Café de Nuit

This is just a place where folks can throw in (short) hooks and ideas... or is it?

A couple years in and I decided to get a little ambitious and challenged myself and all contributors to offer a hook for every (canon) domain and every MC appendix (yes, including BOTH Spacejammer MC).

I encourage you to peruse the thread for non-domain specific hooks or ideas but we all know a lot of you are curious about lesser known places like Nosos and L'Île de la Tempête.

So, here's a list of domains with the page featuring a hook (or more!).

Avonleigh p.16
Barovia p.14
Blaustein p.13
Bluetspur
Borca p.2;3;5;7;11;15
Carnival
Castle Island p.16
Darkon p.2;5;6;14;16
Davion p.15
Dementlieu p2;3;6;7;14
Dominia p.1
Falkovnia p.3;4;5;6;10-11;14
Forlorn p.5;6;11;14
Ghastria p.15
G'Henna p.6
Har'Akir p.3;10
Hazlan p.12
House of Lament p.14
I'Cath p.15-16
Invidia p.7-8
Isle of Demise p.15
Isle of the Ravens p.16
Kalidnay p.1;11
Kartakass p.11
Keening p.9
Lamordia p.12;14
Leederik's Tower p.14
Liffe (Claveria) p.13
L'ile de la Tempete p.14
Markovia p.12
Mordent p.12
Necropolis p.14
Nidala p.7
Nightmare Lands p.3;15
Nocturnal Sea (Nebligtode) p.16
Nosos p.1;12-14
Nova Vaasa p.6;13
Odiare p.14
Paridon p.1;4;13
Pharazia p.3;14
Richemulot p.2;9
Rokushima Taiyoo p.8;15
Sanguinia p.13-14
Saragoss p.15
Scaena p.13
Sea of Sorrows p.13
Sebua p.12;14
Shadow Rift p.16
Shadowborn Manor p.16
Sithicus p.12
Souragne p.1;3
Sri Raji p.10
Staunton Bluffs p.15
Tepest p.8;15
Timor p.13
Valachan p.14
Vechor p.13
Verbrek p.8
Vorostokov p.13
Wildlands p.12
Winding Road/Endless Road p.15

"The Doctor will see you now"

Daclaud Heinfroth received a poisoned gift in the form of a Vistani who was cast out of his tribe within the borders of the asylum domain.
Thus, as he becomes a Darkling he finds out that he cannot escape the asylum.

Heinfroth is now the victim of curious pranks which are growing deadlier by the day and it seems Patient #3759 is loose in the asylum. The "good doctor" needs help but it seems as if his own institution is turning against him!

The darkling is forever chained to the domain and figures he might as well sink this ship and its captain.

Who will the players side with?


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"Narcissus"

A nomadic bard's mirror image spell went awry causing every single reflection she casts to take a life of its own with all the memories of the bard's life save that of the creation of the living reflections.

One particular reflection has gained awareness of the clones and is seeking to absorb them back into her own self. Somehow this involves the consumption of the other mirror images' flesh.


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"In trash we trust"

Some misguided individuals on Nosos have joined a cult devoted to the overflowing refuse that threatens to overwhelm the city. Their leader is a planar Doomsguard who has become particularly grim after being stranded in Nosos.

They dance in the acidic rain even as their flesh reddens. They worship as beautiful the disfigurements aand illness caused by the rotten food they eat. They praise the all mighty Lady of Refuse, a particularly intelligent and ill-tempered golem born of their collective obsession.

Her body is made of trash but her form is never the same. She is born, violently, from a large trash heap whenever a ritual summons her. She hungers for decay and demands more refuse to sate her needs. As the trash around her grows, so does her power and she wishes nothing more than to see the entire island turned into a garbage heap.

That third one is hilarious.

No prize to the first person who guesses the reference for the third one.

Hint: I struggled and ultimately omitted any mention of singing on the part of the golem.

Zettaijin wrote:No prize to the first person who guesses the reference for the third one.

Hint: I struggled and ultimately omitted any mention of singing on the part of the golem.

It's not like a Captain Planet episode villain, is it? But the singing omission is already making me think Disney for some reason...

Fraggle Rock?


ETA: I quite like the 2nd one, BTW. perfect mix of D&D-what-if? and creepiness.

Better than thinking it's Conker's Bad Fur day...... <.<

No prize for Gonzoron!

A family affair

A small woman of the PC's acquaintance comes with a simple request: find her missing son.

A prominent lawyer in Paridon, he has made a few enemies in his time with more than one criminal swearing vengeance. The mother fears that this time one of the felons he sent to jail may have found a way to gain some measure of revenge.

That numerous individuals involved directly or indirectly with the lawyer seem less than concerned should lead the players to consider a city-wide conspiracy.

Furthermore, the lawyer's brother is conspicuously missing as well following a falling out between the two.

