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View Full Version : Plot hook but need the answer... [EDIT: Now need help with details]



The Neoclassic
2009-09-06, 08:54 PM
EDIT: After reading this, go down to post ten where I explain what I've decided on so far and what I still need help with. Thanks! :smallsmile:

I'm going to be running a short (1-4 session) adventure for two friends of mine in my homebrew setting. My problem? I have an idea for a plot hook and sort of mysterious set-up, but I don't know exactly what will be behind it all / the meat of the adventure.

Thus far, I have a town located near a swamp in a relatively good-leaning area (primarily human & elf population). The inhabitants do crafts & all that fun townsfolk stuff to make a living, though a sizeable number go into the outer edges of the swamp to work every day. More ideas for what exactly they're doing there would be helpful; thus far I mostly see them gathering edible roots/vegetables and hunting weak monsters/animals for leather & meat.

Now, many of the townsfolk have started coming down with some curse/disease/psychological condition. They've figured out it pretty much comes from the swamp, but they don't know exactly who or what is behind it. And *I* don't know yet either. I want a dark/mysterious/creepy feel to it all, but I'd rather not have anything super-cliche like a bunch of angry spirits whose burial ground has been disturbed.

So... ideas for any of the aforementioned issues would be fantastic. A few more stipulations/explanations:
I do not use monstrous humanoids (nor dwarves/gnomes/halflings) in my setting, and only have access to SRD monsters (though homebrew or variations are swell).
This will be the first adventure for these PCs, so I can pick what level to start them at based on these challenges, but I'd prefer no lower than third and no higher than ninth.
Splatbook/published material isn't really an option.

Thanks in advance!

Teln
2009-09-06, 08:59 PM
Elementals angry at the town's pollution?

Shinizak
2009-09-06, 09:19 PM
A Dark and powerful undead has awakened in the swamp, Bringing with it a disease never before seen that kills faster then even some of the most potent poisons. The water of the swamp is infected, and all that it touches is infected and dies.

Mechanically, it's a mohrg or something that has the ability to cast contagion.

Raum
2009-09-06, 09:28 PM
So... ideas for any of the aforementioned issues would be fantastic. You're looking for reasons behind the disease / curse, correct?

If so, here are a couple possibilities.... Some mage or alchemist has been experimenting. No big deal except he's dumping the failed experiments into the swamp...which caused a local water-borne disease to mutate.
Some person or group has pissed off the local spirits / gods. The curse is what they are starting with to get peoples' attention...who knows what they'll do next.
An enterprising herbalist who spent long hours gathering medicinal herbs and plants from the swamp has decided to go into a more lucrative business. He's cultivating poisons. Unfortunately, he planted his poisonous plants too near the town's water supply...
A powerful merchant who typically purchases medicines, perfumes, and other swamp resources from the town has decided to cut out the middlemen. He's poisoning the village with the plan of moving his own people in once the village is gone.

Godskook
2009-09-06, 09:33 PM
2, 3 years ago, that swamp was instead a clear-ish marsh, and no one in the small village is smart enough to realize that the swamping of their old marsh is polluting their well-water. Pick an intelligent and slow-acting evil-ish race, and have them be making and dumping the poison(using a mundane, subtle poison, so that the populace wouldn't connect the dots). As part of the pollution process, unwanted denizens start moving in, including a young dragon.

Actually, you could make the swamp's degradation the dragon's fault, take a young adult black dragon, give him the 'corrupt water' ability of an adult(Or, if you're ok with a CR11 BBEG, just use the Adult). You could make him totally oblivious to the village(and thus, someone that could be bargained with) or malicious, providing a good end-game for the adventure.

------------------

Also, as a tangent, be sure to throw another tribe at the PCs while they're there. Think "Dances with Wolves" if you need to justify it(some tribes relied on their raids to provide for the winter, and besides, thinning the male population helps too). Any race would do, especially human or elf, since it'll allow you to draw more from the above movie.

------------------

Finally, a rat flail. Turns out, despite the Dragon swamping their marsh, that's not what was poisoning the well. It was a local necromancer who built his lair underneath his house and really near the town well. His collection of rotting rat skeletons were the actual pollutant. Have fun with his Mel Gibson (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118883/) level of preparedness.

Darcand
2009-09-07, 06:17 AM
What if it's not something put into the water but taken out?

