Looking for a solution to a campaign problem

[Riastlin]

Ok, so not a problem per se, but not sure how the adventure should be able to be resolved.

The party is headed to the town of Mistwatch (adapted from the article in the recent Dragon mag) such that it is now fully in the Shadowfell. The catch here is that none of the townspeople -- or those who spend the night in town -- can die. Or more accurately, they can't stay dead as they always rise the next day.

I've got it so that the Lord (Zaspar in the article), his wife, and his child have all been affected by this curse as well but that their curse is a little different. The Lord, cannot leave the keep (and in fact is forced to defend it -- turning into a demon in the process). The wife "died" in child birth and was interred in the family crypt where she must also remain. Finally, the child was thought still born but is actually a demon as well who is under the control of a "gypsy" who had tried to help the Zaspars procreate. I also have him "stuck" in a third location in town.

My dilemma is how to resolve the situation so that the party can not only leave town (the Raven Queen won't let any of the infected leave), but so that they can save the town as well. I want this to be more than simply "kill the bad guys", so I'm thinking there should be some sort of creative solution to it, but that's where I'm struggling. Maybe its bringing all three together to be reunited? I'm just not sure. I must admit that I often struggle with these types of plot lines as I tend to fall back on "kill 'em, kill 'em all!" I do have an alternative avenue set up for them whereby they can contract with the Raven Queen to be let out of the town, but my guess is they'll choose not to go that route and I wanted a solution in town just having trouble with a creative resolution.

Anyhoo, any help you all could provide would be greatly appreciated. FWIW, the party is in early paragon if that matters.

 

[KidSnide]

My dilemma is how to resolve the situation so that the party can not only leave town (the Raven Queen won't let any of the infected leave), but so that they can save the town as well. I want this to be more than simply "kill the bad guys", so I'm thinking there should be some sort of creative solution to it, but that's where I'm struggling. Maybe its bringing all three together to be reunited? I'm just not sure. I must admit that I often struggle with these types of plot lines as I tend to fall back on "kill 'em, kill 'em all!" I do have an alternative avenue set up for them whereby they can contract with the Raven Queen to be let out of the town, but my guess is they'll choose not to go that route and I wanted a solution in town just having trouble with a creative resolution.

If I were designing such a game, I would set up the framework so that each of the three principals (Lord Zaspar, his wife and his child) each have a distinct curse that requires a particular condition to remove. The people of the town can be released once the curse is removed on each the three principals. Some brainstorms on possible details:

- The child doesn't have a lot of psychology do it, so that seems like a good solo demon combat encounter. Maybe the child can be released by a kiss from its mother. To free the child, you need the mother's cooperation, an ability to transfer a kiss (since the mother can't go there), and the ability to defeat/subdue the child so the kiss can be administered.

- The mother seems like a good role-playing challenge, so I'd set it up as a combat skill challenge where you need to soften the mother's heart while her incorporeal form is busy wailing like a banshee (literally) and causing lesser wraiths to drift around.

- The father can then defend his keep from the PCs (perhaps they need to defeat multiple copies of him?), possibly with some puzzle-like traps. Once they penetrate the keep, he admits defeat and tries to get the PCs to take on his (cursed role). If they refuse, he's willing to cooperate on break the curse for everyone concerned.

Reading this over, I'd like to change up the mother/father dynamic (which seems a little stereotypical), and I think it's important to involve the gypsy more. But I hope this provides a few useful ideas...

-KS

 

[OnlineDM]

The objective here is to break a curse, correct? Well then, what caused the curse? Was it a natural event? An evil spellcaster?

What could break the curse? Some kind of ritual (possibly involving a reunion, as you mentioned)? Some type of sacrifice for the greater good? Killing the curser?

Did the Raven Queen herself establish the curse? If so, why? What does she want? Is there a way to give her something else that she wants more in order to persuade her to release the curse?

 

[fba827]

Having 0 knowledge of the location that you speak of, I'm basing this entirely on what is written here.

There is no apparent link between the cause of the curse and the Lord/his wife/the child. Therefore, if I were a player in this scenario, I would not think of any good reason to make the link that being able to leave the curse has anything to do with them.

Having said that, if you wanted the solution to somehow be linked to one/all of them, perhaps by virtue of being the Lord, he inherited some magic item/artifact (and perhaps it is that very same artifact that caused him to react differently to the curse and act as a defender). So now the PCs must get the item from the Lord, it requires the blood of a demon (i.e. the demon son) to activate it, and the "exit" must be taken through the crypt (how do you leave a city of dead? through a crypt/grave of course!)

