Bleak House ***(SPOILERS!)***

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thekristhomas
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Re: Bleak House

Post by thekristhomas »

Joël of the FoS wrote:Interesting version, with the remains of a battle found.

You make me think, I'll probably add a Chilling Tales scenario before BH. Possibly the Bollenbach one.

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A big part of running BH this time was that I wanted the PCs to be really invested in the adventure through their relationship with van richten. My experience has taught me that you need to be careful with how you portray van richten in the chilling tales adventures, as written he can come off as near incompetent in some of the scenarios and given his much reduced ability in BH, I feel that the players need to feel like a hero has been broken, rather than a well meaning if somewhat gullible old man has finally had his chickens come home to roost.
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

They know VR has retired and old. So his mental is sharp, physical side is not.

---

One thing to consider is the sleep effect at night. After one night, my PCs will probably take the "we awake those that falls asleep as soon as they fall asleep" mode.

How to counter that? Can we say the magical sleep turns people into deep deep sleep, and they are unable to be awoken only after a few minutes?

They will (DC Will 22) sleep until awaken by orderlies, if they miss the save (or are not awoken by other who succeeded the save). It's important for those learning spells at dawn :)

---

Day of arrival, diner at night with Heinfroth. Night - sleep, and they awake the next day in a padded cell.

How to do that transition? It's not well explained in the adventure books (f the Pcs are not prisonners, what do they do on day two?).

I thought of having Heinfroth awaking them in their cell, the next day, and explaining a few things. He will be accompanied by a dozen orderly, in a show of force. Such as :

During speech by H. If PC do not cooperate or if things go badly for H, one of the orderly in waiting shuts the door. It will be locked and sleep effect starts. PCs awake later, his time in smaller group, easier to control (i.e. not all of them in one cell).

Heinfroth: Dear patients. I hope you slept well? We received a letter telling us of your arrival. This letter informed me that your mental health needed to be restored, that you have little problem in your equilibrium. How unfortunate. But you are lucky to be in this asylum, we will treat you well. It is one of the most advanced: we will heal your wounds to your psyche. And when we will release you, in a few days hopefully, one week maximum, you'll be feeling good and you will be able to return to society.

This is for your own good, and I cannot help but strongly suggest that you cooperate with us. If you don't, we have strong containment rooms, where you will be isolated for a very long time.

We also suspect that some of you can cast magical spells. The use of magic by patients is strictly forbidden and will be strongly reprimanded.

We believe that working greatly helps the therapy, and it will help you heal quicker. It is not very difficult tasks that are required, do not worry, the goal is not to kill you with hard work. You will also have periods of pause and play outside.

You will meet face to face the doctors once in a while during your stay, to monitor your progress. Remember, it's for your good.

2a, 2b and 2c*, come with him (shows one orderly), your task today is tending the rose garden.

2d, 2e and 2f, come with him (shows one orderly), your task today is cutting the grass outside the walls.


* their new "name", painted on masks

Day 1 starts!

PCs will probably asks questions (who wrote the letter? We are not sick! Let us out, what is our mental sickness?) but they will be ignored.

Other ideas to do that transition?
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Zilfer »

Wow that's dehumanizing. (The being referred to by numbers/Letters). If I recall correctly you actually getting masks for this? Sounds like it will be fun. :)
There's always something to lose.

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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Zilfer wrote:Wow that's dehumanizing. (The being referred to by numbers/Letters). If I recall correctly you actually getting masks for this? Sounds like it will be fun. :)
That adventure is a make or break, that's for sure.

The mental torture part will last as long as the players have fun. If I see them disembark, I'll move to the escape plan.

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Re: Bleak House

Post by The Lesser Evil »

I cribbed some stuff from this adventure for an asylum adventure that had a similar setup but the caretakers were LG instead of CE (though in a twisted way, and I gutted and replaced most of the torture with things reflecting what a weirdo take on LG might do.) Anyway, one thing I was giving them just enough XP per day of survival for the players have a little dissonance on when they wanted to organize a break out. Depending on how you run things, mixing some less overt torture and maybe even some neutral/slightly beneficial experiences might make things a little bit more unpredictable (and perhaps throw them more off-balance). The good doctor could be doing this as part of a greater strategy to drive them mad or to study what rapid shifts of good/bad/neutral stimuli might do. Or maybe it's just because he doesn't really have it all quite together- he's Chaotic Evil, after all.
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

I replaced treatment room 7 (personality transposition, which I do not like*), with a lobotomy room.

Same room description as 47 (but only one seat), PC is strapped to it, a machine drops from the ceiling with a syringe, it gets in the head through the eye orbit, and search ...

Effect: from the Lobotomize spell (dragon 339). Heinfroth will try to remove spell from casters, one spell level at a time!

(* Still, I will use this room 47 as written once, with a PC and a drooling mad crazy person, making clear the machine makes mind transposition! It's just a scare as the PC will make his Will save :twisted: )

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Re: Bleak House

Post by Zilfer »

That gives me the Jeebies.... (And I never use that word)
There's always something to lose.

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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Zilfer wrote:That gives me the Jeebies.... (And I never use that word)
I know, the more you think of it, the more this adventure is creepy.

I'm really looking forward to it :)
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

I also took a few vintage pictures of asylum, adding to them the famous Dominia asylum mask.

I will use them in my game (I have a bank of pictures and mp3 I search through before my games)

(I know my image modification skills are low ;) but it works ...)

