Hey all yall Feng Shui veterans . . .

[Jeph]

I need plot help. Just got the book yesterday, stayed up till 2 AM reading it through. I'm going to be running the first non-dnd game that our group has ever played, in two days. I got as far as the first scene, and then--WRITER"S BLOCK. Aaaargh!

So, the first scene is a combat at the docks against about 15 (participation and actual price may varry) mooks, and a beefed-down (opposite of beefed-up) Sorceress from the Eaters of the Lotus. It occurs when the PCs are hanging out at a seafood resteraunt (with a verry special soy sauce . . . I'll get to that later), and then the sorceress sets off a few crates labeled FLAMABLE! with her Blast.

Now, this special soy sauce happens to be baught from a French trader named Francois de Mercille. It also happens to be a magical potion that transforms the imbiber into a horrific beast whenever they're exposed to star light. And the Eaters of the Lotus want it back.

Now, I'm kinda stuck. A few possable plot leads/questions that need to be answered:

Why do the EotL want the potion?
What will the other two fight scenes be?
What happens to the customers who already ate some food, tainted with the magical soy sauce?

All help is appreciated.

-Jeph

 

[Jeph]

*BUMP!*

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The Eaters of the Lotus want the sauce so that they may create sleeper hordes of demons in the otherwise magic light modern junctures.

Think of how the wheel would have to respond to such a threat! Starlight would be shown to cause cancer! The Eaters would rule the night!

The real question is why/how the sauce is in this restaurant. A plot by Jammers to release it on a wide and random fashion? A mad cooks attempt to see if people will think it tasty?

The nice bonus is seeing how the pcs react to hordes of innocent temporary zombies. You should give them a kill the master zombie out so they have to be attempting to not slaughter the people. Maybe there is a very simple antidote, or maybe the zombies have two heads and if you hit the right head they go back to normal, but the wrong head...

Man I love coming up with scenarios for Feng Shui.

 

[Jeph]

Sweet ideas.

I plan to have the chef just think it's a really high quality sauce. He don't know nuthin! Good reason for the EotL wanting it, though! I'll make the encounter with the temporary zombies the last fight scene.

I have a second set piece, though: a fight with a dragon and an assassin in a burning car factory. The EotL plant some fake leads to the factory, and the PCs (knowing my players) will gobble them up. And then thy seal the factory and set off the c4. When that strangely fails to do much at all, the back-up plan kicks in--a bunch of street toughs with guns, a hired hitman, and a dragon who has been summoned just for the occasion. I plan to have the hitman survive and act as a sniper durring the final battle scene, but I'm not sure if the PCs will let him get away.

Now . . .all I need is a location for the final battle, with a bunch of temporary zombies, a hitman, and, maybe, an uber-sorcerer or sumtin?

 

[Voneth]

If you haven't run the adventure in the book, steal that. It has a Lotus villan and a great set of combat info for a burning apartment building.

 

[CCamfield]

I don't think the zombies being last is a good idea for the final fight scene. It seems sort of anti-climatic.

What about some sort of rush to find a cure? Maybe some herbs or a somewhat common food item. (Chinese hopping vampires can be defeated with a certain type of rice...) You could play the fight with the monsters for laughs, as the players have to stuff whatever food item it is into the mouths of the zombies, who are trying to eat them at the same time.

I have some conceptual problems with the Lotus summoning disposable (Western style fire-breathing?) dragons and using C4. As in, "Why would I use these overgrown fireworks when all the powers of sorcery are mine to command?"

Don't forget demons. Supernatural Creatures can be customized however you like; a seemingly friendly and helpful NPC could suddenly sprout abyssal spines as an ambush is sprung on the players... and you could pick a troublesome damage immunity (to bullets, or to physical blows) to spice things up.