Borca adventures plan

[DustBunny]

For clarification in the future, what sort of adventure style do you PC's prefer?
Granted Ravenloft has its own theme, but how do the PC's like to act out in that theme?

1 ) Navigating the cloak and daggers of high society? (Count of Monte Cristo)
2 ) Finding and bashing evil with righteous wrath? (Butt kicking for goodness!)
3 ) High adventure mixing the above two? (Three Musketeers and Cardinal Richelieu)
4 ) Wandering the world fixing problems and leaving again? (eg: Eastwood - Man with no name)
5 ) Unravelling conspiracies and secret societies? (X-files)
6 ) Bouncing around with a stand alone 'adventure of the week'? (The old Weekend in Hell)
7 ) Just trying to make a living but constantly getting caught up in trouble? (Dresden files)
8 ) Gothic Horror and Romance (House of Usher)

From my rambles it is obvious I am partial to 1,5 and 8
What do your victim ..errr.. PC's like most?

[Joël of the FoS]

I really should stop torturing innocent electrons for my long rambles....

No, please keep these ideas coming, you, Lesser Evil and the others. I like to see other points of view, it enrich the scenario.

For clarification in the future, what sort of adventure style do you PC's prefer?
Granted Ravenloft has its own theme, but how do the PC's like to act out in that theme?

1 ) Navigating the cloak and daggers of high society? (Count of Monte Cristo)
2 ) Finding and bashing evil with righteous wrath? (Butt kicking for goodness!)
3 ) High adventure mixing the above two? (Three Musketeers and Cardinal Richelieu)
4 ) Wandering the world fixing problems and leaving again? (eg: Eastwood - Man with no name)
5 ) Unravelling conspiracies and secret societies? (X-files)
6 ) Bouncing around with a stand alone 'adventure of the week'? (The old Weekend in Hell)
7 ) Just trying to make a living but constantly getting caught up in trouble? (Dresden files)
8 ) Gothic Horror and Romance (House of Usher)

From my rambles it is obvious I am partial to 1,5 and 8
What do your victim ..errr.. PC's like most?

I like to change the adventure styles so it isn't repetitive. It keeps the players on their toes as I make sure the world around them is dangerous and could be deadly.

It's #3 I guess, so a mix of 1 and 2. In Borca, added : trying not to anger dangerous people while fixing things right. A few 8 added as Ivana will flirt.

[Joël of the FoS]

More questions / possibilities :

1) what about the old Ezra church, the one used b4 the Cathedral? Why did the church authorities keep the doors locked and forbid people to enter? What could be happening there, church related or not? The local Hala church asked to buy or lease it, why does the clergy refuse? (possible urban side trek?)

2) Nostalia is Wiz4, and Clotilda Taroyan Wiz 8. Any ideas as for spell orientation, or specific spells that would be cool for them to have?

[DustBunny]

1) what about the old Ezra church, the one used b4 the Cathedral? Why did the church authorities keep the doors locked and forbid people to enter? What could be happening there, church related or not? The local Hala church asked to buy or lease it, why does the clergy refuse? (possible urban side trek?)

1) Go DaVinci code - (despite the movie being awful), you could have some dangerous secret hidden in the iconography of the old place. The church leaders can't find it, but at the same time they want to control the secret so can't destroy it. They keep everyone out to prevent someone else possibility stumbing on the secret

2) The old church is used as a secret repository for ultra forbidden texts and heretical writings. The forbidden room in the cathedral is the 'obvious' repository, but the most dangerous texts are quietly moved to the old church and stored. Lots of guards and traps present inside.

3) Yakov didn't die. Instead he ended up in a catapletic state. He is kept in a glass case (like Lenin) and watched over for when he recovers. He is kept here secretly as it could cause major problems with Ivana. As her uncle he could have certain claims to power....

