I have a few kinds of pressure to talk about today.
Pressure to take corrupted items. My party thus far has avoided all cursed and corrupted items I have laid in their path. Preferring instead to spend well-earned gold in shops rather than remove curses, or deal with corruption. I gave them some really good items this week, and they’re still already talking about turning them over to the mages. This time, however, the pressure will increase, due to story mechanics. Which leads me to the second pressure.
Water pressure. I’ve played in a few games where we go deep-sea diving, or at least moderate-sea diving, and we’ve never worried about water pressure. The final dungeon in The Call of the Netherdeep takes water pressure into serious consideration. It is a major hazard in the Netherdeep itself, causing damage every minute to unprotected individuals. In this case, the only way to avoid this damage is to wield a corrupted item, to take some of the corruption of this place into yourself. Otherwise it becomes deadly within a couple minutes.
The third type of pressure is DM-pressure. In my case, pressure not to kill my players’ characters. Let me be clear, I have no problem with character death, and have a fun mechanic for it, but I don’t want it to be for a pointless reason, or in an inconsequential battle. There was a different aspect of it this week that I’m still unpacking. One player’s character was unaffected by the aforementioned water pressure, so when the rest of the party left, he went forward alone. He entered a vision and was defeated inside said vision. The book gives no guidance on this type of situation, and it was the end of the night. I was tired, a little annoyed at him for running ahead without his party, and not particularly wanting to crush the others again because they came to his rescue. So, I made an under-pressure decision to let him wake up with one hit point after the vision faded. Effectively giving him an auto-20 on his first death save. He then exited the Netherdeep just as they were about to enter and save him.
Everyone was happy with this resolution, not knowing how I fudged it. I, however, am annoyed at myself for not letting him reap the reward of his actions. Annoyed I didn’t just let the party come to his rescue, especially after they drank all their potions in preparation. Annoyed that this might set certain expectations for future vision interactions. But, I have to let go of all that. Have to give myself grace and look forward. As the Antagonist talks to people inside this dungeon, I am thinking I may have him speak to said character when they re-enter that room. Something to the effect of: “I saved you because I could not save them. Tread carefully through my memories, I will not help again. You wear my amulet, prove you are worthy of it.” Or retcon that that’s what he heard when he woke up. Or give it to him in a dream that night before they head back. Still noodling, as you read.