On a recent trip into the local marshes a young villager discovered a shrine, now in ruins. Exploring the area he uncovered a massive pearl lying in the muddy water and ran home with it, not knowing that the shrine actually purified the normally foul water of the swamp, and the pearl functions as focus for it's power. Shortly after taking it people begin getting sick, unfortunately by the time anyone connects the two incidents the pearl has already been sold to a passing merchant and he is not so willing to part with it.

deuxhero
2009-09-07, 06:46 AM
The ghost of Tolkien has been causing your plot hook attempting to recover the property that belongs to his estate (i.e., elfs) could be good if you are not that serious.

Calmar
2009-09-07, 08:10 AM
More ideas for what exactly they're doing there would be helpful; thus far I mostly see them gathering edible roots/vegetables and hunting weak monsters/animals for leather & meat.

They could be cutting peat in the swamp, using it as fuel for their smithies and to sell it to other settlements. That's maybe a bit better for aen enduring economy than hunting and gathering. :smallsmile:


I want a dark/mysterious/creepy feel to it all, but I'd rather not have anything super-cliche like a bunch of angry spirits whose burial ground has been disturbed.
Guess, an undead bog man (using the stats of an advanced, slightly modified wight or mummy) falls into the no-go category, then? :smallwink:

What does the disease do?
Does it kill everyone who's contagioned? Does it turn them into undead (or oozes :smallbiggrin:)?

Pika...
2009-09-07, 08:22 AM
A Dark and powerful undead has awakened in the swamp, Bringing with it a disease never before seen that kills faster then even some of the most potent poisons. The water of the swamp is infected, and all that it touches is infected and dies.

I was thinking something similar, but your suggestion is way to cliche and overdone. (No offense. :smallsmile:)


You need to make things a bit more original.


My idea:

Have you ever heard of a bog-mummy/bog-bodies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_body


What I am thinking is that the townspeople have accidentally began picking roots and herbs from where this bog-mummy-bog-body lies just beneath the surface. Hence they are get low-to-mid levels of mummy rot disease doses.

The mummy/bog-body is not doing it on purpose, but when finally disturbed by the adventuring party it will defend itself and fight back.

You can find the mummy's stats here:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/mummy.htm

As for encounters, just use wild animals, and/or wild animals who have also been affected by the rot until the PCs put the pieces together.

The Neoclassic
2009-09-07, 10:03 AM
I appreciate all of the excellent ideas! Thanks very much! It's helped me come up with an outline, but I still need a few things filled in. :smallbiggrin:

Essentially, when the PCs get there, there are two things going on. Careful investigation will distinguish the two issues early on, but any investigation will help clarify it too. There are two conditions/diseases.

One of these (apparent) diseases is only found on those who work in the swamp. It makes the individual’s teeth rot and fall out, their skin turn yellow, and their fingernails darken and twist. The people affected with this found a [rock? abandoned temple?] that if they touch it, they get a +1 profane bonus to Strength for the next hour but also are afflicted with the above physical symptoms, take a -2 penalty to Wisdom, become more rash/violent, and take 1d2 negative energy damage. No matter their alignment, it gives them the [Evil] subtype. After twenty-three hours, they feel compelled to return, and so seem diligent (always wanting to go out to work) but strange (get very angry/obsessive about it) to others.

So, I need to figure out what this object is (I want it related to the god of rot/destruction/defilement, and preferrably something non-moveable), how/why the individuals found it, and how people figured out or were initially drawn to its powers.

The other sickness is from unsafe water. A black dragon or its eggs is polluting the water, and the town’s usual filter for swamp water is broken. A town official knew this but was corrupt. I need to decide if he was in cahoots with the dragon, just too greedy to want to spend money to fix it, or worships god of corruption/lies & wants town to worry so they have to rely on him more. This gives the PCs the option of just fixing the pipe (casting the right cleric spell or hiring a nearby mid-level cleric with this spell) or hunting down / destroying the black dragon, as well as several choices of how to deal with the official (kill, warn, take him to higher authorities, etc).

The town kobolds might be blamed or offered as suspects by the town official or, if knowledge of the dragon or its eggs is a widespread rumor, by the townsfolk. Because, of course, any local dragons will certainly be worshipped/aided by local draconic humanoids, right? This group of kobolds in reality have nothing to do with it and despise dragons; they immigrated to this town because they hated the tyranny of the ruling dragon in their own country.

So, here I need the official's motivation, a decision on the type (age category) & temperment of the dragon, and, well, how the PCs could figure out that this is the source of the general illness going around!


