Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8152603" data-attributes="member: 5948">Go Hard or Go GnomeFor the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPGDivine PestilenceFool's ErrandTriple CrossCivilized MagicRampaging GnomesFlowering TowerA PC (Recipient) experiences a life event warranting a major party, eg 21st birthday, moving in with a partner. With the party looming,  Recipient receives as a present a novelty garden gnome (with one green thumb) in a pose/outfit that's personally meaningful to them. It's a thoughtful, funny gift. The gnome brings luck. Nearby plants blossom. Vampires trip over it. Recipient's crush finds it adorable. After Recipient has noticed this, they discover it holding up a sign reading 'help'. The gnome (Lobdibble) asks Recipient to retrieve its friends, other garden gnomes (1 per PC) that must be bought, stolen from obsessive collectors, recovered from demon-infested junkyards. Lobdibble can locate them magically.The gnomes:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">are 1800s-era Watchers cursed to gnomehood by the Roman flower goddess Flora</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">lie that this happened when they stumbled into a lost shrine</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">actually were cursed for trying to steal Flora's power via a ritual.  They believe upper-class civilised magicians like themselves could wield power more productively than any decadent minor goddess.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">except Lobdibble, are superficially nice but priggish, self-righteous, arrogant, prejudiced underneath. They're the BAD old type of Watchers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">each has one green thumb</li> </ul>The gnomes ask the PCs to help them perform an atonement ritual to Flora, to lift the curse.  Their real plan:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">pretend to perform an atonement ritual</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">distract magically-knowledgeable PC/PCs (Researcher) in case they recognise what's happening</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">while Researcher is away, 'realise' the ritual must be performed immediately (for magic gobbledegook reasons)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">attempt the power theft ritual again, and with additional participants (PCs) helping, succeed</li> </ul>The gnomes ask Researcher to recover an magically-warded cache of tomes the gnomes hid pre-gnome-ing. By passing an Intelligence+Occultism check en route, Researcher realises that the gnomes' ward-disabling spell is nonsensical. A subsequent Intelligence+Notice check deduces that this is a fool's errand and the gnomes lied. Succeeding on these checks allows Researcher to warn other PCs against participating in the ritual. PC who participate contract the Green Thumb Curse.Flora punishes transgressors with the Green Thumb Curse, a divine pestilence. Its stages are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">one thumb turns green</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">small white beard sprouts, cheeks go rosy, sufferer starts shrinking, silly hat appears on head and can't be removed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">transformed into garden gnome</li> </ul>The ritual is performed (if Researcher interrupts, the gnomes perform it with a hired sorcerer later).  The first half succeeds.  An enormous flowering tower of leaves and blossom sprouts over the party venue - Flora's power nexus, her heart manifest naked in the world.  Regular people think it's an amazing floral decoration job.  Gnomes make themselves scarce, and prepare.Lobdibble approaches Recipient. He explains that, thanks to associating with Recipient, he's had second thoughts, and explains the gnomes' true plans.  He tearfully begs the PCs to stop (ie, kill) the other gnomes before they complete the ritual.  He says they plan to finish it at the party, as Flora is closer to the world when young revelers are near. He's lying. Years ago in despair, he bargained with Chrolimothus the Seeder, a long-time plant-demon enemy of Flora.  He's performing a triple-cross.PCs researching Flora discover she's a goddess of blossoming youth and joy, and her rites involve scanty clothing, alcohol and wild abandon.  Bloodshed and violence displease her.  Final 3-way confrontation at the party. Flora's destiny is shaped by what takes place in her power nexus, not by who wins the fight.  Goals are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs: Joy.  Ensure the party is awesome and attendees celebrate hedonistically to honour Flora.  This is a good opportunity for PCs to play cupid and any simmering sexual tension to come to a head (acts of fertility please Flora...).  Minimise violence.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rampaging gnomes: Control, oppression.  Ruin the party, impose 'civilisation' on the bacchanalia to suppress Flora and bind her power to their notion of order.  They're clammy-hearted Watcher-level sorcerers and use all their ingenuity to ruin everyone's night, calling police, playing gooseberry, nasty punitive magic, brutal beatings of the 'immoral', humiliation and shaming.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lobdibble: Kill, maim, my plant-demon minions! Wet the soil with innocent blood! Subvert the ritual and feed Flora to Chrolimothus! Start fights, get PCs killing gnomes and vice versa, demonstrate that revelry is just chaotic darkness dressed up nice.</li> </ul>The flowering tower's plants reflect which side is 'winning'. PCs; gorgeous and verdant. Gnomes; dying.  Lobdibble; sprouting vicious thorn-fanged maws.Epilogue: Flora blesses successful PCs with eternally-luxuriant houseplants.  Any Curse-sufferers are cured.  Surviving partygoers remember only an amazing night in a spectacularly flower-themed venue, which regrettably got crashed by oddly short gang members.</blockquote>

Verification