My Campaign - HELP!!!!!!!!!! Need something Dark and Sinister

[Angelsboi]

Ok in my Ravenloft Campaign, the carnival i introduced has come and gone and 13 years has passed.

1 character who was 18, is now 31 and has become a priest of Ezra. Another character, who is an elf, is now a ranger rogue (and now looks 17), the NPC Octavaian who was 13 is now 26 and a prominant doctor (Necromancer) and the last player who was 12 is now 25 and a Clairsentient Psion.

The Psion is going to be gone for the next 3 game sessions (shes working for Dr. Illehusion in Nova Vaasa).

I need something to happen in the small, sleepy hamlet they all grew up in to draw them back.

There was the fear demon at the carnival that was feeding off of kids and they hate witches and witchcraft.

I need something dark and sinister to draw them back together.

Help?

BTW they are levels 1 to 2

 

[Zappo]

Since it's the trend, just Dark and Sinister or Vile?

 

[Angelsboi]

i dont have the book of vile darkness so just dark and sinister thanks

 

[maddman75]

Here's an idea I've thought of using, maybe it'll fit your game.

The characters all get word that the town is in uproar over witchcraft again. There have been several hunting groups go into the woods and never return. Hunting parties discover the bodies hacked apart around a tree with one person hanging by his neck, face badly cut. After the second group turned up like this, a wandering priest of the Lawgiver (assuming you are somewhere near Nova Vaasa? Otherwise substitute as appropriate) has set up shop and told the townspeople that witches inhabit the woods and sacrificed the men to demons. Already three townspeople have been found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake.

When the heroes arrive back in town, they discover a couple of things. First, there is no witch. There is a fey in the woods that are possessing the people, making him kill his friends, and then killing himself. The spirit watched with glee as the townsflok started burning each other. He became aware of them when the hunters moved too far back into his woods.

The priest wants to turn the village to control of the church and is using the witch scare to get rid of some local townsfolk. When the heroes uncover the fey, he'll make a run for it. You can then use him as a recurring villian or use it to introduce problems with his church.

 

[Angelsboi]

1) They are in a small hamlet (population 350) in Richmeleut.

2) The very first game i did was about witchcraft and one of the PCs' sister died because of it.

3) Interesting Idea but i dont think Fey would be in the Rchmeleut woods ...

PC INFO:

Cyrille Dawnay - elf (PC) - Sister died at the hands of a druid and ranger. He killed the ranger, the druid escaped and the other girl who assisted them, was burned at the stake for witchcraft. He has been in the hamlet and Mortigney with a local herbalist learning poison. He has the haunted feat. His sister still blames him for her death.

Octavian LeCroix - human (NPC) - Was arrested for witchery but later released. He left and traveled to Mordent to learn medecine and to be a doctor. He is now a necromancer. He was 'charmed' into letting the 'freakshow' have their way with him. He is fine now.

Gisele - human (PC) - Her parents drowned and she nearly drowned and now has hydrophobia. She cant seem to stay warm so she has developed Pyromania. She is a Clairsentiant Psionic and has traveled to Nova Vaasa to work with Dr. Illheusion at the Clinic For The Mentaly Diseased.

Note: Gisele wont be around for 3 games so i cant use her.

Michelle - human (PC) - He has studied the religion of Ezra and is now 31 years old. he has gone off to learn more about Ezra and her Anchorites. He is striving to become an anchorite.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Let's take a page from Delta Green:Countdown (which should be on every horror GM's shopping list, anyway...):

MINOR SPOILERS!





The town is in uproar! A strange cult is on the loose - they kidnap villagers (often influential and wealthy town councilmembers) and drill holes into their heads! Many of their victims die, and the rest join the cult! This should set any right-thinking PCs on the trail of these cultists...

The truth is that many townsfolk have been infested by demonic brain parasites. These critters can fly right through any organic matter, and use this to lodge themselves into the brain of people and control them. However, they are extremely afraid of sunlight (though it doesn't actually kill them), so if someone drills a hole into their skull, they will try to flee in panic... The cultists are actually the good guys, and are trying to free the village. Whether the PCs learn this before or after they slaughter a few of the "cultists" is up to them...


Ah, trepanation! I knew this was going to be useful in a campaign someday...

 

[Angelsboi]

Ummmmmmm think France 1540. No real drills as of yet.

And the only wealthy, influental man in town is the burgomeister.

 

[Angelsboi]

Thanks to ScS (on the Kargatane boards). It is supposed to be 3 adventures long:

Season of the Witch
?
Hell-o-ween

Fell free to add your own ideas. It needs to last 3 games.


About 13 years ago after everyone parted their ways, the people of the hamlet rooted out a solitary young and inexperienced hag, posing as a baker. She was kidnapping children and burrying their bodies at the root of a large tree. The hag was hung from the very tree she was corrupting, but not before laying her final curse:

"My goal, i shall not fail,
Hung to a tree, seperated claw and nail.
Now i die but you will see,
A bakers dozen opens the way for me!"

Since then, the Hag Tree has continued to grow on the edge of a farmer's land, becoming warped and twisted. Many say its because of the hag who was hung on it. The tree is horribly twisted and ugly with age, and some say that strange things go on near it at night.

Now, the hag has returned from the grave, resurected by the dark magic of the demonic tree. At the dawning of the harvest festival season, she hopes to finish the job she started 13 years ago. She intends to feed the tree the lives of young people (teenagers, children, and infants) so that it will rise as a hideous monster, a Death's Head Tree.

She has corrupted the farmer who owns the property near the tree. Under her supervision, he has hired on her minions, enchanted human adults, as laborers on his pumkin farm while she resides in the forest close by. The pumpkins, raised in the vile earth of the farm, are malignant creatures. Once freed of their mother plant, the gourds are possessed by demonic spirits. When midnight draws near, they become jack-o-lanterns, vines grow anew into a skeltal body. They gather together and seek out a victim, most thus far are teenagers, since at festival season they are usually out and about at night. The victim is either killed out right, or dragged to the hag, who sacrifices them to the Hag-tree.

The hag's black cat familiar is a common sight in town, though veryone thinks its quite harmless. The creature has a way of charming people into letting it into their homes. It can lie down over a sleeper's mouth and nose, effectivly suffocating them in their sleep.

She has a cache of magic items at her disposal to use against the hamlet.

Notes
- The hag has come back as a baker and has started her sweet shoppe back up.

- The festival, Trouver d'hiver (Finding Winter), has started 3 days after she has set up shoppe again. Many people have started to make fall colored candles and wax leaves and such.

- A local couple decides to get married and they leave for Mortigney for their honeymoon, but never quite make it.

-=Monsters=-
Mordelynn Gerrierre - Wizard 2 (Hag Age 2)
Various - Commoner 1
Jack-o-lantern creatures
Hag-Tree

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Ummmmmmm think France 1540. No real drills as of yet.

Well on that note, remember that Neanderthals and such did trepannation, and that was WAY before 1540...so drills are not necessary.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Ummmmmmm think France 1540. No real drills as of yet.

Hah! Doubt my words, will you? Then read this article!

And the only wealthy, influental man in town is the burgomeister.

Then get him and his family, and maybe another one...