4) Stealing an idea from the movie The stone tape and its associated idea, the very walls of the old chapel have actual 'audio recordings' of the earliest days of the church. Under the right conditions, sermons, chants and homilies from Yakov and the first priests can be heard. They have used this place as a sort of 'living archive'. All new heads of church must give a sermon/homily here and if the stones record them, they are considered worthy of their role. Again carefully controlled access as some sermons may contain dangerous thoughts and you dont want rubbish 'recorded'. Your priest (Petrak?) may be asked to recite a sermon about the incident there to record his actions with G for posterity

5) Mudane - its just used as general storage. But locals may get a bit upset when their old church is turned into a combination warehouse/junk drawer. It's stuffed to the rafters with old pews, chipped statues, old prayer books, etc

2) Nostalia is Wiz4, and Clotilda Taroyan Wiz 8. Any ideas as for spell orientation, or specific spells that would be cool for them to have?

Working on the principle they are spies/fem-fatale types (only using the PHB spell lists for brevity), I would invest heavily in divination/enchanment with some others to pad out self defence etc.
Also limited to level 4 spells (Clotilda's casting level)

1st Level:
Unseen Servant - good for filching keys, letters, poisoning wine while caster distracts the victim. Can also be used for morning beautifying, styling and dressing
Comprehend Languages - A must if you want to read documents or listen in on conversation in other languages
Charm Person - Duh
Sleep - ensure people stay asleep while you search their belongings
Alter Self - a quick and dirty disguise
Expedious retreat - she who fights and runs away...

2nd Level:
Obscure Object - hide objects from location spells
Fog Cloud - good when combined with expeditious retreat
Detect Thoughs - a poor mans mind reading spell
Locate Object - find those hidden things
See Invisibility - Now who is spying on me
Invisibility - Duh again
Knock - Open that safe with ease
Whispering Wind - One way long distance communication

3rd Level:
Non Detection - blocks detection spells and scrying
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance - Sure in RL you see a ghostly eye/ear, but they can be conceal in the rafters, under a table, etc
Tongues - talk and understand those funny foreigners who plot against you
Suggestion - Very good for an Ermordenung assassin. "Why dont you kiss me?" Also useful why playing a 'idiot blonde' role "Tee hee, tell me about this plan. It sounds soooo clever"
Gaseous Form - For getting places you shouldn't

4th Level:
Minor Creation - "You create a nonmagical, object of nonliving, vegetable matter" Like plant based poison prehaps? Which disappears when the spell expires? Now how did they die?
Arcane eye - See clairaudience above
Greater Invis - As invisibility
Phantasamal Killer - I never laid hands on them officer. It looks like they had a heart attack
Polymorph - Enough said

[The Lesser Evil]

More questions / possibilities :

1) what about the old Ezra church, the one used b4 the Cathedral? Why did the church authorities keep the doors locked and forbid people to enter? What could be happening there, church related or not? The local Hala church asked to buy or lease it, why does the clergy refuse? (possible urban side trek?)

2) Nostalia is Wiz4, and Clotilda Taroyan Wiz 8. Any ideas as for spell orientation, or specific spells that would be cool for them to have?

What church are you speaking of? The House of Grace or Ste. Merre does Larnes? I’m unaware of any other older temples and I don’t think either of those are barred from the public.

[Joël of the FoS]

1) Go DaVinci code - (despite the movie being awful), you could have some dangerous secret hidden in the iconography of the old place. The church leaders can't find it, but at the same time they want to control the secret so can't destroy it. They keep everyone out to prevent someone else possibility stumbing on the secret

Yes, but what secret?

2) The old church is used as a secret repository for ultra forbidden texts and heretical writings. The forbidden room in the cathedral is the 'obvious' repository, but the most dangerous texts are quietly moved to the old church and stored. Lots of guards and traps present inside.

Been there in my campaign. And it doesn’t fit with what I want – the old church is abandonned, and access is forbidden. A kind of weird thing inside the city, with all windows boarded.

Something the locals would gossip about.

The idea is to create as many side treks as possible, for if the players do nothing but investigate the vanishings, they will run out of ideas until they know the G is the culprit. I want to delay that moment as long as possible, so I was vewing the old church as a possible red herring.

