Ideas for my new Gothic Horror Fantasy setting

[Rel]

So last night my wife and I were batting around some more ideas and I think we hit upon something really cool.

The basic notion is that there was this inventor/architect/artist who lived a couple hundred years ago who was instrumental in building some of the cathedrals of the Church and personally made many of the stained glass windows that are part of their beauty. I liked the idea that this genius hid some kind of message or clues into his designs that the PC's might discover.

What I came up with was that the light shines through some of the windows such that the images from more than one window overlap once in a while and present the possibility of somebody noticing the message hidden in the combined image. Course the trick is that you can't really do this with a single light source, so I figured I'd better add a second sun to my world.

So now I've got this binary star system and my genius inventor who was hiding this message in his art. Then I added another idea to the mix: Once in a very long while the suns and one of the inner planets line up such that my world experiences a total eclipse (this would be made exceedingly rare by virtue of having a pair of suns rather than just one). Such an eclipse might be the catalyzing event that results in the Darkness emerging once more to sweep across the land.

So back to my inventor dude: His study of astronomy resulted in him building this amazing orrery so that he could make sure to show off his stained glass art. By running the orrery backwards he discovered that the total eclipse coincided with the last time the Darkness swept over the world and he could then predict when it would happen again. For some reason (I'm leaning toward him wanting to avoid being branded a heretic) he kept quiet about this but hid clues in his art, hoping that somebody in a later age would figure it all out.

Another idea loosely associated with this (and I'm not married to this yet) is the concept that the Darkness has heralded the end of various "ages" that the world has been through. So perhaps the first was the Age of Dragons, which ended with the tide of Darkness destroying their dominion and bringing about the rise of the "Elder Races" (Elves & Dwarves). Then the Age of the the Elders was ended with another tide of Darkness that was beaten back by the Prophets of Men. Now the Darkness is threatening to wipe out the Age of Men and bring about something new.

I dunno. Lots of good stuff I can play with here. I'm still mulling things over but I really dig the sort of Divinci Code concept in general.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A little Da Vinci Code, a little Nightfall, a little Pitch Black...niiiiiiiiice!

 

[Whisper72]

Okay, maybe a bit out on a limb here, but consider this...

The prophets, their army and a bunch of their disciples when to the grey peaks to finally destory the Darkness. The final battle took place inside. Only the prophets and their 'henchmen' / disciples went inside. They did not win. They lost. But. The Darkness had been wounded and all his armies and minions were dead. He would have to lay low for a loooong time to recover. What he did is to imbue part of himself into the less powerful disciples who survived. These walked out of the stronghold of the Darkness and proclaimed victory. The dead prophets and their white book are encased in the grey peaks.

These disciples set to form the church. They rule the world. Ostensibly good. Most of the bishops etc. are truly believing they are doing good. At the centre is a group of bishops carrying the spark of darkness. They are responsible for writing subverted versions of the 'white book'. They purposely take sides against eachother, splintering the faith. Of course they do not take action against the growin darkness, they secretly welcome it. The albino's are indeed the prophets reborn, but at the centre of power, the bishops with the sparks of Darkness try to convince the rest that they need to take action and kill them...

The cathedrals are indeed centres of power, but also the centre of the spread of darkness, corruption etc. As the Darkness grows in power, the corrupted bishops also gain real powers / spells. They have been experimenting to create an army that will hark to the call of darkenss under the guide of creating an army to combat it.

Subterfuge, treason, corruption etc. abound...

 

[nedjer]

I'm honestly not sure at all what exactly the first adventure is going to be at this point. But I've got an idea for a villain that I really like.

Basically this guy is the personification of the Spirit of Crows. He's all dressed in black. Big hook nose and dark cape. Crows follow him everywhere.

He can transform into a flock of crows and has various other crow-related powers (man I LOVE how easy this is to do with Savage Worlds!). In general he won't be an overpowering enemy but very difficult to kill.

He is motivated to encourage strife and war between the various Church factions because battle means a feast for the crows. He will be attempting to undermine any peace process and foster discord such that big battles are likely.

However down the line he may come to the realization that the Darkness is bad for business. With the power of undeath sweeping over the land, eventually the crows will have little to eat. So he may turn from enemy to...well if not friend then at least the enemy of their other enemy.

No XP allowed for you, but that's an awesome . . . bet they've got some creepy flocking and teamwork habits in real life and they're such a classic 'omen'.

 

[Rel]

It may seem that I keep throwing out more ideas rather than responding to your feedback. That's not because I don't appreciate the input but right now I'm kind of in brainstorming mode and just trying to get my cool ideas into one spot. So please keep chiming in with any thoughts you may have.

The third character isn't completed yet but the basic concept is set and that is fueling my ideas for the opening adventure and starting point for the campaign. The third player wants his character to be the victim of an almost successful sacrifice to the Darkness. The ritual sacrifice that he was supposed to be part of was interrupted leaving him alive, but with something terrible inside him. Essentially he has a "gateway" into the Darkness inside him and he's able to harness that power to a limited extent. But when he really lets the bad stuff come out and play, it's horrific.

The player is going to put together a suite of powers but two of them are going to be Fear (which I suspect will be one of his "bread and butter" combat abilities) and Entangle. The Entangle will take the form of the gate inside him opening up and tentacles of some Elder Beast coming out of him to grab his opponents. Does that sound disconcerting to you? It sure as hell does to me! After some discussion we decided that when he does that it'll be more effective than a normal Entangle spell but he gains an automatic Dark Point every time he does it.

