Atarax
2015-09-30, 06:30 PM
D&D 3x homebrew
One hot summer about 80 years ago the small city of Sylvandale was plagued by a series of ritualistic murders. The deaths continued unchecked throughout the summer then suddenly stopped. The man responsible was later found dead by his own hand. The killer is now known as the Blood Prophet of Old Town both because he scrawled cryptic prophetic messages in his victims' blood and for the rambling portents of doom found in his journals. His writings survived as a horrific piece of history in the hands of collectors. Most sages discounted the journals as the writings of a madman. About 20 years ago, a group of hills near the city were found to be burial mounds of some of the earliest human settlers in the region. Strange symbols were found painted in blood around horrific idols of a demonic shaman god.
Now another serious of murders has begun in Sylvandale. The ritual manner of the killings eerily imitates the work of the Blood Prophet. The PCs take up the quest to figure out who's at the bottom of this. The city watch is powerless and rife with political factions and corruption. The PC's meet with a wealthy collector and amateur historian who has the only full transcript of the Blood Prophet's journals. Having personally known some of the men who helped excavate the burial mounds, he is the only one aware of the fact that the killer used the same symbols and described a similar prophesy. The spear (the star, Ibis) would one day return to the hand of the demon/demigod Tsaag-Nalta (constellation) and he would lay low the blasphemous city that now stands where his faithful once lived and died.
(The city is descended from a people who drove out the original inhabitants)
The PCs have so far investigated the scenes of what was left of the recent murders. They've taken on a local thieves guild who they discovered has stolen the killer's original journals and the dagger he used to to slay his victims. Now they have found an undisturbed murder scene and have copied the symbols for the collector to translate.
Now what?
I'm thinking they should end up showing up just in time to stop some big ritual. I don't want it to be summoning the godthing into the marerial plane...I don't want it to usher in an apocalypse. I need to save those cards for later. But what are they doing? And more than that...where are they doing it in a city that can be played as a small dungeon without the help of the local authorities?
Sorry for the novel
One hot summer about 80 years ago the small city of Sylvandale was plagued by a series of ritualistic murders. The deaths continued unchecked throughout the summer then suddenly stopped. The man responsible was later found dead by his own hand. The killer is now known as the Blood Prophet of Old Town both because he scrawled cryptic prophetic messages in his victims' blood and for the rambling portents of doom found in his journals. His writings survived as a horrific piece of history in the hands of collectors. Most sages discounted the journals as the writings of a madman. About 20 years ago, a group of hills near the city were found to be burial mounds of some of the earliest human settlers in the region. Strange symbols were found painted in blood around horrific idols of a demonic shaman god.
Now another serious of murders has begun in Sylvandale. The ritual manner of the killings eerily imitates the work of the Blood Prophet. The PCs take up the quest to figure out who's at the bottom of this. The city watch is powerless and rife with political factions and corruption. The PC's meet with a wealthy collector and amateur historian who has the only full transcript of the Blood Prophet's journals. Having personally known some of the men who helped excavate the burial mounds, he is the only one aware of the fact that the killer used the same symbols and described a similar prophesy. The spear (the star, Ibis) would one day return to the hand of the demon/demigod Tsaag-Nalta (constellation) and he would lay low the blasphemous city that now stands where his faithful once lived and died.
(The city is descended from a people who drove out the original inhabitants)
The PCs have so far investigated the scenes of what was left of the recent murders. They've taken on a local thieves guild who they discovered has stolen the killer's original journals and the dagger he used to to slay his victims. Now they have found an undisturbed murder scene and have copied the symbols for the collector to translate.
Now what?
I'm thinking they should end up showing up just in time to stop some big ritual. I don't want it to be summoning the godthing into the marerial plane...I don't want it to usher in an apocalypse. I need to save those cards for later. But what are they doing? And more than that...where are they doing it in a city that can be played as a small dungeon without the help of the local authorities?
Sorry for the novel