The
NET.PLOTS.BOOK
Compiled by Aaron
Sher
One-Liners
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-Help the local good, but
dying, wizard to attain lichdom.
-Prevent evil nasties from
overcoming the local good lich.
-Find the lost good lich
and get help to cure a generic plague.
-Go to kill the lich only
to find it's actually good.
-Save the Dragon from the
Evil Princess.
Short Summaries
----------------
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An alchemist hires the party to recover a shipment of supplies
that was hijacked enroute. If he
doesn't get them back, he faces bankruptcy.
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Caught while stealing from a mage, the thief in the party is
sent on a geas to steal an artifact from a colleague as punishment.
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You are assigned to protect a person, but don't let them know
you're protecting them. Defer to them
in all things, but don't let them know you're deferring to them.
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An obscure sect of a dark church is seeking the eight necessary parts/items
used in summoning a sleeping demon. Just so happens that one of the PCs
inherited one of the items (it should be something innocuous like a simple
pendant with inscriptions) from a dead relative.
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The party uncovers a plot to replace high-ranking officials with
exact lookalikes (shapechangers). Nice
little conspiracy theory action. Which one
of your trusted patrons is really an evil doppleganger? Who can you trust? Who
will believe you? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone ISN'T out
to get you.
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The party is hired by the local Mage Guild to find and capture
(and/or kill) a renegade wizard who is breaking Guild laws (selling magic items
to criminals, assassinating the previous Guildmaster, attempting to assassinate
the current Guildmaster, etc.). Local law enforcement is not involved because
the Guild likes to solve its problems internally.
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There's a battle going on between a good lich and one or more
evil liches. The players have to protect
a town that's caught in the crossfire.
The lich need not even appear in the campaign; you could just have dark
noxious clouds blotting out the sun, undead armies marching back and forth,
dragons eating the livestock, and other bits of large-scale magical
fallout. Or, if you want to bring the
lich in personally, you could send the party on a quest to plead with the lich
to stop the war, or to fight elsewhere.
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PCs get caught in hole (old castle, cave?) with overwhelming
numbers against them. They have some warning and a time period when they will
be relieved if they can hold on. Idea is that PC improvise with what is around
and hold out for siege. Turns the GMing on its head. They have a plan of
defenses, not the GM, and GM leads his baddies against it. Players spring their
surprises in traps etc. Must have a map agreement on what can be done in time
available. Players tend to cheat outrageously
but great fun for all concerned with a change of pace for both GM and players.
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Here's a bunch of REAL short descriptions of adventure ideas
that work well in a city:
Second-story jobs, picking a pocket and finding a map, searching
the tunnels under the city for a tomb or catacombs, competing with the Thieves'
Guild, smuggling arms into the city, spying on foreign officials, helping an
orphan fight against cruel thugs, racing another party in a city-wide search
for a magical artifact, investigating a corrupt church, wooing a noble lady,
searching for your weapons instructor who has been abducted by a rival, trying
to get apprenticed to a truly weird mage, etc.
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Invert the "bad-lich-turns-out-to-be-good" idea: A really sinister lich would probably love
to have people convinced that he's just a kindly, helpful old gent. Suppose one such lich has been working hard
on his image for a century or two...he saves people from natural disasters (which
he created himself), gives out magical gifts (which are cursed in some
nonobvious way), kisses babies, the whole shebang. The players come to suspect
him of actually being evil ("Hey...two centuries old? That's before Second Edition came out! He must be evil!") and have to stop
him. But first, they have to convince
the locals, who love the old guy, that they've been wrong about him all this
time. ("Gandalf? The old coot with
the fireworks? Evil? Get outta here.")
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Go to kill the evil lich, get captured and put at his/its mercy
only to have it ask "Why are you bothering me?" Apparently it was/is a good wizard who got
kind of absent minded as he died and sort of drifted off into lichdom without
noticing. Since he's quite powerful,
none of the various local monsters that he's geased into serving him have given
him any trouble, nor have they pointed out the problem of his lichdom...
Play the lich as an absent minded old british gentleman, sort of
surprised that anybody would want to kill him and having considerable trouble
grasping the idea that he's a lich. A
few accidental pats on the back while the players are held by some sort of
spell should be amusing.
P.S. If you can't figure out how to set things up so a lich can capture
and hold helpless a bunch of PCs, SHAME on you! Liches are something like 30th level M-U/Clerics, not to mention
the hordes of followers, servants, summoned monsters and demons and elementals
and the like...
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A caravan is travelling through the desert. The party is hired to capture a man who is
in the caravan, and it must be done quietly, so that nobody else knows. They are given the man's name, and the fact
that he is a mage, but no other information about him. The catch is that the caravan consists of
ten wagons, with at least thirty or forty guards (when I used this adventure,
the caravan was travelling through Brin Pass, a VERY dangerous area), and
everyone's wearing the standard desert gear: a white robe, with a hood and a
veil. This makes it very difficult to
tell who's who. The party should investigate
the wagons. If they do, they will find
that only one wagon doesn't have an obvious reason for existance (i.e. belongs
to the caravan master, carries supplies, or carries cargo). A man is living in that wagon, and only
comes out to get food. Raiding the
wagon will obviously cause noise and commotion, two things to be strenuously
avoided. This is a very difficult
scenario; I've run it twice, and both times the party failed. Once the guy got killed and the party was
arrested and held in custody by the caravan master, and once the guy ran away
and the party lost him.
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REWARD
(very large sum mentioned - for your world)
BRAVE Adventurers Needed!
To Kill the DRAGON of Eastmark, Kingdom of Arcadia.
(fill in location and kingdom name as necessary).
Apply at the Royal Palace.
