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View Full Version : [4E] Gotta sort out this mess..



AgentPaper
2010-02-22, 01:39 AM
Ok, so I've caught myself in a little bit of a bind here.

The last session (and the campaign) started off with the party finishing their training to become "Rune Knights", which are basically the special forces of the kingdom they're in. Their first mission is to investigate some rumors of attacks on the coast to the west, which is expected to be a milk run, and is just to give the new guys some real world experience and a nice look about the kingdom. Of course it won't work out like that, but that's another story.

Anyways, I was expecting them to head for the coast without much delay, but they decided instead to head into the taverns and try and find more info on the rumors. Practical and logical, but of course I didn't anticipate it. They get all sorts of wild tales, but I also decide to throw in a mention of a refugee that came in a few weeks ago and then headed east. This was before the rumors started up. I gave a throwaway description of him, tan with a scar on the right side of his head, and wearing a dark cloak. The party seems to have decided that this was an important NPC, and so started heading east after him, the exact opposite way that I was expecting them to go.

Not skipping a beat, I decided the go with it, and improvised. After a week of travel, they find a town that the guy stayed in for a few days, at the inn, and learn that he headed for a mine in the mountains to the east. They also asked if anyone else strange had come by, and on a whim I decided that a pale man in a thick, hooded robe had been in there the day before the man with the scar left, talking with him and a few other down-trodden types, as well as a noble, who seemed unhappy and nervous during the discussion.

Unbeknown to the party, the robed man is a higher-up member of a massive cult that has been growing in recent years, and was trying (successfully) to recruit the man with the scar, amongst others. What he was doing with the noble I hadn't decided, since I was literally pulling this all out of my lower back.

The party then decides that it wants to look for the noble, who I decide happens to live in a keep to the north-east. He also owns the mine that the man with the scar was headed for. The party encounters and quickly chases off a couple goblin cutters on the path to the keep, (who they were warned were being seen more often around there) but have no real trouble. The goblins don't even manage to land a hit, actually. :smalltongue:

Once they reach the keep, they find a guard and a peddler arguing outside. (again just a random whim) Upon further investigation, they find out that the peddler, who has been coming through this keep with his services for 17 years or so, is being denied entrance to the keep. The guard explains that he can't let him in until "they" get "this mess" sorted out, which won't happen today, I can tell you that. "They" being presumably the guards, the noble, and any other residents of the keep, and "this mess" being something he refuses to explain.

Eventually, the party convinces the guard that they can help with this "mess", whatever it is, and seeing how the party is well-equipped and capable, the guard decides it's worth at least asking the noble about.

At this point, I've run myself into a corner. I know the noble is involved with the cultists somehow, if not a member himself, and the scarred man and many of the other poor of the surrounding countryside are also now members of the cult, lured in by promises from the robed man and their own misfortunes. The attacks on the coast to the west have nothing to do with the cultists, but will be a major plot point throughout the campaign. (think the Geisterdamen, from Girl Genius, or if you haven't read that then vaguely-Asian amazon warriors)

Fortunately that happened to be a good stopping point for the session (or good enough, at any rate) so I dodged the bullet there, but I still need to come up at least with some kind of "mess" that the party can help the noble resolve, or resolve despite the noble, if that's the case. Ultimately, I'd like for the party to have a couple fights against the cultists, and the robed man, and also have a chance at least of getting some information out of the man with the scar. (He'll probably be part of a large group of cultists, with a moderate perception check to recognize him)

So, I turn to you, the playground, for ideas on how to resolve this whole mess. I think I've given all the information I need to, but if you have more questions feel free to ask. And thanks in advance for your help! :smallbiggrin:

Jerthanis
2010-02-22, 03:32 AM
The Noble or a close relative of his has become possessed by a demon or other monster. The Cult is responsible, the Noble having failed them in some serious way recently. Perhaps Scar-Faced disrupted a delicate ritual at the Mines after cutting his way through the Noble's guards singlehandedly. The Noble or relative of noble now has the power to turn people into abominations and does so on the castle residents when the PCs threaten him. Now they're in a reverse-dungeon... fighting to get out of a castle/manor/keep full of monsters.

