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DragonkingUs20
2014-06-25, 02:03 PM
This is the second session for my PCs. They have just protected a town from a mob siege and will be sent to a major city to deliver a death notification and locket from a slain fellow guardsman. Along the road, they will encounter a burning down barn in the short distance. Upon inspection, they will discover a independent farming family living within the woods: their barn being burnt down from a fallen lantern and a child caught inside. Being a few days down the road and the PCs running out of rations, the farm family, whether losing their child to the fire or not, will welcome them into their home only for the night and for dinner. Behind their house is an underground bunker they had built to withstand the coming apocalypse.

Other than this, I don't know what kind of interesting hook I can engage the PCs with. I would like for one of the young men in the farm family have an instant crush on one of the female PCs - Making it more interesting if the family decides to attack the PCs if they get too snoopy on their stash of supplies in their bunker..

Any ideas?

LokiRagnarok
2014-06-25, 03:53 PM
I am not quite sure how your PCs interact with the fire, but here are a few things:
* if the child is saved by the PCs
** someone from the family might have a crush on the heroic PC who saved their daughter/brother/niece/... Bonus drama points if the person in question is technically married or engaged.

* if the child is not saved by the PCs:
** one of the family members is blaming the death of the child on the PCs; consumed by grief and unable to think straight, they may seek revenge during the night.
** a proper religious burial ceremony must be organized. For that, the family needs a Priest of Relevant God/Relevant Religious Symbol from The Next Town Over, but the way is too dangerous for them alone...
** three words: Creepy Child Ghost.

* independent
** the child was intended as a fire sacrifice by Evil Cultists for their Evil Ritual of Evil.
** there are monsters preventing the farmers from properly gathering food. If those were dealt with, the farmers would surely not spare any rations...

DragonkingUs20
2014-06-25, 04:37 PM
You've inspired me. I think this is what's going to go down..

The family consist of a recently widowed father and his two sons. The eldest son, jealous of his younger brother's constant coddling by his father and a target for the eldests' hatred, attempts to murder his brother by lighting the barn on fire with him in it while making it look like an accident.

1) If the youngest dies, the father while grieving, will be thankful for their help and offer for them to stay over the night and be present for a funeral service the following day. The eldest son pursues the female PC for female affection, in absence of his mother's. His infatuation is blatantly apparent at the dinner table, and his father adamantly disapproves. After dinner, the eldest brother will ask for the female PC's assistance in bringing in firewood, or somehow get her alone for a few words. He will ask her to run away with him. If she refuses, he will attempt to burn down the house that night. If she accepts, deceivingly, he will ask for her to meet him at the barn (location of the underground bunker). This will get his love out of the house while he tries to set it ablaze.

2) If the youngest lives, the father will insist that they stay the night and eat dinner in celebration and thanks. The eldest son, angered by his thwarted plans, will attempt to burn the house down that night.

In either case, if the father lives, it will become apparent that someone is burning down the buildings, and it's obviously not him. He then begins beating his eldest son, provoking all out physical combat until one of them is lying unconscious and dying (or broken up by the PCs).