All that made that adventure interesting (aside from the nearly
1000 mile overland journey, differing cultures, side-adventures, et al) was the
fact that the "DRAGON of Eastmark" was a golden dragon, and the party
was mostly Good characters. The Gold
had become insane when humans had attacked and slain his mate, and spent his time
laying waste to the local kingdom, which finally began posting notes (after the
first three expeditions failed) to hire outsiders to come in and try to destroy
the genius-intelligence, magic-using and physically awe-inspiring dragon. Since the tattered posting does not mention
that the "DRAGON" is a Gold, the party had already travelled the very
long way, and then had a lot of discussion before finally deciding that grief
did not excuse the dragon's excesses, and that he must be destroyed.
=========================================================================
The lich is a good wizard who was forced to become a lich in
order to remain around to counteract some powerful evil force. He/it spent the last years of his life
directly restraining some powerful evil demon (make it something not quite
physical, for example a demon of madness that manifests by making victims psychotically
insane...evil human sacrifice cults start springing up all over the place and
random people on the road start attacking out of the blue with no provocation,
sort of like...gasp! PCs!)
So the Lich is at the bottom of some dungeon complex using
spells and powers that are so far beyond the party's understanding that they
can't perceive them, to hold the evil imprisoned. He/it is also keeping random strangers from wandering in and
interfering. After so long a time, the lich
just sort of drifted into undeath without really noticing (keeping a set of
spells up constantly for years will do that to ya). The PCs manage to get the drop on the Lich when he's weakened
and...
a) the evil gets loose.
b) the good lich's wizardly spirit manifests before it moves on
to another, higher plane, and commends them for their actions in releasing him
from his unwitting servitude to to undeath.
He also says, "Well, I'm off to my retirement in elysium, the job's
all yours, boys!"
c) If you're feeling charitable, give the players an inkling of
what's going to happen, or some magic to help them to combat the madness demon (personal
protection against the madness would be nice, although you could have lots of
fun with blackouts and sleepwalking and the like if the PCs were as susceptible
as anyone else). If you're not feeling charitable,
have them find out the HARD way what the ol' spook's mysterious comments were
in reference to. Maybe stick a scroll
(that must be laboriously deciphered) in with the treasure, describing the madness
demon and perhaps some ways that it can be fought.
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The party is on some sort of extended vacation, staying in an
inn/bar. A frequent visitor is a tall, dark, suave, charming man dressed in
formal evening wear, accompanied by a different woman every time. He comes in every 2nd or 3d night. He always orders bloody marys and doesn't
drink them. He is quite wealthy and very pleasant. There is something almost magnetic about him. He has fascinating eyes. (DM should do everything he can to make it
believable that he could be a vampire, despite the unusual setting (city)).
Either he charms (charm gaze) a female party member and takes
her away, or a beautiful dancer comes in looking for her missing sister, who was
last seen coming to this bar with the tall,dark gentleman. She tries to convince a party member to help
her look for her sister being seductive about it. Both are eventually charmed
by the Gentleman. In any case, make a
party member disappear into this Gentleman's lair.
He has a gothic style house in a nice part of town. There is nothing obviously amiss here. If the party asks around, this guy is a
pillar of society, a kind, philanthropic fellow, well respected by his
peers. He runs a magic shoppe. He is a mid-level wizard with a head for
business, who gave up adventuring to start a business.
His house looks just like a vampires house might look (black
velvet curtains, etc). He has a private
sanctuary inn his basement, the only entrance to which is a rune-encrusted door
(trapped or enchanted in any way appropriate to the party). He supposedly has a chapel down there, but
really has a large complex, where various vampiric rituals, and all-night
parties take place. All of the missing
people have been charmed into believing that they have been turned into slave
vampires. They will aid their master if
at all possible.
The party must break in and forcibly take their companion away
from this place. Again, make the
evidence somewhat contradictory whether the Gentleman is a vampire or not. Most evidence should say yes, but make some
things contradict this.
The gentleman has a cursed ring of the vampire, a powerful evil artifact
which makes him believe he is a vampire and gives him many of the powers of a
vampire, as well as some of the drawbacks.
Make him dislike things that cause a vampire harm, but don't make it
obvious whether is works. Make him have
a reflection, but have a dead vampire victim show up. Etc. At the end, have the
party realize that he is not a vampire at all but rather is a cursed fellow
with an intrinsically good nature.
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The magic energies (derived from outer space :-)) are dwindling,
slowly but surely. At this time only the
most advanced magicians have noticed that their most powerful spells are
beginning to fail more and more frequently.
My explanation is that there is three kinds of magic in the
world:
1) White magic: creative magic, healing, alteration. The white-magicians
are generally the good guys, mostly elves, priests (Gods of Light) and fairies.
2) Black Magic: Necromatics, destructive magic, summoning. The
black-magicians are generally the bad guys, mostly humans, black-elves, trolls and
the demons & devils.
3) The Old Magic: The magic that rules it all; but now almost a forgotten
art, only used by the extinct race of Wizards (yes, wizards are a distinct race
in my world) and the dragons.
Unfortunately the magic energies are only dwindling for the
white-magicians, since the black-magicians derive their power from the negative
dimension and have opened the gate, so that negative energies flow freely into
this dimension blocking the white-magic.
The objective is to close the gate, before even the simplest
white-magic is rendered useless and impotent. This cannot be done with the use of
white-magic, but only with the use of the Old-Magic (use of black-magic will
only worsen the situation).
The problem is to find someone or something that have access to
the Old-Magic and is sufficiently skilled in this art, to reverse the situation.
(this is what the players must think is the objective for them or initially be
let to believe).
The real problem is that the division between black- and
white-magic is artificial, and will always lead to this problem sooner or
later, and only the Old-magic can prevail (since the white- and black-magic is derived
from the Old-magic, but the separation will corrupt both branches). So the players are to be the prophets of the
new world order of magic (or front-runners), after being taught the basics of
this by the only Wizard left on the planet (unless they destroy him in their folly!!!). But to find the information that there is
such a creature alive should be very difficult and only referenced by vague
hints in old legends etc.
