The one I'm most proud of was of my own design. In it, the main villian wanted to punish the pc's and a village that had sheltered them. So he had a minion poison the well that the village used. It was a fragile poison, only lasting for a few minutes before turning to water, but it did effect one man, head of the village guard.
He became a Vrykolaka with a unique salient ability, he had NO limit on the number of Vrykolaka and Vrykolaka spawn he could control! Neeless to say, the village was turned in one night.
When the pc's arrived a week later, exhausted from their latest adventure, they were supprised to find the village deserted. They set up camp in the inn. At sunset they were set on by over two hundred spawn. They barricaded themselves in the inn to wait for sunrise. It was a nightmarish night full of rats, disease, and blood. When the sun finally rised they went after the source of the plague.
Going from house to house, they were able to destroy the spawn. However, by the time they found the lair of the first Vrykolaka the sun was setting.
It was an intense battle that destroyed most of the village. Eventually they impaled him on an iron spike and waited for sunrise.
The pc's were very upset. They had gotten to know these people and to have to destroy them was devistating. They were very eager to turn all of the core upside-down to find the arch-villian's lair.
I haven't used the old "destroy everything the pc's hold dear" trick again, as usually it leaves me with very angry pc's on my hands, but that time it worked out well.
What's your favorite, most memorable encounter with the unliving?
Favorite undead encounter
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Hrtofdrkns
- Agent of the Fraternity
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2004 2:58 pm
- Location: Columbia, Missouri
Favorite undead encounter
Thing's always work out if you just do whatever you want without worrying about the consequences.
-Peter Griffin
-Peter Griffin
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Tobias Blackburn
- Water Bearer
- Posts: 637
- Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:26 pm
- Location: TO, ONT, CA
Mine is a plan to introduce Toben the Many. I haven't run it yet, but it has promise.
The players come across a young girl on the road (or stumbling into an inn). She whispers "Help us." and falls to the ground. She is stone cold when they get to her (her face has only just begun to rot into the trademark grin. She has a note on her from her father, the mayor, begging for aid to save their town from the witches.
When the player's get to the nearby village (very small population, maybe 20 to 40 people) they discover the town is in the middle of some festival. There's a huge cook off (that has emptied the village stores despite the on-coming winter and filled the place with overpowering smells), lots of music and dancing, and everyone in hideous masks. If asked, no one seems to know what the player's are talking about and encourage them to grab some food and enjoy. If the masks come off the faces are locked in Joker like grins, and the people still don't seem to notice what the players are talking about.
The mayor is waiting for the players in his house, wearing a mask. He tells the players that there is a nearby coven of witches who have cursed the town, killing them through "joy". He explains that he forced them to leave a while ago when he discovered their evil ways. They took up residence in a set of ruins in the forest and have set up their curse to make the town Party itself to death. Only the mayor has been able to fight back the excessive "joy", and sent off his youngest daughter before she too was affected. The witches are using a magical statue to focus the curse and he hopes that the players will be able to get close enough to destroy it and destroy it quickly.
The statue is actually protecting a group of Hala's witches who have used it to cause a ward against undead. They are trapped in the make shift hospice they put together to defend themselves and the few villagers who had not died from Toben's depredations. Destroying the statue results in Toben moving in and attacking everything, forcing the players to try to escape. Investigating the witches shows that they're under siege and the players will likely end up having to join with them. There is an something in the building that will help them if they can find it.
Toben took over the town a while ago, only to discover the witches hiding out. He draws the players in to see if he can trick them to break the wards and make them run his gauntlet. He will play everything up unless they try to detect undead, attack a villager, destroy the statue or join with the witches, at which point he reveals the truth about the villagers not being cursed but his Collection. He toys with them at this point, even letting them get away if they can prove resourceful enough to defeat the town.
If the players start this at an inn, I might have them come back to discover the entire inn has been "collected".
I figure there's no point into running into Toben in a wooded area without build up. The PC's won't understand what is going on and it just becomes running for their lives from the wierd zombies.
The players come across a young girl on the road (or stumbling into an inn). She whispers "Help us." and falls to the ground. She is stone cold when they get to her (her face has only just begun to rot into the trademark grin. She has a note on her from her father, the mayor, begging for aid to save their town from the witches.