3) Yakov didn't die. Instead he ended up in a catapletic state. He is kept in a glass case (like Lenin) and watched over for when he recovers. He is kept here secretly as it could cause major problems with Ivana. As her uncle he could have certain claims to power....

Whoo I like that one. It’s creepy and would explain why the church forbid access and would’t sell the building to Hala.
That would be a secret the top anchorites do not want the public to know. Indeed that could be the ace in the sleeve the church has against the Boritsi.

So that glass case would be located in the crypt of that church. And the Yakov crypt in the Cathedrak is empty.
Good way to tell them the story of how Yakov was killed by Camille.

The players could eventually suspect Yakov to commit the murders.

4) Stealing an idea from the movie The stone tape and its associated idea, the very walls of the old chapel have actual 'audio recordings' of the earliest days of the church. Under the right conditions, sermons, chants and homilies from Yakov and the first priests can be heard. They have used this place as a sort of 'living archive'. All new heads of church must give a sermon/homily here and if the stones record them, they are considered worthy of their role. Again carefully controlled access as some sermons may contain dangerous thoughts and you dont want rubbish 'recorded'. Your priest (Petrak?) may be asked to recite a sermon about the incident there to record his actions with G for posterity

Great idea too. I’ll keep thinking about this one. That could also be a feature of the new Cathedral. It was known in the old church, but they moved the stones of the room into the Cathedral to keep this. Creepy and cool.

2) Nostalia is Wiz4, and Clotilda Taroyan Wiz 8. Any ideas as for spell orientation, or specific spells that would be cool for them to have?

Good spell orientation. I’ll use this.

If you think of any spells not from the PHB, I could add a few of these too.

The Borcans are not the geatest magic users, but they have the money to buy a few strange spells.

What church are you speaking of? The House of Grace or Ste. Merre does Larnes? I’m unaware of any other older temples and I don’t think either of those are barred from the public.

I have answered your questions above. My point is that before the Grand Cathedral in Levkarest, there was an Ezra church before, now useless since the Cathedral opened. How could that place be turned into a cool red hering?

[Joël of the FoS]

As a bonus she offers a vial of blood from none other than Natalia Vhorishkova - (I assume they are still after her - But how did she get it? Natalia took out a loan in Borca for some reason and left the blood vial, Ivana knowing the PC's interests in Natalia bought out the loan and got the vial). She even has purchased a locating spell which can use the blood to trace Natalia (blood ritual - hello power checks and more hooks. And if not Natalia herself, one of her servitor werewolves).

That is cool too for afterward. I have long term ideas for after the Borcan pyjama party to :

- make them rescue Laurie WFoxgrove from the fat grip of Blaustein's master

- help them save Tara Kolyana from the dark grip of Barovia's master (and a clash with the Red Vardo Traders)

- and indeed find and destroy Natalia Vorishkova at last. So that last idea is quite interesting. I could see it à la Bin Laden chase. Ivana : we have a vial of a close friend of NV, who took a loan at the Boritsi T Co... and that spell to find that person.

[The Lesser Evil]

About Yakov, what would the Church have done to keep him alive so long? (He would be incomprehensibly old by now). Did they make mummify him/make him one of the Ancient Dead? If so, perhaps the PCs could discover a secret cadre of anchorites responsible for mummifying Yakov. (I'm gettting this idea from one of the Ravenlot netbooks where a church official was secretly mummifying and advising the church from beyond the grave- I forget the specifics of it.)

Or if the glass coffin is a magic item, where did it come from? Who made it? Did the church have to make any secret deals to get it?

The PCs could stumble upon a secret cadre of anchorites responsible for preserving Yakov (whatever methods used) questioning/investigating whatever they did might have contributed to the murders/disappearances. Perhaps this cadre are fearful the attention the murders are receiving might reveal their secret. These anchorites sneaking about might make them seem like villains

[DustBunny]

Or if the glass coffin is a magic item, where did it come from? Who made it? Did the church have to make any secret deals to get it?

The vague ideas were a mix of the Lenin box, the 'Incorruptables' of the Catholic church and Guilliman from Warhammer 40k. Random train of thought follows...