My suggestion for the Wizard is that the group can find (after
lengthy research) the place he is rumored to live (e.g. inside a volcano). And when they arrive he is there, but frozen
inside a huge iceblock, by a pair of Ice-Dragons that he once forced to humiliate
themselves to assist him, and this is their revenge. Once every 100 year they let him free for a day to scorn him, and
then deep-freeze him again. And they
will not take it lightly if the players are to take away their sweet revenge.
Long Summaries
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In my experience, PCs will guard a hundred caravans before it
occurs to them that trading on their own account could be more fun and lucrative.
Part of this is I guess a lack of interest in the "tie-downs" that
trading could imply and in the boring detail of buying and selling. There are however some good advantages. It encourages a sense of group identity -
all partners of Fast and Risky Quality Merchant Co. - and can have some great
"plot lines". It also changes
the world outlook when strangers are first thought of as "Hey CUSTOMERS!"
rather then "Arm up, enemy approaching". If you ever need to lure your players in a particular direction
then a rumour of profit should be easy to manage.
PCs can be tempted into the business a bit at a time. For
example: At conclusion of other
business a friendly tribesman notes "Your people make good iron. If you are back this way, bring us one of
your fine steel blades and I'll trade two snow leopard skins for it". $$$$ in characters eyes! The trick is to
avoid the boring bits.
1) Give them good NPC warehouse men etc that they really can
trust except perhaps once, later rather than sooner, for a plot. If they feel they can safely leave a load in
trusted hands for a fling then so much the better.
2) Have NPC's offer to retail so they are doing the wholesale
transit stuff and dont get lost in selling detail. "Hey, I'll take all of this stuff you can get here at xxxx -
leave you free to get another load moving eh?". Failing that declare, "after 2 hours you are sold out for xxxx
reward". Forget detailing trading
except for casual encounters with a train.
3) Forget the unwieldy caravan bit - encourage them into the
small mule train style. They'll have
more fun. "Yup, de mules certainly
de way. You see dat caravan train -
takes 2 month to move dat round de Gap. Sheez dat costs! I ken move dis stuff over Hawk Pass on mules
in meebe tree weeks on a good run."
4) Emphasize the exploratory opening up of new country rather
then the big-haul routes. If they start
into going back and forth on the same lucrative route too often, send in a big
merchant with a massive caravan to drop the prices. They'll thank you for it in terms of game interest.
Some typical sorts of
plots.
-Guarding the goods train. They'll really do it in earnest.
-Spying on the side under their legit cover.
-Involvement in local politics
-Exploration
-Building of fortified outposts and defense thereof
-Very dangerous goods! (i.e.
magic)
-Recovery of stolen goods
-Dealing with a protection racket
-High risk winter route to relieve a starving outpost.
One potential problem is the possibilty of too much coin. Relax.
Early in their career get them used to the idea that high profits come from
real high risks and sometimes its better alive poor then rich and dead. ("You are surrounded by 20 young mounted
warrior louts looking for trouble. They
request 'presents' with broad grins.
All are bow armed (and they've been training since 3 years old)". Remember that elaborate trading has high
overheads in paying NPCs etc. If there
is somehow got a money excess then introduce credit offered by bankers - on
risky routes they will sooner or later lose a train bought on borrowed money
and the overheads will put them on the back foot!
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A powerful wizard and his apprentice (also powerful) are after
an artifact which is carefully guarded (by various traps, magics, etc) in a labyrinth. Put in there years ago by various leaders
and since forgotten. They cannot think
of a brute force way to get it, but they are clever enough to have figured out
some loopholes which will allow a low-level bunch of adventurers with various
characteristics (tailor to your players, one obstacle per player or combination
of players) to get in safely and escape with the artifact.
The wizard cooks up a long term plan (perhaps he is an elf) to
obtain such a party of adventurers.
This plan is subtle and tricky as that is the style of this wizard (he
likes to manipulate and deceive people, like a game). He has his apprentice disguise himself as an old storyteller/bard
who takes a liking to a young pc or npc and tells stories of the PC/NPC's
grandfather who stopped a great evil by sacrificing himself, sealing the evil
and himself into a labyrinth (yes THE labyrinth). The grandfather was lost with his family sword and more importly
an amulet which signified the family's power and destiny as heroes of the
realm. Various stories of the
grandfather, sword, and amulet should convince the PC/NPC to go after this
stuff.
The storyteller also tells of the PC/NPC's family talent for
dowsing, and helps him cut a dowsing rod and casts various covert magics to
make the character believe he has such power.
Eventually he replaces the dowsing rod with an identical duplicate which
is set up to find the other characters who are needed to get the artifact back
(yes, the party). The character
recruits or finds the party and they go and get the amulet back.
The wizard and apprentice appear at the exit from the labyrinth
and reveal the hoax (part of the fun), demanding the amulet. The apprentice is either given or takes the
amulet for the wizard, then gets a greedy look in his eyes and makes to put it
on. The wizard vaporizes the apprentice
and takes the amulet.
You might want to put some sort of treasure in this labyrinth so
the party won't be too pissed that they have been deceived.
The wizard invites the characters to join in his
"games" (see below). If they decline, he does various things to
convince them to comply. If that fails,
he cooks up another complicated deception to get them to join in. He will not force them to join, unless he
feels that he has sufficiently deceived them.
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The party is asked to go on a quest by an older man, a merchant,
to save his daughter's life. She has
the dreaded Indigo Flu, usually fatal. The
only known cure is to make a medicine out of the Caiman stone, an odd fruit
that grows out of a mineral/plant hybrid only in the most obscure places. The party is referred to the sage who told
the merchant of this cure, for more info. The sage is of course an agent of the
Wizard of the previous segment.
He cooks up a quest designed to bring the party eventually to a
spot at which the wizard has planted a "Caiman Bush". The Caiman stone and the Indigo flu are
complete fiction. The party will not
find anybody else who knows about these even if they ask around. The Caiman Bush is an elaborate magic item,
which will teleport the party into the Wizard's lair. The wizard will then inform them that the only exit from his lair
is to win the game.
