Help with a "wedding" adventure

[LostSoul]

So I'm thinking about designing a short, one-session adventure that hinges around one of the PC's younger sister getting married. Well, not really hinges, the wedding is the setting and backdrop/hook for getting the PCs involved.

Some info on the PCs: One is a young woman who left to enjoy life. She's a free-spirit who didn't want to be tied down. She's travelling with her "mentor", an elan who lived and taught with her family for many generations. They're both 4th level psionic characters; a Wilder and a Psion (Telepath).

Now, to the ideas I've got about the adventure so far. The young sister (Kitty - I'm going to base her on Kitty from Anna Karenina) is getting married to her fiance who just returned from the (currently ongoing) Greyhawk Wars. He served with valour but was injured and is back to recuperate. There's a twist here: Kitty's fiance is teh dead (most likely), and is being impersonated by a Succubus.

At the current point in the campaign (don't care if this is Greyhawk canon or not), Furyondy is deep in war against Iuz and Verbobonc hasn't yet committed any forces. Kitty and the PC's family is a noble one from Verbobonc, and this Succubus fiance is from Furyondy. So there's a political angle to work there.

I'm thinking that some agency working for Iuz (maybe the Scarlet Brotherhood? if they do work for Iuz, that is) wants to keep the wedding from happening. They don't want any more ties between the Viscounty of Verbobonc and Furyondy so they can keep the number of troops entering the war. So they might try to kill either Kitty or her Succubus fiance before the wedding happens.

(The fact that "the fiance" (gotta find a name) is a Succubus isn't really important to this adventure. It's going to be a hook for upcoming adventures, and the realization that the fiance is a Succubus should be one of those nice "whammie" moments.)

Now that seems nice enough, if not quite fleshed out. The PCs go to a wedding and put an end to the assasination attempt. But I want to put some other kind of twist in there, and tie this adventure into the main story line (which is Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil). So at some point I want to get some evil and insane Lovecraftian cultists involved.

Anyway. That's what I've got floating around in my head right now. Any ideas out there?

 

[Dirigible]

and the realization that the fioncee is a Succubus should be one of those nice "whammie" moments.

Erm. Depends on your group. If they're relativly new to gaming, maybe; otherwise, they'll see that hoary old chestnut commin from ten miles.

If you can find it, Dungeon 89 had 'Wedding Bells', an absolutely fantastic RP-heavy, fight-lite wedding themed adventure.

You'll probably want to have the assassins target Kitty; more emotional resonance with the players, and it might be suspicious of someones stabs the fiance and the knife bounces of his/her Damage Resistant skin. On the other hand, if they target the fiance and the PCs save him/her, that can be the beginning of a bond of trust that you can later exploit and crush mercilessly. Huzzah!

I'm only loosely familiar with ToEE, but if you want to conect it, what if the assassins use some kind of Evil Elemental poison? Tainted Fire-fluid, maybe, that the victim drinks. Shortly after, they develop a fever and if not stopped, Spontaneous Human Combustion (it can be delayed by Cold spells, Quench and varius cure and delay-poison spells, but not neutralized). Or DarkEarth Dust, which slowly petrifies the victim.

 

[LostSoul]

Erm. Depends on your group. If they're relativly new to gaming, maybe; otherwise, they'll see that hoary old chestnut commin from ten miles.

Hopefully not; I won't be giving them any hints, and I won't be playing the Succubus in any way other than a good guy. Hell, she's probably not even thinking anything but what the guy would be thinking. They, might suspect it, of course, but I'll probably have him get wounded somewhere in the adventure. Hell (once again ), I might even make the Succubus a Paladin.

Any advice you might have to trick the PCs into believing that she's the fiance would be helpful.

With regards to the cult, don't worry about the specifics of the ToEE forces; I'm just looking for your basic evil cultist ideas. The twist here is that the cult is working with the Succubus (although she knows that they are expendable) and against the assassins. (They want to provoke the Viscounty into joining the Greyhawk Wars because it takes pressure off of them. Who wants to look into a cult in the sticks while you're fighting a war against an evil monolithic empire who's on the verge of victory?)

But where does this cult fit into the rest of the plot? That's where I'm stuck.

 

[LostSoul]

Bump.

Does anyone have any ideas? This is supposed to be a creative site. Where's the adventure help?

 

[Dirigible]

Where's the adventure help?

Not available on Satudays/Sundays after your thread has been here for only eight hours, amigo

Give 'er time.

 

[Wycen]

Have you seen the comic book sized d20 adventure called "The Succubus Bride"? I have no idea who makes it, but it was during the initial flurry of 3E back in 2000, so it probably is not a very good adventure.

Anyway, insane cultists? Tharizdun likes those types. Failing that, Vecna. But you'd have to come up with some convoluted plot why either of those deities are interested in sweet little Kitty.

 

[janta]

The one thing that occurred to me is: what if Kitty isn't all that sweet? At the moment, we've got her painted as an innocent victim of a cult and/or a succubus, but what if she's really a member of the evil cult? Let's see, she's from a country not yet committed to the war, and the fiance is from a country that is in the war. (Right?) Perhaps Kitty and the succubus have some sort of compact, and the wedding is the trigger for some event that will turn the tide in favor of the bad guys.

Dunno, just brainstorming...
--Janta

 

[LostSoul]

Not available on Satudays/Sundays after your thread has been here for only eight hours, amigo

Give 'er time.

Uh, yep. I guess that was one of those "trolls" people keep talking about.

 

[LostSoul]

The one thing that occurred to me is: what if Kitty isn't all that sweet? At the moment, we've got her painted as an innocent victim of a cult and/or a succubus, but what if she's really a member of the evil cult? Let's see, she's from a country not yet committed to the war, and the fiance is from a country that is in the war. (Right?) Perhaps Kitty and the succubus have some sort of compact, and the wedding is the trigger for some event that will turn the tide in favor of the bad guys.

That's a good idea, I like it. Although I would like to have Kitty end up getting used by the Succubus in the long run. I'm not sure if I want her to know that her lover is, in fact, a horrid soul-sucking demon from the pits of Hell (okay, the Abyss), but she might know that he's got some sort of agenda.

Or maybe she's the "only" one with the agenda and she's the one who has contacted these evil insane cultists for whatever reason. Even the Succubus (who does work for the cult, but is higher up the food chain than the cultists that Kitty's working with) doesn't really know about this connection. (Cells working against each other...)

That would mean I have to ask, "What does Kitty want?" That should be helpful to flesh out a plot that goes deeper than "Evil cult wants to be Evil".

Thanks for the help!