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Amiel
2010-02-26, 10:24 AM
Okay, here's the pitch; I really like writing, especially so as it bestows the medium through which one may freely express creativity and ideas.

To that end, I'm willing to accept requests; the idea is that you present me with keywords, themes, ideas et al that you would like to see in-game or use in your campaign, but may not have the time or inclination to design yourself, can't figure an exact way of integrating it in your campaign, or you can pitch me some difficult ideas that desire to be turned into something that can be used in a game; be it descriptions of localities, plot hooks, descriptive texts, urban legends, quests, anything else that may take your fancy et al.

The emphasis here will be on fluff rather than crunch.

D&D Urban Legends for your perusal; any thing you give me will be written to these standards

The Hag

"Fiddle-dee-dum and fiddle-dee-dee, the old gray lady is after me."
- children's rhyme, unknown origin

"Where are you, where are you, little miss Ann?
In the pot, stewing with Seamus and Sam."
- children's rhyme, unknown origin

There exists within the bowels of the city a creature of fearsome reputation and hideous countenance. She is said to prey upon the orphans and the street urchins, the beggars and the destitute. Those who won't be missed, who have no one to mourn for them. It is said she consumes their bodies and eats their skin, leaving only rat gnawed bones.

Still others deny this and contend that she merely eats the bodies, flaying the skin from their hides and wears it, such that she may blend in with the 'normal' populace. And from there, she may target others to satiate her hunger and slake her thirst for blood.

Others say that she does this not out of malice but for revenge, that her children were torn from her and so she robs others of theirs. Although this does not explain why she targets the poor and impoverished.

She is the Grey Lady, the Hag of legend. Yet for all this, no one has actually seen her. Oh, there are claims and rumors of sightings but these are unconfirmed. She is alternatively said to be an actual hag, a dragon in disguise or a fiend. Others claim a vampire as the culprit or a ghoul.
A minority suggest it is a demigod, cursed to remain upon this mortal coil and cut off from worship or veneration. Furious, she avenges herself by eating innocents, to deny others what is most precious to them.


The Licked Hand

A common yet infrequently told tale popular among the aristocracy and nobility of the city is that of the Licked Hand. It supposedly happened to a real person, a young adult on the verge of womanhood; but more specifically to someone the storeyteller knows. It goes a little like this.

A young aristocrat from a relatively well off noble family is left home alone with her faithful dog friend and a trusted butler. Her parents and siblings have gone earlier that afternoon to attend a fete.

When night approaches, she gets her trusted butler to lock all the doors and any windows within their manor. This is to ensure security. The window for the basement however won't close. They think nothing of it, as there is nothing in the basement to hide behind or anything else of note.
Her butler locks the basement door for peace of mind, but and closes the window as well; the basement is designed to be only opened from the outside, so creatures who sneak into the basement can't open the door to get into the mansion.

As the night drags on, she feels more and more sleepy and decides to retire for the night. Her butler rests in another room, but within earshot and aid. Her dog, as always, accompanies her to her room and sleeps in its customary place under her bed.

In the dead of night, her parents are staying at her aunt's, she awakens to a wet, dripping sound; must be a leaking tap. The girl, not wanting to check and not wanting to wake her butler reaches under the bed for reassurance. She feels a comforting lick from her dog and goes back to sleep.

This repeats twice. Once more, she awakens to the sound, this time sounding louder and closer. Curious, she gets up to investigate. She slowly walks towards the bathroom, passes her butler's room, the sound progressively get louder and the drips more frequent.

She turns on the light, and is floored with horror and shock. Hanging from the ceiling is her dog, its throat slit and its blood dripping onto the floor.

Something catches her eye, scrawled on the mirror in elegant yet clumsy script are the words "We can lick too."


Sanguineum, Ex Sanguinius

The City does not shy away from violence. It permeates and underlies every action and reaction. From extortion and muggings to the cruelty and barbarity of the so-called Justice Courts, violence is as much the existential reality of the City as its soul.

It was not surprisingly then, when the bodies started turning up. It was the children who discovered them, floating in sewers or washed up along the harbor, rotting and drowned in a vile stench. Bloated they were from prolonged immersion within the Salty Drink.