The game is versus another party which has been in suspended
animation waiting for opponents.
(Losers of the game are suspended and continue to play until they win,
whereupon they are released). Make the
game whatever you wish.
You should maybe allow the party to acquire some limited magic
items from the game, so they won't be quite so pissed to have been manipulated.
=========================================================================
Riddle-maps (idea based on "song-maps" that the old
time Maori people used to describe journeys).
Basically sage-type person translates a song-map that someone
earlier had written down in its original form.
Lots of scope for errors. It's a
translation so no need for poetry. Sage
identifies one point in song as being nearby and wants the map followed. Fit into your world. The characters can only "see" what
you describe so very careful descriptive work is necessary but red herrings can
be fun.
An example of full riddle
map.
"here the VALATAS people live above the halls the congress
of tide and land, thence two noon suns cross your face and take you to the
silver path. Up the path you onward go
past three cold threads in summer still, then into the shadows of RAMATIS realm
till the path is crossed at the weeping rock.
Shortly the path splits at last, so turn your face and walk two sunsets
till RAMATIS greets with open arms again. The laughing braid just in the
shades, leads high to towers of earth, and there above the last falling tears,
find the gates of night. No moon to
light the halls of night but ochre stars will mark a path to those who walk in here. Pity you who have no meat to sacrifice to
the Old Ones hidden within. Once met
and your offering received dash for life to the halls of teeth. Beyond there lies the ribbon of red, rushing
fast to meet the sun again, then bounding down past flaxen steps, to greet the
ghost in its bed of gold."
Translation:
Capitalized bits are phonetic translation of unknown words. The sage has identified VALATAS so begin
here.
The party walks towards the
noon sun for 2 days and finds...
GM: "Towards end of second day you climb to top of ridge
and look down on large river valley with the river glistening in the sun."
Following it upriver past three side-creeks that would wet you
even in summer you get to woods.
RAMATIS is the old people's God of forests but the PC's or sage wouldn't
know this. They should easily guess
though when you announce forest in the way.
The river hits a gorge and a crossing is forced where a waterfall comes
down a cliff face. After that the river divides at two big tributaries and you
take the west one for two days. Should
encounter woods again...however, the puzzle can be sharpened by woods that are
no longer present (keep talking about NEW building in the area - ruins of a saw
mill ??? etc). A quick flowing tributary
is traced up into the mountains and above the top waterfall is a cave
mouth. A path through the cave is marked
by ochre crosses on the floor but it is also the lair of monster worms that
fall on any meat. The travellers of old
would carry a sheep up and run like hell for the cave of stalagmites (which
block the worm) while it is devoured.
Hope the PC have something ready...torch light will shortly show an underground
river flowing the other way (no more ochre) which will lead to high mountain
basin. Geologically an inlier of
gold-bearing basement capped by limestone.
Problem - it exits over a sheer bluff and the rope ladder has long since
rotted away. The creek joins a larger
creek with the disconcerting habit of disappearing an hour or two after rain
(the "ghost") leaving a dry bed.
And yes, this is based on real place in NZ. The creeks are gold-bearing
if PC ready to dig for it the hard way. Remnants of digging all over the show.
You get the general
idea. Quite a bit of work and you can
lead characters by the nose through it if so inclined. Mis-translations can also help.
=========================================================================
Every ten years, the Mages' Guild holds a contest. The prize of the contest should be left
fairly vague, unless one of your PC's is a high-ranking member of the Guild...I
usually use some statement about "material considerations...well, it's
politics mostly..." However, since
Guild mages tend to be not particularly active types, the contest is structured
as follows: each mage hires a group of
adventurers (here's where the PC's come in), who then compete for the prize in
a maze set up and run by the Guild. The
party should be hired by a mage, who tells them basically the information
above, plus the number of other groups competing (I usually use four groups
total, since in my maze they tend to meet up at the end for a final battle, and
dealing with more NPC's than that would get hellish). The mage gives each PC a magical "token"; basically
just a little one-use magic item. The
tokens can have effects like Levitate (for a duration), Light (ditto),
Invisibility (as the spell); just go through the PH and pick out spells to
use. Make up a maze to put the party
though, and don't forget that several other groups are doing this at the same
time! The way I run it is that I have a
map of a maze, with four relatively distinct paths to a final room. They do cross over, but not very often. Each has several large empty rooms on the
map, and some marked spots in the corridors.
Then I have a list of rooms to use, and corridor tricks, and I just insert
whichever ones I feel like when they come to a room or a corridor spot. The four groups race through the maze, and
the objective is to find a large flashing gem.
I usually set it up so that
when the party reaches the last room (where the gem is), most of the other
groups arrive at the same time. If the party
tries to hang back and let them fight it out, I have some of the NPC's start
going for the gem. Remember that this
was set up by a Mages' Guild, so you can put in almost anything you want...some
examples of rooms I use are:
1) The room has a chasm cutting it in two. There is another door on the far side, and a
bridge across the chasm. (The chasm is
actually an illusion, but falling in will take the PC out of the contest) On the bridge, there are two
"knights". These are merely
animated suits of armor, and they have orders to prevent anyone from crossing
the chasm. They will react predictably
to actions by the PC's, and so can be lured into traps; for example, a thief
tries to climb across, one of the knights moves to block him, the party tosses
oil onto the bridge where the knight would stand, then the thief goes
back. The knight walks back and slips
in the oil. Make the bridge very narrow
and no handrails.
2) Another room with a chasm, but this one has a maze of
invisible paths crossing it. The party
would have to move very slowly, feeling their way along and probably mapping
the maze as well. Therefore, you put a
monster (I usually use a nonafel, or cat-o'-nine-tails, from the Fiend Folio,
or else something called an amorph hopper which I made up) on the bridges to
mess them up. Let the monster leap
infallibly from one spot to another (it knows the maze perfectly), or else let
it fly.
