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View Full Version : Horror RPG Plot Advice (Please Help)



Lord Loss
2011-06-19, 05:50 PM
I have an interesting plot set up with multiple facets, factions and evil creatures... and no way to connect them, although it has been established that they're linked.

Here's the steup:

- There's a mostly harmless cult to the Leviathan, which is inspired by the biblical leviathan. It's led by a sinister, elderly ex-priest that knew Ichabod and Dennis when they were children.

-Ichabod supposedly drowned in the lake, pushed in by his drunk brother and his borther's friends (all of them, including Dennis and his brother Ichabod were cultists). A year later, Dennis as well as many innocents were killed by Ichabod's ghost.

- Ichabod has no free will, he's a prisoner of a horrible faction called the Practice. The main characters were left at a hospital "posessed" by the Practice by the old man in charge of the cult, he left them a lighter in which there's a mysterious object (they haven't yet cracked it open and I haven't decided what it is). The old man left them there with a mysterious talisman in the shape of a musical... thing (I think they're called keys, they're at the start of pieces or bars or whatever). He also gave them a lighter with a mysterious object inside (or something). An insane doctor called Dr.Drake attempted to join the Practice and re-asserted their influence over the hospital (they had a great deal of influence over it a while ago, but it was lost/diminished over tim). Dr. Drake implanted an eye that could see the practice when in an area under it's control in the day and vice versa into one of the characters. The practice becomes a nightmarish, silent-hill inspired realm during the night. A hand that could use a form of telekenesis was grafted onto another character and a bezoar containing a mysterious key developed in the last's insides. The docotr attempted to ascend and join the practice, attempting to use the three objects in conjunction to extract the key. It worked, but he realized what he had done and joined the heroes before he ascended, helping them escape from the nightmarish world.

- Ichabod was brought to the hospital after people saved him from his supposed drowning. He died at the hospital (or was taken by The Practice). This was before Dr. Drake went mad.

-Ichabod is stuck in a hospital bed in the practice, a ghsotly pawn. The lighter is supposed to be used to free him. Before the characters came to the hospital, they had a dream in which they were Ichabod and Dennis as young children and met the priest in charge of the cult as children. It is implied that, years later, something happened that converted them to the cult, a major event. They also dreamed of being chased through a forest by a hooded man that tranformed into Ichabod.

Any help is appreciated, I may have forgotten details, feel free to come up with everything and anything. I'd appreciate some ideas for an overarching plot involving the practice and the Leviathan, and perhaps some connectins between both and/or motives for each. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any help I can get!

Aidan305
2011-06-19, 08:11 PM
The order you've put things in has me confused slightly. Mind if I clarify? (I'll possibly elaborate on what you've given in the process. That's just me narrating to myself though.)

As far as I can see this fellow Ichabod and his brother were members of the Cult of the Leviathan, having been introduced to it in their childhood by an old ex-priest.
Ichabod, his brother, and some friends were down by a lake, probably partying, maybe some sort of frat-boyish rite, certainly getting drunk, when some of Dennis's friends decided it would be fun to throw Ichabod in the lake. For whatever reason, Ichabod wasn't able to swim and went under the water. When Dennis and Co. realised he wasn't coming up again they panicked and ran.
Someone else found Ichabod washed up on the shore, unconscious and barely breathing. This someone called an ambulance and was rushed to the hospital. Despite the efforts of the doctors there however, he died.
Now, in any normal hospital this would be just one of many deaths. However, a mysterious force known as "The Practice" dwelled within this hospital. It sensed the rage in Ichabod and promised him revenge. In return for this Ichabod would do/provide something for The Practice. For a year, Ichabod remained in the hospital, helping The Practice to once again cement its influence in the hospital until finally, on the anniversary of his death, he was freed by The Practice to wreak vengeance on those who had wronged him. His revenge was swift, brutal, and bloody; but when it was through Ichabod realised he couldn't pass on. He was trapped, still, in the hospital; now a prisoner of "The Practice". He's realised that he was manipulated by The Practice in to killing his brother and his friends as well as all those innocents; a sacrifice to allow The Practice to grow strong. Now he remains, confined to the bed in which he died, imprisoned by The Practice and his own sense of guilt.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Leviathan cult, through means unknown and possibly arcane, has discovered what happened to Ichabod, realising what caused the spirit to go on a rampage, and has recruited the players to try and find Ichabod and release him, providing them with a special key to aid them in this task.
Meanwhile, Dr Drake, has been slowly suffering a mental breakdown since the death of a patient, Ichabod, the previous year. Constantly haunted, seeing the young man everywhere he goes in the hospital, Drake turned, first to drugs, then to religion, and from there to darker things. He learned of "The Practice" in some old tales about the hospital and set about attempting to re-establish its power and join with it, through forgotten black rituals.
He succeeded in this, but as he ascended he learned through his new connection with The Practice that he had been manipulated all along and, somehow, managed to muster the willpower to break free of The Practice and escape from its grasp along with the players.

How's that?

Lord Loss
2011-06-19, 08:58 PM
[italian accent] You. You're good you. You're very, very good, you. [/italian accent]

(Cookies if you get the above reference)

That's pretty darn awesome. You managed to infer the things that I excluded and expand upon them really well. I'm definitely going to use this in the future. Additionally, I'm going to add that the old guy is a made evil, instead of a born one. In D&D terms, he's somewhere between neutral and evil. He's kind and helpful to his cultists and will risk/sacrifice himself for those he cares for. He was once a very good, faithful man until a tragedy killed his loved ones and he lost faith in god. He seeks to see the Leviathan rise, unaware of the destrcution it would cause to the world and, due to delusion and misinformation, believing it will make the world a better place. He can be cruel and cunning and has no problem sacrificing innocents for his loved ones.

vartan
2011-06-21, 10:08 AM
[italian accent] You. You're good you. You're very, very good, you. [/italian accent]

I can't really contribute to this thread except to say that that is a reference to Analyze This?

Lord Loss
2011-06-21, 10:40 AM
I can't really contribute to this thread except to say that that is a reference to Analyze This?

:smallbiggrin: Yes. Yes it is. Good to know that there are other people that remember that awesome, awesome movie.

Callos_DeTerran
2011-06-21, 09:58 PM
I can't help but ask, but is the Practice your referring to from the Book of Unremitting Horror? They sound kinda familiar so I thought I'd ask.

Lord Loss
2011-06-22, 11:25 AM
I can't help but ask, but is the Practice your referring to from the Book of Unremitting Horror? They sound kinda familiar so I thought I'd ask.

Indeed they are. I ran the Fear Itself (a GUMSHOE RPG by Pelgrane, the makers of Book of Unremitting horrors) scenario Invasive Procedures which is focused around a mad doctor trying to join the practice that submits the characters to terrible experiments. A great, if very disturbing scenario.

JonRG
2011-06-22, 02:26 PM
Re: the key thing, is this what you meant?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clef

It's actually the French word for key, but since the word "key" means so many other things in English, it'd probably be better to stick with clef.

Lord Loss
2011-06-22, 04:53 PM
Yes, thank you. I only knew the french word, turns out it's the same in english. Thanks a million (Merci beaucoup)!