I was thinking of the glass box is a sort of stasis box - anything put in it is in a state of suspended animation. He was put in this when he was dying of the poison until the local clergy could discover what had happened and find a cure. He is still 'alive' but if taken out of the box will drop dead in short order of poisoning. So he is kept there until a cure is developed.

A cure for a Darklord's poison could probably not be bought from the local Kwik-E-Mart, so it took time to find and develop. Still they worked on it and his status kept a close secret - they didn't want Camille finding out for obvious reasons. This was 50 years ago (698). However they managed to work out _most_ of the curing method after a few years and were getting prepared to cure him, open the box and have him denounce Camille.

However then disaster strikes - the only ones who know how to 'turn off' the stasis box were killed in 706 as collateral damage from the Widows Massacre. Thus they have a cure (perhaps), but they can't get him out of the box.

To add even more problems in 711 Ivana killed Camille, weakening any claim Yakov might have because she was not responsible for his poisoning. Still they try and research a way to turn off the box so they can do _something_. They are positive there are clues in the 'old church' (in the iconography) on how to deactivate the box and the small cadre manipulate things to keep the old church strictly off limits while they try and find the answer.

But things are being hampered - the small group is disagreeing on what to do. Some want to fufill the original purpose, others are worried what would happen if you woke up the church founder and he decided he didn't like what he saw, others are drifting more into mysticism saying that Yakov is a holy relic and waking him up would defy Ezra's purpose, etc.

As for where the box came from? Well if they knew that they would know how to turn it off. Maybe those nice PC's can find out for them....

Do note though - this is an 'imagination to keyboard while bypassing the brain' thinking so probably has more holes than Swiss cheese

The PCs could stumble upon a secret cadre of anchorites responsible for preserving Yakov (whatever methods used) questioning/investigating whatever they did might have contributed to the murders/disappearances. Perhaps this cadre are fearful the attention the murders are receiving might reveal their secret. These anchorites sneaking about might make them seem like villains

Absolutely Having shadowy figure scuttling around try to keep themselves secret from the PC's, Ivana, church superiors, etc while at odds with themselves are excellent red herrings.

[The Lesser Evil]

I was thinking of the glass box is a sort of stasis box - anything put in it is in a state of suspended animation. He was put in this when he was dying of the poison until the local clergy could discover what had happened and find a cure. He is still 'alive' but if taken out of the box will drop dead in short order of poisoning. So he is kept there until a cure is developed.

A cure for a Darklord's poison could probably not be bought from the local Kwik-E-Mart, so it took time to find and develop. Still they worked on it and his status kept a close secret - they didn't want Camille finding out for obvious reasons. This was 50 years ago (698). However they managed to work out _most_ of the curing method after a few years and were getting prepared to cure him, open the box and have him denounce Camille.

The biggest strain on credulity would be that coming up with a stasis box, a seemingly top shelf magic item, would be on tap whereas a cure would not, unless Yakov/the secret cadre of anchorites were planning some stunt with the stasis box from the beginning, and Camille's poisoning of the Dilisnyas provided the perfect opportunity to unleash their own machinations. Of course, what the nature of and the aims of such a plot might be would likely be very strange.

But things are being hampered - the small group is disagreeing on what to do. Some want to fufill the original purpose, others are worried what would happen if you woke up the church founder and he decided he didn't like what he saw, others are drifting more into mysticism saying that Yakov is a holy relic and waking him up would defy Ezra's purpose, etc.

I really like this, in that it creates numerous subfactions to ally with and incorporates history of the domain (kudos on the Widow's Massacre reference). I would just be careful to keep it from becoming too complex a red herring it overshadows the main game plot of the Gargoyle.

[DustBunny]

The biggest strain on credulity would be that coming up with a stasis box, a seemingly top shelf magic item, would be on tap whereas a cure would not, unless Yakov/the secret cadre of anchorites were planning some stunt with the stasis box from the beginning, and Camille's poisoning of the Dilisnyas provided the perfect opportunity to unleash their own machinations. Of course, what the nature of and the aims of such a plot might be would likely be very strange.

