This is where I plan on placing my own adventure ideas for Aertica and where you guys can post an plotline if you think it would fit in the general scheme of things
Vheirmacht Horror: Deep in the Vheirmacht (huge forrested area) a mysterious creature has begun attacking the logging camps. A week ago polers on the Vheir river found the carnage from the camp at Kolstaad among logs without a guide, logs that have since become a hazard in the river. The carnage was caused when a twisted dryad's tree was marked for felling. The creature, turned evil by the predations of a dark druid many years ago, has long sought vengeance for the tortures inflicted upon it. Now, detached from its tree it hunts the forest for humans to paint its dead tree with the blood of its victims. The corpses, so said the polers, seemed to twitch a little when they were found. One even "had some bite left in 'im, filthy bugger"
Last Prayer:The Pass has but one place of refuge, a monastery of ill repute with the outside clergy. The Pc's find themselves blocked from travelling any further because of inclement weather and seek shelter in the inviting walls of the monastery. The abbot, however, has forsaken his faith and begun butchering visitors to create an army of undead servitors to pander to his sick fantasies. The pc's encounter rotting harlots and jesters as they are lured into the heart of an ambush.
Wolves Calling: Evacuating a host of refugees, the pc's are attacked by two extremely intelligent and cooperative packs of wolves. These wolves start with the pack animals, grinding the refugee baggage train to a halt, then start picking off the children and younger women. Soon, as paranoia sets in, a group of young men go out to hunt down the wolves and are ambushed and killed by them. In one of the attacks, people are actually attacking each other to get to the middle of the group. The paranoia only grows when a werewolf calling himself Venghir taunts the refugees from within the safety of his 20+ strong pack. Refugees begin killing any that were bitten by wolves, killing those that try to stand up for them as well. As the chaos ensues, Venghir actually turns one of the soldiers guarding the refugees and causes the large group to split. Venghir follows the pc's, however, and offers to leave their group alone if one of them will willingly take on the curse of lycanthropy.
Black Tongue: The small village of Virshten Kaalt,administered by Viscount Dereneau Du-Saix has long accepted the worship of small pug Iron statues of the tongue, obscenely grotesque idols made to keep a legendary demon from terrorizing the village. The Cisine Order and the Praetorian Church, however, have renovated the slat wood chapel on promontory hill and are currently drawing a number of monks to aid the newly appointed Abbot in purging Virshten Kaalt and the surrounding hamlets of what has been deemed the "Black Tongue" heresy. This "heresy", however, was the only thing keeping the demon of Virschten Kaalt imprisoned and as Abbot Renard breaks more and more of the protective statuettes a number of murders and strange possessions begin to occur. If Renard and the Cisine monks aren't stopped, they will uncover the "Great Idol" sunk deep beneath the old chapel and, in breaking it, will unleash the bloodthirsty black-tongued demon of legend upon the townsfolk of Virschten Kaalt. As the possessions and murders increase, however, so too does the paranoia. The Abbott is thoroughly uncooperative, ordering the Sword Order guards to kill any who retain idols and manages to gain the support of Du-Saix's heir, Valereux Du-Saix, and his troop of motley veterans and disenfranchised retainers. While this small insurrection splits the town, the PC's are also faced with trying to get Dereneau and the villagers to work together to stop the misguided Renard and Valereaux while the demon gains a greater hold over the village, causing the PC's to be attacked by the deranged and possessed.
This is quite a late reply, but I just read these now, and they're really, really cool - deliciously dark. Any chance we could fine out how the adventures went, if you ran them??
Yes, we like them all. The first one would make such a good 'stand-alone' adventure.
I was working on ideas for a mini-campaign arc for my dark Japanese setting, Kaidan. Had a rough idea, then I read this post, and though I didn't borrow any elements at all, it inspired me to dreaming much more detail and dark flavor. I've got a good framework on a 3 module adventure based on the insiration above!
I too am interested in seeing how these adventures turned out, if you ran them, Furor.
Keep posting more of these "dark and delicious" (as Steerpike says!) storylines - awesome stuff.
GP
"Aertica "? Could you please link to the setting?
A small concern about plot 2
QuoteThe pc's encounter rotting harlots and jesters as they are lured into the heart of an ambush.
Venghir follows the pc's, however, and offers to leave their group alone if one of them will willingly take on the curse of lycanthropy.[/quote]
So these wolves are extremely more powerful than the PCs? The PCs had no chance to stop them before? And if the PC doesn't want lycanthropy, then can they defeat the werewolf? Otherwise, this risks a bit of railroading.
Best Luck!
~LD
These are pretty awesome. Would love to see the results if and when you get around to putting them to a game.
Also, on a mostly unrelated note, I find it odd that there are so many coincidental sounds in the names and terms of these plots... Vheirmacht, intelligent wolf packs, and your nick is Furor... :P
Update: New Plot: Black Tongue
Hey, sorry I was so long in replying. Thanks for the feedback, I've always run a very dark campaign style and back when it looked like I had the time to put together a campaign, these were all going to be sidequests in a long civil war and finally foreign invasion so they're all kind of set in the lawlessness of civil war and invasion.
@Light Dragon: The harlots/jesters are covered in so much clothing and makeup that the smell is their only real warning.
The bargain with Venghir is for both the PC's and the villagers. There is little chance that the PC's could protect all of the villagers at this point, and given the stress and assuming the pc's have been waking each other up to deal with the constant night attacks, they will be fatigued from lack of sleep and wounded by the many encounters and likely do not possess silver weaponry. the point is simply to morally challenge the PC's and see if they can kill Venghir without succumbing to his demands, or his wolf packs and on short supplies. If they organize the villagers they have left effectively, they should be able to discover that one of the surviving merchants has quite a cache of silver sewn into the inside of his jacket for safekeeping and with improvised weaponry kill Venghir.
Link to Aertica: http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php?title=Aertica
@Biohazard: Yeah, it kind of makes me look like a nazi, the setting is in a kind of "Holy Roman Empire" though, so its very germanic. The nick' was from how much chaos and fighting I used to cause on discussion boards, i've grown fond of it since, I just sincerely hope i'm never confused as "Der Fuhrer". Thats just bad news.
Thank you for the response Furor, I feel better about both plots now!
I like the moral decision with the werewolves- before that was not coming across in your discussion.
And ahhh... the setting is on the Wiki.
Quote from: Light DragonA small concern about plot 2
QuoteThe pc's encounter rotting harlots and jesters as they are lured into the heart of an ambush.
I*'d be more concerned about bodies that weren't rotting, personally. If they're rotting, they're not fresh, which means the threat has more than likely passed.