Starting a World of Darkness story and have hit a wall.

[Fion]

First some background. My group is traditionally a D&D group but we have dabbled her or there with other systems and we are about to try the new world of darkness (we played Vampire: the Masquerade back in the day a good bit but this is our first foray into nWoD territory).

The story is about spiders that burrow into the brains of their pray to control them and to be used as nests for their young. For the of the storyline the players are trying to escape from these creatures, meeting others who have had their eyes opened and learning about the hidden world they have entered. But towards the end they are all but forced to confront these creatures and their lair which is a section of abandoned sewer systems, which is where I am stuck.

Basically I want to write a final confrontation in this sewer but I want to stay away from D&D style tropes and dungeon crawls. I have written out a good atmosphere for the area and I'm sure I'll have it sufficiently creepy and make sure my players know they are really out of their element but I cannot think of any ideas on how to portray this part of the story without turning it into a D&D style dungeon crawl.

So I figured I'd try these fantastic forums and hopefully mine some of you guys and gals for some ideas.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, even Stephen King at the end of It falls back on a D&D-style encounter. Sometimes, that's just the way it works out.

That said, though, WoD shines, IMO, when it's about the consequences of the supernatural clashing with the mundane world. So I would shy away from just squishing spiders and instead have to deal with fighting their hosts and all of the stuff that you wouldn't normally do in D&D, like having the players decide between killing a child host and letting a monster go free.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Why does there always have to be a sewer?

 

[jonesy]

Have the sewers suddenly lead into something a lot more ancient. Something that goes upwards into floors of red ceramic tiles and tapestried walls. Something that the spiders are clearly refusing to enter. Something where the people who are really controlling them live in. Flip the scenario so that the spiders aren't the threat anymore, and something much more sinister awaits.

 

[Fion]

That said, though, WoD shines, IMO, when it's about the consequences of the supernatural clashing with the mundane world. So I would shy away from just squishing spiders and instead have to deal with fighting their hosts and all of the stuff that you wouldn't normally do in D&D, like having the players decide between killing a child host and letting a monster go free.

Well that of course is where it all leads.

 

[Starfox]

Instead of ending with a climactic fight, have they players have some McGuffin they need to bring to the spider lair - a special spider toxin, a mind control antidote, or even a simple bomb or incendiary. That way, it need not be a dungeon crawl - the heroes can try and avoid confrontation to the very end. Perhaps, as a last resort some of them will have to face down the Big Bad in a helpless battle, buying time for the others to get the McGuffin in place. But avoid having the final confrontation be a simple fight.

Have them use contacts for maps, guides, secret passages, vehicles, the McGuffin itself - the fruits of a lot of adventures all used in the final mission.

Give them lots of advance information and foreshadowing. Give them enough information to make a reasonable plan. Tell them about white spots on the map where they can expect the unexpected - then add just a little bit more unexpected things. Tell them just enough to let their imaginations exaggerate the horror.

Have safe stretches that turn out to be easier than expected - this builds suspension.

Avoid "level appropriate encounters" at all costs. Some confrontations should be panicky, others easy but have side objectives such as a rescue. The heroes should have to run away to seek another way at least once.

Try to include challenges appropriate to all the heroes - not just the combative ones. If one of them is a linguist, tell them about a secret message they can find and decode to bypass a problem, for example. It is more important to let everyone shine than to have the plot and obstacles be 100% logical.

Add some melodrama - the villain's lieutenant turns out to be the loved one or missing relative of the players. And morality; is it right to kill these spider-possessed humans? Do they have any chance to avoid it?

Give the heroes an "I win" button - that they can only use once or a few times. This could be magic, an invention, or as simple as a hand grenade. That way, if they foul up (as they inevitably will) they can still continue.

 

[Fion]

Thanks for the ideas folks. Many of them I have already included such as the McGuffin hehe. But I have certainly been inspired and have some nasty ideas I need to put to paper hehe.

 

[Stormonu]

Instead of a sewer, why not have it end up at a sweatshop, filled with 1930's style sewing machines and the like. Here the spiders have been weaving their plots of mind control, with dominated humans working the supernatural looms for ...whatever dire plot you want. The brain-dead workers (really creepy if you have them "manacled" to their loom with spiderwebs as if they've been there for ages) are too absorbed in their work to stop the characters, though the few minders placed here will certainly try and stop the PCs.

The final face-off with the spiders is in the manager's office that looms over the workers below. But opening the door reveals a rip in the very fabric of space itself - a webway of spiderwebs that leads to a great egg-sac at the very middle. And within the central egg-sac is the grand intelligence behind the entire plot.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Instead of a sewer, why not have it end up at a sweatshop, filled with 1930's style sewing machines and the like. Here the spiders have been weaving their plots of mind control, with dominated humans working the supernatural looms for ...whatever dire plot you want.

Good thematic element here. Much better than the standard sewers.

 

[catastrophic]

You don't need to make it D&D style, as in room by room- just have a suspenseful march into the sewers or wherever underground, and then just as they think they're arriving at the destination, the tunnel starts to move upwards instead of downwards, taking them up into the basement of a sweatshop, or even a larger area. Imagine taking the sweatshop idea, and making it bigger.

Consider this: imagine if they track the spiders for what seems like miles, only to come up in another area of the city- or a small industrial park on the edge of the city, sheltered from the outside world by trees and landscaping. So a series of office buildings, semi-detached from the city. Inside, they find that everyone 'working' there is a slave to these things, most of them doing the clerical duties needed to conceal the infestation- nobody ever visits this part of the city, due to their misdirection.

In the middle of the industrial park, over looking the rest of the city, is a multi-story office building. They could sneak in after getting clues, be escorted there after being caught, or even invited there. The entry foyer seems fine, but when they step out of the lift on the second floor, they find that most of the inside of the building is torn open, and full of webs and spiders and their hosts, who go about their business despite the sheer drop adjacent to their cubicles and offices.

And possibly, y'know, a very big spider hanging in the middle, or just the focus of the intelligence driving them all.

It could even try to reason with them- arguing that it's not that different from the other employees in the city, maybe even revealing evidence that it treats it's hosts- or their families- a bit more generously than was first apparent. Or maybe it just really doesn't understand why what it does is any different to what people do to each other all day long.

Of course they'll probably flip out and escape, and maybe come back and burn the place down, but something of the nest is bound to survive.