Here's a little something that both might be fun and might help with my campaign.....
As you may or may not know, I'm running a campaign set during the Hyborian Age, focusing on a clan of Cimmerians, using Mongoose's Conan The Barbarian Roleplaying Game Second Edition.
I'm creating the next adventure for my crew, and it features exploration of an abandoned Witch's hut that they are going to find out in the deep, dark woods. Of course, the players will not know it's a Witch hut at first--I'm setting up a mystery. Who lives here? Why do they live all alone? What is all that stuff? Wait....I smell sorcerery!
The place is made of twisted limbs and weeds, almost as if the hut grew out of the foilage. How did the owner get that to happen? There are fetishes and trinkets all over the place. Jars with....what? Animal organs? A large tree outside has had its bark replaced with all these dead birds, tacked to the tree, full wingspan displayed.
You get the idea.
Inside, the characters are going to find a curious item: It's a shrunken head on a leather loop. A necklace. The head is about the size of an egg (the type you crack open and have for breakfast). Remember that large stone--the Serpent's Eye--that first Valeria then Conan wears around their neck in the 1982 Conan movie? That's about how big I'm thinking this head looks.
Inspection of the head shows that it is expertly carved out of wood--what type of wood, it's hard to tell--nothing from around here. These Cimmerian woodsmen would know. Exotic wood. Or, maybe it's petrified. Either way, it has a sense of extreme age about it.
As it should be, I rarely put sorcererous items into my Conan game, but with this head....I'm thinking it should be something special. Now, I don't want it to be UNIMAGINABLY POWERFUL, like the Mask of Acheron or the Heart of Ahriman. I'm thinking more like that gem in the 1982 movie--the Serpent's Eye. I always got a sense that it was imbued with some magical property--but I could never decide what.
I've got a couple of ideas for this head in my game, but I don't want to share them right now. I want to hear if you have any fresh ideas--anything that just speaks "Conan".
I'm also thinking that this might be an item that the character who finds it will keep, and possibly wear, for a long time without finding out "what it does".
As for its function, I'm thinking the sorcerous power is either someting mild that helps or hinders the character in the game (for example, a +1 or +2 to all Bluff checks--but as GM, I'll never tell the player that he's getting the bonus), or its something meant for a specific purpose (it's a key...bring it in front of a certain door, and the head utters a sentence that freaks everyone out as it opens the door).
Don't let those two ideas sway your creative process.
What do you think this head should be? What seems "right" for a Conan game?
Get creative. Use your noggin.
What's your input?
As you may or may not know, I'm running a campaign set during the Hyborian Age, focusing on a clan of Cimmerians, using Mongoose's Conan The Barbarian Roleplaying Game Second Edition.
I'm creating the next adventure for my crew, and it features exploration of an abandoned Witch's hut that they are going to find out in the deep, dark woods. Of course, the players will not know it's a Witch hut at first--I'm setting up a mystery. Who lives here? Why do they live all alone? What is all that stuff? Wait....I smell sorcerery!
The place is made of twisted limbs and weeds, almost as if the hut grew out of the foilage. How did the owner get that to happen? There are fetishes and trinkets all over the place. Jars with....what? Animal organs? A large tree outside has had its bark replaced with all these dead birds, tacked to the tree, full wingspan displayed.
You get the idea.
Inside, the characters are going to find a curious item: It's a shrunken head on a leather loop. A necklace. The head is about the size of an egg (the type you crack open and have for breakfast). Remember that large stone--the Serpent's Eye--that first Valeria then Conan wears around their neck in the 1982 Conan movie? That's about how big I'm thinking this head looks.
Inspection of the head shows that it is expertly carved out of wood--what type of wood, it's hard to tell--nothing from around here. These Cimmerian woodsmen would know. Exotic wood. Or, maybe it's petrified. Either way, it has a sense of extreme age about it.
As it should be, I rarely put sorcererous items into my Conan game, but with this head....I'm thinking it should be something special. Now, I don't want it to be UNIMAGINABLY POWERFUL, like the Mask of Acheron or the Heart of Ahriman. I'm thinking more like that gem in the 1982 movie--the Serpent's Eye. I always got a sense that it was imbued with some magical property--but I could never decide what.
I've got a couple of ideas for this head in my game, but I don't want to share them right now. I want to hear if you have any fresh ideas--anything that just speaks "Conan".
I'm also thinking that this might be an item that the character who finds it will keep, and possibly wear, for a long time without finding out "what it does".
As for its function, I'm thinking the sorcerous power is either someting mild that helps or hinders the character in the game (for example, a +1 or +2 to all Bluff checks--but as GM, I'll never tell the player that he's getting the bonus), or its something meant for a specific purpose (it's a key...bring it in front of a certain door, and the head utters a sentence that freaks everyone out as it opens the door).
Don't let those two ideas sway your creative process.
What do you think this head should be? What seems "right" for a Conan game?
Get creative. Use your noggin.
What's your input?