In terms of the attacks on the coast, you have two choices: Change your mind about their source and make the cult responsible, and have them find some clue or evidence connecting the attacks and the cult to bring back to their superiors to complete that minor quest.

Your other option is to have the attacks on the coast be an unrelated threat, and when the PCs return to report their success, it's revealed that while they were doing that, the Western Coast was overrun with pirates or whatever you had planned on attacking. The PCs might be chastened for disobeying orders and following an unrelated circumstance, and sent out to take care of the developing western crisis.

greenknight
2010-02-22, 05:25 AM
"This mess", is a murder - the noble's wife. No one knows who did it, and the noble will be in a lot of trouble with the wife's relatives if it gets out that she's dead. Alarmingly, while rituals like Speak with Dead and Raise Dead have been tried, they have met with no success. It is believed that powerful magic has been used to steal her spirit.

This has resulted in the castle going under lockdown - no one goes in or out. The murderer is actually trying to apply pressure on the noble - his wife's spirit will be returned, but only if he gives in to the cult's demands. The noble is resisting so far, but can only hold out for so long. He's also not going to be much help to the PCs in solving the mystery, but if they can return his wife's spirit intact, they will earn his gratitude.

To make matters worse, the cult has already infiltrated several members of their group into the castle, and they've managed to get the wife's spirit out of the castle into the mines....

AgentPaper
2010-02-22, 11:42 AM
Thanks for the ideas, they're definitely helping. I probably won't use either of those as-is, but the ideas I'm getting from them are great.

What I'm thinking now, is that the noble, at some point prior to all of this, had his wife become deathly ill. As it so happens it was one of the staff, recruited by the cultists, that is poisoning her meals. It's a new alchemic mixture they've come up with, that will essentially cause the possessed person to become a demon.

The noble, desperate to find a cure for something that no care or magic he could afford was able to fix, sought out shadier sources, and got in contact with the robed man, who was the man who came up with the alchemic poison in the first place. The noble, desperate, offered anything to have him cure his wife. The cultist, seeing an opportunity, demanded that he give up his holdings. The noble reluctantly agreed, and led the man to his keep.

Upon arriving, the robed man started setting up his alchemical shop, supposedly to try and cure the noblewoman, but is instead using this opportunity to refine and perfect his concoction, which so far he has only been able to test on animals and the odd prisoner. He's also managed to slip some of the stuff into a few of the guards drinks, as well as recruiting a few others to his cause.

Now, the concoction is finally going into it's final stages, and the nobleman, fed up with the robed man's empty promises, tried to get him away from her so that he could help her himself. However, the few guards in the room, all cultists now, turn on him, and he had no choice but to flee.

Now the noble and the rest of the guards (about a dozen) are holed up on the walls, making sure the robed man and the others don't leave with his wife, but unable to actually lead an attack into the keep itself. Fortunately, he sent for help from a nearby keep, which is owned by a knight who owes him a favor, and they should be arriving in the next few days.

The party will have to fight their way to the top of the keep, through cultists, (including the man with the scar) guards-turned-cultist and a few guards that have transformed into demons, culminating with a fight against the robed man and possibly the noblewoman turned into a more powerful demon.

I'm thinking that the party will have to fight the demon if they wait for the cavalry to arrive, but if they decide to go now, they'll be able to save her. They will also, of course, be fighting harder battles and taking more risks this way, but it'll also get them better rewards from the noble, so it's a choice they have to make.

What do you think? The scarred man (who's just a random refugee, by the way, not some crazy-strong warrior) will probably turn up as one of the cultists, possibly one of the stronger ones, so if they want to subdue him instead of killing, it'll be tough, but if they don't they won't get any information out of him.