3) A circular room with a pillar in the center. As soon as one person enters the room, tell
them that they see the door slam behind them and the room begins to spin. They are plastered against the outer wall by
the centrifugal force, and are slowly being crushed. Then send them out of the room, and tell the other players that
they see the guy enter the room, and then throw himself against the outer
wall. It's an illusion, of course, and
the other players can do whatever they want, but whatever they do, the trapped
character will interpret it as something that would be happening, or else just
something weird happens and he can't figure out why. For example: they tried slapping the "trapped"
character across the face. He felt the
blow, but had no idea where it came from.
However, there's a catch: the
crushing is real. After a little while,
ribs begin cracking...the idea is to try to get the "trapped"
character to disbelieve his surroundings.
=========================================================================
The PC's have been meandering around different continents, and
they wind up at this town. The people
of this town are very suppressed, and do not like strangers. It seems as though the strangers they have
dealt with in the past are pretty dangerous.
There is however a thriving community in this town...centered
around a magic users guild. I admit, a
very rare thing indeed.
As the PC's begin to find out things about this town, they find
out some of the following things:
1) A powerful MU "owns the town" whether by money or
power nobody knows.
2) The town government is set up similar to a company: mayor at the top, and vice presidents below
him each in charge of some community welfare.
This group of people votes on decisions concerning law, including
trials.
3) There are one or two members from "the guild" on
the council.
4) Some others of the council are suspected of being influenced
to abstain or cast a certain vote.
5) Every three months people with handicaps, the aged, and the
dying are removed from this town.
6) The town is located at the base of a cliff against the
sea. The only way to the top is a
dangerous road with several hairpin turns.
7) Criminals are put to work mining a roadway through the cliff
wall up to the surface above.
8) The rocks from the mining are quarried in blocks and are
valued in some lands for building. The
rock is very hard, and has a uniform black color.
If the party tries to find out what happens to those who get
taken away, they will find they are
taken to a dead volcano, with a large valley inside. This valley does not go through seasons, and the trees are fruit
trees, which always bear fruit. There
is a portal into this valley. The portal
of mourning. It opens up every three
months on the solstice dates. Can you
guess what time of day? At
sunrise. Written on the archway of the
portal is the purpose of the portal, valley, and since it is old and worn, when
the portal was dicovered thirty years ago there was a loss of translation of
the portal of "The Morning."
There is an evening portal too.
But that one is the entrance to an old abandoned dwarven kingdom. It opens up every night. Each night, undead skeletons emerge with two
tasks. Gather fruit. Look for newcomers, and "welcome"
them to shelter. Skeltons will try to
capture anyone alive with nets.
Inevitably the PC's will want to go dungeoning and kill off
hoards of skeltons, and free lots of supressed people. Insert your own dungeon in this part or use
a prefab.
Eventually, they will meet the lich in the dungeon. He will ask several questions about why they
killed the skeletons. Now the poor people
will starve... and so on and so forth.
It will be increasingly aware that the lich is a good lich. The lich became a lich to forever take care
of the orchard.
It turns out there is another lich. The Good lich is in fear of the Bad one, who happens to live in
the town... heading the MU guild. The guild
is a structure in which the Lich collects power, items, spells...it is great if
the party has an MU who joined the guild without knowing. The guild is structured like a membership thing. Access to libraries is based on level of
membership. Level of membership changes
based on donations of magic items, artifacts, spells and of course money.
The possibilities branch out from there... But the deal is to
free the good lich from the wrath of the bad.
They could...
1) Infiltrate the guild to a level at which it will topple.
2) Kill the bad lich.
3) Ignore the Deal.
4) Rally the town.
5) Retrieve the good liches talisman from the bad one's
possesion.
Any option is bound to piss someone off. Good or bad lich, or the 40 or so MU's who
have invested their life's savings into the guild. But think of all those magic items that must be in there.
=========================================================================
Part 1:
Chief honcho feeling old, needs to test suitability of daughter
as heir. A crafty sage NPC called to
help.
Sage's plan: A honcho's
man will pretend to turn traitor and with PC's will kidnap daughter. (Big deal - everyone is cooperating). They will tell daughter she is to write note
saying father to come alone with ransom.
He will be bumped off by ambush and they will see daughter confirmed as
heir but she will take orders from rival evil honcho. They have permission to scare her with anything short of real
torture. She passes test if she refuses
to write or finds a way to warn, or manages an escape. A largish group is hired as daughter
normally well protected and PC will really be acting as a guard and protect her
whatever her choices...Pretty boring easy money for players huh since all set
up?
Catch:
The man chosen to play traitor really is a traitor in pay of
uncle. The opportunity to dispose of daughter and become heir is seized. The traitor will suggest a cave in isolated area
(which just happens to be moderately fortifiable - not by design; he just likes
the isolation) as place for the hold-out and the father (anxious to be fully
informed) agrees. PCs may have a better
idea but unlikely they will be in a place unknown to the traitor or
father. Traitor is a coward and won't
attempt on the life of the girl himself but will use any excuse to leave PCs
with girl. Uncle will bring large force to bear on the PCs to wipe her out. (and
them). Traitor to blame the PCs.
The daughter:
Really a good choice.
Will not at first agree but will grovel and pretend submission. Will write note but encoded to warn. If no other opportunity has arisen, the
traitor will say he will take note. If
the players later tell her its a setup (when trouble begins), she will demonstrate
fine combat skills.
Baddies:
Whatever number to test your PCs. Will (treacherously) offer free passage if they will hand over
girl. (PC's may think the daughter worthless
and be tempted to hand her over - mine were!
If they do, they will not be allowed to leave alive since they are to be
blamed with it. Dead men tell no tales.
Fortunately mine remembered orders to protect no matter what and girl
will reveal the actual contents of her note when she realises the PC are on her
side). The negotiation delay will give
some time for setting up defences if it occurs to players to hedge. Too bad if they don't.
