Planning for my campaign, Servants of Darkness sidequest

[Joël of the FoS]

So we will be resuming SoD tomorrow.

For the moment, the only thing planned is the adventure (modified) from start to « Bryonna is saved from the Inquisition ». I’ll do the Keening arc later, for two reason :
- I want to introduce a side quest
- I find odd that suddenly Wyan goes to Rima to say that Lorelei is kidnapped. I will put some time in between.

One PC’s background (Tora Vimus) is from Briggdarrow. But he has been stuck in Darkon for ten years because he forgot his past and believed he was from Darkon. There, he met the other PCs and eventually left Darkon, and got his memory back.

Now Ivana sends them to Tepest.

With Tora’s player, I expanded his background and made him a family. He hasn’t seen them in 20 years. The parents are probably old (+-65, Beric and Lydia) and Tora has a sister, Dominica (storyteller, would be 22 today) and three brothers: Owen (small, agile, loves the forest, 23 today, hunter / ranger), Kendrick (muscular, determined, skilled with his hands, blacksmith, 28), Luther (austere, strict, 30).

Tora has a great attachment to his family (but has not given / had news for 10 years because he was in Darkon without remembering his background - due to the memory change. So, for example, the last time he saw Owen, Owen was 13.

So first surprise, Luther has a high rank in the Inquisition. That will spice things up with the SoD adventure as well, as with the fact that their sister Dominica disappeared two years ago (second surprise, it’s planed the side quest).

---

Dominica Vimus (died at age 20) Occupation: Apprentice storyteller and archivist of folklore. Personality: Curious, passionate and independent. Dominica grew up with her parents’ stories and strives to preserve the oral history of Tepest. In Briggdarrow: Storyteller, bard. She was liked by most if not all.

Dominica’s death: Two years ago, Dominica was working on a project close to her heart: collecting little-known folktales related to faerie creatures and magic. Although these subjects were taboo in Tepest, she believed they were an integral part of the people’s history and identity. However, her interest in these tales attracted the attention of the Inquisition… They told her to stop if she didn’t want any trouble, but she continued in secret.
Events: Dominica was reportedly seen venturing alone into a secluded part of the forest, near the ruins of an ancient stone circle said to be haunted by faerie spirits. She sought to confirm a local legend for her research. That day, she did not return. A hunt was organized by the people of Briggdarrow, with Owen’s help.

Her body was found at the foot of an ancient tree, near an old circle of rocks believed to be haunted by feys. In a strange state: her skin was pale, her hair white, and she seemed to have been dead for several days despite her recent disappearance. Next to her, a notebook containing notes on fey creatures was found (now Wyan has it), as well as a strange symbol carved into the bark of the tree.

The Inquisition declared that Dominica had been punished for seeking contact with fey. According to them, Dominica was the victim of a fey she wanted to contact.

Luther, although devastated, publicly supported this conclusion, which created a rift with his family. They believe that everything related to fey is inherently corrupting, therefore studying the fey can only corrupt the would-be scholar.

---

Owen (23 years old). Owen disapproves of the Inquisition’s rigid and dogmatic methods and fears that Luther will one day make an irreversible decision. Following Dominica's death: Owen does not believe the official version of the Inquisition. He is convinced that Dominica was killed by a supernatural creature (the state of her body)?

Kendrick Vimus (28 years old) Blacksmith. Following Dominica’s death: Kendrick, pragmatic, seeks to keep the family together. He refuses to blame Luther but avoids discussing Dominica so as not to rekindle tensions.

Luther Vimus (30 years old) Inquisitor. Personality: Cold, rigorous, and convinced that his actions serve a greater good. Luther is devoted to the Tepest Inquisition, convinced that only unwavering faith can protect the domain from supernatural influences. Luther is an influential member of the local Inquisition, charged with ensuring orthodoxy and detecting any traces of witchcraft or corruption. His zeal is feared by the inhabitants. Following Dominica’s death: Luther is consumed by inner conflict. Although he follows the dogma of the Inquisition, he cannot forgive himself for allowing his sister to become involved in forbidden matters. He sees Dominica’s death as a divine warning and becomes even more austere, convinced that only strict faith can protect Tepest.

