Help me plan my one shot

[beejazz]

Hi guys. Sorry I been out for so long. Turns out the phone jacks in my old appartment were just for show. I'll be online regularly again soon. But I digress.

After a lull in my gaming life, I'm running a one-shot for some old friends from back home (we're all home for the holidays and such) and I could use some help. I've got some ideas, but I've run dry short of coming up with some crucial details. Here's what I've got so far...

Setting: The setting is a port city in the far north. There are ore-rich mountains to the east. These ship downstream to the city, where traders come to buy the ore and ship it around the world in exchange for other goods (not terribly important what this city imports).

There are four major sorts of power groups, each with a couple of factions. There are nobles, wealthy landowners who run farming (mostly these are minor nobles) and mining (these are the wealthier major nobles). There are merchant guilds (this is fairly self explanatory). There is organized crime (here I want to depart from the typical thieve's guild in favor of a more authentic mafia feel). And lastly (and least importantly) there is a central government, headed by a child and his regent, who doesn't have the clout to oppose the advisory council (comprised of nobles and merchant guild representatives)

Life is what you would expect it to be in such a city. It is a trading city so there are shrines to many gods, but few are truly devout. Law enforcement is almost nonexistent, but if you piss off the wrong people you can expect retaliation. The nobles have their knight vassals, the guilds have their mercenaries, and the criminal underworld has its protection rackets. Monstrous humanoids are actually common here as denizens of the city, rather than always being raiders on the fringe. With the exception of gnolls and a few others.

The Adventure: The game's going to run all night, so I've got enough time to properly set things up and really take this thing off the rails (uncommon for one shots IME). Still, a few things I'm fairly certain about.

1)PCs come to town on a ship delivering goods to the city (easy intro, starting mission).
2)Rest of the ship (maybe the PCs too) will mutiny when they feel they've been shafted out of their proper cut.
3)Captain entrusts party with the one really crucial delivery (if the PCs look in the box, it's a severed human head).
4)Some bad stuff happens.
...a)may include party getting marooned on an island. they'll be trapped and isolated, and i figure something bad and scary will be on the island with them
...b)may include attempts to steal the package once the party gets to the city. they may have to protect it until such time as they deliver it, or retrieve it once it's been delivered.
5)If they deliver the package, the person they deliver it to will speak with dead, find out something, and send them on the next bit.
6)Party must sail upriver to the mines, beset on all sides by gnolls and such.
7)Once there, must descend abandoned and occasionally waterlogged dungeon to fight some terrible thing.

Help Wanted with a few things.
1)What's on the island?
2)How do the PCs get off the island? It's up to them, but I'd like to have a few solutions in mind.
3)Who are the people in the city that want the head? How can I tie them in?
4)Who else is in the city? How can they be tied in?
5)What does the head know that'll send the PCs on this next mission to the mines?
6)What's in the mines?

I need to answer these questions before the 19th and I'm just stumped. Please help!

[Llum]

Help Wanted with a few things.
1)What's on the island?
2)How do the PCs get off the island? It's up to them, but I'd like to have a few solutions in mind.
3)Who are the people in the city that want the head? How can I tie them in?
4)Who else is in the city? How can they be tied in?
5)What does the head know that'll send the PCs on this next mission to the mines?
6)What's in the mines?

It looks like you use D&D as a gaming system and want the answers to reflect that, not sure if its 3.x or 4e but it looks like you want a D&Dish setting.

1) Pseudo-natural Frost Cyclops thing.

2) Steal a built boat, build a boat, get rescued by boat/airship/giant animal, teleport circle can be used to teleport to the city.

3) Mafia maybe? He was a turncoat agent and with Speak with Dead they can learn insider information? Same deal goes with merchants guild. Could be someone who has some dirt on a Noble. Maybe information that could help the regent regain some power. Secret Cultist Information. Vampire hunter come to warn about ancient vampire threat. Someone come to warn about X.

4) Cults can show up. Could worship any Demon/God/Powerful Undead. Could be a cult that worships Yuan-ti (or generic reptilian people) that live in a secret tropical valley. They could worship something uncovered in the mines like a secret lost temple filled with X (ancient vampires, old gods, anything really). Pirates can be a faction. Someone who wants the monstrous humanoids to revolt and take over the city and mines.

5) Anything about a Cult, or how one of the factions ties into that. The Head has info about a secret golden (literally made out of gold) city buried in the mountains, Pirates want the knowledge.

6) X (ancient vampires, old gods, entrance to secret tropical yuan-ti valley, lobster men, powerful undead, evil dragon golems). Anything really, just pick one and mix and match ideas from above to fit it all together.

[Seraph]

My difficulty is understanding the geography of the region.  Does the whole thing take place on the island?  Because I got the idea that the city was on the Mainland (perhaps because the ore was shipped downstream). That doesn't mean that there couldn't be streams on an island, it just gave the impression of Mainland.  Anyway, knowing what the island was in relation to the City would help to advise what might be on it, what the climate of it would be, and similarly to advise about the mines, as knowing whether they were on an island or on the mainland might affect what was in them.  I see you provide the possibility of the PCs being marooned on an island, which seems to enforce the idea that the city is on the mainland.  However, how would they get marooned there then?  Would a boat that transports ore downstream be able to traverse the ocean to get to a suitable island on which to maroon them?  Or are we just going to take liberties and/or suspend disbelief on that one?

[beejazz]

You are correct. The PCs are marooned on an island while the city (rivers, mountains, mines, etc.) is on the mainland.

The party arrives (or is marooned) by way of an ocean faring boat pulling into port to sell wares and load up on ore. As for river-boats, they aren't single use items... they need to be able to move both upstream and down (these are typically lighter before being loaded, so it doesn't seem terribly infeasible to me).

As for how far away the island is, I'm not terribly sure. It isn't nailed down yet.

Re: Llium, I kind of like the idea of working cultists in there somehow, since I also very much like the idea of some terrible supernatural threat.

And there was one question I forgot to ask... I've never run something like a mutiny before... I could use a little advice there too..

[Llum]

Well to tie the Cultists and supernatural threat and the island together, the pseudo-natural Frost Cyclops could be the spawn/tainted by the supernatural threat.

The way a mutiny will work is the crew will secretly try and gather as many weapons as they can (if possible) then confront the Captain, usually as a mob. Here the Captain can try and sway them, give up and be marooned (with the PCs) or try and fight the mutineers with some loyal crew members.

A possibility is the crew think the PCs or the semi-secret Head cargo bring bad luck to the ship, so they mutiny and captain and the PCs on the Island.

However the captain was cursed to never set foot on land until he delivers the head, so he dies (maybe spectacularly) while entrusting the head to the PCs.

[Steerpike]

1)A small to mid-sized quasi-ruinous wizard's tower/laboratory.  An experiment/summoned creature got loose and overpowered their master some time ago (his corpse might be found in the tower).  The creature could be anything, though I get the feeling you want something a bit bizarre '" an elemental, a demon, a slaad, some sort of fiendish undead, an owlbear, a beserk golem, a vampiric dryad, an ethereal marauder, a shambling mound, an immature purple worm that is rapidly growing, a spider eater (could lay its eggs in the wizard's skull if he's of a large-sized race), xill (can lay its eggs even if medium-sized), an unusual breed of lycanthrope...  Maybe it's a belker and the whole island's a twisted, overgrown version of The Tempest.

2)The wizard fortunately has transportation.  A clockwork gyrocopter if appropriate to the tech level, or a hot air balloon; otherwise a portal (could lead to somewhere unusual, albeit on the mainland) or a ship.  Or a tame/charmed flying beast kept in a cage near the top of the tower.

3)The person who wants the head is a nobleman-collector who lives in an elaborate manse within the city.  The noble is looking for a magic item which he has tracked to the possession of an adventurer who was killed during an attempt to destroy the creature that lurks in the mines (though the noble doesn't know this yet).   The item might be: an original spell scribed in a spellbook, a powerful and unique staff or rod, a possessed helm or sword, a box containing a powerful entity...

4)Either foolish thieves who believe the head itself to have value, cultists who mistake the head for an occult artefact (or perhaps they're right and the head is an occult artefact) or who also want to find the item; perhaps the item is a very powerful weapon and the noble is going to use it to consolidate power against someone, so factions such as the mafia, guilds, or monstrous rebels as Llum suggested want the weapon (or perhaps the noble is himself a monstrous humanoid or sympathizes with their cause).  Mercenaries hired by a faction looking to find the item for themselves will interfere.