When the player's get to the nearby village (very small population, maybe 20 to 40 people) they discover the town is in the middle of some festival. There's a huge cook off (that has emptied the village stores despite the on-coming winter and filled the place with overpowering smells), lots of music and dancing, and everyone in hideous masks. If asked, no one seems to know what the player's are talking about and encourage them to grab some food and enjoy. If the masks come off the faces are locked in Joker like grins, and the people still don't seem to notice what the players are talking about.
The mayor is waiting for the players in his house, wearing a mask. He tells the players that there is a nearby coven of witches who have cursed the town, killing them through "joy". He explains that he forced them to leave a while ago when he discovered their evil ways. They took up residence in a set of ruins in the forest and have set up their curse to make the town Party itself to death. Only the mayor has been able to fight back the excessive "joy", and sent off his youngest daughter before she too was affected. The witches are using a magical statue to focus the curse and he hopes that the players will be able to get close enough to destroy it and destroy it quickly.
The statue is actually protecting a group of Hala's witches who have used it to cause a ward against undead. They are trapped in the make shift hospice they put together to defend themselves and the few villagers who had not died from Toben's depredations. Destroying the statue results in Toben moving in and attacking everything, forcing the players to try to escape. Investigating the witches shows that they're under siege and the players will likely end up having to join with them. There is an something in the building that will help them if they can find it.
Toben took over the town a while ago, only to discover the witches hiding out. He draws the players in to see if he can trick them to break the wards and make them run his gauntlet. He will play everything up unless they try to detect undead, attack a villager, destroy the statue or join with the witches, at which point he reveals the truth about the villagers not being cursed but his Collection. He toys with them at this point, even letting them get away if they can prove resourceful enough to defeat the town.
If the players start this at an inn, I might have them come back to discover the entire inn has been "collected".
I figure there's no point into running into Toben in a wooded area without build up. The PC's won't understand what is going on and it just becomes running for their lives from the wierd zombies.
The Remnants have one saying to represent loss, disappearance, exile, and death. It is Shiao Marests, "Taken by The Shadows".
hmmmm.
It would probobly be in my modern masque of the red death/spycraft mini-campaign.
The pc's had been wandering around in the wasteland of mid-wyoming when they encountered a lone child. After some expirimentation with digital camera's they discovered the child to be a ghost of some kind, further investigation led them on the trail of some kind of murderous trucker.
After a harrowing car chase culminating in the 18-wheeler flipping spinning wildly out of control and emptying the cargo all over the high-way...corpses to be precise. After the heroes cornered the truck driver(who had got real lucky on reflex tests during the massive crash) he commanded several of his corpses to attack as they had in reality been ghoules under the command of the ghoul lord trucker.
The pc's were caught completly off-gaurd by this one. I had set up the game as a typical high action spy game complete with mission breifing, only to hit them with amnesia and start them off in the middle of plane crash wreckage. The ghost was the first npc they had met(besides some wolves at an abandoned 7-11). This was also the first time they had encountered any real evidence of the mass devastation wrought by the Red Death. An attack by zombies was very far from their minds
It would probobly be in my modern masque of the red death/spycraft mini-campaign.
The pc's had been wandering around in the wasteland of mid-wyoming when they encountered a lone child. After some expirimentation with digital camera's they discovered the child to be a ghost of some kind, further investigation led them on the trail of some kind of murderous trucker.
After a harrowing car chase culminating in the 18-wheeler flipping spinning wildly out of control and emptying the cargo all over the high-way...corpses to be precise. After the heroes cornered the truck driver(who had got real lucky on reflex tests during the massive crash) he commanded several of his corpses to attack as they had in reality been ghoules under the command of the ghoul lord trucker.
The pc's were caught completly off-gaurd by this one. I had set up the game as a typical high action spy game complete with mission breifing, only to hit them with amnesia and start them off in the middle of plane crash wreckage. The ghost was the first npc they had met(besides some wolves at an abandoned 7-11). This was also the first time they had encountered any real evidence of the mass devastation wrought by the Red Death. An attack by zombies was very far from their minds
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Gonzoron of the FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 7689
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: New Jersey
- Contact:
Mine would probably be fleshing out the Mill encounter from the Nikolai Melentha adventure in CotN:G. Zombie children and adolescents fighting the pcs amounst bubbling cauldrons of dye, and whirling spinning and weaving machines. And then the boss shows up. Fun fun fun.
(see here for details:
http://themistway.com/mill.html
)
(see here for details:
http://themistway.com/mill.html
)
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
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Le Noir Faineant
- Rafe, Agent of the Fraternity
- Posts: 4568
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:25 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: Saint Grimmin’s-in-the-Wold
