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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8113947" data-attributes="member: 42856">Darker character secretsI am trying to make secrets darker to have an adventure closer to the horror theme than the usual adventure. I feel secrets goes from interesting to goofy, and but could be modified to fit to better to a grim tone. I am not sure I'll be using them all but here's what I came up with.Alagondar's scionOK, so you're the heir to a royal bloodline. Too bad, you won't profit from it within the context of the adventure. Right now, the regent will want you dead instead of putting you on the throne... Those regents, really... It's good, but it is not connected to the adventure. Suggestion is to send an assassin after the player. An assassin is CR8. As the players has no hint on how to identify the assassin, he'll probably be surprised by the attack. Basically, he could be attacked with advantage, all hit being criticals, with damage being therefore 10d6+3. Or the assassin could first strike from a distance, doing 1d8+3+7d6 per round until the group finds from where he strikes and cover the distance. A hand crossbow can strike from 96 meters away. That's not terrifying, that's just unfair, especially if you unleash the assassin too early at the party. Unless you play him dumb, which the GM shouldn't for an enemy with superior intelligence, he'll have ample time to prepare, won't fight to the death but will simply concentrate on his quarry and flee to get his bounty after his deed. No need to spread damage on the whole group.However, being hunted can be very satisfying to instill fear within the player. I'd improve this secret with several steps:1. Make the player aware that the track has started. The PCs will find a poster with the face of Lurchgard "the Cat" in the town they visit, with a bounty of 100 gp, all that the Council can afford. He was seen unboarding a small supply ship from Neverwinter. His reputation can be either known to a PC with an adequate check (with advantage for people with eithr noble or seedy background...) to be a sadistic assasin, with a flawless track record, and the tendancy to play with his victims, hence his nickname. With some luck, the PC will mistake him with Sephek Kaltro, but the character with the secret will connect the dots. Will he reveal himself to his party members, whom he knows from very little time? Is that safe? Make it known that the killer will be closer as they make themselves known and identifyable... as the first part of the campaign rely on building a reputation for the group, it might be worrying when they hear town crier saying everywhere that they solved one or more of the small missions... Have a first encounter with Lurchgard botched. He jumps on them out of nowhere, while in town, but after round 1 he decides to flee because a group of guards just wandered by. Make it clear he's concentrating on his quarry (even if he drops his target with damage on round 1, the rest of the party should prevent death before the third failed death save). But being hit with a truckload of d6 at level 2 or 3 should frighten the players. Have another encounter with him be indirect. He could bribe a child to deliver a note to the PC, telling him he knows he survived and he will kill him. Third attack will be indirect as well, maybe through poisons. 5e assassins use a 7d6 poison damage, why not poison the food the players will enjoy? After all, do players regularly cast the puny 1st level Purify food and drinks when having lunch? Well, even if they succed a  DC 14 Survival check to notice the odd taste and spit the food (2d6 damage only for them) and warn their friends (3d6 damage for them...) they probably will. Third attempt will be sabotage. When the PCs will travel between two safe areas, they'll cross some pass with snow... who wouldn't like an avalanche? Lurchgard will just be there blowing a horn of avalanche he got blessed just for his purpose. I'll make avalanche deadlier as well because right now the weather in general is just a mild inconvenience for heroes, but that's enough for now. Lurchgard will of course be there to "help the characters as they emerge from the snow (but, to make the fight not-unwinnable, he'll have spend all of his poison on the food last time and will only rely on sneak attacks made toward character who emerge painfully from under the snow... Of course, Lurchgard's dying words will be "my brothers will avenge my death". He's wearing a tattoo of the Brotherhood of Bhaal... (No further assassination attempt will be made at the players during the adventure, but why waste a perfect opportunity to instill paranoia?DoppelgangerTwo freebie at-will power: detect thoughts and taking the appearance of an humanoid. That's pretty useful in an investigation or infiltration scenario... but it's not horrific. Unless the PC is warned that the population of the Dale will kill any doppelganger on sight. A very easy Intelligence (history) check for outsiders, and a common knowledge from local, is the story of the doppelganger who usurped the identify of the speakers in the past and weakened the unity of the ten-towns at a critical moments in history, only to be defeated by a past hero... the old laws putting any doppelganger to death is still prevailing. Inform the PC that the GM is keeping track of "discovery points". When they reach 10, everyone in the Dale will be hostile unless the characters saved a town from destruction by the chardalyn dragon, in which case this town will tolerate the doppelganger's party. Outing is secret to fellow PCs grants 3 notoriety points, using the power grants 1 if they a good at minimizing consequences, up to three (impersonating an authority figure who will then deny having been here or done what they did). Informe the PC of how much points he has accrued. Do not inform him on how much points the tracks has before his identify is outed and everyone turns hostile. At some points along the track, have town criers shouts doppelganger's warning and have people in the town ask them a few questions "to make sure they are not doppelgagners impersonating the new heroes of the dale"... You get cool powers, but you'd better not be caught using them. Of course hostility shouldn't be equal to outright attack (it would make the campaign unplayable if the character suddenly decides to transform in the middle of the town square on market day) but a lot of suspicion and accusation of being in league with the malediction affecting the dale.Drizzt fanWell... That's perfectly in line with the horror theme. I'd consider dropping it altogether. Unless one is holding a piece of his signature cloak. It's an object linked to him, so it's a crucial component for a ritual based on sympathic magic to affect Drizzt. He's after all the local hero and he hasn't been acting to do anything to help. Build and reinforce the idea that the cloak is a prized possession of the PC, then make him choose if he will abandon it to be burned in an attempt to make an specialized ritual to bring Drizzt back to the Dale. Except of course Drizzt is still under the influence of the demons summoned to the underdark. How will the character react when he expands his most prized possession only to discover that the hero he believed in is totally uninterested and sends a demonic panther across the portal to punish the one who dared to disturb  him from his more pressing matters? The problem is... the PC's fandom will have very few opportunity to arise in play, as it's forced upon him through out-of-camera background, so there will be very little attachement to drizzt in the first place.Elusive ParamourThe Calishite got news of the disaster happening the dales. Out of solidarity, they sent a ship full of provisions. By 1489, the pasha are supposed to be deposed and the human slaves should have overthrown them... Former slaves felt they could spare some of the Calishite wealth by sending some supplies to help other afflicted humans... Except of course the PC don't know how the political situation evolved. Have the population rejoice at the news of a merchantman bound for the Dale from Calimport, even if the report from Luskan (Sending-made) mentionned a ship full of heavily armed soldiers... (it's just to ward off pirates...). At some point, the character should have the opportunity to discover the truth (either by inquiring about Calimshan and exapending significant ressources into it or maybe by being found by a calishite in the ten-town (a rare sight that should make the players worry). The investigative player could have the opportunity to learn about the exact time of his arrival. In the Id Ascendant, the PCs could discover an holographic representation of the icewind dale, a tool used by nautiloid during their hunting raids for brains. They have a "sentient" radar  and on this map, the calishite ships can be picked up. The ceremorph could be convinced, if helped with a psi cristal, to destroy the ship from above on their way to the stars. The idea here is to tempt the players to prevent a future problem by blasting the ship on the basis of too little information and assumption, to make them realize later (survivors will arrive in Bryn Shander on a raft) that their suspicion were not grounded and they killed many sailors for nothing and preventing a relief ship from arriving in the Ten Towns... If the situation is tense enough and the players paranoid about everything, they could tend to think "better safe than sorry"...[rest of it later, as it's awfully late already]</blockquote>

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