And the parents, Beric Vimus (68) and Lydia (65). Live in Brigdarrow. Having left his job as a woodcutter due to his age, Beric is also a father figure to the village youth, teaching them the lessons of the forest. Following Dominica’s death: Beric was deeply affected by the loss of his daughter. His attitude toward Luther is now distant, though he avoids confrontation. Lydia (65) Healer (Herbalist). Personality: Gentle, insightful, and stubborn in her own way. Lydia is a keeper of local traditions, with an exceptional memory for medicinal herbs and ancient tales. Although she has reduced her activities, Lydia is still consulted by the villagers for remedies or spiritual advice. She also knows the ritual songs that mark the seasons and celebrations. Although she has always avoided getting involved in faerie affairs, some whisper that she has a special connection to the forest and its secrets. She has lived the last ten years in fear of the eyes of the Inquisition. She remains haunted by Dominica's death.

Among other things they will leran during the adventure:
- Rumors: others believe that she was murdered by the Inquisition itself, eager to make an example?
- When the PCs go meet the Three Sisters, they will see the same strange glyph (the one on a tree near Dominica’s dead body) on a rock near the cottage of the Three Sisters.
- Lydia (Tora's mother) recounts a recurring dream in which Dominica told her, telling Dominica to “look the stone circle.”
- Kendrick confides in Tora that he suspects Luther or the Inquisition are involved, but lacks the evidence to openly accuse him.

---

They are arriving to Viktal. So they will save Bryonna, as it is urgent.

Then they will focus on Dominica’s death – what happened? (the sidequest).

Still on the planning board for this one! Suggestions welcomed.

I’d like to have the hags do what they know best – trick people to do something for a foul ritual. Perhaps the soul of Dominica is held by the hags in their cottage.

I do not think they can go on and attack the hags (and live) but they could defeat them or trick them.

[DustBunny]

So we will be resuming SoD tomorrow.

Damn, I've missed a bit it seems during my absence.
Ah well, time to catch up.

Tora has a great attachment to his family (but has not given / had news for 10 years because he was in Darkon without remembering his background - due to the memory change. So, for example, the last time he saw Owen, Owen was 13....

What does the family think what happened to him? Given it's Tepest they may think 'he was spirited away by the fae'. And if that's the case things could be a bit awkward when he strolls back into their life. Is it really him? Maybe it's a changeling pretending to be him? Will the inquisitor brother want to perform 'fae tests'? IIRC another one of your PC's has fey blood and probably wouldn't want to be near any tests in case they actually work!

When the PCs go meet the Three Sisters, they will see the same strange glyph (the one on a tree near Dominica’s dead body) on a rock near the cottage of the Three Sisters.

What sort of glyph is it? Fae? Goblin? Arcane? Does it actually contain any power, or is it more a calling sign?

- Lydia (Tora's mother) recounts a recurring dream in which Dominica told her, telling Dominica to “look the stone circle.”

Hmm, a bit too mundane IMHO. Maybe something more visual like a dream of Dominica surrounded by a ring of 13 dancers made of stone. The thirteen number could narrow it down to a specific circle, as fairy circles would not be too uncommon. And maybe even throw in the stone dancers singing a version of the nursery rhyme "Ring-a-ring o' roses" for the accompanying sounds.

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
Dominica was too nosey
Inquisitors! Inquisitors!
We all burn down!

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
The inquisition is closing
Ashes, Ashes!
We all burn now!
(Made up on the fly so don't laugh please)

Kendrick confides in Tora that he suspects Luther or the Inquisition are involved, but lacks the evidence to openly accuse him.

Are they involved in her death? Or is it their normal overzealousness being misinterpreted?

