RangerWickett
Legend
I'm running a game in 12 hours, and 8 of those will involve me sleeping. I could half-ass this on my own, but maybe I'll be lucky and you all want to brag about cool ideas you have.
The party will be investigating a town where there were reports of hauntings. The PCs just got out of a stressful dungeon, so I want the town to be at least temporarily safe and welcoming, so they can unwind, recover, and bond as party members. It's established already that this is just a small town, maybe just a village. If you could help me fill in details, that'd be grand. Here's what I have so far:
Veratha
Town at the edge of the woods, near a river, with nowhere important upstream, but a major city about 4 days downstream by raft. A century ago this was on a pilgrimage route to a holy site for the god of civilization, but that god died. This town had a temple for a different god, the goddess of proper death/burial/psychopomps, and also goddess of prophecy, who apparently foresaw the other god's death but chose not to tell anyone. People were irked. In this town in particular, the church of that goddess was attacked by an angry worshiper of the dead god, who killed the senior priests and several underlings. The town lost most of its population after that, and the survivors chose to abandon the church.
The forest has grown up around the church in the intervening decades, and the part of the town that's still inhabited is along the river. At sunrise and sunset you can spot the church's spire that pokes above the forest, and by some still-lingering magic, the church's doors only open at just before dusk, and then close just after dawn, even though no one works there any more.
The forest has a lot of snakes, particularly pale white ones, and the townsfolk raise pet mongooses to keep the snakes out of town.
Every once in a while, maybe once a year, a person will go missing. But for the past few months people have vanished more often, and one tracker who went into the woods found what looked like an adult human had molted off all his skin, but it was too dry to tell to whom it had belonged.
The Real Threat
A century ago, a pair of adventurers who were lovers operated near the town - Suban and Pharavian. Pharavian, the woman of the pair worshiped the god of civilization, and she perished in battle shortly before her god died. Suban, the distraught man, brought Pharavian's body to be resurrected, but the church couldn't do it because her soul had chosen not to return. Refusing to accept it, Suban killed the priests in a rage, then dragged several of the younger priests into the forest where he chained them to trees and mutilated them - real cenobite stuff, peeling off their skin, tearing out their ribs, and drinking their blood. He knew the goddess of death abhorred the undead, and he knew if he committed enough atrocities he'd come back and curse the church. He blamed the goddess for being too weak to bring his love Pharavian back.
Now he's something like a vampire, with a serpentine twist instead of your old wolves and bats. The other priests were turned into ghouls, but they are still chained to the trees.
The townsfolk who were alive then saw the victims but were too horrified to take them down, and they fled and kept the secret of what had happened. Really only the people who never learned the details stuck around, so the real history is a mystery. Previously Suban just took one victim per year, but in a recent storm one of the trees was toppled, and the chained ghoul got free and has been stalking the town.
Eventually the party will track Suban down, and have to free the bodies of those he tormented and give a proper burial to his love Pharavian in order to defeat him for good. I want him to be a tragic figure in case the party wants to redeem him (maybe he's repentant?), but of course monstrous in case they want to kick some butt.
What I Don't Have
It's a town. The PCs will come and rest here, get to know folks, learn things are spooky, talk to people whose loved ones went missing. What are the details? Who's here? How are they interesting and fun to roleplay with? What cheerful traits of the town outweigh the spookiness and tragedy?
Maybe I'll dream something. Otherwise, I'm trusting in your creativity and generosity. Goodnight.
The party will be investigating a town where there were reports of hauntings. The PCs just got out of a stressful dungeon, so I want the town to be at least temporarily safe and welcoming, so they can unwind, recover, and bond as party members. It's established already that this is just a small town, maybe just a village. If you could help me fill in details, that'd be grand. Here's what I have so far:
Veratha
Town at the edge of the woods, near a river, with nowhere important upstream, but a major city about 4 days downstream by raft. A century ago this was on a pilgrimage route to a holy site for the god of civilization, but that god died. This town had a temple for a different god, the goddess of proper death/burial/psychopomps, and also goddess of prophecy, who apparently foresaw the other god's death but chose not to tell anyone. People were irked. In this town in particular, the church of that goddess was attacked by an angry worshiper of the dead god, who killed the senior priests and several underlings. The town lost most of its population after that, and the survivors chose to abandon the church.
The forest has grown up around the church in the intervening decades, and the part of the town that's still inhabited is along the river. At sunrise and sunset you can spot the church's spire that pokes above the forest, and by some still-lingering magic, the church's doors only open at just before dusk, and then close just after dawn, even though no one works there any more.
The forest has a lot of snakes, particularly pale white ones, and the townsfolk raise pet mongooses to keep the snakes out of town.
Every once in a while, maybe once a year, a person will go missing. But for the past few months people have vanished more often, and one tracker who went into the woods found what looked like an adult human had molted off all his skin, but it was too dry to tell to whom it had belonged.
The Real Threat
A century ago, a pair of adventurers who were lovers operated near the town - Suban and Pharavian. Pharavian, the woman of the pair worshiped the god of civilization, and she perished in battle shortly before her god died. Suban, the distraught man, brought Pharavian's body to be resurrected, but the church couldn't do it because her soul had chosen not to return. Refusing to accept it, Suban killed the priests in a rage, then dragged several of the younger priests into the forest where he chained them to trees and mutilated them - real cenobite stuff, peeling off their skin, tearing out their ribs, and drinking their blood. He knew the goddess of death abhorred the undead, and he knew if he committed enough atrocities he'd come back and curse the church. He blamed the goddess for being too weak to bring his love Pharavian back.
Now he's something like a vampire, with a serpentine twist instead of your old wolves and bats. The other priests were turned into ghouls, but they are still chained to the trees.
The townsfolk who were alive then saw the victims but were too horrified to take them down, and they fled and kept the secret of what had happened. Really only the people who never learned the details stuck around, so the real history is a mystery. Previously Suban just took one victim per year, but in a recent storm one of the trees was toppled, and the chained ghoul got free and has been stalking the town.
Eventually the party will track Suban down, and have to free the bodies of those he tormented and give a proper burial to his love Pharavian in order to defeat him for good. I want him to be a tragic figure in case the party wants to redeem him (maybe he's repentant?), but of course monstrous in case they want to kick some butt.
What I Don't Have
It's a town. The PCs will come and rest here, get to know folks, learn things are spooky, talk to people whose loved ones went missing. What are the details? Who's here? How are they interesting and fun to roleplay with? What cheerful traits of the town outweigh the spookiness and tragedy?
Maybe I'll dream something. Otherwise, I'm trusting in your creativity and generosity. Goodnight.