To a place as violent as the City, this was nothing if not unusual; murders happened every day and accidents were always around the corner, poised for the unwary and superstitious alike.

What drew the eye to these unfortunates was not so much the manner of their deaths or condition of their bodies (their state of decay notwithstanding), it was the curious nature of the marks left upon their bruised throats. To all perception and knowledgeable eye, it was almost as if the noose of a rope was left permanently imprinted upon the skin, yet the positioning of the marks suggested the physical act of strangulation.

What then, what act, could leave such massive trauma upon the body?

As ever, darker legends prevail. It is rumored that such acts, such gross violations are the means to express the unsactionable, exsanguination to feed a perverse desire for blood. Detractors have dismissed this claim of course, the act of strangulation is so far removed from the systematic act of exsanguination that any comparison is laughable if not asinine.

These ones present an altogether different take, that the act is the means to express penance. That the method is the means to expel sin from the body. That all targeted were at least criminals, oxygen thieves, with none to miss them or mourn them.

Perhaps there is an even more horrific explanation; that all the suggestions and conjectures so put forward are correct...to a point. In the lunatic ravings of asylum inmates and the irrevocably insane can be found a singularity clarity that cuts through all deceptions.

These ones offer a single theory. The act is the means to draw blood, but it not for the base purpose of expelling sin, it is the means to derive nourishment and the means to perpetuate hate. These ones suggest that all murdered were not criminals, but members of faith. That the killer in question harbors an irrational and psychotic need to murder, having been grievously wronged in the past. That all killed were clerics. The imprint of the noose to is both to signify the irony and ignominy of their deaths.

The darkest myths claim that was taken was not blood, but something all together more precious, the soul.


So, who's game?

Amiel
2010-02-27, 08:42 AM
Keywords; golden, jungle, stained, night


Legends are replete with stories of buried treasure, sunken loot, and lost cities filled to overflowing with precious gems and gold.

Across the ages, many have dared to brave treacherous terrain, depraved foes, and wild weather, to reach otherwise viciously inhospitable locales so that their legends may soar upon currents of reputation while turning a mean profit.

Their stories are littered with inglorious failures and untimely deaths; the strands of fate cluttered with spent twine. What then could be so enticing to send otherwise competent mortals to such ignominious fates? What could so change the nature of a man?

From antiquity, tales have whispered of a hidden island, a pristine eden upon which nature is sanctified and preserved. To reach it means braving the perilous Black Maelstrom, so named due to lashing winds and crashing waves so brutal that the very color of the seas turns back.

Within this seeming tranquility lies another secret, a lost city, a remnant of a lost civilisation, perhaps a precursor to the myriad mortal races. It is said within this city lies treasure that shines as if a miniature sun settled from the firmament upon the earth.

Rumors speak of its streets as a glowing stream, a literal river of gold; of buildings encased in solid platinum, its affectation accentuated with precious gems. That even one theft of the multitudinous wealth could set up an adventurer for life, to even the Great Beyond.

However, as always, there are darker myths. The city is always abandoned; a constant consistency that permeates all tellings. The reasons behind this are unknown; creating a darkened shadow where the illumination of knowledge dares not cast its light.

For these shadows conceal horrific truths. That on the night of a full moon, everything in the city is stained with the blood of a hundred thousand sacrifices. That everything within the city glares so intently, perhaps not so much due to the inherent iridescence of gold or platinum but to the blood that covers all things.

Adventurers 'ware when exploring this cursed city.

Devils_Blind
2010-02-27, 11:44 AM
It really bothers me that "The Licked Hand" is a complete rip-off of The Dog's Lick (http://www.creepypasta.com/the-dogs-lick/).

Eloel
2010-02-27, 11:49 AM
Taking requests you said?
Well, I have a concept in mind, I'll try to reduce it to keywords and see what comes up from it :)

Luck, Love, War, Divine Intervention

PS: No, not Troy. Not at all. (re-checking my own keywords made me feel like I had to give this sub-text)

faith
2010-02-27, 06:33 PM
Keywords: Costal, Undead, Trapped, jungle, shipyard,

Olfgar
2010-02-27, 06:54 PM
Keywords terms: Comedic dwarf leader, Old comedicly perverse wizard, disfunctional party, love of money...Dragon.