I’d like to have the hags do what they know best – trick people to do something for a foul ritual. Perhaps the soul of Dominica is held by the hags in their cottage.

Hmm, if they have the soul how did they get it? Were they the ones who stole it, or did they trade it with someone/something else?
Just trying to work out what sort of tricks they would pull, and tie that into the overall SoD plot.

Probably a bit late from me (apologies) as you said its on tomorrow, or today (arrgh, timezones), so maybe there'll be more 'wicked things to weave as the players you seek to deceive' with the after battle report

[Joël of the FoS]

Nice to hear from you.

So we will be resuming SoD tomorrow.

Damn, I've missed a bit it seems during my absence.
Ah well, time to catch up.

I have 5 sessions journals waiting to be put on the site, of which the start of SoD (played yesterday, covering the Viktal interactions), but I have a little bug logging to the FTP server, which I hope is temporary. I’ll let you know when it is online.

Probably a bit late from me (apologies) as you said its on tomorrow, or today (arrgh, timezones), so maybe there'll be more 'wicked things to weave as the players you seek to deceive' with the after battle report

You are not late at all, they have SoD to start with, then they will learn about Dominica’s death (probably next session), so I have a few months in real time before they start focus on the side quest (saving Bryonna is more urgent!).

Tora has a great attachment to his family (but has not given / had news for 10 years because he was in Darkon without remembering his background - due to the memory change. So, for example, the last time he saw Owen, Owen was 13....

What does the family think what happened to him? Given it's Tepest they may think 'he was spirited away by the fae'. And if that's the case things could be a bit awkward when he strolls back into their life. Is it really him? Maybe it's a changeling pretending to be him? Will the inquisitor brother want to perform 'fae tests'? IIRC another one of your PC's has fey blood and probably wouldn't want to be near any tests in case they actually work!

Good question, I first assumed that they just thought he was gone for long. But indeed Luther can have a doubt.
Anyway they will soon pass them the mushrooms (fairy stools) as they will soon see them appearing where the goblin battle happened.

When the PCs go meet the Three Sisters, they will see the same strange glyph (the one on a tree near Dominica’s dead body) on a rock near the cottage of the Three Sisters.

What sort of glyph is it? Fae? Goblin? Arcane? Does it actually contain any power, or is it more a calling sign?

It is a sign that they will also see at the Three Sisters, on a similar stone circle. I guess something arcane, made by the hags. Perhaps something to scry with, or to talk with a person standing in the stone circle, while the hags are standing in the same circle close to their cottage?
Perhaps the rune flashes red when someone is near, alerting the hags so they can scry?

- Lydia (Tora's mother) recounts a recurring dream in which Dominica told her, telling Dominica to “look the stone circle.”

Hmm, a bit too mundane IMHO. Maybe something more visual like a dream of Dominica surrounded by a ring of 13 dancers made of stone. The thirteen number could narrow it down to a specific circle, as fairy circles would not be too uncommon. And maybe even throw in the stone dancers singing a version of the nursery rhyme "Ring-a-ring o' roses" for the accompanying sounds.

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
Dominica was too nosey
Inquisitors! Inquisitors!
We all burn down!

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
The inquisition is closing
Ashes, Ashes!
We all burn now!
(Made up on the fly so don't laugh please)

Not bad, and indeed the game information should be that Lydia recalls that Dominica's dream was about a stone circle.

Kendrick confides in Tora that he suspects Luther or the Inquisition are involved, but lacks the evidence to openly accuse him.

Are they involved in her death? Or is it their normal overzealousness being misinterpreted?

I would not go there. Could be a few red herring, but the Inquisition would not do that. But the doubt that Luther could have done that to his sister can be troubling the PCs for a time.

I’d like to have the hags do what they know best – trick people to do something for a foul ritual. Perhaps the soul of Dominica is held by the hags in their cottage.

Hmm, if they have the soul how did they get it? Were they the ones who stole it, or did they trade it with someone/something else?
Just trying to work out what sort of tricks they would pull, and tie that into the overall SoD plot.