So essentially, you are treating it as a remove curse ritual, with a very specific components to beat this very specific curse...

that's my take on it anyway based SOLELY on what's written here.

 

[Riastlin]

First: Thanks for the replies!

[MENTION=807]fba827[/MENTION] good point, I was trying to keep the post short which is why I merely referenced it rather than reciting everything.

So, some quick hit thoughts/background:

• The curse was established when Zaspar accepted the help of a gypsy in attempting to be able to reproduce as his family's line was coming to an end. She traded him some of her power to enable him to reproduce, but the product of that trade was a demonic child.
• That gypsy is going to be a recurring villain. I'm actually thinking of making it Calystrx (from MV 2) in disguise.
• The curse is powered in part by a piece of shadow glass that is made up of the raw essence of the shadowfell. It goes deeper than that though and simply destroying the glass won't work (again trying to go for something other than "Kill it!"
• The Raven Queen did not enact the curse. In fact, she finds it to be an abomination given the fact that it causing the town to turn undead. This subplot is primarily in there to a) keep the PCs in town (the Raven Queen doesn't want the curse to spread) and b) provide an alternative success path to the PCs.

So with that being said, I do like the ideas mentioned by [MENTION=54710]KidSnide[/MENTION]. The thought of the combat challenge with mom in particular is pretty close to an idea I had already. Perhaps her wailing comes from the grief of having lost her child, etc. Though again we start to tread on the stereotypes. What I'm trying to go for here is that at the very least, the Lord and Mother are every bit the victim that others are, though they did at least invite it upon themselves.

Hmmm, brainstorming some more, perhaps the grief is driving both the Lord and the Mother. Perhaps they both need to be convinced the other is "alright" in order to start breaking the curse. They were both spurned on by the loss of their family (maybe mom believes the Lord is dead too?) Hmmm, not sure how this helps, but maybe the PCs need to find a way to enable them to see each other? Perhaps a 6th Sense like theme of they are both dead but don't know it?

Which leaves the child. I like the idea of it being some sort of grief demon. The thought is that Caly is breeding it to be an instrumental part of her long term plans and it is feeding on the despair of the town. This results in the kid being the true threat, but maybe Mom and Dad don't see it? Perhaps their natural instincts are to protect it? They need to be convinced somehow as to how evil the kid is in order to remove their protection?

Hmmm, food for thought at least, just need to figure out how to go about this. I really appreciate the thoughts so far and welcome more input.

[MENTION=54710]KidSnide[/MENTION] I'm totally open to changing up the mother-father dynamic should you have any ideas in that regard. As I said my main goal here is to get the party to think outside the box a little and give them a more story-based adventure since I tend to do the combat side a lot better (and thus more often).

 

[jbear]

Okay, so ... The child demon has two empty sockets that ooze black/red brown ichor where his eyes should be. They can break the curse on him, and free it from its locked location by finding his eyes and returning them to his head.

One of the eyes is in the head of an albino three eyed raven that sits atop a haunted clock tower. The clock of the tower ticks from 6 to 9 and then starts turning backwards from 9 to 6. The raven is obviously sick, and undead, an abomination to the Raven Queen. It's other two eyes are green gems. If reaches the top of the haunted tower with a third emerald the raven will allow the switch of eyes. This also frees the raven from its curse of undeath.

The other is in the palm of the hand of a blind beggar, the gypsy spy and right hand man. Fight fight fight! Or what is it this beggar wants? How does the gypsy hold sway over him? Perhaps the gypsy stole his youth which he keeps in a jar amongst his medicine bottles! Return him his youth and he hands over his stolen sight.

The mother needs to die. If she can hold her child one last time she might even help the PCs end her suffering. Her still beating heart is hidden in a very well trapped box with three locks (all of them false and quite deadly). The hidden latch is in the bottom of the box. Where is that box? Perhaps the Lord has it, and knows what it contains. But he isn't willing to let go of what he considers to be his wife's life. Maybe the party could cut of the wife's head and take it to him so her head can talk to him and convince him to let her go. And she is only willing for this to happen once she has said goodbye to her child?

