Allanimal
2017-07-07, 09:47 AM
So, I'm running a 3rd edition Unknown Armies game, and the next session in a week and a half will be a final showdown with the BBEG.
The cabal's objective is to prevent someone from becoming the mayor of Hamburg, Germany.
Why, you ask?
Well, he just happens to be the underworld crime boss of the city and is possessed by a demon. Other than that, he would surely be a fine candidate.
He just so happens to be the above mentioned BBEG.
He has somehow used magick to keep the electorate from remembering his criminal ties, most of which couldn't be proven anyway. Or at least hadn't been up to this point.
The cabal has been a major thorn in his side for the last several months.
BBEG's major campaign donor was Ordo Corpulentis. You see, BBEG as crime boss, has a human trafficking network set up, pulling in people from Eastern Europe for, well, whatever the customers want them for. Ordo Corpulentis was interested in a supply of people for their great feasts, people that would not be missed. At least not by anyone with any real resources to get in their way. The PCs have managed to disrupt the flow of victims from the BBEG to Ordo Corpulentis, so the Ordo has pulled their campaign funds.
BBEG has a goon squad, he's the underworld crime boss after all. The goons that do most of the dirty work are skinheads, and most of them have special magickal tattoos that allow them to control demonic possession and what the demons can do while possessing the skinheads. The PCs have revealed this connection between the candidate and the skinheads, while managing to provide video footage that shows the skins in even worse light than they normally are, which has caused the BBEG to have to publicly distance himself from his small army to do his dirty work. This has hurt his campaign and his business.
The BBEG also was using the "Vote Thieves" unnatural entity found in book 5 to change the minds of the voters that would be most anti-BBEG in the polls. The PCs have managed to stop the "Vote Thieves" from converting voters to the BBEG's side, and maybe have even reversed the process.
Finally, they have at least partially dispelled the magick that was causing people to forget that the BBEG is the crime boss and possibly even bring new evidence to light that links him to crimes.
There is a lot of other red herring stuff they have done (its amusing the convoluted lengths they will go through to try to link those red herrings to the BBEGs campaign...), but I won't really get into that because I don't think its super relevant.
Their actions have worked their objective to 87%, which is pretty decent. Nobody wants to just roll it, they want to have a decisive confrontation that bumps it up to 100% and stops him once and for all and with absolute certainty.
So far BBEG has been very behind the scenes - everything has happened between his people or at his places, but he's never been directly involved. But now the moves are coming off and he will step up and take out the PCs. He isn't going down without a fight.
Since he's demon-possessed, he potentially has access to any sort of magick needed.
One of the NPCs has warned them that the BBEG knows the PCs are the ones who have been wrecking his campaign, and that the BBEG will be coming after them. Of course, this meant the PC who has the supernatural ability to steer his dreams, and thereby see a glimpse of the future (though there is always some interpretation of the dreams needed), he decided to dream about how the BBEG will come after them and when.
Well, in his dream, he saw several major NPCs that have strong connections to the PCs, as well as the former PCs (we've had several people that had to leave the game due to various real life circumstances), dead in strange ways. Well, they haven't figured it out yet, but they were all killed in a way that would have triggered their fear stimulus. The dream ended before he could see the currently playing PCs deaths or easily determine the "when".
So, I want to have this final confrontation. BBEG will be trying to kill them and all of their friends & family, by tapping into each person's individual fears.
Active players are an avatar of the Warrior (at war with Demons), a cinemancer and the Librarian who can see things in dreams and (barely) read auras.
Demon hunter is itching for a fight, Librarian would rather stay back and do rituals, while Cinemancer is pretty good at backup in a fight. So it sounds like things will get violent with plenty of Magick thrown in. I'd like to make it happen in a place that is has potential for a cinematic climactic final battle. Since the last dream of the dreamer PC actually took place on a train, I'm thinking maybe in some sort of railway yard or warehouse / maintenance building for trains. On the other hand, maybe it *should* be on the train, speeding along at 300kph.... I also thought maybe it could happen at a debate between the various candidates, and one of the questions basically accuses the BBEG of being the crime boss, which sets him off on a rampage. But I'm liking the speeding train angle more...
I want to try to keep the creepy horror factor high, make it big on action and be a challenge, but still be doable for the PCs.
Does anyone have any suggestions for horrible things the BBEG could try to do? My main concern is that one PC is mostly worthless in a fight - keeping him from getting bored (or just squashed by the BBEG)... I'd also like to be able to throw sanity check at them. So far they haven't had many Helplessness or Isolation checks. Self also is kind of low. I can definitely see how to work helplessness in there, on a train or press conference full of innocents and a rampaging monster. They can't save everyone ought to trigger a helplessness check.
I'd like some thoughts and maybe suggestions how to flesh this out and make it memorable. What would be some interesting things the BBEG could do to twist the battle in his favor? What environmental factors could be helpful to add to the horror and creepiness? Likewise, what are cool thing that should be included the PCs could use?
Any comments or suggestions are welcomed!
TLDR: Any ideas for how the demon-possessed crime boss can murderize the meddling PCs (and all their friends and family, possibly even the friends and family of their friends and family) in a cinematic, horrible and creepy way?
