Propose a D&D adventure secretly based on a TV show or movie, and we'll try to guess what show

[RangerWickett]

Quick game. Give a pitch for a D&D adventure, and base it on some fairly well-known TV show or movie. Then other folks should try to guess the show, and post their own idea.

1. The PCs are called by a friend to a sleepy, safe town where the inn overlooks a waterfall. A young woman beloved by most of the dead was found murdered when her body washed up on shore. The PCs need to solve the murder, but they might get embroiled in local affairs, like a human trafficking ring, traffic of minor cursed magic items, and a lingering paranoia that someone in the town is a killer. But is the real threat something supernatural out in the woods?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

How is the coffee in town?

A guy I used to game with decades ago used to do this all the time. He was ostensibly a terribly GM, but somehow he could make these rip-offs fun.

Okay, here's my attempt...

The party’s wizard has been seeing strange visions of torture in his crystal ball. The PCs must find the source of these visions. Who is responsible? Is it the Far Realm? But as they delve deeper, the visions start to bleed into their world, blurring reality.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I've run whole campaigns that way.

The party’s wizard has been seeing strange visions of torture in his crystal ball. The PCs must find the source of these visions. Who is responsible? Is it the Far Realm? But as they delve deeper, the visions start to bleed into their world, blurring reality.

Videodrome.


Dateline: Ebberon. Ships at sea are being dragged under by some huge, mysterious, tentacled monster. The tentacles don't have the suction-cups typical of giant octopi or kraken, and most of the passengers and crew have been able to escape, so far. Naval vessels, traders, and whalers of all kingdoms have been attacked. An expedition is being mounted to seek out and destroy this strange creature...

 

[RangerWickett]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

(And Ralif accurately guessed mine is Twin Peaks, which also has the best cherry pie in the state. Damned good food.)

It's a surprisingly boring, tedious time for the party, which has found no leads for adventuring. One evening at the tavern they're contacted by a black-clad woman, claiming to be a wizard's apprentice and saying her master can help them. They are pursued by mysterious figures who attempt to stop the meeting, but if they reach the abandoned house where the mage waits, he explains that they've been kidnapped by telepathic monsters who are feeding on their dreams. The whole world they believe is real is just a shared nightmare.

He has faced these monsters before and can awaken the party, but he has had to be careful because by entering the dreamscape he's at risk of being trapped too. He performs a ritual to free the PCs, but the monsters strike and capture him, even as the PCs jolt awake in a hideous cavern patrolled by tentacled monsters. They can link up with the apprentice in the real world, who asks for their help to delve back into the dreamscape to rescue her master.

 

[Tony Vargas]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Correct! the sea monster is an actual living gargantuan spiral-shell Nautilus (with the inner chambers air-filled and furnished, complete with pipe organ) under the control of Prince Dakkar of Cyre, who transferred his soul into a warforged body, survived the creation of the Mournland, and has become an aggressive pacifist.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Matrix.

A druid/wizard alchemist approaches the party with a problem. He thinks he's managed to locate the source of the taint that's been ... changing... the forest animals. Unhappily, some unusually small (diminutive) fey have built their village in the same location. The fey however, are hostile and uncooperative, preventing the druid from determining more. So the alchemist's needs the party's help to determine if the village is located on top of the source, is the source, or if it's the fey themselves; as well as the party's help in resolving the issue peacefully, if possible.

 

[Tony Vargas]

He thinks he's managed to locate the source of the taint that's been ... changing... the forest animals. Unhappily, some unusually small (diminutive) fey have built their village in the same location. The fey however, are hostile and uncooperative, preventing the druid from determining more.

Between the previews and the claims that Avatar was similar to it, I'm guessing:

Fern Gully?

...

Tiandra, the Summer Queen, and the enigmatic Prince of Frost have reached a tenuous treaty, in honor of which, he has gifted her with seven magnificent astral diamonds set in mithral to adorn her raiment at their next meeting. One of the jewels is stolen at a ball, and the Queen calls upon her mortal allies to find the thief and retrieve it, before the implied offense gives the Prince a pretext to plunge the Feywild into war...

 

[TarionzCousin]

Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross are all graphically bludgeoned to death.

Hmmm.... Am I doing it right?

 

[GuardianLurker]

Fern Gully?

Nope. Though it'd fit, I suppose. (Ditto for Nausica of the Winds as well). But neither were what I thinking of.

Admittedly, I took a few liberties and flipped the protagonist and antagonist roles to make it a player-character-friendly adventure. Here's a hint: The druid alchemist has a tabby cat familiar.

And Tiandra has me stumped, even though I can see the entire plot in my mind. ARGH! ... Pink Panther?

.................

While traveling, the party make a brief side trip - a pair of old colleagues sent a message to the party's cleric. They've been exploring an old temple complex and strange events and even stranger deaths have been happening. They need the cleric's (and the party's help). When the party arrives, they find that the cleric forgot to mention that the colleagues are an ex-lover and their spouse (who is also an old friend of his). The rest is true, though the friends don't seem to be as eager as they should be.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Edit: double post. Please remove.