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View Full Version : DM Help How to herd PC's, Viking kids vs. Morlocks



2D8HP
2017-09-18, 03:34 PM
Recently at the "Campaign ideas" thread, I posted:


.....My campaign ideas are rather more prosaic and unoriginal, basically.....
Viking kids vs Morlocks ...

The PC's are adolescents and very young adults in an isolated village where two summers ago all the fighting age men, and many of the women left on a "trading" mission, and have not returned, so the elders of the village at a moot in the godshall have some of the youth accompany "old Ragnar", a one armed former Viking (who will die of natural causes soon after they set sail) as their guide.

What they find is that nearby they are de-populated and sometimes burned towns with no bodies and little evidence of what happened.

Upon returning home (assuming they do), they find their village simillarly emptied, with cooking fires still smoldering, and in the distance a low thumping sound, like a muffled hammering.

If they seek out the source of the sounds, they find what look to be new wells outside the village, but they see no water at the bottom, and ha hand and foot holds along the sides, and descending and exploring leads them to discover albino "Goblins" leading the enchanted people of their village deeper into the earth, and then....
....well basically the Goblins are the Morlocks in the 1895 Time Machine novella, and the 1960 film, led by albino Drow/Elves not unlike the character played by Jeremy Irons in the 2002 film.

Further exploration by the PC's leads them to find tunnels made by digging machines (like in At The Earth's Core), and locales like in Journey to the Center of the Earth (ruins and dinosaurs!), and a civilization a bit like the Selenites in First Men in the Moon.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/cd/be/becdbe61eaa6aecd066a697cbef57715.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2x/z2tm2qgh2h31.jpg

https://ingeld.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/stave-church11.jpg?w=218&h=300

https://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9wv1dc6LR1r9gwhe.bmp

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1U7VldXczM/VtcnnDjKVdI/AAAAAAAALGk/dVZdltN5_vM/s280/Eoli%2Bunderground.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/0e9aca8fe922c2ef369ba370d70a66be/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo7_500.png

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e247703f22fbaa609cf56741365b1706/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo1_500.png


https://pre00.deviantart.net/6570/th/pre/i/2004/09/e/b/morlock_emerging_from_a_hole_.jpg

https://pre00.deviantart.net/0caf/th/pre/i/2012/057/2/2/here_be_morlocks_by_mattpocalypse-d4r2eg6.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/2022bb37f8ba55fe62daadcbc61a1df2/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo4_500.png


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8l-yu7AZLM/SVppXmlmMYI/AAAAAAAAFdM/_uaE0SOEVds/s280/tm13.jpg

http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/sci_fi_projects_fall_2015/Project_1/Charalab_Constantine/Updated_Project_HU338/Morlocks.jpg

https://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-x8dfmo/products/11724/images/34773/Jeremy-Irons-in-The-Time-Machine-2002-Premium-Photograph-and-Poster-1023101__47680.1432433158.386.513.jpg?c=2

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/011.jpg

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/FIRST-MEN-IN-THE-MOON-Bedford-and-MoonCalf-300x147.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5ipt5ZoqI/AAAAAAAAAjY/GCUVQIL_CO0/s280/Mushroom+forest.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5iQWoLrxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/mXGlR6nEiyU/s280/cave+5+-+Alantis.jpg

http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/515889167041822721/640/10/scaletowidth

http://www.pellucidar.org/moleh3.jpg
.
And outlining the scenario has me noticing problems.
It's been decades since I successfully GM'd and obviously I should practice more with pre-gen adventures to get my feet wet, but that's boring!

So... some advice please.

I'm doubtful that I may still be able to improvise like I once could, so it's time for some hypocrisy: Quantum Ogres and hidden (hopefully) tracks railroading!

Here's the dilemmas I perceive in herding the players characters to stick to what I've prepared:


1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?

2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?

3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?


The game rules I'm most familiar with are:

TSR Dungeons & Dragons,

Chaosium BRP (Call of Cthullu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, etc). and

WotC 5e D&D

So I'll probably use one of those (perhaps simplified) rulesets to run it.

What do you suggest?

Tinkerer
2017-09-18, 03:55 PM
1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?

2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?

3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?



Well 3 is the easiest so we'll start there. The town was enchanted by a ritual which took place under the town. When they get to the bottom of the well the first thing that they see is a ritual room which was used to hypnotize the town. They can't be hypnotized because that was an one-time effect which requires hours to perform the ritual. OR only the leader can hypnotize people and he is way at the lead of the party (see next note)

2 is pretty easy as well. The villagers were broken up into several groups, they can catch up to the furthest back group which has the children and the elderly in it quite easily but the fit adults are much further down and much better guarded. The village will not last without it's adults so they have to head back down. Plus there is still the other villages who are missing as well.

1 is the hardest. I would use the bread crumb trail of having something at the first village leading to the second village. Maybe a survivor is deaf and was unaffected by the hypnotism, they didn't see the event but the fact that they are deaf is a clue. Maybe the town hero was strong enough to resist but fell in battle and left the next towns name written in blood. Of course maybe the group decided to report home after the first village in which case you didn't really need the other villages.

2D8HP
2017-09-19, 01:30 PM
Well....


Thanks!

:smile:

Rabidmuskrat
2017-09-20, 02:06 PM
Also, for 1), an easy out would be (and often forgotten since GM's gloss over this aspect): Food.

They gotta eat and they only have so much supplies with them. The towns have some to loot, but no new food is being prepared and what is there will soon start to wither. Also, you can keep making a deal of half-eaten food lying around. Its a red herring to make them think the food might have been tampered with, but it might make them think twice about stealing other villages food.

Regardless, you can just tell them after they have scouted as far as you wanted: "Right, you have reached the halfway point of your supplies. You should be able to make it home easily at this point but if you keep pushing further you might run out."

Then if they keep pushing regardless, start turning the game into a survival. A slog, tracking rations, doing all sorts of annoying things until they "resupply". In such a case a deaf person who is fine back home (just to show them the food is okay) might be in order.

2D8HP
2017-09-20, 02:10 PM
Also, for 1), an easy out would be (and often forgotten since GM's gloss over this aspect): Food....

..... a deaf person who is fine back home (just to show them the food is okay) might be in order.


Oh that's good!

DeTess
2017-09-20, 02:20 PM
Depending on the party, another possible solution for 1) would be to have them find a survivor in the last village that they want to escort back home. Maybe it's a mother with a couple of young children, or a revered elder or something like that. This only really works if your party cares about thing like that, of course. If your party is more selfish, having a merchant of some sort pay them to be led back to safety would also work.

For 2), you could also just let them seal the wells, but if they do, new wells will be dug in another place close by a bit later, maybe accompanied by a raid or something. The PC's could continue playing wack-a-mole, but they'll probably get the hint after a little while.

finally for 3), maybe the local shaman/religious leader/wizard gave them each a protective amulet before they set out. This amulet has the nice property of protecting from mind-affecting effects. These amulets are also a bit difficult to make, so the one handing them out only loans them when people go on important missions, and doesn't have enough for the whole village.

Mordar
2017-09-20, 02:32 PM
1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?

2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?

3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?


I think you already have some good answers for 2 & 3. My take for #1 is to use Ragnar, either in the timing of his death or the disposition of his body.

If you want to use timing, I'd recommend that he has his death episode during the investigation of the third village. Foreshadow his weakness/illness during the trip and villages 1 & 2, and then close the loop during village 3. Have his dying words reflect duty to the home village and command them to return home.

If you want to use disposition, modify the local funerary rites such that an elder should be sent on from his home village where possible...and that they have a certain amount of time to return so they can visit a few villages before going home to honor the dead.

Not sure if those will work for you, but they were my first thoughts.

- M

2D8HP
2017-09-20, 02:39 PM
...maybe the local shaman/religious leader/wizard gave them each a protective amulet before they set out. This amulet has the nice property of protecting from mind-affecting effects....


Oh that's good!

I had thought of the Elves/Goblins/Morlocks as being able to create illusions, that something like the Blindfold of True Seeing could see past, like in Bazaar of the Bizarre (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_of_the_Bizarre), but that would only work for one PC, an amulet could have an anti-charm area effect!


...modify the local funerary rites such that an elder should be sent on from his home village where possible...and that they have a certain amount of time to return so they can visit a few villages before going home to honor the dead...


That's good, collecting the bodies of the last expedition for burial could be an incentive to go in the first place!

Great ideas, thank you!

90sMusic
2017-09-22, 11:50 PM
1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?

2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?

3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?
[/indent]


Well realistically, if their guide just dropped dead, i'd think any halfway responsible kids would return just for that. But PC's are rarely logical or sensible. :)

Sometimes players need to be "incepted" so they come up with ideas that you actually gave them to come up with. For instance, when they start finding these villages, you are sure to include in the descriptions that the ones closest to their own village were hit most recently while the ones further away weren't hit as recently. This incepts the idea in the players that more attacks are coming and their village could be next, and they'll want to go back and warn them and prepare, etc. It's all about how you paint the scene.

If you aren't comfortable with that, can always take the easy way and leave the guide alive long enough to see an empty village and tell them that they need to return home to warn their village before it's too late. Can even keep him alive long enough for them to get back and see their own village is missing, and THEN have him die, to really drive home that feeling of helplessness and isolation when everything they knew was gone and this guy was the only part of that still left, then he goes too.

For point two, you just have to make them believe it would be futile to fill in the holes. You just lead them to believe one way or another that if the holes were filled in, they could just dig out new ones shortly after and it wouldn't change the situation. You mentioned them having digging machines, you could have maybe one that they can see and inspect, then a bunch of tracks that indicated more were up there recently and had been moved deeper in. That way they know what it is and what it does and they know those machines have to be destroyed for the fill-in plan to work, so they'd have to go deeper either way.

As for what spared them from being affected by some kind of enchantment... I'm assuming you're talking about the sort of mental domination thing the boss morlock can do? It could be any number of reasons. Since the PCs are all kids, you could just say that kids aren't affected by it. That is a perfectly reasonable explanation because of the differences in brain chemistry for young persons vs adults. If you don't want to be that sciencey about it, you could just say that it isn't an "instant" effect, it is a cumulative one that builds over time. When taking over a village, they don't need it to be instant, they can use that effect for a while constantly until it takes a good hold, but in the kids' case they are just rushing in there quickly and maybe they are feeling some minor effects of it and it might get a little stronger the longer they are exposed, but they won't be in it long enough to be completely overwhelmed.

Could also turn it into an environmental hazard, maybe have them roll a low DC wisdom save like every hour (or every 10 minutes, depending on your pacing) and have the DC steadily get higher the longer they're in it. Even without telling them the DC, when describing the effect you can just reiterate that it's getting stronger and harder to resist, etc. Hope I understood that part right, wasn't really sure.

Rabidmuskrat
2017-09-23, 05:06 AM
Be very wary of DC's. While they can be good, you have to take into account what happens if the PCs fail. What happens if one of them fails and what happens if through sheer happenstance ALL of them fail. Since this isnt an optional thing to be exposed to, you have to consider what happens to the campaign if they should all succumb.

2D8HP
2017-09-23, 10:22 PM
...If you aren't comfortable with that, can always take the easy way and leave the guide alive long enough to see an empty village and tell them that they need to return home to warn their village before it's too late. Can even keep him alive long enough for them to get back and see their own village is missing....


That works, I just didn't want ti keep any "DMPC's" around too long.

Anyway looks good, thanks for the advice!


Be very wary of DC's....


Noted. Thanks.

:smile: