A tiny plot pointer!

[Inconsequenti-AL]

rats, spiders, and other vermin.

perhaps they find an old treasure map secretly scrawled on the back of a hogshead/or other trophy mount in the basement.

don't forget to keep having the old woman resurface. say she isn't doing so well with the business and begs/borrows/pleas to her friends to invest.

don't throw her away. one problem can just be the surface to continued adventure hooks.

Ah, the old lady is definitely a keeper. She was an on the fly creation, when several of the PCs decided they want to question a prisoner of a kobold raiding party, in depth... They started off with a friendly chat and it all grew from there!

She's been escorted back to a decent sized city by them, and I think most of them like her. Or at least don't actively want to kill her for the standard 150XP for a CR 0.5.

When I get a working NPC, there's no way I'm not going to milk them for all they're worth. Then kill them in as heart wrenching a manner as possible.

 

[diaglo]

have they already seen/entered the place?

maybe the city authorities have seized the property. and the old woman has been declared dead by the morgue.

so there is an adventure just to prove she is who she says she is.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Stumble on a cell of a fledgling cult just getting a foothold in the city. Leave clues as to the ‘real’ identity of the cult members. One might be a merchant, another a minor (or major) noble, further links to the cult and its ambitions. Instant reoccurring evil organization.

Doh!

I've already got one of those - a sinister demon following sect - has both of the above and even a bishop and an order of monks...

They're part of my plot experiment - throw 50 plot hooks at the players and see which ones they bite on. Just hope none of them have discovered these boards yet. Or I'll be in trouble!

Why it didn't occur to me to link them in, I don't know. Must be some sort of slow friday brain. Or old age.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Get hold of a copy of the WFRP book "The Restless Dead", and run (and convert) "the Haunting Horror" for them.

My lot were terrified, and I've never met such a jaded bunch of cynics.

Especially when attacked by a glass, tentacled halfling mutant.

I copied the map and stuck it section by section to magnets, then as they adventured around the building, I pulled out each room and just stuck it to a rusty sheet of steel I'd borrowed off my dad!

Where in the UK are you? I could almost lend you my copy!

Email me on nik_hoyle@hotmail.com if you want to seriously consider this.

Addendum: The adventure is set in a ghost-house seriously tainted by Chaos (which really meant something in WFRP), complete with ghosts, movint pictures, small demons and animated stuffed bears. And the town outside the building was seriously spooky. When visible, it was set about 300 years before the PCs entered!

I'd seriously consider taking you up on that one. I'm in Southampton in Hampshire, so practically 'next door'

Unfortunately, I've got an after work trip to the pub today and I've got to run it tomorrow afternoon - some seriously good timing from me... As usual.

Rusty steel plate and magnets - some serious props! Always good for adding to the atmosphere.

I've played some WFRP, years ago - a Chaos tainted house is a great idea - was it warpstone? And glass, tentacled halfling mutant is just plain wrong!

maybe the city authorities have seized the property. and the old woman has been declared dead by the morgue.

*Ping*

That's the next plot hook right there. Beureacracy can be so messy!

I think I'll save it until the PCs are settled in there comfortably. I can see a greedy relative having her declared dead to get his hands on 'the old witches' stuff.

 

[alsih2o]

Remember the tiny challenges- bedbugs, nasty Cha draining lice, vermin, collapsing stairs form rot, that kind of thing.

And maybe an awful odor from whatever died down there just for soem will or fort saves

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Remember the tiny challenges- bedbugs, nasty Cha draining lice, vermin, collapsing stairs form rot, that kind of thing.

And maybe an awful odor from whatever died down there just for soem will or fort saves

Lice, bedbugs and roaches are all good. Nice way of illustrating life in the less well off end of the city - using AU races, so have cat and dog people... Fleas have got to be particularly hazardous for them. I supose it's the cost of living on the cheap.

Lunch losing checks (chucks?) are great for making them feel like proper heros.

