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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 139691" data-attributes="member: 812">Bwa-Ha-Ha! My players have finally figured out that one of the key building blocks of my campaign is that nobody acquires power unless they're cold-hearted bastards out to dominate the world. So there are no good guys.Right now, the party is attempting to restore the soul of one Tsing Kwan, former grand poo-bah of some secret order. This order is trying to prepare the world for the coming of a seriously nasty undead queen, but unfortunately a hundred years ago their grand poo-bah was not only killed but had her soul shattered -- done specifically to prevent the order from contacting her after death, as they would normally do.Okay, so restore the soul of grand poo-bah, fairly straightforward plot. First twist is kind of an "Upside Down" manuver -- the party is not asked to do this by the order (they actually don't even know it's possible) but instead by one very scary vampire sorcereress named Yuek Man Chong, who tells them that restoring Tsing Kwan's soul will tear a strip off ANOTHER scary sorcerer named Matai Shang, since he's the one who shattered her soul. So already it's getting kind of iffy.Second twist -- they soon discover that Madame Yuek is in fact the one who killed Tsing Kwan in the first place. She used to be enslaved to Matai Shang but is much better now. No, really.Third twist -- they also learn that one of their own members has a fragment of the shattered soul in their head. The only person who can see these fragments is an insane ghost who's in love with the chap carting the soul fragment around. Was that one twist or two? Hang on, now it starts to get complicated.Fourth twist -- the secret order of which Tsing Kwan used to be grand poo-bah has been largely subverted by Matai Shang and so whenever the party approach them for assistance in this whole venture, they get captured and tortured for information.Fifth twist -- since it was their erstwhile patron, Madame Yuek, who killed Tsing Kwan, even those members of the secret order who aren't now working for Matai Shang are terrified of her and won't speak to the party once they realise they're involved with her.Sixth twist -- Madame Yuek falls desperately in love with one of the party members and is actually trying to reform her incredibly wicked and depraved ways. She claims she wants to restore the soul of Tsing Kwan so she can apologise for the murder. Oh, and the subsequent destruction of the entire city. The rest of the party are sceptical, to say the least.Seventh twist -- oh well, never mind. It gets much worse. Turns out there's more secret orders, more cabals within those secret orders, more ghosts, a djinni, a fairie kingdom, a boat and more torture, death and horror than any of my players can shake a stick at. Heh. And of course some hot girl-on-girl action. Cause, well, do I really have to justify that?I don't know how all those slot into Col. Hardisson's categories or if they do. My method of twisting a plot is very simple. I come up with a simple story, something everyone knows, and then I choose one detail and ask myself, "What if this isn't true?" I then keep doing that until I get dizzy and fall over. If I can still understand what's actually going on at that point, I keep going.</blockquote>

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