5)The head belongs to one of the adventurer's former companions who managed to escape the mines, though he/she later lost their life.  However the head can tell the noble the location of the adventurer's body and thus the coveted item (the mines).

6)A creature who has always lived underground '" the mines intruded on its lair.  An aboleth (with henchmen), a drider (cobweb shrouded tunnels are fun), a tribe of troglodytes, duegar, or grimlocks (in which case the shaman or chieftain will possess the item) who perhaps war with the gnolls, or a pack of chuuls.

[beejazz]

This has been greatly helpful, and a good reminder of why I love the CBG.

An aboleth eh? Sounds perfect. Too big and bad probably for my 5th level pathfinder party to beat, but if they're not so much trying to beat it as steal an item, it could work...

[Seraph]

Ok, so the PCs are not in charge of bringing the ore to the City, but are the ones who EXPORT the ore FROM the city.  Ok, that makes more sense now.

I sort of like Llum's suggestion of the crew thinking the head brings bad luck.  If this is the case, however, give them a good reason to think so: like a sudden attack by a monster of some kind just after leaving port with it.  Or something.  

Perhaps as the ship is setting sail, the crew is suspicious of the mysterious cargo the captain has brought aboard but will tell no one about.  A strange attack which would seem to have no other explanation convinces the crew that the mysterious cargo is the cause.  One of the crew members demands to see the cargo, if the PCs don't do so first.  When the captain refuses, there is a mutiny (the PCs can be on either side).  The crew members open the box and find the head.  Whether the head is one of the PC's old companions or not, it is somehow connected to them, and crew decides that the curse of the head is on the PCs, and so they maroon the PCs on the island.  

So, for your numbered questions, I'm actually going to answer them out of order.  Hopefully you will see why.

2.) How do the PCs get off the island?  They find a ship that had ran aground.  While currently in a state of disrepair, possibly wrecked to a certain extent, the remains of the ship are in surprisingly good condition, and with some work can be made seaworthy.
 
1.) What is on the island?  The wrecked ship's crew--but not.  Something happened to them.  They may have been killed and are now undead of some kind, or they may have been warped and twisted by some fell magics.  In any case, I think their curse should be somehow tied to the quest of the PCs.  

5.) What does the head know? Perhaps the head is actually the head of one of the crew of the wrecked ship.  Perhaps they suffered a disease--or a parasite of some kind.  The man had been infected, and had his head cut off to avoid losing his mind to it.  Perhaps the disease/parasite was from something in the caves.  Perhaps the captain of the PCs ship had been the one to decapitate his friend, and escaped with his head before being infected.  Perhaps the head knew a secret about what was in the cave--something the captain didn't.  That's why his mind had to be kept intact.  

3.) Who in the city wants the head?  An associate of the captain's who can unravel the mysteries of the head.  There is some secret in the caves worth having, but there is something else in there that is dangerous.  The head has some secret that will provide the key to defeating the monster, and allow the access to the thing worth having and perhaps the breaking of the curse.

4.) Who else is in the city?  Perhaps there are others who want to unlock the secret of the head.  Perhaps they want whatever is in the mines/caves for their own benefit.  Perhaps they are actually cultists who worship whatever the thing in the mines is.  Perhaps they don't want the secret revealed and are protecting their monster.  Maybe they think that the cursed state of the wrecked seamen is actually some form of transcendent state and they wish to spread the disease.

6.) What's in the mines?  As mentioned above, a monster that somehow caused the other crew to suffer some disease, and whose secret is revealed by the head.  It is probably something icky and slimy and disease-spreading (or something that lays an egg or a parasite in you, or something like that) and may or may not be worshipped by cultists in the City.

[Steerpike]

On the subject of the aboleth (which is very icky and can create Skum, which is kinda like a disease/parasite thing), it could remain largely off-screen, while its Skum minions are the actual baddies/goons to be overcome or snuck past.

By the way glad to see you back on the boards, beejazz; you've been absent pretty much the whole time I've been registered at the guild but I've seen some of your older posts and worlds in older threads and archives - I particularly liked the look of Diis Manibus.

[beejazz]

That's mostly what I was thinking. But this is a one shot and that is the endgame, so a TPK could be entertaining in its own way...

And thanks. And a much belated welcome. And... woah.. Diis Manibus... there's a blast from the past. I might actually dust that one off at some point now that you mention it.