 

[Eccles]

I'd seriously consider taking you up on that one. I'm in Southampton in Hampshire, so practically 'next door'

Unfortunately, I've got an after work trip to the pub today and I've got to run it tomorrow afternoon - some seriously good timing from me... As usual.

Rusty steel plate and magnets - some serious props! Always good for adding to the atmosphere.

I've played some WFRP, years ago - a Chaos tainted house is a great idea - was it warpstone? And glass, tentacled halfling mutant is just plain wrong!

Ah. I *could* scan it and email it to you, but there's simply no way you'd manage to convert it all in time. As I say, the offer's open if you get desperate, but I don't check my email as much when I'm not at work...

 

[MaxKaladin]

Ok, here's an idea that combines several of these threads. The house was once a mansion (that's why it is big enough to convert into an inn. The final generation of the family that owned it fell on hard times and got mixed up with the thieves guild trying to get out of debt. Well, things got worse and worse but then the head of the family found a map leading to a treasure. Thinking this the solution to all his money woes, he gathered a party of adventurers and went looking for it. Unfortunatly, he died in the process. Meanwhile, his widow waited in vain for his return never believing he was dead. Meanwhile, the particular guild that owned the family debt slowly took posession of the house by threatening to call in the lady's debt. They just moved in and made themselves at home until the lady lived in the attic of her former mansion. She was weak with worry and felt she had no choice, so she put up little resistance. Until, that is, the guild began to induct her young son into its ranks. By then, however, things were too far along and it was far too late.

Not long after, the house was raided by a rival guild and the guild that now owned it was wiped out. In the process, the son was killed before her eyes and then she, herself, was killed. All of the thieves guilds in town wanted the house because of its convenient location over the sewers at a major junction of sewer lines that made it a prime location for moving around the city unseen. Also, the treasury of the defeated guild was never found and all believed it, or clues to its location, lay somewhere within. Unfortunatly, the house turned out to be haunted. The lady of the house did not pass quietly into death, but now haunted the house defending it in death as she never did in life. She drove away all comers and the house fell into disuse.

Years later, a bold young street urchin broke in searching for a dry place to spend the night. The ghost was about to drive him off, but a strong resemblance to her lost son stopped her. Instead, she adopted him as her own to the extent a ghost can and became his guardian. Over time, she acumulated a group of similar orphans who stay in the house under the protection of the ghost and venture out to steal for their needs. They never venture into the basements, however, because strange and dangerous things have crept from the sewers and begun to make their home there. For their part, the guilds would love to take over or break up this little band of pickpockets and shoplifters, take over the house again and search for the treasury of the former guild, but cannot strike for fear of the ghost.

The old lady is the daughter or granddaughter of the last legal owner and has legal title to the place. Perhaps she is a distant relative of the lady's husband who eventually gained the title as the closest living heir.

The players now have a number of potential adventure hooks. One is to help lay the ghost at rest by finding proof of her husband's death or by finding his treasure and using part of it to care for the orphans she guards. There is also the lost guild treasury to seek out as well as the desire of several guilds to control the strategic location of the house. There is also the creeping stuff in the sewers to consider. Finally, there are the orphans to consider.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Max, thats some damn fine summing up there. I really like the old lady ghost, thats a nice spin to the whole thing... serves as a very fine reason why the guilds havn't just stamped out the upstart kids.
I think I may well use large swathes of that idea - Fits just right. I think having the PCs approached by one or more of the other guilds could be good... add a nice moral quandry. If they take the offer, it'll seem like more money, but they'd lose a shot at the hidden treasure.

Thanks!

Will finish it off later. Have to run to the pub now!

 

[Stone Angel]

I think Thullgrims idea about the children thieves guild is great. Think like Children of the Corn except they just steal and not kill every adult. I think it poses a great dillema for the pc's and it gives the mage a good time to use sleep, and web and other non-destructive spells in creative ways i.e: web, charm, daze.

Plus I mean whats better than heckling the fighter when he's fourteenth level than, "Yeah get 'em, like that time you got knocked out by a six year olds sap!". Hope this helps!

The Seraph of Earth and Stone