They could be cutting peat in the swamp, using it as fuel for their smithies and to sell it to other settlements. That's maybe a bit better for aen enduring economy than hunting and gathering. :smallsmile:

Oooh, very nice. I will certainly include this. I figure it's a big swamp and a little town though, so as long as the population controls itself (which, admittedly, could be a problem over centuries), hunting and gathering as a supplementary (but not main) source of income & food could be feasible. :smallsmile:

deuxhero
2009-09-07, 10:24 AM
Unless the guy has a penlty in at least one mental atribute, have him work with the dragon or seeking to sicken/kill the people for some other reason (worships the god of plague for instance). Any rational person will realize
No lynch mob>few hundred gold.
so greed is not that good a motive.

Pika...
2009-09-07, 10:37 AM
The first thing I would decide is if the dragon was doing it on purpose, or if it is merely tending it's egg nest nearby and just happens to be within range of the town's drinking water. Hence, is the dragon really being evil here (how you define alignments and inherited in your setting helps define this)?

If the dragon is innocent, then it might have just been the official pocketing the cash he should have spent on the filter system. This would then bring up the moral dilemma of "is it OK to kill this mother dragon and her unborn/unhatched eggs?" to the PCs, and perhaps even needing to prevent thetowns folk from becoming a mob against said dragon (which lets be honest, they will most likely lose).

I would personally throw in that if they manage to figure out the truth, and find a peaceful solution to the issue the knowledgeable dragon would be willing to share her ancient knowledge of those old ruins that is causing the other sickness.

Calmar
2009-09-07, 11:14 AM
One of these (apparent) diseases is only found on those who work in the swamp. It makes the individual’s teeth rot and fall out, their skin turn yellow, and their fingernails darken and twist. The people affected with this found a [rock? abandoned temple?] that if they touch it, they get a +1 profane bonus to Strength for the next hour but also are afflicted with the above physical symptoms, take a -2 penalty to Wisdom, become more rash/violent, and take 1d2 negative energy damage. No matter their alignment, it gives them the [Evil] subtype. After twenty-three hours, they feel compelled to return, and so seem diligent (always wanting to go out to work) but strange (get very angry/obsessive about it) to others.

So, I need to figure out what this object is (I want it related to the god of rot/destruction/defilement, and preferrably something non-moveable), how/why the individuals found it, and how people figured out or were initially drawn to its powers.

If you like to stick with my suggestion, I could imagine the following situation:
A man from a group of peat cutters (grim, hard-working commoners accustomed to a life of dirt and toil) hits on the head of some idol of God of Rot. He's immediately being affected by it's evil energies as he clears the thing to figute out what it might be. Of course he doesn't want to show it to his fellows, but sooner or later the day his crew finds out about the statue. Depending on how aggressive it makes a person this happens more or less violently (Maybe the damage even knocks him out, making his fellows curious - 2 hp is heavy damage for the average lvl 1 NPC class guy). In any case the whole crew gets afflicted by the idol's curse and silently agrees that they, as a group, won't tell anyone back in town. Now they either dig the thing out completely and drag it to their nearby shelter (that they built to protect them gainst bad weather), or they leave it where it is.

Maybe God of Rot isn't satisfied with this and appears to the guy who found his idol in his dreams, making him his prophet/priest.



The other sickness is from unsafe water. A black dragon or its eggs is polluting the water, and the town’s usual filter for swamp water is broken. A town official knew this but was corrupt. I need to decide if he was in cahoots with the dragon, just too greedy to want to spend money to fix it, or worships god of corruption/lies & wants town to worry so they have to rely on him more. This gives the PCs the option of just fixing the pipe (casting the right cleric spell or hiring a nearby mid-level cleric with this spell) or hunting down / destroying the black dragon, as well as several choices of how to deal with the official (kill, warn, take him to higher authorities, etc).
Is your setting more modern than middle ages/renaissance? As a player the 'filter'- thing would sound strange to me.
As a suggestion/random thought the settlement's well could end in a cave that has become a young black dragon's lair. Something similar to the Lambton Worm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambton_Worm) maybe. As far as I see it, a black dragon gains nothing from deliberately polluting the water supply of a settlement (I guess it'd rather raid it, or destroy it with it's breath).
Or maybe the ex-peatcutter and now God of Rot's agent from the swamp got a vision from his new deity that pointed him out to a place where a poisonous dragon egg could be found, and to throw it in the town well. Later he'd blame the kobolds for 'poisoning him and his fellow citizens'. :smallsmile:

Thane of Fife
2009-09-07, 11:16 AM
Perhaps you might consider a Plague Stone (http://strolen.com/viewing/The_Apocalypse_Stones) or something similar?

