Creating a Wheel of Time like Town

[Armyguyclaude]

In the Wheel of Time book, Gathering Storm, there is a town called Hindertap. The town was afflicted by a bubble of evil in which every night the people in the town became murderous lunatics attacking anything and everything. In the morning they all awake in their own beds with no scars or wounds and no memory of the previous nights actions even if they were dead. While there is more to the scenario, I am wondering if there is a way to recreate something like this in DnD 3.5.

I want to try and recreate it so it only affects the towns folk, and not the adventuring party. Is there a way?

If there isn't a way to only affect towns folk that is alright, but one thing at a time I suppose :).

Here is a link with a more detailed explanation of Hinderstap
http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Hinderstap

[Armyguyclaude]

Maybe a combination of Frightened and Insanity (Rabies)? But how to make it going away during the day? And how do people come back to life afterwords with no memory?

[JyP]

Well, the obvious answer would be to make all townsfolk lycanthropes. But it would not explain all damages and dead people disappearing... which can be explained better in WoT with its folklore than in a standard D&D world.

[Calthropstu]

Well, isn't there a true res daily planar trait? Basically, at night an evil fog comes in that actually pulls the town itself into another plane. The plane has the following features:
All residents tied to the town go mad no save. Anyone tied to the town gets gains true res at sunrise. Anyone travelling through dies as normal. They gain the "tied to town" trait if they remain in town for 3 days and fail a dc 17 will save. The save is made each night you spend in town and increases by 1 for each save you have made.

Killing a traveler resurects them, but they return with the tied to town trait.

Tied to town: Curse. You must spend at least one night in town each week. If you don't you feel an intense need to return. Each day after 7 you must make a dc 17 will save or become feral and uncontrollable. You attempt return by any means necessary, and try to kill anyone you come across.

[Bronk]

The town could really be in Ravenloft.

The town might be near a cerebrotic blot formed around a timed portal to the Far Realm.

The madness could be caused by a nearby demon cult, or perhaps a bunch of rogue mindbenders.

[emulord]

Lycanthropes have regeneration, so if there is no silver in town, none of them will die, just get knocked out and recover in the morning.

If you want them to wake in their beds or automatically restore damaged objects you'll need to figure something else out.

[death390]

you could also run it along the lines of a massive daily resetting magical trap(s). basically have a wizard/demon/god/ect have that location as an old testing/dump/ect site. with the idea that this is the current set of effects.

if you run ley-lines or similar in your game that could even power the magic in the area.

[Thurbane]

I can think of two options:

Have it all occur in some kind of mass Dreamscape/Nightmare, where it seems real to all involved, but when they wake up nothing has actually happened.

Other option might be to treat it as a mass Summons effect: townspeople are summoned to a replica of their town (maybe in a demi-plane), compelled to fight each other, and when killed or the duration expires, they re-appear back at home unharmed.

[Armyguyclaude]

Well, isn't there a true res daily planar trait? Basically, at night an evil fog comes in that actually pulls the town itself into another plane. The plane has the following features:
All residents tied to the town go mad no save. Anyone tied to the town gets gains true res at sunrise. Anyone travelling through dies as normal. They gain the "tied to town" trait if they remain in town for 3 days and fail a dc 17 will save. The save is made each night you spend in town and increases by 1 for each save you have made.

Killing a traveler resurects them, but they return with the tied to town trait.

Tied to town: Curse. You must spend at least one night in town each week. If you don't you feel an intense need to return. Each day after 7 you must make a dc 17 will save or become feral and uncontrollable. You attempt return by any means necessary, and try to kill anyone you come across.

I really love this idea. As a new player about to run my first one shot campaign, with the help of the DM, I think is awesome. I didn't realize I could make things up, but had to use already made content. Why I was coming up short.


you could also run it along the lines of a massive daily resetting magical trap(s). basically have a wizard/demon/god/ect have that location as an old testing/dump/ect site. with the idea that this is the current set of effects.

if you run ley-lines or similar in your game that could even power the magic in the area.

I've seen a lot of references to resetting magical trap(s)... What are they? And How do I use them? Also what are leylines? I do like the idea of the wizard/demon/god and old testing/dump/etc.


I can think of two options:

Have it all occur in some kind of mass Dreamscape/Nightmare, where it seems real to all involved, but when they wake up nothing has actually happened.

Other option might be to treat it as a mass Summons effect: townspeople are summoned to a replica of their town (maybe in a demi-plane), compelled to fight each other, and when killed or the duration expires, they re-appear back at home unharmed.

I think this coupled with the previous responded to answers might be what I'll be using. I think overall I will create a powerful creature living underneath the town. This creature is creating the Prime Material Plane and a Nightmare Plane to slowly become tied together creating one new plane, thus causing it's inhabitants to become slowly cursed (tied to town). Not sure if I'll do nightmares or something just in general as evil or dark, but I love the ideas you guys came up with. Thank you! If anyone has any other ideas I would love to hear them. Thanks!

[Sto]

Provided your players don't fight it, you can buff up a Genius Loci from the Epic Level Handbook. Have it mind control the entire town instead of one person, and give it the ability to mass true res. Genius Loci tend to hate trespassers and might cause the entire town to go berserk to get rid of them.
The stats are in the SRD.

[Armyguyclaude]

Provided your players don't fight it, you can buff up a Genius Loci from the Epic Level Handbook. Have it mind control the entire town instead of one person, and give it the ability to mass true res. Genius Loci tend to hate trespassers and might cause the entire town to go berserk to get rid of them.
The stats are in the SRD.

:o!!!! That's perfect. I was thinking of possibly making an intelligent item that was controlling the main evil villain through min control. The item gave the creature wielding it tons of power. Wonder if I could put a genius loci into an item?

EDIT:
Can a creature with - intelligence score be made into an intelligent item? Say using magic jar or nybors psychic imprint? I know with Magic Jar it takes the soul of the creature and Nybors Psychic Imprint takes the memories of the creature and imbues them into an item. Could it be possible under those circumstances to make a Genius Loci into an item?

[Calthropstu]

You're the gm. ANYTHING is possible. You can say the town's prize chicken is a polymorphed loci. You could say a particularly powerful psion, annoyed at the loci who tried to dominate him, used the psionic sandwich trick on him. You could say it was the victim of a very poorly worded monkey paw wish.

[Armyguyclaude]

You're the gm. ANYTHING is possible. You can say the town's prize chicken is a polymorphed loci. You could say a particularly powerful psion, annoyed at the loci who tried to dominate him, used the psionic sandwich trick on him. You could say it was the victim of a very poorly worded monkey paw wish.

Lol. Currently reading Cursed, book 2 of the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka and the monkey paw is a huge plot point in the book.

As for doing anything I want to, I realize I have pretty much infinite power, (>9000 to be exact), but I want to try and keep the game as close to the actual DnD world as I can. I like the challenge that of doing what I want while still staying within the confines the game provides. It's like my own personal runner's high :)