It’s a side quest, not related to SoD for the moment.

SoD involves the hags and they are portrayed as terrifying and powerful. I’d like to see them back with the side quest.

Possible skeleton of what-really-happened:

- Dominica (a young adventurous and curious bard) was interested in the lore of the stone circle, and met someone she trusted at the circle ? (who was in fact a hag in disguise?)
- Perhaps the stone circle is an old fey ritual place, that the hag have now taken for them
- There Dominica was killed by the hags or another creepy creature of the hags.

- Red herring: persistent rumors that Luther / Inquisition? Dominica was used as bait by Luther and his peers to lure out a fairy creature. But Dominica acted alone, dooming her. Or Dominica was manipulated by the Inquisition into awakening an ancient faerie entity that was supposed to be destroyed through a ritual by the Inquisition. However, the plan failed, and Dominica paid the price. Both are false?

- I replaced the Lady of the Lake with an fey oracle they will have to meet during SoD. Perhaps that oracle (a fey that could despise the hags?), could give Tora a hint?

Your sister danced beneath the moon,
Where the forest breathes and shadows embrace.
The thread of her destiny, woven and then broken by greedy hands,
Has fed ancient spirits, hungry for power.

But listen, Tora!
Your sister's song is not extinguished.
It still echoes in the ashes,
a flickering flame, bottled up.

The shadow weavers, in their lair, still laugh,
Their web stretches!
Will you save her soul,
Or will you fall into the trap she could not escape?

Goal of the hags in killing / kidnapping Dominica? Perhaps they wanted to take her place (she was a well known, well loved, charismatic person), making her spread wild rumors with her bard tales to wreak havoc and chaos in Tepest. Or to toy the Inquisition into looking like fools. So they kidnapped her, making it look like she was killed: leaving a simulacrum of her body for the humans to find (if they dig, they will find only ashes and cat bones).

So and then what adventure could come out of it? The PCs can’t go full retaliation mode against the hags, it will be deadly for them. Perhaps the hags could tell Tora that Dominica is not dead (they have her prisoner or her soul), and they could bargain Dominica’s life for a terrible service? Kill the oracle? Kill Wyan?

Note: In the game, they do not know that Dominica is dead yet, so I have still have time to change the details of her death ex. Instead of she dies two years ago, it could be She just vanished last week. If we have a better idea.

[DustBunny]

I have 5 sessions journals waiting to be put on the site, of which the start of SoD (played yesterday, covering the Viktal interactions), but I have a little bug logging to the FTP server, which I hope is temporary. I’ll let you know when it is online.

And time to start reading, but first...

Good question, I first assumed that they just thought he was gone for long. But indeed Luther can have a doubt.

I was listening to the the Dresden File ‘Dead Beat’ audiobook, and Luther vaguely reminded me of Donald Morgan. I don’t know if you have listened/read it, but I think this excerpt may be appropriate given Luther’s ‘job’.
Dresden Files - Dead Beat Spoiler

VIEW CONTENT:

But politicians don't make good kamikazes. That kind of dedication is reserved for zealots of principle and lunatics. For the first time I considered the notion that perhaps Morgan's hate was not directed at me personally, but at those that he truly believed to be violators of the Laws of Magic, murderers and traitors. I knew people who would face death, even embrace it, rather than surrender their principles. Karrin Murphy was one of them, and I was friends with most of the rest.

At the end of the day, Morgan was a cop. He worked for a different body of law, of course, and under a different set of guidelines, but his duties were the same: Pursue, combat, and apprehend those who violated the laws put in place to protect people from harm. He'd spent more than a century as a policeman dealing with some of the more nightmarish things on the planet. Thinking of him in that light suddenly gave me a different understanding of Morgan's character.