And of a certain NPC met there :)

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Re: Bleak House

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Sorry Joel... I can't look at that lobotomy pic.... :ankhtepot: I spoiler-boxed it. Hope you don't mind...
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Sorry Joel... I can't look at that lobotomy pic.... :ankhtepot: I spoiler-boxed it. Hope you don't mind...
No, au contraire, that's great :twisted:
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Re: Bleak House

Post by Joël of the FoS »

More thoughts. Other than the events planned in the adventure, what could be the interesting events to happen while in Dominia?

This is my list of the day to day things that could happen. Let me know if you think of something else!

Daily patient scedule :

- they exit the cells around 8 am. They will sleep until awaken at 8 by orderlies, if they miss the save (DC Will 22, or are not awoken by other who succeeded the save). It's important for those learning spells at dawn :)

- Work (see below). The PCs are divided in 2-3 groups, different each day.

- Noon - one hour pause. Soup or stew served outside. The module says nothing about feeding the patients, I thought it is a good idea to feed them outside? And there is no room inside for this task anyway. Wooden spoon only.

- back to work at 1, until 4

- period of games outside (most patients (3/4) do not play, they rest or talk). ex. jump rope, balls, badminton, darts, cricket

- 6pm - food again served outside

- 7pm back to their cells. 1-2 h after, sleep effect. Fun starts :evil:


Each day, they have to "work to do their part". Here's a list of possible tasks :

1 rose and plant garden
2 cutting the grass around the walls
3 tending the dirt road
4 vegetable garden
5 herborist garden
6 cooking
7 cut trees for the wood
8 scraping barnacles on the Mercy
9 carry gargabe (incl bodies sometimes) to the dump in area 3 on island map *
10 sweep the floor
11 wash the walls or windows
12 wash the floors.

Possible random daily events :

- many patient interactions. I made a rooster of 26 patients, with their own personality and craziness, with a long list of possible creepy or crazy sayings. USS article on asylum was a great source of info.

- While they are doing their task of the day, a Dr come and watch them for an hour, taking notes and talking with the orderlies that watches them (obviously talking about the heroes).

- they feel watched (the crystal balls in area 27), DC 16 to spot the eye

- those carrying garbages to the dump notice a dead body (one of the wrecked sailor, drained by the cerebral vampires*), and a draft copy of a letter from Heinfroth to "Dear R"(Radanovich, see adventure props)

* those sailors will be food for the vamps, not patients.

- they see a woman escape during the day, but quickly orderlies are after her. They hear wolves in the woods. After some times, the orderlies bring her back (she has been bitten by wolves). She is subjected to cold water therapy outside, in front of everybody.

- exchanged rumors during game time (ex. They are going to change who is in which cell tonight (false))

- one man gives a mesage to the heroes and whispers "the rebellion is organizing, we will get out! This is the plan!" but the message is only gibberish ... see image.

- if not identified as a vampire, Colin speaks to the PCs and ask them to escape

- if not identified as a vampire, Dr Rehner speaks to the PCs (I want to leave this place, I found they are monsters. Is there anyway I could help you escape? Bring me with you!)

- A Dr is a doppelganger, who talkes the shape of a PC to ask another PC of their escape plan

- one night - added danger: visit at the asylum by Natalia Vorishkova (who is a friend of Heinfroth. She is looking for potential serial killers (see Rucht's author notes on VRGttMists). The irony is that she doesn't recognize VR or the PCs because of the mask... She leaves the next day.

- message by VR, as per adventure, escape starts.

Night:

- sleep effect 1-2 hours after being locked (so VR's message works, otherwise they are all asleep!)

- cells and PCs are searched, all found objects confiscated

- treatment rooms (changing for each PC, following their background and history)

- Heinfroth does "implant spell" on one PC each night (with a trigger like "if they escape, suggestion of scream "we escape! we escape!", or "if they escape, sleep!")


Heinfroth - his image in BH is a bit lousy, IMHO. Any suggestion as to which actor/caracter could represent Heinfroth well?

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Re: Bleak House

Post by thekristhomas »

Joël of the FoS wrote:Heinfroth - his image in BH is a bit lousy, IMHO. Any suggestion as to which actor/caracter could represent Heinfroth well?
Based on the original picture of him from FoG, I've always pictured him somewhere between Micha Bergese (Company of Wolves) and Peter Capaldi (Dr Who).

I can't remember if it's made clear in BH but in FoG it makes a point of saying that he looks like a stereotypical werewolf in human form (heavy monobrow, hairy hands, long fingers) which he plays up
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Re: Bleak House ***(SPOILERS!)***

Post by Solan »

I've always wanted to run this module, especially the first part! I've actually watched "The Prisoner" television series (the original, not the terrible remake) and the Asylum is indeed wonderfully reminiscient of the Village. Have you started the adventure yet?

A few thoughts: Have you considered that for the PC's to realistically escape, they'll have to do so while Doctor Heinforth is "resting" or they'll have to drop him to zero hit points before they go? Otherwise he'll simply seal the borders and they'll never get away.

It mentions in the module that unknown methods of spying do nothing to intimidate and frighten the patients, so Dr. Heinforth deliberately allows a few of his methods to be known. I would strongly advise that one of those known methods be that there are orderlies hidden among the ranks of the patients (the sample dialogue from Van Richten makes it pretty clear that he at least knows of this method).

I thought of one possibility the PC's might use to get around the "sleep fields"; have them drink a lot of water at dinner. That probably won't be noticed, and they can rely on their full bladders to awaken them in the middle of the night.
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