Need some help with some foreshadowing.

[Mistah J]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently running a campaign that has just gotten started. I've got the main story arc worked out into a few major steps, as follows:

1. The party, on a random "beginner's quest", encounters a few bystanders complaining of being ill. It has nothing to do with the adventure they are on and it's not serious, they're just "under the weather".

2. A few adventures later, the PCs encounter a village that has been totally wiped out by a horrifying plague. As they investigate they uncover that this is the later stages of the same "cold" they saw earlier.

3. The PCs race to the nation capital to warn of the impending danger. As they make friends and enemies of various nobles, guards, clerics, and royals - the outbreak occurs and the whole city is quarantined. The PCs are stuck inside.

4. While inside, they uncover the cause: a travelling band of troubadours are infecting people as they move freely from town to town. The troupe is actually a front for "Evil Cultists TM".

The party then has to get out of the city to stop them.. and the game proceeds from there.

Here is my problem: I bet as soon as you read Step 1, you immediately knew step 2 (or something like it) was coming. How can I nonchalantly talk about sick people without setting off huge warning bells?

The other thing I would like to do is add elements of the travelling theatre to both the 1st town (where it is just the flu) and the 2nd village that is no more.

Any advice on how I can do these things without tipping my hand as the DM would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fba827]

it will depend on how much focus you give to the sickness during description.
perhaps when describing the starting city, just comment that "it's late fall, so cold and flu season is just starting, it is is normal to glance around and see the occasional person coughing or blowing their nose. And over here there is some big building .... blah blah blah"

OR don't really mention it at the first city. Because it is viewed as so minor (or commonplace) that the PCs wouldn't have noticed it. And, instead, once they get to another city where it's at "abnormal level" then mention "now that you think about it, several townsfolk in the first town looked like they may have been catching the flu as well." (basically, tell them after the fact since the initial instance would have been so mundane it wouldn't have merrited any attention).

As for the traveling theatre... perhaps as describing the town just mention they pass a poster (or hear a town crier) for some theater troop coming to town. (the PCs may even be interested in watching a performance - but don't make any big deal out of it, let them go watch if they want and not think anything special of it)...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) Instead of mentioning it several times in the form of several different background NPCs, have the illness take hold of a major NPC with whom the PCs must deal. Except that he downplays it as a "seasonal" illness that afflicts him- "ACHOO- bah...its just some duced fit that falls upon me every year about this time! My father had it, as did my father's father."

Perhaps he even masks the symptoms with snuff, perfumes, and the like.

Play it for laughs- inopportune sneezes that cause him to blow great clouds of pepper into the air at a dinner...or a particularly violent sneeze that causes him to knock stuff of of his desk, or drop a dagger quite close to his toes.

2) If you do mention it as spreading through the village, have the people in the town believe it to be a seasonal illness:

Townie #1 : "'Black Jack' is back in town! Pretty soon, there will be a rush on Goblinberry plant elixer...the traditional remedy...and I know where to get the best of it!"

Townie #2 : "Bah! You're just looking for an excuse to get good & drunk!"

Townie #3 : "Hah! All he'll manage is drunk- he'll never be good!" <good natured scuffle ensues>

In each case, the real nature of the illness won't be found until after the troubadors and the party are long gone.

As for the wandering minstrels of death, I agree with the previous poster. They should seem to be nothing more than flavor text when the party first encounters them.

 

[Danforthe]

An offhand way of referring to the travelling carnival is a couple arguing and one of them accusing the other of a dalliance with one of them circus folks that came through town. Make it seem, if the players think of them at all, as if they might be travelling thieves instead of what they really are.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Lynyrd Skynyrd song, "Gimme Three Steps" springs to mind...

 

[Razorback]

Somewhere in the beginner's quest I'd insert something that requires them to see cleric and as they go to see him they notice a few people waiting to see him regarding their 'cold' that doesn't want to go away.

You could even reverse it on to the characters by have them run into ( or even travel with shortly!) the troubadors and they comment that this sickness seems to follow the PC's...

 

[saethone]

i think the best way to do it would just be introducing a coughing or sneezing to one of the NPCs they have to deal with

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just remember- certain classes are immune or virtually immune to all diseases except magical ones, so a Paladin coming down with the cold would set off all kinds of alarm bells ringing in the heads of experienced D&D players.