Anyway this puts a slight different spin on the Darkness than I was originally thinking, which is awesome. Instead of a purely undead/negative energy thing, this makes it more of a Cthulhu Horror/corruption/insanity thing, with a side order of undeath. Sounds fine to me!

So I'm thinking that the opening encounter could be the first two PC's (whom I'll shorthand refer to as Witch Hunter and Werewolf) interrupting the ritual sacrifice of the 3rd PC. I normally avoid that kind of "creating the party on the fly" in favor of having the party fully formed ahead of time, but I think I'll make an exception this time.

As for villains and location for this dastardly event, I sort of like the concept of having it take place in a Gothic flavored sewer. And that can only mean one thing (or maybe something else if you guys have cooler ideas): Rat Men! Some good old Skaven-esque chaos-worshiping Rat Men seem like great villains for the opening adventure. Specifically I'm thinking that they are more like Mole Rat Men who are hairless and extra gross.

I figure that Witch Hunter and Werewolf bust in mid-sacrifice and stop the ritual. The Rat Men will attack them while their High Priest summons Dark nasty spells out of the 3rd PC to hurl at the rest of the party! But the 3rd PC (I need a better shorthand name for him) can also try to harness his own inner Darkness to attack with. The PC's defeat the High Priest and the other Rat Men scatter into the tunnels, leaving behind some kind of Dark Codex book thing. Then the rest of the adventure can be them trying to figure out what is in the book while the Rat Men are hunting them trying to get the book back.

Needs some refinement but that sounds like a good starting point.

 

[Momeeche]

Well, so long as you don't call it something stupid like Ravenloft or anything.

 

[Korgoth]

Well, so long as you don't call it something stupid like Ravenloft or anything.

I vote for "Crowstudio".

Sounds like a fun campaign. I think Savage Worlds is a good choice of system, too.

Have you thought adapting some of the old Ravenloft material for use in the game? There were some cool ideas in there, and porting stuff over wouldn't be hard at all.

 

[Rel]

I vote for "Crowstudio".

Sounds like a fun campaign. I think Savage Worlds is a good choice of system, too.

Have you thought adapting some of the old Ravenloft material for use in the game? There were some cool ideas in there, and porting stuff over wouldn't be hard at all.

Believe it or not, Ravenloft is one of the few campaign settings that I have absolutely nothing from. If you know of specific stuff from it that would fit well with the ideas coming together here then I'm all ears.

Just had another brilliant brainstorming session with my wife over a tasty lunch (we're stuck at home today due to ice). I love having her as one of my players sometimes but man she's an AMAZING source of ideas when she's sitting a campaign out!

Couple of new ideas that came out of this discussion:

I think I'm going to tie my "talking skull" idea to my "Da Vinci Genius" idea and have it be HIS skull that they find at some point. Currently playing with two opposing ideas on that. One is that he was a genius/artist/inventor who got hit by a falling chunk of masonry and then began to have doomsday ideas of the Darkness coming again in a couple hundred years. The other is that he started as a normal worker helping to build one of the cathedrals and was hit on the head with a falling chunk of masonry, whereupon he became this genius/artist/inventor who was driven to build the orrery that presaged the coming Darkness. Either way his head injury resulted in the trepanning that included the gold plate on his skull that preserved his undead skull from the corruption of the Darkness.

Mr. Crow got some good ideas too. I like the notion that he's a sort of traveling storyteller/bard who knows the story of every major battle in history. Because he was THERE in the form of the crows who feasted upon the dead. He hopes that his tales of glory in battle will inspire people to fight thus providing more food for the crows. Furthermore, given the current state of civil war, his travels are allowing him to be an agent for multiple sides in the conflict. He gathers and relays intelligence for all sides in an effort to bring them into conflict early and often. I'm still not totally sure how I bring him into conflict with the PC's but I'm thinking that he might ask them to do some spying for him.

 

[nedjer]

Mr. Crow got some good ideas too. I like the notion that he's a sort of traveling storyteller/bard who knows the story of every major battle in history. Because he was THERE in the form of the crows who feasted upon the dead. He hopes that his tales of glory in battle will inspire people to fight thus providing more food for the crows. Furthermore, given the current state of civil war, his travels are allowing him to be an agent for multiple sides in the conflict. He gathers and relays intelligence for all sides in an effort to bring them into conflict early and often. I'm still not totally sure how I bring him into conflict with the PC's but I'm thinking that he might ask them to do some spying for him.

Maybe a Pied Piper/ Coram Men sideline?

 

[kristoaster]

I think I'm going to tie my "talking skull" idea to my "Da Vinci Genius" idea and have it be HIS skull that they find at some point. Currently playing with two opposing ideas on that. One is that he was a genius/artist/inventor who got hit by a falling chunk of masonry and then began to have doomsday ideas of the Darkness coming again in a couple hundred years. The other is that he started as a normal worker helping to build one of the cathedrals and was hit on the head with a falling chunk of masonry, whereupon he became this genius/artist/inventor who was driven to build the orrery that presaged the coming Darkness. Either way his head injury resulted in the trepanning that included the gold plate on his skull that preserved his undead skull from the corruption of the Darkness.

I think the first idea would work better, because then its like he was already capable of the work but didn't have the motivation, until fate stepped in and inspired/horrified him via the chunk of masonry. Adding both the ability and inspiration in one go might sound a little 'deus ex machina' instead of just 'he got clonked on the head, had a vision and used his talent to foretell it', although that might be what you're going for...