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D&D and the Cthulhu mythos: Adventure ideas?
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<blockquote data-quote="GreatLemur" data-source="post: 3513752" data-attributes="member: 28553"><p>Funn this should come up, now. I've lately been half-seriously planning an adventure to introduce some of my RPG buddies to D&D 3.x, and it's starting to look a bit like a fantasy take on <em>The Dunwich Horror</em>.</p><p></p><p>The PCs (1st level, all human, possibly pre-generated) will be asked by the authorities of their home town to investigate what appears to be a month-long rash of grave robberies in the local cemetary (which is huge, as the town is very old). It'll turn out that there are actually two culprits, in this: A band of ghoul-like (that is, in the Lovecraftian sense, not actually undead) degenerate humans have been chowing down on the town's ancestors, but they're in competition with a necromancer who's been digging folks up and putting them to work.</p><p></p><p>The necromancer is not here to conquer and zombify the town. He tells the PCs at the first opportunity that he's raising an undead horde to attack a settlement on the outskirts of town. The PCs--being locals--have heard stories about the isolated family living out there, and maybe even seen a few of their more functional kin in town. They're inbred, backwards, secretive, and vaguely criminal, though generally considered harmless. But the necromancer says their crumbling estate is the site of a quiet, gradual invasion by bodiless intelligences from outside the world.</p><p></p><p>The deal is that these beings wear away at the barrier between their reaily and specific places in the physical world until they manage to gain some degree of influence in it. They subtly impose very general suggestions upon those in the vicinity, encouraging xenophobia, incest, and abundant reproduction. Each successive generation of debased humanity becomes more suceptible to the beings' influence as natural genetic law and unnatural powers promote idiocy and monstrous births. By the second or third generation, some of the offspring become sensitive enough to those outside to follow simple commands, and begin construction of devices that grind the barriers between worlds ever thinner.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, instead of merely encouraging random mutation, the beings on the other side can actually <em>design</em> any life that gestates within their region of influence, and they create bodies that they can control more directly, the better to further the creation of more powerful reality-piercing devices, and expand their domain. Naturally, this is the point at which the PCs would come into things, with several livestock pregnant with unspeakable horror, a number of very unsettling arcane constructions humming away and making it hard to think, and a whole lot of deformed and imbecilic servants--some with minor magical abilities--protecting them.</p><p></p><p>Clearly, it'll be a good thing if the PCs have a bunch of zombies backing them up when they storm the place, but I think the necromancer won't be all that thrustworthy. His story will be true, but he won't be in this just to save the town from mutant hillbillies. There'll probably be some Necronomicon-ish McGuffin in the inbreds' possession.</p><p></p><p>I'm not really going for a serious horror vibe, so I won't be hitting the players with sanity checks or limiting them to non-magical classes. This whole thing only ended up resembling <em>Call of Cthulhu</em> because I love this kind of story, and I ain't too interested in tradition D&D fantasy.</p><p></p><p>Those are <em>all</em> extremely awesome ideas, particularly "The Old Speech". Very nice work.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreatLemur, post: 3513752, member: 28553"] Funn this should come up, now. I've lately been half-seriously planning an adventure to introduce some of my RPG buddies to D&D 3.x, and it's starting to look a bit like a fantasy take on [i]The Dunwich Horror[/i]. The PCs (1st level, all human, possibly pre-generated) will be asked by the authorities of their home town to investigate what appears to be a month-long rash of grave robberies in the local cemetary (which is huge, as the town is very old). It'll turn out that there are actually two culprits, in this: A band of ghoul-like (that is, in the Lovecraftian sense, not actually undead) degenerate humans have been chowing down on the town's ancestors, but they're in competition with a necromancer who's been digging folks up and putting them to work. The necromancer is not here to conquer and zombify the town. He tells the PCs at the first opportunity that he's raising an undead horde to attack a settlement on the outskirts of town. The PCs--being locals--have heard stories about the isolated family living out there, and maybe even seen a few of their more functional kin in town. They're inbred, backwards, secretive, and vaguely criminal, though generally considered harmless. But the necromancer says their crumbling estate is the site of a quiet, gradual invasion by bodiless intelligences from outside the world. The deal is that these beings wear away at the barrier between their reaily and specific places in the physical world until they manage to gain some degree of influence in it. They subtly impose very general suggestions upon those in the vicinity, encouraging xenophobia, incest, and abundant reproduction. Each successive generation of debased humanity becomes more suceptible to the beings' influence as natural genetic law and unnatural powers promote idiocy and monstrous births. By the second or third generation, some of the offspring become sensitive enough to those outside to follow simple commands, and begin construction of devices that grind the barriers between worlds ever thinner. Eventually, instead of merely encouraging random mutation, the beings on the other side can actually [i]design[/i] any life that gestates within their region of influence, and they create bodies that they can control more directly, the better to further the creation of more powerful reality-piercing devices, and expand their domain. Naturally, this is the point at which the PCs would come into things, with several livestock pregnant with unspeakable horror, a number of very unsettling arcane constructions humming away and making it hard to think, and a whole lot of deformed and imbecilic servants--some with minor magical abilities--protecting them. Clearly, it'll be a good thing if the PCs have a bunch of zombies backing them up when they storm the place, but I think the necromancer won't be all that thrustworthy. His story will be true, but he won't be in this just to save the town from mutant hillbillies. There'll probably be some Necronomicon-ish McGuffin in the inbreds' possession. I'm not really going for a serious horror vibe, so I won't be hitting the players with sanity checks or limiting them to non-magical classes. This whole thing only ended up resembling [i]Call of Cthulhu[/i] because I love this kind of story, and I ain't too interested in tradition D&D fantasy. Those are [i]all[/i] extremely awesome ideas, particularly "The Old Speech". Very nice work. [/QUOTE]
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