Anyways, I know I didn't really use either of your ideas, but thanks a ton for posting them. They helped me get my creative juices flowing again. :smallwink:

Drakefall
2010-02-22, 04:21 PM
Here's an idea: the scarred man is, in fact, not such a bad guy. He is indeed a refugee from the West, like you say, but he is a somewhat wealthy man and one of a few survivors of the original bad thing that happened back in the West. The cult leader is an old friend of his, one he estranged after he began his descent into dark cultist ways. Desperate to find a powerful ally to aid him in revenge against whatever did whatever/defending his home, he has looked his old buddy back up and come to ask for a favour. The robed man has, in the spirit of friendship of course, decided to see about helping his buddy out... but not without a price... dun dun duuuuuuun!:elan:

This:

Links the scarred and robed men together

Gives the PC's more options as far as "sides" go
Adds some nice drama
Provides a link back to the West as well as a plot NPC to give them the basic low down on whatever's going on there and whatever other help you deem appropriate. Heck, even if they kill him they'll surely get some info out of him first that can get them interested in heading back to the West.

Colmarr
2010-02-22, 04:30 PM
What would the noble currently consider a "mess"?

Answer: Something that stops him helping/joining the cult.

Maybe he's promised the cult money that he doesn't have, or that he'll recover an item for them from a contact of his. Maybe he's supposed to provide them ritual components but his shipment has been delayed. Maybe he's being watched by a strange figure and he's afraid to be seen with the cult leader because of that.

See if you can get the PCs to inadvertently help the bad guys. If you pull it off and they later discover the truth, they'll certainly be motivated to undo the damage. It'll also give their commanding officer a reason to chew them out :smallsmile:

AgentPaper
2010-02-22, 05:56 PM
Each Rune Knight is an independent agent, and decides for himself the best way to complete each mission he takes, so there's nothing wrong with them heading east to track down someone who was there during the attacks instead of heading for the coast directly, as long as it gets the results they want. He can even decide to abandon one mission and take up another if he thinks it's the best course of action, though they should at the very least send a message the capital saying as much, if they can't get back themselves.

greenknight
2010-02-22, 06:13 PM
If you want to go that way, how about making it a disease instead? One that ultimately causes the victim to go mad and attack everyone in sight? Initially concocted by the robed man, and spread via one of the servants. This explains the lockdown because the disease spreads fairly easily.

The attacks the party were meant to investigate were actually the first trial run of this disease, released by the scarred man, who is the group's field agent. They are trying to create something which will give them controllable shock troops, and this disease comes close, but they are still perfecting it. The cultists themselves (at least the high up ones) have a cure, and some way to delay the onset of the disease. The robed man is taking this opportunity to perform more experiments, letting some guards go mad while delaying the disease's onset for the noblemen, his wife and a few others.

AgentPaper
2010-02-22, 07:51 PM
If you want to go that way, how about making it a disease instead? One that ultimately causes the victim to go mad and attack everyone in sight? Initially concocted by the robed man, and spread via one of the servants. This explains the lockdown because the disease spreads fairly easily.

The attacks the party were meant to investigate were actually the first trial run of this disease, released by the scarred man, who is the group's field agent. They are trying to create something which will give them controllable shock troops, and this disease comes close, but they are still perfecting it. The cultists themselves (at least the high up ones) have a cure, and some way to delay the onset of the disease. The robed man is taking this opportunity to perform more experiments, letting some guards go mad while delaying the disease's onset for the noblemen, his wife and a few others.

Nah, the attacks to the west are part of a (mostly) unrelated plot thread that has very little to do with the cultists. Neither of the groups behind each even so much as knows about each other, let alone one pulling the other's strings. The lockdown is explained because the noble doesn't want the robed man to make off with his wife in the night, though the disease being a plague that can spread is an interesting idea.

