The Heist is an easy trope to toss into your game. Whether it be the starter mission on a cyber-style game, or part of a longer storyline involving collecting certain powerful artifacts, the heist is an easy cut/paste adventure to toss into your game if you are having an issue coming up with the next part of your story.
This is a 3-part series of variations on the heist to add a little something extra for your players to handle. Today's variation - the Spell of Returning.
This works well when there is a long dungeon/palace/underground maze the characters need to work through to find the McGuffin. It involves a subtle spell, either cast directly on the object, or some other way attached to it. It may be detectable, depending on your character's abilities, or it may not. In either case, it only serves a single purpose - to return the object to it's starting location if anyone attempts to leave the area with it. The activation for the spell is tied to a linked enchantment on the final exit door/archway/exit from the area.
If the object is something hefty, like bowling-ball sized, they would immediately notice the weight vanish as they stepped through the last door and out into the open. But if the object is something small, they may not notice till much later, perhaps even when it's too late!
Considerations:
- Is the enchantment noticeable?
- Is the enchantment on the object, or on something attached to or inside the object?
- Does the spell also set off any alarms?
- Does circumventing the final door stop the activation of the spell? (such as making a hole in an adjacent wall rather than stepping through the doorway)
- Does the spell take the object, and the person carrying it, back to the starting room? Does it take them somewhere else?