True - but I had a vague idea the box wasn't originally meant to freeze people - it was a vampire trap.

The idea being that you place the stasis coffin inside the vampires coffin when the vampire is away, and when used properly it become 'invisible' to the coffins owner. Then when the vampire hops inside to sleep, the stasis coffin activates and freezes him. Vampire hunters then take the stasis coffin outside into a bright day and turn off the stasis field (but dont open the box) . Being unbreakable glass they then sit back and wait untilt the vampire is 'well done', open it up sweep out the ashes and go and find another coffin. The reason for the stasis was to prevent mind control, gaseous form, spells, summoning minions, etc being used to escape during transport.

Some high priests knew of the box but were a bit vague on what exactly it was and how it was meant to be used. Thus they grabbed it because they knew it 'preserved/froze things' but didn't know the original purpose or other functions (like opening the box).

If the stasis box is a bit too much, you could do the same thing except instead of stasis it casts a constant 'gentle repose' effect - the poson killed him, so they are preserving his corpse. As to why they can't revive him - maybe they can't dispel the wizard lock keeping it shut (too high level and they lost the command word), they dont have a cure yet (resurrection will mean he drops dead of poison again), or they can't find a sympathetic priest with the necessary power (unlikely with a simple 'raise dead', a 'true resurrection' would be very rare). An out there idea is that his soul may be stuck inside the deathstone. They know its there but they cant work out how to get it for extraction.

I would just be careful to keep it from becoming too complex a red herring it overshadows the main game plot of the Gargoyle.

Very true - though they could 'go to ground' and disappear if they are becoming a nuisance to the main plot. Or they become victims of G/Ivana/living walls and thus their tale ends.

[Manofevil]

I would argue that if the DPs want the stasis coffin to do more than it's designed to, for their own reasons, then they would change the item to do what they want. Of course, that would probably come with nasty twist.

[Joël of the FoS]

All great ideas here, but the way I see it, I’d keep it more simple.

After the poisoning of everybody by Camille in 698, including Yakov, the grieving priests moved the body to the old church’s crypt to embalm him.

But to their surprise, they found Yakov’s body to be near dead, but not dead dead that kind of dead, without knowing why it happened or how. Detect poison on him positive, but whatever spells they tried to negate the poison or bring him to life failed. They know he breathe very slowly, like once an hour or so. His body’s metabolism is very slow and he ages very slowly, like a year for every decade passed.

They kept that secret from Camille in fear of her wrath. Then from Ivana, as it could change the balance of power in Borca if Yakov is back.

That lasted 50 years. The secret was kept by a few priests, a few ones only knowing the full extent of the situation. They hid him in a secret part of the old church’s crypt, and eventually built a glass case for him. It’s not a magical item unless perhaps blessing spells and lighting.

(meanwhile, the Praesidii being in the know, they all made sure Yakov was a grand central figure in the church history, well known, revered and loved by all as grand benefactor)

During the contruction of the Grand Cathedral, they moved the former Praesidius bodies from the old crypt (under the church before the Cathedral) to the new crypt under the new Grand Cathedral.

But each time they tried to moved Yakov, his usually quietsleeping face suddenly showed extreme discomfort. The short list cabal of priests in the know decided to keep him at the old crypt, until a solution or a new clue would be found.

The whys of it all remains unexplained for the moment, but that is in game a cool red herring and mystery.

I could see mysterious Severin as one of the priest in the know.

[DustBunny]

they found Yakov’s body to be near dead, but not dead dead that kind of dead, without knowing why it happened or how.

Better call 'Miracle Max' to help out ....

***
Miracle Max: It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.

Inigo Montoya: What's that?

Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
***

[The Lesser Evil]

The whys of it all remains unexplained for the moment, but that is in game a cool red herring and mystery.

Are there any ways of their own accord for the PCs to root out of their own the mystery as a red herring?

I could see mysterious Severin as one of the priest in the know.

This could have interesting implications if he blabs it to Ivana at some point.