If the PCs can hold out 2 days, a concerned father will arrive
with relieving force.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2:
[This was an extension as players grumbled about tiny pay (it
was supposed to be an easy job) and here the sage helps.] I made an earlier post
on the net frp conference on moral dilemmas and here is the detail.
In reward for services, a sage offers this little test to a
group of PCs. This is a variation of
the famous Prisoner Dilemma based on an essay by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical
Themas. This will work best with a
group that are really involved with their characters and have played them for
some time.
Players given a counter which is red on one side, black on the
other. They are to hand it secretly to the sage either red side up or black
side up. They will be rewarded according to how all play.
If a PC returns the piece
BLACK side up he/she gets:
For every other player turning in a RED side: A Big reward.
For every other player turning in a BLACK side: Nothing or very
small
If a PC returns the piece
RED side up he/she gets:
For every other player turning in a RED side: A moderate reward
For every other player turning in a BLACK side: Only a small
reward
It is important the player really understand the reward system
before they make the choice. It is also very important that they can't discuss with
each other what they will do and the returns are made in secret. When I did it,
I had the sage claiming (quite wrongly) he could magically increase basic attributes
and the matrix was:
BLACK choice:
For every RED piece: Attribute of choice increased by one unit.
For every BLACK piece: nothing.
RED choice:
For every RED piece: 50s in money
For every BLACK piece: 5s in money
The advantage of offering an attribute change, is that to the
players (more than the PCs) it was a very real temptation to offer BLACK. Of course, if they all chose black, nobody
would get anything. If only one chose
red, that player would be fairly annoyed while the rest get one attribute
bumped up. If you were the only player
to choose black, then you sit very pretty...the details of this dilemma are
well discussed by Hofstadter. He tried
it for real money on his friends, here's your chance to do the same. For once, the game is as interesting if the player
is trying to choose for a PC or doing it for him/herself.
Of course, all hell breaks loose when the sage reveals he is
lying and just gives each a little more than if all had chosen red.....
The GM should decide what reward matrix the game balance can
handle and whether the sage is honest, but do recommend the attribute lift as bait.
=========================================================================
One obvious device for side-line action is the good old
vendetta, or Even Orcs Have
Mothers. Sooner or later, (sooner
usually) PC's will by their actions have ruined someones plans, killed someone
favourite son/uncle/mother/etc and be due for a spot of revenge. This brings that most dangerous of monsters
up against the PCs - another thinking human. If the GM looks at the world from
the Offended One's point of view, lots of ways for to get even should suggest
itself but here are few ideas. Toss them into the game at the same time as
other action - the vendetta may become
the main gaming focus but it shouldnt start that way.
The hired thugs:
Predictable, common but not a bad opening shot anyway to start
the players going. Chances are this will tell the Offended One (OO) that it wasn't
luck and these guys are good, while telling the PCs that life isn't that
simple.
The Trap:
Can be variation of above but much more creative ways
around. How about a desirable NPC that
spends some time winning the PC's confidence (helping out on a couple of
expeditions say?) before some suitably creative putting the boot in? (from the unsubtle
knife in back through poison to "inadvertantly" leaving the wrong
door open).
Using their greed to send them against a strongly defended
position with a totally false plan about a supposed way in? (This got my
players past thinking of the vendetta as an sideline nuisance. They were mean
and cold and looking for blood when they returned).
Or how about when the player are off to visit an unfamiliar
culture, making sure they get stunningly wrong information on cultural sensitivities. (I havent play-tested this one, but I
imagine could be very good in a light-hearted game)
My favourite is close to above.
On an expedition to tribesmen, a functionary they hadn't much noticed
offers them an ornate tribe weapon. He/she tells them this is could be the key to
getting close to the chief. Tell any barbarian that they can talk to, that they
got it by "Melstilatuk" from a barbarian chief. He/she further explains that melstilatuk
(use your own languages) is a ceremonial battle and winning against a chief
accords them high status. In fact the
functionary is the in employ of OO and will quickly vanish. The weapon was obtained from the father of
current chief in a particularly cowardly ambush that the tribesmen know
about. If the PCs are curious about the
word, a non-tribal linguist can only translate it as "raven
work". A tribal linguist if they
even bother to find one, would them that melstilatuk is a colloquial abusive
term for corpse-robbing - regarded VERY badly by tribesman. The weapon will be instantly recognised by
the close tribesmen to the chief and effect of the characters proudly reciting their
claim can be imagined.
The Frame up:
Often PCs leave themselves very wide open to being framed and
dealt to wrongly by the law. This
should make it a good option for the OO.
The trick to playing this so your PCs have a chance is to very
thoroughly think out how the OO sets it up - exactly who is talked to, bribed, where,
who could see it. PC's will have to
pursue what really happened and they need good detail. I failed at this on first attempt really but
made up for it belately working in a lot of detail.
The lying witness or false complaint. This is the simplist by far if a bit obvious. Remember that if all or part of the PC party
are free to investigate then the OO is likely to take measures to protect the implicated. My PCs actually utilised this. They figured the witness would be guarded so
looked out for the guards and followed them (and a few false trails as well) to
locate the OO.
Doubles. Illusion magic
to make the others look like the PC in a witnessed crime? I haven't actually tried it but sounds good.
Here's a complex one that the players may tumble at any stage
but will land them in serious trouble if they don't. Baddie in employ of OO poses to players as a rich jeweller from
within a city. He meets them at a location
outside the city and describes some imaginary double-dealing in the trade. The upshot is that he thinks a rival has
wrinkled him out of a distinctive ruby necklace. His mission for the PC is to probe or watch a house in the
outskirts to see if any sign. He tells
them that the necklace has a vague enchantment (improve looks, raise charisma
that kind of thing) and could be picked up by detect magic abilities. Small reward for successful location. Big reward if they can get it. He tells them he doesn't want them anywhere
near his city shop. They pass a message
to him via person in local pub in writing. It mustn't mention the goods, just say party of extra people
needed if they can't get it, else tell him to come alone to a meeting point if
they have managed it all themselves.