This could also make the official too lazy to fix the broken pipes. After all, surely it can wait, right?

Godskook
2009-09-07, 01:44 PM
You need to pick a starting level before anything else can be done. Party level will be the determining factor in choosing the age of the dragon, which will in turn help determine how/why (s)he is involved. Also, if you want morality issues, make it a metallic dragon. Few NPCs would be educated enough to know that dragons are color-coded for our convenience, so all the prejudices can be the same.

Also, party composition and builds, if you have it, since that can actually make as much or more of a difference than starting level.

Glad you liked the dragon idea.

ondonaflash
2009-09-07, 03:24 PM
Talona would be a good goddess to be responsible for all this. She's a goddess of poison. Spiritual, mental, and physical. This whole she-bang is right up her alley.

The Neoclassic
2009-09-07, 05:53 PM
So many good ideas! It's slightly overwhelming! :smalltongue:


Unless the guy has a penlty in at least one mental atribute, have him work with the dragon or seeking to sicken/kill the people for some other reason (worships the god of plague for instance). Any rational person will realize
No lynch mob>few hundred gold.
so greed is not that good a motive.

Well, yes, but only if he gets caught. :smallwink: Most people who do evil/corrupt things only do them assuming they can get away with them.


The first thing I would decide is if the dragon was doing it on purpose, or if it is merely tending it's egg nest nearby and just happens to be within range of the town's drinking water. Hence, is the dragon really being evil here (how you define alignments and inherited in your setting helps define this)?

I actually rather like the idea of this happening by accident. Yeah, the black dragons involved will be CE, but not actually purposefully poisoning the town. I'm also thinking of having a young black dragon and three eggs. Irresponsible & young black dragon parents raised the juvenile up until recently, then got sick of parenting (or something along those lines) & left the young one and the eggs in the swamp. Some property of the nest (or the eggs themselves?) causes the corrupt water-like effect which, compounded with unfiltered swamp water, leads to the town's illness & general declining health.


If the dragon is innocent, then it might have just been the official pocketing the cash he should have spent on the filter system. This would then bring up the moral dilemma of "is it OK to kill this mother dragon and her unborn/unhatched eggs?" to the PCs, and perhaps even needing to prevent thetowns folk from becoming a mob against said dragon (which lets be honest, they will most likely lose).

Yay moral dilemmas! :smallbiggrin: I will certainly have to include something along these lines.


I would personally throw in that if they manage to figure out the truth, and find a peaceful solution to the issue the knowledgeable dragon would be willing to share her ancient knowledge of those old ruins that is causing the other sickness.

Ooh, I like it. The young dragon probably knows something about the idol, having done some careful of exploring of the area itself, and therefore could possibly aid the adventurers with information.


If you like to stick with my suggestion, I could imagine the following situation:
A man from a group of peat cutters (grim, hard-working commoners accustomed to a life of dirt and toil) hits on the head of some idol of God of Rot. He's immediately being affected by it's evil energies as he clears the thing to figute out what it might be. Of course he doesn't want to show it to his fellows, but sooner or later the day his crew finds out about the statue. Depending on how aggressive it makes a person this happens more or less violently (Maybe the damage even knocks him out, making his fellows curious - 2 hp is heavy damage for the average lvl 1 NPC class guy). In any case the whole crew gets afflicted by the idol's curse and silently agrees that they, as a group, won't tell anyone back in town. Now they either dig the thing out completely and drag it to their nearby shelter (that they built to protect them gainst bad weather), or they leave it where it is.

This would indeed be an excellent way for the swamp-workers to find and start interacting with this idol. Thanks! :smallsmile:


Is your setting more modern than middle ages/renaissance? As a player the 'filter'- thing would sound strange to me.

Well, the filter is actually just a pipe with an unusual purify water-like spell on it, rather than an advanced mundane technology. My setting doesn't correspond too well with any historical time period or tech level (I guess Renaissance would be the best rough estimate), but I figure that with all-knowing and actively-caring gods, as well as access to powerful magic, people would figure out the importance of basic hygiene and fresh water fairly quickly as opposed to those in a truly gritty medieval setting.


I know I haven't addressed everyone's ideas, but rest assured all have been extremely helpful. I think I have a solid outline now, though more ideas for details and such is still welcome. :smallsmile:

Calmar
2009-09-08, 04:12 AM
Maybe I've just missed something, but do you actually want a connection between the illness from the swamp and the polluted water, or is it merely supposed to appear similar to mislead the PCs?