The cabal's objective is to prevent someone from becoming the mayor of Hamburg, Germany.
Why, you ask?
Well, he just happens to be the underworld crime boss of the city and is possessed by a demon. Other than that, he would surely be a fine candidate.
He just so happens to be the above mentioned BBEG.
He has somehow used magick to keep the electorate from remembering his criminal ties, most of which couldn't be proven anyway. Or at least hadn't been up to this point.
The cabal has been a major thorn in his side for the last several months.
BBEG's major campaign donor was Ordo Corpulentis. You see, BBEG as crime boss, has a human trafficking network set up, pulling in people from Eastern Europe for, well, whatever the customers want them for. Ordo Corpulentis was interested in a supply of people for their great feasts, people that would not be missed. At least not by anyone with any real resources to get in their way. The PCs have managed to disrupt the flow of victims from the BBEG to Ordo Corpulentis, so the Ordo has pulled their campaign funds.
BBEG has a goon squad, he's the underworld crime boss after all. The goons that do most of the dirty work are skinheads, and most of them have special magickal tattoos that allow them to control demonic possession and what the demons can do while possessing the skinheads. The PCs have revealed this connection between the candidate and the skinheads, while managing to provide video footage that shows the skins in even worse light than they normally are, which has caused the BBEG to have to publicly distance himself from his small army to do his dirty work. This has hurt his campaign and his business.
The BBEG also was using the "Vote Thieves" unnatural entity found in book 5 to change the minds of the voters that would be most anti-BBEG in the polls. The PCs have managed to stop the "Vote Thieves" from converting voters to the BBEG's side, and maybe have even reversed the process.
Finally, they have at least partially dispelled the magick that was causing people to forget that the BBEG is the crime boss and possibly even bring new evidence to light that links him to crimes.
There is a lot of other red herring stuff they have done (its amusing the convoluted lengths they will go through to try to link those red herrings to the BBEGs campaign...), but I won't really get into that because I don't think its super relevant.
Their actions have worked their objective to 87%, which is pretty decent. Nobody wants to just roll it, they want to have a decisive confrontation that bumps it up to 100% and stops him once and for all and with absolute certainty.
So far BBEG has been very behind the scenes - everything has happened between his people or at his places, but he's never been directly involved. But now the moves are coming off and he will step up and take out the PCs. He isn't going down without a fight.
Since he's demon-possessed, he potentially has access to any sort of magick needed.
One of the NPCs has warned them that the BBEG knows the PCs are the ones who have been wrecking his campaign, and that the BBEG will be coming after them. Of course, this meant the PC who has the supernatural ability to steer his dreams, and thereby see a glimpse of the future (though there is always some interpretation of the dreams needed), he decided to dream about how the BBEG will come after them and when.
Well, in his dream, he saw several major NPCs that have strong connections to the PCs, as well as the former PCs (we've had several people that had to leave the game due to various real life circumstances), dead in strange ways. Well, they haven't figured it out yet, but they were all killed in a way that would have triggered their fear stimulus. The dream ended before he could see the currently playing PCs deaths or easily determine the "when".
So, I want to have this final confrontation. BBEG will be trying to kill them and all of their friends & family, by tapping into each person's individual fears.
Active players are an avatar of the Warrior (at war with Demons), a cinemancer and the Librarian who can see things in dreams and (barely) read auras.
Demon hunter is itching for a fight, Librarian would rather stay back and do rituals, while Cinemancer is pretty good at backup in a fight. So it sounds like things will get violent with plenty of Magick thrown in. I'd like to make it happen in a place that is has potential for a cinematic climactic final battle. Since the last dream of the dreamer PC actually took place on a train, I'm thinking maybe in some sort of railway yard or warehouse / maintenance building for trains. On the other hand, maybe it *should* be on the train, speeding along at 300kph.... I also thought maybe it could happen at a debate between the various candidates, and one of the questions basically accuses the BBEG of being the crime boss, which sets him off on a rampage. But I'm liking the speeding train angle more...
I want to try to keep the creepy horror factor high, make it big on action and be a challenge, but still be doable for the PCs.
Does anyone have any suggestions for horrible things the BBEG could try to do? My main concern is that one PC is mostly worthless in a fight - keeping him from getting bored (or just squashed by the BBEG)... I'd also like to be able to throw sanity check at them. So far they haven't had many Helplessness or Isolation checks. Self also is kind of low. I can definitely see how to work helplessness in there, on a train or press conference full of innocents and a rampaging monster. They can't save everyone ought to trigger a helplessness check.
I'd like some thoughts and maybe suggestions how to flesh this out and make it memorable. What would be some interesting things the BBEG could do to twist the battle in his favor? What environmental factors could be helpful to add to the horror and creepiness? Likewise, what are cool thing that should be included the PCs could use?
Any comments or suggestions are welcomed!
TLDR: Any ideas for how the demon-possessed crime boss can murderize the meddling PCs (and all their friends and family, possibly even the friends and family of their friends and family) in a cinematic, horrible and creepy way?