Instead of just a cure, though, the cultists know how to create a simple magical amulet, which suppresses the effects of the disease and keeps them from spreading it. This would let me have all of the cultists be infected, and if one of the cultists displeases a higher-up, he can just yank off his amulet, causing him to turn into a horrible demon and die shortly after.

The main imperfection with the disease is that, while it is extremely contagious, it also transforms the target within a matter of minutes upon being infected, though the truly tough might last a few hours or even days. Not only that, but the resulting demon is unstable and will die in less than a minute. The noblewoman, after being infected, has strangely lasted for weeks without succumbing, despite no apparent extraordinary fortitude, which got the robed man very interested. (leading to him pulling some strings with the cultists he had in the castle already to get in contact with the noble in the first place)

Thanks again for the awesome ideas! I'd credit you all in my campaign, but there aren't any credits to roll. :smalltongue:

holywhippet
2010-02-22, 08:17 PM
Another thought - something might have dug it's way up through the basement. Either something with brains (goblins maybe?) or something that is good at digging (umber hulks). The keep might be in lockdown to stop them from getting out. The monsters might have been sent by a rival cult/organisation which lets the noble in charge redirect the party to go after his enemies only to discover that he's just as bad later on.

greenknight
2010-02-22, 08:38 PM
Instead of just a cure, though, the cultists know how to create a simple magical amulet, which suppresses the effects of the disease and keeps them from spreading it. This would let me have all of the cultists be infected, and if one of the cultists displeases a higher-up, he can just yank off his amulet, causing him to turn into a horrible demon and die shortly after.

As a variation on that idea, how about making the amulet a required focus for a ritual which needs to be performed every 24 hours? And only a few people know the correct ritual... But I really like the idea of using an amulet because that gives the PCs a clue to find out who is involved, and a way to delay the disease if one or more of them catch it. But needing a ritual means that they'll have to keep on finding fresh amulets, or learn the appropriate ritual from someone.


The main imperfection with the disease is that, while it is extremely contagious, it also transforms the target within a matter of minutes upon being infected, though the truly tough might last a few hours or even days. Not only that, but the resulting demon is unstable and will die in less than a minute.

I think you might get more dramatic effect by using the normal disease mechanic. That way, the PCs can observe NPCs in various stages of the disease, and have time to find a cure (or amulet) if one or more of them gets infected.

Icewraith
2010-02-22, 09:47 PM
When all else fails animate the dungeon.

Have objects animate and begin attacking innocent or not-so-innocent bystanders. Have doors randomly open and shut, tunnels swallow people at your conveniance, and passages randomly re-route themselves.

Perhaps your cultists have angered a local ghost tied to the residence?

Perhaps in attempting to summon outsiders or create undead they have screwed up the area's local magic?

Usually becoming a demon requires dying and being sent to the lower planes or being bound to one through higher-level magic, if someone's attempting this sort of thing without the requisite back-up it could lead to ...unpleasant ...consequences.

Also it forces your players to 1) fight through a zone consisting of the taxidermist's nightmare and 2) art smashes people, 3) lets you use the tunnel swallow effect if you so desire, 4) allows you to skewer the players with animated kitchen knives and a hearth shooting lightning-bolt like lines of flame and 5) gives you another session to bs if someone else doesn't come up with a better plot related solution.

You can even have the impeding force be a misinformed outsider preventing the BBEG from recieving "reinforcements" while masquerading as a ghost and attempting the kill the cultists with animated wardrobes. Think "clarence the angel going for wings" meets "poultergeist" or "luke vs. vader, round 1."

Other time management techniques for the panicked dm involve:

1: the placatable but really tough gate creature with a side quest
2: Have a dragon interefere
3: Kobold/Orc/Giant (level dependant) raiding party hits the area.

AgentPaper
2010-02-22, 10:18 PM
DM rule #54: When all else fails, Suddenly: GOBLINS!