#modify memory

Modify Memory

Percival's clothes itched and his dinner was unpleasantly wriggly, but the kobold looked like he was having the time of his life.

While this is primarily about the spell in 5e d&d, most of these can be done with any similar effect.

1) The Hangover: this is fairly complicated but it's a great way to get someone on your side. Step one is to, long before you even approach your target to cast the spell, select a stage. This could be a room at a luxury hotel, an unused warehouse, or on a ship--the only real restriction is that it must be within 1 minute of easy travel from where you will be enchanting your target and be somewhere where you probably won't be interrupted. Step two is to set the stage, maybe plant a dead body there (real or fake), break some things to make it look like something bad happened, leave evidence that the enchanter and the target were tied up but managed to break free. And step three is to, once everything else is in position, approach the target.

Regardless of the target's opinion towards you (the enchanter) they must be a relatively law abiding citizen in order for this to work. Anyone above the law or beyond the reach of public perception probably won't work.

You approach your target and covertly cast the spell on them. You only have a 10 minute window of memory you can modify and it must have happened during that day (at base level), so there is some wiggle room if the spell doesn't work the first time. But you begin the memory as them accepting, begrudgingly, a drink with you. You begin to tell them about a plot against their life, and then their memory becomes fuzzy and grows blank. They vaguely recall both of you passing out. Their memory then comes too as they wake up an indeterminate amount of time later to see you standing over whatever destruction you have prepared, and that is where you drop the spell.

The trick is that while you are casting the spell, you lead the dazed target to the actual scene you've prepared. Bonus points if you can change their clothes during this time. So while their mind fills in the gap of that remembered unconsciousness as perhaps being any amount of time, they are lead to believe that they were drugged and abducted alongside the enchanter and brought to a discrete location to be interrogated or transported. And that is when you broke both of them free and saved their lives... For now. After a successful memory alteration, you can potentially rope the target into whatever short term goal you have lined up, like maybe killing a prominent figure or infiltrating a secure location.

Works great on politicians, mages (non-enchantment specialists), and knights or high ranking military folk.

2) Scarred for life: this is somewhat evil, but works great as a GM. It's also significantly easier to do than the previous use.

You place a character in an incredibly stressful and traumatic situation. You cast the spell on them, forcing them to have perfect recall of what happens over the next minute. And then you break them. Kill a loved one, burn a city, or maybe in an alternative setting you do something impressive like save their life.

Regardless, because you force the memory to have perfect recall, you can force the character to live through it again and again whenever you want just by mentioning part of it.

Bonus points if you can get them to do something awful through the use of dominate person while forcing them to have perfect recall of the action.

3) Neurolyzer

never underestimate the greed of the eye thief

scenes from yesterday’s session of a game i run about scouring the globe for the scattered pieces of vecna’s body :3c (tw self harm/implied eye gore for the second image)

I thought this was going to be the quote of the night.... oh whoops never mind...

THE cleric, nay, the high priestess of the Trickery domain:

Its was either going to be this epic scene or Taryon wearing a slayers cake apron.