In truth, the lawyer is attempting to catch the infamous killer who stalks the streets of Paridon by disguising himself as a woman of the night. Little does the lawyer know of the real fear and horror he may experience if caught by the murderous doppleganger.

Nice, I had a prominent lawyer in Paridon in a previous campaign. It worked out well as he was a LE enchanter named Tim (Tim the Enchanter, Python reference anyone?). I joked that a lawyer with enchantment spells was like a shark with friggen laser beams on its head. Would this lawyer be good or neutral? Or is evil and opportunistic? I guess it is up to us to decide!

I'm just waiting for someone to umask this mysterious lawyer. He must be quite the master of disguise.

In the meantime, may I suggest following HuManBing's always enjoyable "Real life fear/horror/madness" thread in the Dark Beyond section of this board...

Zettaijin wrote:I'm just waiting for someone to umask this mysterious lawyer. He must be quite the master of disguise.

In the meantime, may I suggest following HuManBing's always enjoyable "Real life fear/horror/madness" thread in the Dark Beyond section of this board...

Started reading.... Cannot stop... Man across the room will not stop staring... And laughing...

Nothing there but a mirror....

These are awesome!

They indeed are ingenious. His missadventures are... well legendary for me .

Between me and a friend we now have a saying that Az was slightly morose.

The night Aunt Elie came back...

Necromancers can be an impatient bunch. For all their talk of death and eternal life, too many just seem to rush into situations for which they are wholly unprepared.

A young, brash necromancer felt a need to supplement her cadre of menial servants with a cheaper labour force through the use of her growing knowledge of the necromantic arts. Knowing that the mindless ones would be unable to act as more than mere pack mules in the best of cases, she pondered what every other necromancer has pondered at some point: how to create more "intelligent" servants of the undead sort who would remain completely and totally subservient.

Not being born with much patience, she failed to research the matter fully and brokered some rather suspect magics which would, in theory at least, grant her wishes.

Alas, things rarely go as planned when the Dark Powers are bored or inconvenienced.

Her incantations pulled the dead from their eternal sleep, yes, however they somehow regained their full memories from before their death without truly noticing or understanding that they are now very much part of the undead.

They thus return to their families and places of business as if nothing had happened, although somewhat confused about being so dirty.

Their families are quite upset but no one knows what to do with this plague of harmless but confused undead.

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"I'm a living sickness"

A man has defeated death. Having outsmarted a fiend and flaunting his superiority over the Powers that Be, he was punished with eternal life. No, not only eternal life, but a complete and utter defeat of death.

He is anti-death made flesh and his very presence causes tumerous growth in any living matter and prevents all decay all the while accelerating organic accumulations.

He wishes for death now, yet he defeats it at every opportunity.

Secluded in the deep swamps of Souragne, the zombie lord of the land Anton Misroi finally feels fear after decades of numbness.

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"I am Lord of the Worms"

Worms cover a player's body night after night, squirming all over and invading him/her. The worms appear out of nowhere and neither seers nor gypsies can help.

At times, as the worms crawl, a distant voice summons the player.

A dreamscape has enroached reality? Or is it reality that is enroaching on a dreamscape?

The Lord of the Worms commands the player to broker peace and eject reality from his dreamscape kingdom. However, it is a trick? Is the Lord of the Worms trying to penetrate the "real world"?

As time passes, worms begin to pour out the player's every orifice every so often as the Lord of the Worm reaffirms his power.

His demands involve unusual quests and favours which take the form of riddles and, at times, taking things at face value.

Altered states

Returning to their hometown in Kartakass, a player begins noticing that familiar faces are now behaving in sometimes odd ways. It's not just the odd way in which days and even a full week's worth of memories seem to disappear or "out of character" gestures but also the "more real than real"; it's the feeling that somehow these old friends and acquaintances are entirely too predictable as if characters in a play.

This gives way to suspicion on the part of the player's character that outside forces are at work.

Indeed, doppelgangers are infiltrating the town, but not quite in the way that the player might imagine.

This is a large, elaborate game in which the doppelgangers temporarily replace some inhabitants and then reintegrate the original into the town after having lived the later's life for anything from a few days to a week.

They observe and imitate as all doppelgangers do, however they purposefully "tweak" the mannerisms and choices of the object of their impersonation. Their choices may improve the lot of their "victim" or perhaps hinder it, they merely enjoy the game of "what if".

They record their findings in large tomes. Meticulously chronicling the lives of these individuals.

The problem is that an outsider has infiltrated their game, one who doesn't merely act out a villager's life for a spell but is clearly trying to create more chaos within the otherwise relatively quiet hamlet.

Who is this interloper among them? Unless one of their "troupe" has gone rogue...

nice. I'm reminded of one of my favorite Magic cards. (particularly the flavor text (in italics at the bottom), which is one of the all time best.)