I'd seen burned-out cops before. They'd labored long and hard in the face of danger and uncertainty to uphold the law and protect the victims of crimes, only to see both the law and the victims it should have protected broken, beaten, and abused again and again. It mostly happened to the cops who genuinely cared, who believed in what they were doing, who passionately wanted to make a difference in the world. Somewhere along the way, their passion had become bottled anger. The anger had fermented into bitter hatred. Then the hatred had fed upon itself, gnawing away at them over years, even decades, until only a shell of cold iron and colder hate remained.

I didn't feel contempt for burned-out cops. I didn't feel anger toward them. All I ever felt was sadness and empathy for their pain. They'd seen too much in their daily battle against criminals. Ten or twenty or thirty years of witnessing the most monstrous aspects of humanity had slowly turned them into walking casualties of war.

And Morgan had been on his beat for more than a century.

Luther is at the 10 year mark, and has lost his sister. And here comes some supposably a long lost brother....

It is a sign that they will also see at the Three Sisters, on a similar stone circle. I guess something arcane, made by the hags. Perhaps something to scry with, or to talk with a person standing in the stone circle, while the hags are standing in the same circle close to their cottage?

That sounds reasonable, using the fae rings as a ‘communicator’ or minor teleport circle. It would be a bit more than a shock if after entering the ring, one or two of them suddenly appear before the hags in the cottage circle?. “Hello there pretty…”.
Maybe that’s what happened to Domi?

Perhaps the rune flashes red when someone is near, alerting the hags so they can scry?

Having it glow is maybe a bit too obvious. The PC’s like to use ghostsight a lot from memory, so perhaps if they use ghostsight and look at it, they see ‘something’ (ie: the hags) malevolent looking back…

I would not go there. Could be a few red herring, but the Inquisition would not do that. But the doubt that Luther could have done that to his sister can be troubling the PCs for a time.

See Donald Morgan example above.

It’s a side quest, not related to SoD for the moment.

My bad. Apoplogies.

Perhaps the stone circle is an old fey ritual place, that the hag have now taken for them

Or perhaps, it’s the Hags ‘storage facility’. The circle is where they ‘park’ their more favoured toys – literally – until they think up a ‘interesting’ game to play. The PC’s go to the circle and find 14 stone pillars, when there should only be 13. Old Whispered tales say the numbers of stones changes because the stones are moved around – 10, 13, 11 and now 14.

But stones don't move, that's silly. So where that extra stone came from….

Red herring: However, the plan failed, and Dominica paid the price. Both are false?

Yes, I think both should be false. Though you could mix things a little, the more overbearing Luther became about ‘stop investigating the fey’, the more she was ‘You’re not Dad!’ rebelling thus he inadvertently caused it.

I replaced the Lady of the Lake with an fey oracle they will have to meet during SoD. Perhaps that oracle (a fey that could despise the hags?), could give Tora a hint?

Sounds good. But as the replacement LotL is still a fey, maybe she was using Domi as a cats paw for some reason. In exchange for some information, Domi was required 'to do a minor favor' for that really nice LotL.

Even the so called ‘good’ fey, were still not nice. Mortals were fun toys and pets to play with, and sadly sometimes a pet dies or a toy breaks. But there are always new ones. And per usual, fey never do anything for free…

So they kidnapped her, making it look like she was killed: leaving a simulacrum of her body for the humans to find (if they dig, they will find only ashes and cat bones).

Or a literal straw man, dressed up as an inquisitor.

So and then what adventure could come out of it? The PCs can’t go full retaliation mode against the hags, it will be deadly for them. Perhaps the hags could tell Tora that Dominica is not dead (they have her prisoner or her soul), and they could bargain Dominica’s life for a terrible service? Kill the oracle? Kill Wyan?

Killing seems a bit bland, the hags want people to be as miserable as they are.
But definitely a service. What service however falls into what goals the Hags have in mind…

I’ll have to get back to you on this one after some thinking (and a bit of reading of fae tales) as to _what_ the hags want...

On Edit: Are you going to follow up with 'The Shadow Rift' after SoD ends? Or keep SoD as a standalone?