Labors of Hercules

[SMac8988]

I am dming for a group of about 6, amd have been currently working on the quest to drive them from mundanity to stuff of legends.

Now as i look more into the stories and myths of the past i find myself drawn to the labors of hercules. I feel my group would appriciate a nod in that direction, and i like the idea of each ranging from a fight to a puzzle.

So how would my fellow dms translate each labor into a singe mission psudo side quest thing? I was planning on setting the group in a large chamber and having each labor be behind like a doorway or something, then possibly a big boss at the end that is unrelated but for my story progression.

[JellyPooga]

You can't beat the source material;

Have one of their adventures go sour somehow. Get them to make a mistake, narc-off the wrong King, commit a crime (knowingly or unknowingly) or generally make a nuisance of themselves. It shouldn't be hard; they're adventurers.

In order to clear their names they have to do what King Soup-for-Brains says and King Soup-for-Brains wants them to do these "impossible" tasks. It's important that they do them in the right order, because the solution to some of the later tasks should be reliant on completing a former task properly, so the "room of doors" set up might not work so well.

Let's take a looksee;

First Labour: Nemean lion
Second Labour: Lernaean Hydra
Third Labour: Ceryneian Hind
Fourth Labour: Erymanthian Boar
Fifth Labour: Augean Stables
Sixth Labour: Stymphalian Birds
Seventh Labour: Cretan Bull
Eighth Labour: Mares of Diomedes
Ninth Labour: Belt of Hippolyta
Tenth Labour: Cattle of Geryon
Eleventh Labour: Apples of the Hesperides
Twelfth Labour: Cerberus

- Labours 1, 2, 4, 6 and 10 are straight fights with different tactics. Easy money.
- The Hind is a speed and endurance hunt. Magic will make this easy, otherwise cunning will have to be employed.
- The Stables are gross. Wits required, though again magic could make it easy. Be sure to enforce the time limit!
- The Bull should probably be resolved with diplomacy primarily, but you can have a fight if you want.
- The Mares are about deception and mistrust as much as they're about defeating the "monstrous" creatures.
- Heh...the Belt. This is the "be a stud-muffin and the world is yours" quest. Seriously, Hippolyta was just going to give Hercules her belt because he was hot. If the PC's aren't too attractive, they could be in for some trouble on this one!
- The Apples is the "culmination quest" where everything has to come together; the diplomacy, the guile, the fighting...this is the real end-boss quest.
- Cerberus is the one where the quest-giver is taking the Michael. "Go to hell and bring back the guardian creature of doom". Seriously dude? Fine. I'll do it just to spit in your face when I do. This one you can have a lot of fun with; it doesn't have to be "go to hell", it can be anything so over-the-top, so ridiculously absurd that the players spit their coffee across the table at the notion of it.

So what am I saying, in short? You don't have to copy the tasks literally. Just make sure you've got the themes in there; one for Wits, one for Guile, one for Studliness, one for Diplomacy and so forth. If you've got a party of adventurers, it's even easier; give each Player a Labour that they should be able to solve easily with their given skill-set. Intersperse these with tough fights. The penultimate Labour should be something that involves all the PC's and the last one should be something so stupidly impossible that your Players consider rage-quitting over it.

[lebefrei]

Remember that Heracles was disqualified for cleaning the stables because he didn't actually do the cleaning himself, and he took a reward for doing it. So really mess with your players. Without any knowledge of the consequences, tell them they have failed if they 1) don't get down in the muck and really do it themselves (no spells or tricks) or 2) accept a small gold reward offered after the task

He also failed a labor for accepting help... These were supposed to be done solo, so I suppose that issue doesn't translate well.

One thing to keep in mind is that performing these labors took him 12 years. Yes, you could make this a small quest in a dungeon. However, you could also make it an entire campaign, or an open ended, long side quest for your players to pursue.

[JellyPooga]

On the whole failing a couple of tasks thing; that was mostly King whats-his-face looking for loopholes rather than actually abiding by the spirit of the contract...they were, after all, impossible tasks!

As you say, though, the point is that the quest-giver was a slippery son of a dog, who could only be trusted to change the deal (feel free to use Darth Vader quotes) when he thought it convenient to do so.

[SMac8988]

I am by no means an expert on the labors, and I had a friend help me with a couple of ideas. I was definitely planning on having a couple of bigish fights in between more skill based challenges. Taking more the spirit of the labor and adjusting it to how i need.

Like the deer he chased, I was looking at more of a trapping skills. Maybe give them some insight on a survival roll. But have a small deer made of glass be on top of a glass floor, and have it be several differing levels. At first the group will rush and just try and grab it, and my idea was it would explode when touched dealing minor slashing damage. The goal would be to chase the deer down the different path ways to a small cage at the bottom. If they run, or cross one another while on the glass floors it would cuase the floor to collaspe sending them crashing down to the bottom.

Each time the deer popped, it would re-spawn on the first level.

Idk how they would be received by others, but was the first idea I had.

Besides that, have them fight a lion with resistance to slashing and piercing damage. Or something like that. My group is low magic, only having a warlock; focusing on melee combat, and a druid focusing on wildshape


Also was planning on given small rewards for each completed trial, some being better than others.