What is the order of events and how long are these things going on? This might be helpful to figure out how deeply the matters are interweaved.
Is all this beginning to happen shortly before the heroes arrive, or has the strange affliction from the swamp already claimed its first victims months ago and is the water being polluted for a few weeks, too?

The Neoclassic
2009-09-08, 06:11 AM
Maybe I've just missed something, but do you actually want a connection between the illness from the swamp and the polluted water, or is it merely supposed to appear similar to mislead the PCs?

What is the order of events and how long are these things going on? This might be helpful to figure out how deeply the matters are interweaved.
Is all this beginning to happen shortly before the heroes arrive, or has the strange affliction from the swamp already claimed its first victims months ago and is the water being polluted for a few weeks, too?

Ah, good questions. I don't want an actual connection between the swamp curse and the swamp illness(es). Since swamp workers began being affected around the same time that many townsfolk started getting sick from swamp water not being properly purified, the folk in the town generally aren't aware that there's more than one problem. Hence, at first the adventurers will probably be similarly confused. Individually, I think just "Oh, some people got cursed" or "Oh, the water filtering system isn't working" would be a bit boring/straightforward; combining the two will hopefully keep the PCs more interested and give them more surprises.

Hmm, good point regarding time frame... I imagine this has been happening for a few weeks before the PCs arrive. Probably, as you suggest, best to have people be cursed first. At first people could attribute those symptoms to some nasty but not-too-horrid/unusual swamp sickness. Then, when they aren't getting better, but weirdly seem healthy enough to keep working, compounded with a rudden rash of other various ailments (when the lack of filtration on the town's water supplies begins), the town gets worried enough to call in the PCs for help. One of the PCs is a cleric, so I think a plea from a fellow priest will be enough to get them interested.

Calmar
2009-09-08, 08:39 AM
So now we have to find out, how the town's water supply, the poisonous dragon, and the corrupt official are connected to each other, with the dragon only being responsible by accident, rather than purpose, right?

What does the idol do, besides the effects you have detailed above? A bunch of swamp workers who are literally obsessed by an unholy statue and don't want to do anything against it are strange, but not really a problem for the community, as far as I see it. After all they still seem to be quite quite busy down in the swamp.

Some ideas...
What do you think about the swamp workers forming a cult dedicated to God of Rot? A few of the contagioned workers could have gained a few levels of divine classes, or some template that grants them unholy powers of rot (or something like that, depending on the kind of showdown you have in mind and the group's ECLs). Or in case God of Rot's only presence in the mortal world is his ancient stuff beneath the swamp, he could appear personally in form of a powerful, but not too mighty creature that awakened/awakens from the swamp/temple-beneath-swamp/the statue. In any case that group might want to increase it's membership, infecting other people in town in order to convert them. Of course the dragon's ill effect on the water offers a wonderful cover for their schemes and the kobolds (no one trusts them anyway!) are the perfect scapegoat to conceal their actions.

The water supply from the town's well could be connected to the dragon's lair through some unsuspicious tunnel. Maybe the supernatural poisonousness of the dragon is simply more powerful than the magical filter. So the heroes climb down the well, find the tunnel and discover the young dragon (I know that's oldschool, but maybe that offers some good contrast to all the schmeming of the adventure). The dragon does not care about the town and is more or less innocent. Maybe it does not even know about the effect it has on the town. But it knows about the things that go on in the swamp that the villagers aren't aware of (the idol).

Because this probablywould make solving the adventure rather simple, God of Rot's men could be interested in preventing the heroes from any investigation, no matter if they actually know about the dragon, or not. :smallsmile:

I admit that this still offers no good answer to the affair with the corrupt official. Maybe S/he, for some reason, knows about the dragon and does not want to do anything against it out of cowardice or avarics? :smallfrown:

only1doug
2009-09-08, 04:17 PM
to my mind the corrupt official should be relabelled the corrupted official; when the first worker uncovered the statue he was afflicted as described, the other workers finding the statue fetched the town mayor (secretly from the other villagers, not wanting to concern them).

the mayor touched the statue and was corrupted by the god of rot (dominated maybe?). he ordered the other workers to finish the excavation / erection of a temple and when he returned to town he disabled the water filter and is actively trying to corrupt any and all in the area (whilst trying to appear concerned).

His advice to adventurers will be aimed towards seeming friendly and helpful whilst actually aiming towards corrupting them (or if they seem incorruptable, destroying them).

Calmar
2009-09-11, 06:41 PM
So, how's it going? :smallsmile: