[PF] How Should I Pamper and/or Terrorize My PCs? Aka The Eternal Kiss

[Novawurmson]

Hey, everyone!

So my players gave me a request for a campaign: An amnesia campaign - they wake up knowing nothing about who they are, where they are, or why they're there.

Now, I know there's a Pathfinder Adventure Path that starts similarly (Strange Eons, I think?), but that's not what they were looking for. The core of the idea is more like the TV show Dark Matter, where they're all amazing adventurers with plenty of secrets and suppressed power, but they need to discover and unlock them.

So here's my idea:

The players all wake up in a clean, beautiful, resort-like complex deep in the heart of a vast woodland. There are 125 people total in the predicament, each with a number from 1 to 125 scarred into/arcane marked onto their arm.

They are told that due to some as of yet unexplained magical incident, a large number of people across Golarion have lost their memories. This resort is taking them in to provide emergency relief while others are attempting to locate family or other groups to take them in permanently. It will take about 2 weeks to process so many people, so the resort leaders ask for patience and understanding. In the meantime, they offer relaxation and all the many amenities this facility has to offer.

What the “guests” don't know is that they are a part of an extreme variant of The Eternal Kiss (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Eternal_Kiss), where they will be pampered and served for up to 11 days before being horrifically tortured and sacrificed to Zon Kuthon. Each day, 11 prisoners will be sacrificed. The players will need to play a dangerous game of sneaking around their captors to find out who they are, where they are, why they're there, how to escape, etc., etc.

Beyond this, the PCs were intentionally captured to infiltrate the complex and accomplish specific goals. Simply escaping is not the best ending - they need to remember and complete their missions. They're all level 12, but they start only knowing their ability scores. Simple things like base attack bonus and base saving throws will be given to them when they first need them (i.e. first Fortitude save - learn your base Fortitude save). They'll have ~6 bonus feats, but they'll need to unlock all their feats and class features through interacting with the environment. For example, on character is a lycanthrope, but won't learn that until they go out into the moonlight. They are all specifically sleep deprived using a caffeine-like substance mixed into their food, so until they realize and find an alternative food source/starve so they can sleep through the night, they won't be able to access power points/spells per level.

Things I'm looking for:
-What are some more ways to make the players feel at ease?
-What are some ways their captors have prepared for processing hundreds of prisoners through the death camp?
-What are some interesting "scheduled" events to happen on each of the 11 days?
-What are some ideas for NPCs for them to meet?
-Are there any other cool ideas/inspiration you have for running an amnesia campaign?



Food
Wine
Drugs
Servants
Gambling
Song
Dance
Contests
Reading
Pool/hot springs






Plenty of Joymakings (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Joyful_Thing) will be going on in secret locations. If the players find one, they can witness it...
Food laced with anti-darkvision concoction - Makes it easier to catch "guests" in the Uskwood.
Food laced with anti-sleep concoction - Keeps "guests" from resting and recovering PP/spells.
"Ringers" - There are only 121 "guests" (11x11); four of them are actually high ranking enforcers of Zon Kuthon who break up attempted group actions by the guests. In the event of a guest's death, they are required to replace them as sacrifices.
Invisible scouts - Probably nightblades (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/ascension-games-llc/nightblade/) from Path of Shadows.
Terrors in the forest - Uskwood druids, Umbral Shepherds (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/umbral-shepherd/), an templated-up Ankou (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/fey/ankou/), and Kytons (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/kyton/kyton-interlocutor/).
Penalty system - The only thing the hosts truly care about is the guest/sacrificial lambs killing each other. Severe misconduct to the staff generally receives only a blind eye (they are all devout worshippers of Zon Kuthon and well used to pain). They will intervene generally only to stop murder, attempted murder, suicide, or escapees. Punishments range from removal of privileges, house arrest, or choosing the guest to be tonight's sacrifice.






Day 6 - Prisoner breakout attempt.
Day 8 - Failed rescue attempt from outside.




NPC ideas - I already have an idea of the composition of the guests - ~30 commoners, ~25 warriors, 10 experts, 10 mediums (the NPC spirit binder class in Villains of Pact Magic), 9 augurs (NPC psionic class), 9 adepts, 25 more powerful, PC-classed NPCs, but I wouldn't mind some more specifics.
Ideas for triggering memory
Cool feats to give the PCs.
Cool goals for the PCs to accomplish in the facility - Currently, one player (a Pactmaker) knows that the worshippers have found fragments of the Whisperer of Souls (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Shelyn#Whisperer_of_Souls) and are feeding them; he must find them and either rescue them or exorcise+destroy them. Another player is an adherent of Aroden who wants to use the dark magic of the ceremony to discover the secret of Aroden's disappearance. The third player is going to be an assassin-style character - maybe they have a specific mark to take down?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Novawurmson
The players all wake up in a clean, beautiful, resort-like complex deep in the heart of a vast woodland….

This sounds like it could be a fun scenario, given that your players specifically requested the amnesia factor. But how long will this run for? Are you planning to spin this into a full campaign? Right now it seems like more of a self-contained module, maybe a single book in an AP.


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
They are told that due to some as of yet unexplained magical incident, a large number of people across Golarion have lost their memories.

So, why would your players want to hang around in some woodsy spa? Clearly, there’s great doings afoot, and dark magic has plagued the land, and that means heroes must answer the call!

I’ve been in groups where they’d rush out of the resort ten minutes into the game, and spend the rest of the first session having random wilderness encounters while blundering towards some distant city which they’re convinced is where they need to be.

