up the ability for people to go into town and buy any spell but
    • Maybe shops don’t sell the right Type of remove curse spell. I mean does anyone know how to curse a REAL SWORD? What about removing a REAL curse on a fake sword? Gosh the possibilities are endless.
    • The town is conveniently fresh out of remove curse spell scrolls for sale or it’s entirely out of the party’s budget. :^) all of these are kind of eye rollingly obvious DM railroads but hey maybe your group can’t smell the BS when they step in it. Your results may vary.
  • The spell should work as intended once the party finds and copies the spell. Duh, don’t make them jump through 8 hoops just to remove a curse. They’ll either remember that series of events forever or hate your guts. Ah DMing is such an emotional rollercoaster.
• The party is under leveled and is cursed somehow:
  • They have to find a spell scroll and hope to cast within the bounds of check
    • Here’s a Link to the rules on how that works:
  • They have to find a sage to cast the spell
    • Could be a wizard that will hold them in debt somehow after casting the spell.
      • A cool set up for another quest!
    • Could be a medicine woman who lives out in the boonies and always moves. She’s hard to find and you can’t quite be sure of what she wants in order to cast the spell out of you.
    • What about a really annoying temple in the center of town that either
      • Charges way too much for their services
      • Won’t offer their services unless you convert and pay a tithe of all future adventuring to them
      • Will use their reputation in the city against the party as some sort of political foothold and use the action of removing the curse as a type of social debt unless the party falls in line with some of their more “Spanish Inquisition / Roman Catholic Indulgences” practices.

Have you ever been cursed? Do you have another idea about this scenario? For homework at the college of lore why don’t you write me about it!