Need some OA themed legends

[Biotroll]

Hi again.
My players talked me into OA themed campaign. I said yes and got some extra time to come up with the story. Now, I have the base story for the campaign (will be in spoiler below) but it is not really OA themed imo. I started looking into some japanese mythology and legends as I'm not really versed in them but I'm running out of time and didn't really find anything I could use so far.

The main story so far is this:

The focus of campaing is on a solar (or some other angelic like creature) who did fall, but it was nothing earth-shattering. The solar just lost interest in being instrument of his god, making all those grey morality decisions and killing just because he was told to. So he fled from countries where his god was worshiped to escape his eyes and wrath. To fully evade him he came up with a ritual to slice his soul into two and make a creature from each half as he thought it would be strong enough to survive. And so he did, and with help of old shaman he made himself (itself?) into two humanlike beings. Both without memory of who he was, one a woman and the other a man.

Both of those beings were taken in by the shaman who taught them ethics and so on, so they could blend into society. After few short years, the shaman passed, and the secret of who they were disappeared with him. They thought they were just normal humans who forget themselves in ritual made by the shaman to save them. They continued their lives and tried to be normal and be part of society. However, humans did feel that something was off and both creatures were soon forced to move to avoid being killed for being evil spirits.

While escaping and trying to get back into society again, to fail again and again, they also found they don't age and after a century of being on the run from humans, they also started to hate them. The creatures also found they have greater potential then the humans and were stronger then them. So, being angry and frustrated they wanted to get their revenge on all humans. Their first attempt was to eliminate the heroes and strong leaders as they belived humans will then destroy themselves or be too weak to defend themeselves against all the creatures living near them. They were trying to do this for a century or two but came to realise this won't work. So now, they are making their second try, which will be when my players will be involved.

Now they are just planning to make a standard apocalypse. They researched and found a special stone, which lets them to control a hive of tainted bugs living in the Shadowlands who are eating souls of their victim, leaving a zombie-like body where the new generation of bug is given birth to. This body is then controlled by the bugs inside it (so by the two creatures controlling the bugs via the stones). To get the plan running they allied themselves with Shadowland demons and promised them the land of humans, as they don't care about it. They also got help from the nine-tailed fox, as a trickster to help them. The fox was to take on a human visage and go into lands of humans as a young and talented shaman. His goal was to became well known for his skill and reliability before moving to mountain into seclusion as old man. This is to ensure that anyone seeking answers will most likely go and look for the fox. If they don't die on their way to him (because the mountain will be swarming with shadowland creatures), he will be misleading everyone while pretending to being helpful. The fox is not evil but it belives it is playing the greatest trick on both humans and many kami who are allied with them. He actualy know very little of what is going on.

This is where my players will be starting. There is some weird disease spreading through the land (i. e. the bugs controlled by the magical stones hidden in secret locations) and they are send to look for a cure or at least some advice to the well known shaman who lives on very dangerous mountain who will be helping only those who are brave and skilled enough to get to him. The party should then end the campaign by finding out who is behind it, their condition of who they really are and capturing the two human-like creatures so they can put them together with some crazy ritual and thus showing the solar what he did and that he should redeem hismself and yada-yada-yada.


So, as you can see, there aren't really any spirits/legendary creatures/whatever involved in it apart from the nine-tailed fox. I planned the campaign to start in two weeks already, but with finals and all that stuff, I can barely find time to read through the legends to find something usable. So far I only found a legend of multiheaded snake who was killed by a hero. I just need few more like this, to make a filler if my players go to wild and out of my story or as some tests, side quests or whatever will be needed.

TL,DR: Any good oriental (japanese, chinese,...) legends and stories, apart from nine-tailed fox and multiheaded snake, to use in OA campaign as tests, side quests, fillers if party goes too wild?

Thanks for any help playground.

[Gildedragon]

Whoa boy.
First of all: I'd recommend doing some folklore research. In per-Internet days finding sources for folk tales could be challenging but nowadays its pretty darn simple Wikipedia has a lot available, and that's just scratching the surface.

As for ideas that fit your campaign: look into Buddhist and Chinese cosmologies, Japan borrowed a fair bit from the latter which borrowed from the former. Seeing as it is an Orientalist [sic] Adventures adventure, check Chinese folklore. Monkey King has a number of monster encounters that would be fun.

Look into stories about hauntings, Japan has a bunch of pretty good ones. They are for the most part urban, but removing a haunting that weighs on a noble family would be a way to move the plot.

Momotaro, The Crane Wife, and the story of the man who goes to the bottom of the ocean are folk tales you can milk for characters, encounters, and set pieces.

[BWR]

Lafcadio Hearn's "Kwaidan" is the definitive collection of Japanese ghost stories. Some great stuff there. Some of them were also made into a movie (several short films in one large one) directed by Masaki Kobayashi, of "Seppuku [Hara kiri]" and "[Samurai] Rebellion" fame.
Also, there is an anime series called "Folk Tales of Japan" that has lots of stories.

