Re: Campfire tales: tell us about YOUR old adventures!
Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:18 pm
One of my more recent successes, I had an evil artifact created for good purposes (removing evil from the world, one person at a time). It was a mirror with several cracks in it that mended itself as it drained the evil from the person (effectively making them Innocents). However, the more evil the person the more that was drained (in the form of xps) in a painful way. The fact that the players were TERRIFIED at the xp loss, they protected it from others not realizing that the loss was a one time thing. The catch? The mirror held a unique lower planar creature (all evil, all goes in). The group was tasked with bringing the mirror to a monastery near northern Barovia to finish the mission of a cleric who died trying to bring it in years earlier. They did and found the complex raided by Kargat agents who captured the players and tied them up in a very Raiders of the Lost Ark style. They unveiled the mirror and all of the baddies fell down in severe pain which also filled in the cracks of the mirror releasing the held fiend.
The next several minutes (players still not looking on, scary mirror magic!) are filled with screams, smoke, and heat as the fiend rips through them all. He marks the players on their jaws (burned claw prints) and departs. The one player that looks is a priest of the Morninglord who fails his horror check and gets obsession! He now believes that the Morninglord has come back in a fiery form to cleanse the world of his enemies. The other pcs have no idea, but get their things together and move out. Several adventures later, they are sent to Borca to locate the source of Gundarakian rebel suppliers. One of the first nobles they meet, takes them in and is very welcoming to them. He "hires" the pcs to help them out of some local trouble with the militia and takes them in, food and board in his massive manor (with the French title, the Manor of Harsh Nightmares). This noble is really the fiend (polymorphed) and actually grateful to the group as he sees the group as allies who helped free him.
Several adventures go by and the group knows that this guy has something going on, but not sure what. He does odd things and they know he is an outsider to the Core. The best was when a pc slipped in invisible to see what is really going on only to have the noble turn a corner and see him immediately, but was not upset in the least. When the players and the noble were effectively a Borcan problem, Ivan’s forces stormed the manor. The Dark Angel (as his name roughly translated to) assumed his true form and unleashed fiery storms (the Borcans killed his girlfriend). They would all eventually flee, but the group had no idea they unleashed this creature and that it would spur all of the above events and more. The overall arc was 100% all me and I was happy to see the group enjoy it so much.
The next several minutes (players still not looking on, scary mirror magic!) are filled with screams, smoke, and heat as the fiend rips through them all. He marks the players on their jaws (burned claw prints) and departs. The one player that looks is a priest of the Morninglord who fails his horror check and gets obsession! He now believes that the Morninglord has come back in a fiery form to cleanse the world of his enemies. The other pcs have no idea, but get their things together and move out. Several adventures later, they are sent to Borca to locate the source of Gundarakian rebel suppliers. One of the first nobles they meet, takes them in and is very welcoming to them. He "hires" the pcs to help them out of some local trouble with the militia and takes them in, food and board in his massive manor (with the French title, the Manor of Harsh Nightmares). This noble is really the fiend (polymorphed) and actually grateful to the group as he sees the group as allies who helped free him.
Several adventures go by and the group knows that this guy has something going on, but not sure what. He does odd things and they know he is an outsider to the Core. The best was when a pc slipped in invisible to see what is really going on only to have the noble turn a corner and see him immediately, but was not upset in the least. When the players and the noble were effectively a Borcan problem, Ivan’s forces stormed the manor. The Dark Angel (as his name roughly translated to) assumed his true form and unleashed fiery storms (the Borcans killed his girlfriend). They would all eventually flee, but the group had no idea they unleashed this creature and that it would spur all of the above events and more. The overall arc was 100% all me and I was happy to see the group enjoy it so much.