So how are the facility staff going to keep twelfth-level characters from leaving the premises? “Patience and understanding” may not do the trick.

Also, the PCs will probably be asking some hard questions about who runs this facility, especially if they see divine magic being used. What is the patron deity of this facility? (We know it’s Zon-Kookaburra or whoever, but what will the players be told?) What story will the facility staff tell the PCs about where they were picked up?

And who are the “resort leaders,” and do they have any idea who the PCs are? If not, will they learn the PCs' identities at some point? And what happens to the PCs when they do?


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
There are 125 people total in the predicament, each with a number from 1 to 125 scarred into/arcane marked onto their arm.

Will the PCs become suspicious if there aren’t any new arrivals? If there’s been some continental catastrophe, you’d expect a facility like this to be processing people on a constant basis, with new arrivals and departures every day. If the PCs see that no one else is coming in, that should be a huge red flag.

Also, will the PCs be able to interact with the other “patients”? If so, will they be able to use Knowledge (local) to determine the geographical origin of the other patients based on their accent? And can the PCs apply this same approach to learning something about themselves?


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
The players will need to play a dangerous game of sneaking around their captors to find out who they are, where they are, why they're there, how to escape, etc., etc.

So why is it dangerous? I don’t have a sense of any immediate danger to the PCs—they’re in this facility, but what’s keeping them there, and what are they risking if they try to leave? Will they be “processed” or “reeducated” in some way if they’re caught leaving? How will the facility staff prevent them from just walking off the front porch? Will the PCs witness other attempted escapes, or hear whispers of people who tried to leave and disappeared?


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
They're all level 12, but they start only knowing their ability scores.

Will you be building the characters, then? Do the players have any input in what they’ll be playing?

That’s the sort of campaign I would have fun with, but there are some players who would be incensed at not having control over every fine detail of their build—and there are other players who would simply be lost at sea with this.


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
They are all specifically sleep deprived using a caffeine-like substance mixed into their food….

…And Zon-Kibitzer spake unto them, saying, Thou shalt not suffer thine captives to be placid and biddable, no, thou shalt ensure they are bright and perky, yea verily, thou shalt keep them on a permanent caffeine high, that thine captives shall be jumpy as fleas on a griddle, for then they shall be so much easier to control.

—Well, maybe not; I can see that sleep deprivation wouldn’t have a positive effect after several days, with some mounting mechanical penalties.

But I’d think that the facility staff would want to use a sedative rather than a stimulant, because after a few days of intense exposure the body just ignores caffeine and you crash anyway. (Speaking from personal experience here.) It also runs contrary to the general atmosphere of relaxation and therapy (for the cover story) and pampering for the slaughter (for the real intention). “Why can’t we sleep?!?” would be a mounting frustration from 125 patients, and that could lead to real problems with keeping everyone calm and in place.

Some sort of mild sedative would help everyone mellow out, reduce curiosity and aggression, and in general make things much easier for the facility staff. If this interferes with concentration, that would help keep the PCs from regaining spells—although you might not even need this, because you can’t pray for spells if you don’t remember you have a deity in your life.


Originally Posted by Novawurmson
…I know there's a Pathfinder Adventure Path that starts similarly….

This is Strange Aeons, and it might be worth looking through the first book, In Search of Sanity, since it opens with amnesiac PCs in a thoroughly creepy haunted asylum. The atmosphere is very different from what you’re going for, but they have some detailed writeups on staff which might be useful here.

[Sam K]

First: love the idea!

Couple of thoughts: one of the things you may want to add to pamper the players is an extensive library, a great gymnasium and similar places where they can train and research. Quite a few adventurers are uninterested in sitting around doing nothing, but the chance to try new techniques or learn new lore can keep them in place. This could also give them a chance to learn about some of their abilities (ironically, they may end up staying put simply to get a chance to learn more about who they were and what they can do).

The whole 'resort' thing seems a bit off to me. It's a very modern concept. And the whole reason they are there also seems a bit... odd. It might spark them to action, because I would also start wondering about the whole "people all over the world lost their memory for 'reasons'" explanation. An alternative explanation that, to me, makes more sense in a fantasy world: they are in the personal keep of the great lord so-and-so. The great lords chamberlain explains that they were all found wandering the wilderness with no equipment and no memory of whom they were. The lord has sent out messengers to the nearby towns to find out if a group that size has passed through, and put his court wizard on the task of investigating it, but it will take a week or so for the messengers to return and the wizard to complete his investigation.

Because of the circumstances of the groups appearance, the great lord so-and-so simply cannot allow them to be on their way before he knows whom they were. Whatever caused them to lose their memories may still be out there, or it may be contagious. For both their sake and the sake of his people, they must remain where they are for a while longer. To compensate for this inconvenience, the lord has put the majority of his estate at the groups disposal. A few of his servants have offered to see to the visitors every need, and the lord has confined the rest of the staff to a limited part of the keep to limit the risk of exposure to whatever it is that effected the 125 visitors. He may also have some constructs patrolling the area, since they would likely be immune to anything that effects the PCs.

This gives the PCs a reason to stick around (they're not allowed to leave) and also a reason to be curious (something happened to THEM specifically, instead of a big part of the world). They are not allowed into certain areas of the keep, which is likely to make a few of them want to see what is really there. And of course, they may start wondering about who this great lord so-and-so really is, and why does he keep such fine quarters in what is apparently the middle of nowhere?

Like I said, awesome idea. Kinda jealous of the players that get to play it! Cheers!