If you are interested, you can always check out "Legend of the Five Rings", used as the default setting for D&D OA. You have already used some elements from it, and there are a number of supplements and adventures you might track down which are very useful. Lots of setting, flavor and story, and most importantly, just about every supplement has dozens of story seeds. Granted, most of them are setting specific (obviously) but many can be reworked with little effort.

And just because I like the book, Green Ronin published a book called "Jade dragons and Hungry ghosts", which had lots of oriental monsters, from Japanese, Chinese, Veitnamese, Malaysian etc. stories.
And it was desgined by several of my favorite game designers.

[ArcturusV]

Well, you can easily base an adventure around a Yuki-Onna, and it was fun last time I did so.

I also like to use the Tengu a lot. It has kind of an interesting spin, and can be useful whether you want to play it Straight or Fantastical. If you play it straight you end up with something reminiscent of The 13th Warrior. The locals thinking they're beset by "Demons" which are actually just savage barbarians who live in the depths of the wilderness. If you play it up Fantastical you got the mythological beast men with strange magics lurking around. Obvious plot hooks there.

[BowStreetRunner]

I recall learning about the Chinese concept of a Dynastic Cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynastic_cycle) and the Mandate of Heaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven) many years ago and thinking this would make a tantalizing lead-in to a campaign. If you can lay out the concept clearly enough for the players to understand and immerse the PCs in an environment where the rulers are trying to maintain the Mandate of Heaven while other forces are trying to influence the Celestial Court in order that the Mandate will be withdrawn from the present rulers, it can add a very powerful dramatic aspect to otherwise petty political maneuvers. When power struggles have such a spiritual/religious framework, they can grow into much more epic stories than a merely temporal framework might allow.

[Khedrac]

And for the nine-tailed fox legends, search for "Kitsune" in Wikipedia and work from there

[Uncle Pine]

The multi-headed snake you are looking for is Yamata no Orochi (= Yamata's snake): it is was a white eight-headed dragon with eight tails, big enough to fill eight valleys. His eyes were as red as cherries and liked alcohol a lot (just like most of creatures from Japanese folklore). It was killed by a warrior named Susanoo. It's basically a eight-headed hydra, should you need a CR 7 boss.

Other creatures I know about are Tanuki: japanese racoons that can shapeshift into humans. Also, Chinese zombies are known as Jiangshi. There was a film in the '80 in which they were controlled using talismans, but I can't remember its name.

If you plan to have a battle inside a temple, be sure to add some giant golden animated statues of the Buddha for extra flavour.

I know about an oriental saying: if you can fold a thousand origami crane, you are granted a wish. Dragon #341 has a CR 1 origami golem.

[Biotroll]

Yuki-onna looks really good. Will fit in the mountains perfectly. Thanks. :smallwink:

I know I saw Tengu somewhere (OA book?) but didn't really know how to use them. Reading more about them on wiki gives more usage though.

Kitsune is already in use, though not the was it probably should be used. Planned to use Tanuki too, but didn't have a lot of time how to use their shapeshifting abilities. Should be easy to find a place for it on the run though.

Dynastic Cycle and Mandate of Heaven is great. Totaly going to use it. :smallsmile: I'm just afraid my players are more of hack-and-slash school rather then being interested in politics. (Did Eberron campaign and for me it didn't turn out the way I wanted. My players were happy about it though.)

Thanks for the name of the snake/dragon. Will have to write it down. And yes, I plan fights in temples, so animated statues are going to be in game too. I'll see if someone goes and tries to make the cranes origami. Don't have the Dragon mag. though, so a bit of improvisation will be in order.

Thanks a lot so far and keep 'em coming. I'm going back to digging into wiki for some more.:smalltongue:

[ArcturusV]

The cheap and easy way to use the Tanukis would probably just be to use Raccoon Dog Hengeyokai.

Hmm, had to check the Wikipedia article, it was missing the "Straight" version of Tengu. Which doesn't surprise me too much. So the other angle is that the "tengu" are actually the natives who lived in that land predating the civilized culture you have going. They've been pushed up into the more inhospitable places by the expansion of the civilized empires. They're very different physically and culturally. Backwards "barbarians". Their masks, get ups, unusual features, etc, are fairly exaggerated and considered monstrous, which gives rise to the myth about Tengu.

[Gildedragon]

There is a story of a magician who was attacked by the paper-shadows of a rival mage, and he traps them in a copy of the book of transfigurations

The orichi snake ought to be buffed past CR 7

In the romance of the three kingdoms there is a story of a labyrinth of fog or somesuch

Magical cats that walk on two legs and do mischief and transform: tibbit sorcerers

Really buffed up animals as forest spirits and demigods. Check PF's monster manuals, there's some neat kami types there

A glaive that forms islands out of froth

An Orphic soujourn to the underworld

Have aristocrats have at least 1 level in wizard or adept, to show a well rounded gentleman, and give the aristocrat class a perform skill

A mysterious individual shows up, hundreds of years after they were last seen

Brew potion ought to be a rare and valued skill. There is a special cauldron in one of the books Gremmas Cauldron or somesuch. Up its power a notch and make it a Trigram cauldron

Old items, especially of fine worksmanship, were regarded to develop magical qualities. Have old and all permanent magical items have ego scores and alignments.

A band of constructs roams the countryside in winter, feeding the kind and hungry.

Look up the witch empress, a fascinating figure

There are also a set of demon dog beasts that try to eat the sun and bring about meteors

Evil dragons chained at the bottoms of lakes that demand human sacrifice or will cause drought and floods.

A mirror the back of which can heal any ailment of the body, but whose reflective face produces life draining illusiory pleasures (succubus?)

A man, disgraced, leaves his village and the possibility of marrying the love of his life. Yet as fate would have it, they meet at a fishing village and live happily. Many years later, they visit their home town. There his father in law tells him his daughter fell sick years prior when about to marry another man. She still rests asleep in her room.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by BowStreetRunner
I recall learning about the Chinese concept of a Dynastic Cycle and the Mandate of Heaven many years ago and thinking this would make a tantalizing lead-in to a campaign.

Indeed. Definitely a great idea for adding a deeper cultural context to political maneuverings.

Where's that Like button we keep asking for?

:smalltongue:


Originally Posted by BWR
Lafcadio Hearn's "Kwaidan" is the definitive collection of Japanese ghost stories.

Just as a side note, I'd heard of the author but not the book, so thanks for the excellent reference.

[Biotroll]

Thanks Guigarci, will take a closer look at those. :smallsmile:

Also, sorry for not responding, was kind of bussy.

[The Ravensong]

As you may or not have heard, several cowboy movies are adaptations of samurai movies, so if you're at all familiar with cowboy movies, swap the cowboys and gunslingers back out for the samurai and ronin and you've got yourself a pretty good one shot session. Even if you're not familiar with any of the westerns wiki will be your best friend and do all the research for you.
Here's a few movies and some ideas to bounce off your head.
*Note* Bonus points for a wandering samurai NPC Touhayashi Kurinto (Clint Eastwood)
A Fist Full of Dollars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fistful_of_Dollars)
Party arrives in a town on a major trade route with two powerful families vying for control, seeking to have a member of their family appointed mayor by whomever has that authority in your campaign world. In addition to seeking out opportunities for their chosen candidate to display their skill, honor, and virtue to set themselves apart from others whom might be considered for the role, other members of the families are trying to undermine other candidates by spreading rumors about them, uncovering hidden truths about them, or revealing the other families plots to undermine other candidates. Shortly after the party arrives; a large shipment of gold/food/trade goods/*much needed medical supplies* will be on it's way to pass through the town. From there, you can tailor the normal events of the movie to reflect the alignment of your party.
If they're mostly lawful and honorable: they may attempt to expose one or both families' plots to steal the shipment or offer to help defend the shipment on it's way through the town.
If the party is Lawful but less then reproachable and want to support one of the candidates (perhaps because they truly believe that candidate is the best for the job or their family offered the best payment/protection plan) they could pretend to be members of the rival family and purposefully botch a robbery of the caravan (so that no one is harmed but the honor of their patron's rival is thoroughly tarnished).
If the party doesn't mind taking things that don't belong to them, perhaps they'll help one of the families actually steal the shipment for a share or a reward.
Or, well, they could just keep everything for themselves.
Also good to note, in the original Yojimbo movie, the first family to hire him plots to kill him once he finishes the job so they won't have to pay him...

Seven Samurai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai)
Basic plot revolves around seven adventurers Samurai helping defend a village against a band of... well... bandits. The samurai help the villagers prepare fortifications and defensible positions as well as giving them rudimentary weapon's training and tactics. After some initial skirmishes with bandit scouts, spies, or villagers trying to betray the party to save themselves, wrap things up with a big battle across the whole village, granting the party xp not only for every bandit they kill/drive off, but villagers and buildings saved.

Pale Rider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Rider)
The preacher from this movie could be replaced with an earth shugenja (whom is a retired samurai) trying to help a village set up their mine. You're villain could be represented by a merchant that sees the potential of the villagers' mine and, after being denied buying the mine from them outright, hires thugs and corrupt officials to force them out.

The Man with the Iron Fists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Iron_Fists)
This movie was so campy and fun, it'd be a shame if you didn't use it.
the basis of this story is that the town is basically run by gangs that the local government can't handle, but most of the violence is only targeted towards other gangs so the locals mostly keep their head low and try to not to draw attention to themselves. A large shipment of gold comes through town and everyone basically loses their minds and tries to steal it. Having found out that his gold has gone missing, the emperor declares that if every single piece of gold isn't recovered and returned by dawn he'll have every building leveled and every last person in the city killed. Also there's a guy with mighty arms warforged graft iron fists, ninjas with tongue-knives, a guy who can turn his body into brass, and a drunken Russell Crowe who has a spinning, sawing, gun-knife.