The house is the real jeweller's house and the necklace is not
heavily protected as the rubies are fake (which the jeweller knows) but the
magic isn't (of which he is unaware).
The reward should tempt the PCs to go for it. They will then send a note to the appropriate place. Make sure they write down what it says. The note goes of course to the OO who then murders
the real jeweller, places the note on his body, then tips off the watch on
where to find the PCs. Chances are the
PCs have written a highly incriminating note and in addition will be holding
property know to belong to the jeweller.
Final Vendetta notes:
If a prolonged vendetta is plaguing the players then a certain
amount of paranoia is liable to set in. You may be accused of inventing ways around
their precautions because they tell you them in advance. If you are, I hope
they string you. I f otherwise, don't get angry - suggest a play fair
system. They write down their precautions
when you warn them that you need to know.
You write down your attack. At
the moment of truth, notes are compared and a very enjoyable game can be held
BETWEEN GM and players. This assumes
enough maturity on your players that they build protection that they reasonably
could manage by their skills and money without going through you. If so have some fun. This play really only applies to the Hired
Thug approach - the others shouldnt really be open to abuse.
=========================================================================
Ashburn Man
For this adventure a group of younger but promising members of
the Odyssians are invited out for a weekend at the country estate of Sir Henry
Ainsford, one of the older members of the club. Sir Henry is noted as a hunter and explorer, but he is getting on
in years and spends most of his time at his estate outside of the town of
Ashburn in Kent.
Sir Henry regularly invites Odyssians out for weekend visits,
but this particular weekend is special, because he believes he has made a discovery
of great scientific importance on the grounds of his estate. This means that he will make sure that Odyssians
of particular interests will be in his group.
He will invite archaeologists, paleontologists, physicians, historians
and ethnologists in particular, plus an assortment of others who are
interested. He will also invite his two
oldest friends in the Odyssians, Professor Milton Morrisson of the Language and
Ethnology faculty at Oxford and Admiral Sir Joseph Porter (retired). All he tells anyone in advance is that he has
made a discovery which may revolutionize the history and science of human origins.
Ashburn House
Sir Henry's ancestral manse is a 16th century monstrosity,
somewhere inbetween a manor house and a castle, ornate and over decorated. It is located on the edge of the range of
hills known as the North Downs. The trip
from London to Ashburn by train takes around two hours. When they arrive in the town Sir Henry will
have several carriages waiting to take them to Ashburn House.
When they arrive they are greeted by Sir Henry, who excuses
himself and seems rather agitated. They
will then get a short tour of the house, conducted by the major domo,
Burton. Burton shows them the gun room
and the trophy room (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), the game room, several
parlors and dining rooms, and eventually he shows each of them to their
bedrooms. Each of the bedrooms is
decorated in a different motif, reminiscent of different parts of the world.
The American Room is decorated with trophies of caribou, beaver and bears. The East African room features lions and
giraffes. The Egyptian room has
crocodile and rhinoceros hide chair covers and the like. The Indian room has a beautiful tiger skin
rug. The Amazon room has a giant
stuffed anaconda on the wall. The
Orient Room has elephant tusks and panda fur rugs. There are many more along the same lines.
After they've settled in, Burton will call them down for
dinner. At the meal Sir Henry seems
agitated, smokes a number of cigars, and barely touches his food. When asked about his discovery he is evasive
and tells everyone to wait until after dinner.
Once the meal is concluded, they retire to the Smoking Room, where a
large, coffin-like box, about 2 by 5 feet is waiting on a table in the middle of
the room. Cigars are handed out, and
Sir Henry launches into a speech to the effect that he has travelled far and
seen many things, but that he has made his greatest discovery literally in his
own back yard.
He goes on to tell how one of his groundskeepers, a man named
James Dearing, was mowing in a grove of ash trees on a hill behind the house, when
he discovered a series of depressions in the ground, all very regularly
spaced. He reported them to Sir Henry
because he was suspicious that they might be deadfalls set by poachers. Sir Henry investigated, had one of the holes
dug up, and in the hole they found -- at this point he opens the box -- a
small, manlike skeleton buried in the fetal position, surrounded by garlands of
what appeared to be extremely well preserved wild flowers. The skeleton he reveals is in rather good condition,
completely bare, about 4 and a half feet tall.
What makes it remarkable is that while generally manlike in appearance,
it has an elongated lower jaw, pronounced cranial ridges and elongated upper
and lower canines, all characteristics of great apes, rather than man.
Everyone crowds around, and Professor Morrison, and possibly
others, declare that it must be a hoax.
Someone is clearly trying to put something over on Sir Henry, taking the
jaw of an ape and the body of a deformed human child and putting them
together. But on closer examination it
is clear that the jaw fits perfectly with the rest of the skull, and the skull
clearly fits the spine, and all the bone appears to be of the same age. Professor Morrison can't be sure, but given
the style of burial and the condition of the bones he believes that they predate
the early Celtic settlement of the British Isles, and if it is not a hoax, he theorizes
that this might be one of the 'Dark Folk', the aboriginal inhabitants of
Britain who were wiped out by the Celts and survive only in legend.
As Morrison seems to have become convinced, Sir Henry becomes
even more excited, and explains that there are 7 more burial shafts and that he
intends to excavate them all in the next few days with the help of his fellow
Odyssians. That said, he closes up the box, leads everyone out of the Smoking
Room and locks the door. At this point
some of the guests are probably tired and retire, and others go to the game
room or to the Library for some recreation.
Night at Ashburn House
During the night several things will happen. One of the characters with a relatively high
PSI will happen to peer out of his window late at night. Off in the distance he will see a round hill
with a grove of grey ash on the top of it. The ash are swaying in the
wind. Then he notices that none of the
other trees in the garden or beyond seem to be swaying at all, and he gets the
feeling that there's something almost conscious about the movements of the ash.