The Lord can only leave the Keep if the PCs put the clock right on Haunted CLock Tower. This may not break the curse entirely but can cause a glitch that stops its effect for a certain amount of time. During these periods of time the PCs can achieve certain things, doors open, people help, people die and stay dead etc. Perhaps the town clockmaker can be an NPC involved in this, like the beggar.

The clock tower would be infested with dangerous spirits, ghosts and ghouls.

Each of the NPCs gives clues as to what holds the other and how to unlock them.

There are possibly very cool and fun skill challenges all over the place here which you can mix up with combat, especially when you have a clock running that you have to beat, because otherwise a window of opportunity will close. Imagine the PCs cutting off the mother's head and trying get it to the Keep, mainting the spark of unlife long enough that she can speak to her husband while the Gypsy's minions are coming after the PCs as they race through the streets!

 

[Ryujin]

Just spit-balling here:

Orcus and The Raven Queen are sworn enemies. Traditionally, Orcus is the demon of broken oaths (I'm talking actual mythology here) and he covets The Raven Queen's power over death (in 4e). This would imply that, as the town is embargoed by The Raven Queen and the Zaspars have been inflicted with some sort of demonic curse, that Orcus punished them for a broken oath (perhaps a deal with him). Fulfilling that oath, symbolically, could be the means to break the curse.

The Raven Queen is all about power. Over time she has either fought or manipulated her way into being the goddess of Death, Winter, and Fate. So you have to ask yourself, "Self, what would The Raven Queen want more than some poor, little townies?" The first thing that comes to mind, to me, is powerful 'servants.' The party could gain release from the town by promising her a favour in return (future adventure hook), performing a quest for her during the process of the adventure (minor quest for extra experience), or they could even be required to become her servants, in the flesh (all become Revenants of their original race, permanently or just temporarily, with an automatic feat to gain their normal racial ability).

 

[DracoSuave]

Alright, here's my idea.

Have them go to kill the gypsy, for they have information that killing the curser will end the curse. Make it fairly common knowledge, have the townsfolk even request it.

The catch is the gypsy is also afflicted by the curse (as the cost involved in cursing), so the only way it will ever end is if she chooses to end it herself. That requires some sort of redress between the witch and the lord. Make it tragic and fill it with pathos.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

The curse was established when Zaspar accepted the help of a gypsy in attempting to be able to reproduce as his family's line was coming to an end. She traded him some of her power to enable him to reproduce, but the product of that trade was a demonic child.

Since the child (and therefore Zaspar's family) was born from the deal with the gypsy and driven by Zaspar's greed and ambition to keep his line going, maybe the curse would be broken by showing Zaspar that the real treasure is his family itself not the kingdom a family would give him.

Ultimately the players would need to convice him to give up his kingdom a simple life with his family. First though the party would need to break the curses on Zaspar's wife and child (to integrate [MENTION=54710]KidSnide[/MENTION] 's ideas) so they would be an enticing family. (After all, an undead wife and a demon baby isn't very enticing.)

I'd also look through the Domain of Dread articles in Dungeon. They all have some sort of curse that needs to be broken before the players can leave. They'd probably be good for mining ideas or simply for inspiration.

 

[KidSnide]

[MENTION=54710]KidSnide[/MENTION] I'm totally open to changing up the mother-father dynamic should you have any ideas in that regard. As I said my main goal here is to get the party to think outside the box a little and give them a more story-based adventure since I tend to do the combat side a lot better (and thus more often).

I think the key to changing up the mother-father dynamic is to write the characters so you don't end up in a situation where the mother is an unbridled ball of emotion and the father is angry-but-rational. Strictly speaking, there's nothing wrong with that set-up, but it's not really a good gender dynamic. Also: been-there-done-that.

Given the set-up, a nice alternative is to make the father a character that can be spoken with, but who refuses to admit that this "one last chance" to extend his bloodline has failed. Really, he's the one who made the bargain that's ruined his family and his domain. It's emotionally plausible to imagine him being unable to admit that he has made a mistake. In contrast, the mother could be wracked by grief, but ultimate persuadable that "this demon thing" looks like her child and acts like her child, but ultimately isn't her child.

Incidentally, I think you can really up the creepy factor by having the demon child exhibit child-like behaviors ("Why won't you play with me?" "You're mean!" "I don't like this game!" "Naughty heroes should be punished!") or nuzzling up to (or playing with) his dead / incapacitated victims. Maybe the child goes through a series of terrified or mind-controlled nannies?

-KS