Vectros
2020-04-21, 07:01 PM
This will be a bit long, so buckle up. I feel it necessary to share some of the lore and backstory since the encounter I'm crafting revolves around these interactions within the world.
The campaign I'm running, in an attempt to prevent railroading, has multiple factions (4 evil and 1 good) in a Ravenloft-esque setting. I'm attempting to make the world feel alive; if someone has a goal, even if not yet discovered by the players, it starts moving forward after a couple of sessions, and baddies will react to players decision with their own goals in mind.
At a baseline: The north has werewolves and creatures that follow them (including yeti and wolves, etc). The Werewolf King is ultimately trying to get himself killed-he feels guilty for what he has done as a werewolf-but is literally too strong for anyone to kill, so he's trying to make his faction such a threat that everyone will try to gun him down-so he can pay the debt he feels he owes.
The east is known as the Cursed Forest; fae creatures run this place. Their mother was slain a thousand years ago at the "Final Hour" (basically what summoned all the dark creatures to the world in the first place-this also prevents ordinary means of access to magic, since the gods can no longer communicate or interact with the world.) They blame all the other factions for her fall, and spread their cursed forest slowly but surely to avenge her, hoping to overtake the world one day.
An Elf scout who works with the players faction, known as the Order of the Grey, had gone deep into the cursed forest prior to session 1 with her family; they were caught by the fae and cursed with blemishes. They were told all of them would slowly die-no known spell or potion could cure it-unless they brought more victims at a 6 to 1 ratio (there are 6 players in the game...)
The Elf had a chance 2 sessions back to convince the party to "swap missions", claiming her family needed saving, but childhood trauma prevented her from accomplishing the mission. The players saw through the lie. Further, the party ratted her out to their boss, leading to her being reprimanded behind the scenes.
At this point the Elf has attempted with other groups as well, and is losing hope.
There is an Alpha Werewolf (they act as lieutenants for the Werewolf King) that has made his way into town (and is coincidentally, the one who murdered one of the players friends), instructed to create more werewolves via bites. This particular Alpha enjoys power, and tricked the Werewolf King into turning him through grievous circumstances.
That was a lot of set up, so now we're caught up, onto the idea itself:
The Elf Scout woman decides she will hire a half dozen mercenaries or so to ambush the player party, capture them, and haul them to the edge of the cursed forest. She feels they treated her poorly by not only NOT helping when confessing everything to them, but also ratting her out to the boss. She came across a red-skinned orc in a tavern, who looked strong, but alone. He claims he's a mercenary, and his "gang", the "pups" will come when he calls for them. Except as you've probably guessed, he's actually Longtooth, the Alpha Werewolf, who is using this ploy to gather multiple easy targets for biting. Their intent is NOT to kill.
I'd really like to turn this into Faction vs faction vs players, but not sure how I can pull it off at the moment. the Elf Scout is not technically part of the Fae faction; merely a pawn, and their power mainly resides in the forest. Though perhaps I could stretch it a bit? Having it happen in town seems kind of an odd spot.
I also wouldn't see longtooth willingly go all the way into the cursed forest. Not fearing for himself, but he'd find it suspicious for a typical elf to ask what they assume is a normal mercenary to drag a group several days to the cursed forest. I feel I have a cool concept, but don't know how to execute it, while maintaining established lore.
TLDR:Elf girl is intentionally trying to trick players to get them cursed, by utilizing a mercenary group...but it turns out, the mercenaries are lead by a werewolf, who wants to turn more people into werewolves. Need help coming up with proper execution, without breaking lore.
This seems like the oddest help I've ever put out I think.
The campaign I'm running, in an attempt to prevent railroading, has multiple factions (4 evil and 1 good) in a Ravenloft-esque setting. I'm attempting to make the world feel alive; if someone has a goal, even if not yet discovered by the players, it starts moving forward after a couple of sessions, and baddies will react to players decision with their own goals in mind.
At a baseline: The north has werewolves and creatures that follow them (including yeti and wolves, etc). The Werewolf King is ultimately trying to get himself killed-he feels guilty for what he has done as a werewolf-but is literally too strong for anyone to kill, so he's trying to make his faction such a threat that everyone will try to gun him down-so he can pay the debt he feels he owes.
The east is known as the Cursed Forest; fae creatures run this place. Their mother was slain a thousand years ago at the "Final Hour" (basically what summoned all the dark creatures to the world in the first place-this also prevents ordinary means of access to magic, since the gods can no longer communicate or interact with the world.) They blame all the other factions for her fall, and spread their cursed forest slowly but surely to avenge her, hoping to overtake the world one day.
An Elf scout who works with the players faction, known as the Order of the Grey, had gone deep into the cursed forest prior to session 1 with her family; they were caught by the fae and cursed with blemishes. They were told all of them would slowly die-no known spell or potion could cure it-unless they brought more victims at a 6 to 1 ratio (there are 6 players in the game...)
The Elf had a chance 2 sessions back to convince the party to "swap missions", claiming her family needed saving, but childhood trauma prevented her from accomplishing the mission. The players saw through the lie. Further, the party ratted her out to their boss, leading to her being reprimanded behind the scenes.
At this point the Elf has attempted with other groups as well, and is losing hope.
There is an Alpha Werewolf (they act as lieutenants for the Werewolf King) that has made his way into town (and is coincidentally, the one who murdered one of the players friends), instructed to create more werewolves via bites. This particular Alpha enjoys power, and tricked the Werewolf King into turning him through grievous circumstances.
That was a lot of set up, so now we're caught up, onto the idea itself:
The Elf Scout woman decides she will hire a half dozen mercenaries or so to ambush the player party, capture them, and haul them to the edge of the cursed forest. She feels they treated her poorly by not only NOT helping when confessing everything to them, but also ratting her out to the boss. She came across a red-skinned orc in a tavern, who looked strong, but alone. He claims he's a mercenary, and his "gang", the "pups" will come when he calls for them. Except as you've probably guessed, he's actually Longtooth, the Alpha Werewolf, who is using this ploy to gather multiple easy targets for biting. Their intent is NOT to kill.
I'd really like to turn this into Faction vs faction vs players, but not sure how I can pull it off at the moment. the Elf Scout is not technically part of the Fae faction; merely a pawn, and their power mainly resides in the forest. Though perhaps I could stretch it a bit? Having it happen in town seems kind of an odd spot.
I also wouldn't see longtooth willingly go all the way into the cursed forest. Not fearing for himself, but he'd find it suspicious for a typical elf to ask what they assume is a normal mercenary to drag a group several days to the cursed forest. I feel I have a cool concept, but don't know how to execute it, while maintaining established lore.
TLDR:Elf girl is intentionally trying to trick players to get them cursed, by utilizing a mercenary group...but it turns out, the mercenaries are lead by a werewolf, who wants to turn more people into werewolves. Need help coming up with proper execution, without breaking lore.
This seems like the oddest help I've ever put out I think.