Help with an Adventure Idea

[Shane_Leahy]

Just in case any of my players are reading this...



















I have been asked to run a Ravenloft adventure for my old gaming group. I will be doing this over the internet with the Fantasy Grounds software.

The starting characters can be from almost any Realm they want and start at 5th level.

My problem is I only have a kernel of an idea, how to get them to Ravenloft and not much beyond that.

Basically I want them to wake up, dressed in rags or gowns in a small cell, alone. Screams, whimpering, etc. can be heard. Something or someone has drawn them into Ravenloft and right into a Sanitarium. I am using the Sanitarium maps and possibly the maps from around it from WOTC site found here near the bottom.

Now I need some ideas, who or what drew them there and why? Normally in Ravenloft adventures before the party and fully escape they have to set some wrong right or lay a soul to rest kinda thing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

OK, stream of consciousness style here -

First, I like the setup, especially if its a relatively one-shot kind of deal. Second - the first question I ask is "who's running the sanitarium?" And to a lesser extent, why. I like the idea of making the players think the Director/Doctor is the big bad, while having that be a misdirection - maybe one of the patients is the REAL bad guy, possibly possessing people all over the place in order to do terrible things while never dirtying his own fingernails. Get the PC's to kill a few guys they THINK are bad, and have them turn out to have been possessed. Eventually, the bad guy will start trying to possess the PC's and turn them against one another, but by then they may have found some protection from that danger....

 

[Andre]

Did you ever see the first season episodes (6 & 7) in Alias where Sydney goes undercover in a Romanian (Bulgarian?) insane asylum to get info from one of the inmates? That might fit quite well with what you have in mind. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend renting it.

Here's a brief synopsis of the episodes:









SD-6 needs the fingertip of Gareth Parkashoff, now deceased, and whose burial location is unknown except to his assassin.

In the guise of a patient, Sydney must infiltrate the asylum in Bucharest where his killer, Martin Shepard has been recently committed.

With the aid of SD-6 Agent Fisher, posing as the physician committing her, Sydney's mission is to trigger Shepard for the body's coordinates by reciting a poem by John Donne, a known key from this assassin's programming.

Sydney is admitted upon their arrival in Romania...but her discharge will prove to much more complex, for only too late does the CIA discover that this institute is also run by Kreshnik, a K-Directorate agent.

And when Sydney finds Agent Fisher with his throat slashed, the gates to this institution appear to be sealed for good...

Sydney is trapped within the walls of Mangalev institute in Bucharest, Romania. Moments after finding SD-6 Agent Fisher -- his throat, slashed -- she is immobilized by a tranquilizer, and awakens in an electroshock tub -- interrogated by K-Directorate agent Dr. Kreshnik. He demands to know if she received information from inpatient Martin Shepard, the FTL-trained assassin. Sydney assures she can extract the coordinates of Parkashoff's body from Shepard, as they have now established a basis for trust -- but only if Kreshnik allows her to live. K-Directorate grants her a stay of execution...until nightfall.

Seizing an opportunity, she fights off Kreshnik, Ferroq and the orderlies -- and with Shepard, escapes to a remote CIA safehouse. The assassin's sight has been impaired by the FTL's tampering with his memory. When he looks at Sydney, he sees in black and white and cannot make a clear recollection.

But as his memory returns, he reveals to her that he was Danny's killer, deprogrammed by SD-6 Agent McCullough...and Sydney tries harder than ever to forgive him, in the face of a killing for which Shepard was not truly responsible.