Another character will have a dream during the night. He will dream of a procession of thin, regal
looking women bearing glowing spheres of light passing through his room,
passing through the door as if it or they were immaterial, and moving on into
the hallway.
In the Morning
When they awaken in the morning they notice that Professor
Morrison doesn't join them for breakfast.
Then Sir Joseph mentions that he was up late with Morrison drinking
brandy in the library and that when he went to bed at 2am Morrison was still there
reading. He suggests that Morrison
might want to sleep late. Sir Henry is
a bit non-plussed by this, but is ready to set out to the wilds of the backyard
anyway.
Burton brings picks, rubbers and shovels after breakfast and
everyone heads out to the burial site.
It is a small clearing in the middle of an ash grove on top of a
hill. The ashes are of a miniature
variety, but healthy and well established, clearly well cared for. In the middle of the clearing is a 6 foot
high, very worn menhir surrounded (after some searching) by eight depressions
in the ground, spaced evenly in a circle, one of them recently filled in. The digging commences.
In each of the burial shafts they will find a skeleton similar
to the one already found by Sir Henry.
It is unlikely that anyone will dig in the shaft which the first
skeleton was taken from, but if they do, they will find the mangled body of
Professor Morrison there.
It will take most of the day to dig out the shafts. And at noon or so Burton will bring out
tables and campaign chairs for a leisurely lunch at graveside.
Professor Morrison never joins them, and as they prepare to head
back to the house, Sir Henry tells Burton to make sure the Professor is feeling
well and have him meet them in the Smoking Room.
When the grisly trophies are gathered in the Smoking Room,
Burton arrives with the announcement that Professor Morrison is missing, and
not only that, but it is clear that he didn't pack up and leave, because his clothes
are still there and his bed has not been slept in.
The last place the Professor was seen was in the Library, and a
close inspection of the Library will reveal an open copy of Tacitus on the floor,
some dots of blood around it, and the fact that the tiger skin rug which is
normally there is missing.
What's Going On?
The grove of ash trees is an ancient holy place. Each of the eight largest ash trees contains
a powerful guardian spirit which can manifest as a young woman (as in the dream
above) or can possess and animate non-living flesh (tiger skin rugs, etc). These Ash Maidens will attempt to get the
skeletons back, or replace them with new sacrifices, like Professor Morrison.
If they go and dig out the original burial shaft, they will find
Professor Morrison's body, mauled as if by a tiger, wrapped in the tiger skin
rug from the Library, and garlanded with wild flowers. It may take them a while to figure out to do
this, so let them stew and be mystified.
The spirits can only be placated by returning all the skeletons
and maintaining absolute silence about their existence. In fact, if they go to re-bury the skeletons
they will find that there are now ten holes instead of eight, eight for the
skeletons, one for Professor Morrison and one for Sir Henry. The spirits will do all they can to make
sure that hole is filled.
The powers of the spirits are limited. They can only operate in darkness. They cannot travel more than a
mile from the grove. Each spirit can
only animate one thing per night.
Passing through solid objects is relatively strenuous for them, so they
do it as little as possible.
The Second Night
Most likely, by the second night they will either be working on
or not have solved the mystery. That
night as they sleep, several things may happen.
Most likely one or more of the characters will be awakened by
the sound of pounding and rending as an assortment of elk and gorillas and the
like attempt to break into the Smoking Room.
Someone, or maybe even two of the characters, will find that the
stuffed anaconda or bearskin rug or boarskin bedspread will come to life as
they are drifting off to sleep and attempt to attack them and drag them out to
the grove.
The same character who saw the ash swaying the night before will
look out the window at midnight and think that he sees the ash transformed to women
who then move in a procession towards the house.
Someone who is relatively susceptible to such things will be
visited by two of the Ash Maidens who will attempt to seduce him, take him to
the grove, manipulate his mind and will, essentially enslave him, and then send
him back to the house to get the skeletons and Sir Henry for them.
Can they Save Sir Henry?
Most likely not. The
only way to save Sir Henry would be to keep the Ash Maidens and their animated
creatures away from him throughout the second night and then get him away from
Ashburn House immediately in the morning, never to return. In fact, in that situation the house would have
to be permanently abandonned because the Ash Maidens would keep looking for
sacrifices.
Alternatively, they could burn down the grove. This would be sick, cruel and immoral, but
would get rid of the Ash Maidens until saplings which escaped the burning grew
to maturity in several years, at which point the problem would reemerge.
Finally, they could offer someone else in sacrifice, but finding
a willing victim is unlikely, and giving an unwilling sacrifice would be inappropriate.
Regardless of how they deal with the situation they will face
moral dilemmas which will not be easily resolved, because the Ash Maidens should
really be preserved as an invaluable paranormal resource, and though their
demands of sacrifice are justified by their lights, it will be hard for
reasonable people to go along with them.
=========================================================================
Contributors
-------------
Joe Amato
Paul Brinkley (Don't look
now, but you did give a summary or two...)
Richard L. Butler (The
amazing forgotten man...)
J. D. Frazer
Evan A.C. Hunt
Gwen Johnson (The only
contributor with references)
Kim Chr. Madsen
Loren J. Miller
David F. Nalle (Do you do
Call of Cthulu? :-))
Chris Racicot (LOTS of good
stuff, thanks)
Phil Scadden (Again, and
again, and...thanks a lot!)
Aaron Sher (Couldn't let
this go by without adding something myself...)
Brett Slocum (A late
addition to the credits)
Jeff Vogel (Originator of
the lich theme, author of most of the lich stuff)
"Sam" (Who is
this?)
Plus several others...if you contributed, and you're not listed,
send me your name!
Many thanks to everyone who contributed and made this
possible. If people continue to send in
submissions, I might make an expanded version.
E-mail submissions to:
OR
