Twist My Adventure Idea

[JediSoth]

I want to write up another game to run at a Con, but my brain is one bundled mass of neuronic FAIL right now. So, I figure you fine folk in this community can help me twist this unoriginal idea into something cooler than it sounds right now.

The iron mine near the town of (Name TBD) has been prosperous...up until now. As the miners opened up a new deeper level of the mine, they started disappearing at an alarming rate. One of the few survivors has babbled something about some sort of multi-headed dragon, deep in the darkness.

This game is intended for a low- to mid-level party. I haven't decided on a system yet, but plot wise, that shouldn't really matter.

 

[Rechan]

The miners actually released an ancient parasite that infiltrates and controls its host. Among other things, the parasite wants very powerful hosts, so that it can go forth and conquer, then infect the conquered.

Because of this, the parasite wants to lure powerful individuals (read: adventurers) into the mine to infect (because it can only infect those in close proximity to the brood chamber). To lure adventurers in, the "survivors" are spreading tales of great monsters, hoping that foolish, powerful foes will walk into its trap.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The iron mine near the town of Deepingdale has been prosperous...up until now. As the miners opened up a new deeper level of the mine, they started disappearing at an alarming rate. One of the few survivors has babbled something about some sort of multi-headed dragon, deep in the darkness.

In reality, the "dragon" is an illusion created by a race of illusionists and necromancers dwelling deep beneath the mine. It is an icon of their "deity", a very real pyrohydra which dwells in the center of thier "city" -- its young are used to ritually devour "sacrifices" in gladitorial combat in their arena (KOed PCs thus have a chance to survive).

Encounters include squads of skeletons, glowing green and blue from phosphorous mold, that are suplimented by illusions of the same. I.e., the PCs face a squad of 20 skeletons, 15 of which are illusory and 5 of which are real.....what do you disbelieve, and what do you accept at face value?

The illusionist/necromancers were once the slaves of an even older, non-human(oid) race that has departed (but has left signs of their existence in the architecture, in iconography, and in culture). Think HP Lovecraft here.

There are factions that the PCs may exploit within the city, deep fey living in nearby caves (largely neutral, but perhaps of interest to the PCs, and certainly a potential source of information), and some lost miners still awaiting "sacrifice" in the arena for the PCs to rescue. And, of course, deep within the temple is the illusionist/necromancers' "god" -- a pyrohydra that can speak, with human intelligence and cunning. Of course, there is also a great treasure -- a ruby larger than a human heart -- that the temple holds and the hydra still guards. It is, in fact, the heart of the last Old One, still eerily linked to its powers..........


Good luck!


RC

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I LOVE the above ideas.

Some other "bait and switches":

-Hallucinogenic mine gas and hungry undead working to get "room service"

-An aboleth using domination/mind control to build up an army.

-The miner is paid/bribed to tell this story and drive down the cost of the mine...(the miner is a high level bard in disguise)...in order to purchase the valuable mine at a drastically deflated cost. Some of the townsfolk may be in on this...or it could just be the Bard himself.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

OR WE COMBINE ALL THE IDEAS THUS FAR!

The aboleth is a variant who uses tadpole infections for his domination (sort of a cross between aboleth and illithid) and the tadpoles can move from one person to another (as magic jar), leaving the last person confused/amnesic about the time lost.

The aboleth is the "great old one" or his high priest, and is pulling strings behind the scenes.

The pyrohydra is his "face"...

Maybe change the illusions to hallucinations brought on by gas in the area...but have them act exactly as illusions.

The undead necromancers and their slaves are immune to the gas, and are a faction opposed to the living insane...but are kept at bay by them.

 

[darjr]

The living dungeon idea just popped into my head.

It's actually alive, the dungeon, and it's eating people. The monsters? They are like the worm tongue bait of a fish, to lure in the real food, adventurers.

 

[LostSoul]

This reminds me of a western, for some reason.

Gold rush! Gold was found in a sleepy little town in the hills.

The newly-appointed leader (sheriff) of this small town/county, Gorn Wie, is happy with the prosperity coming from the mine. He's had to put up with a lot of crap that comes with being a boom-town in a gold rush, so he figures that he deserves a little extra. He's imposed a tax (in the name of a Law God); it's rather harsh, but not horrible - people can still make a good living.

If you can find a lode of gold, that is. Taxes drive up inflation, and that's made some families struggle to break even. Some of the people who were here before the gold rush are out on the street. Others have taken up begging and other means of making a living.

Kul Boz, a simple farmer, turned to thievery after his sister, Kess, became a whore. He was caught and pilloried. After he was freed, a strange traveller came across him and whispered secrets of a god of Greed to him. Kul Boz learned the rites and rituals of this god from the strange traveller.

Coming back into town Kul Boz turned to some of the worst off - whores, beggars, drunks - and told them of his revelations. He gathered a small cult dedicated to theft and hoarding. In response, Gorn Wie increased the patrols of guards to deal with this threat, making life even worse.

Faced with this, Kul Boz and his minions captured that which was most precious to Gorn Wie - his wife - and sacrificed her along with their ill-gotten loot, summoning a monster. The monster lurks in the mines, devouring the souls of those it finds, growing larger with each new kill. For each person it kills, it grows another head, a twisted version of the person in life, and it can take that person's form if it so chooses.


You'll want more NPCs but there you go.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

To make things interesting but more low-levelly....

In reality the miners burst in on a giant chamber filled with gold and jewels (a dragons hoarde minus a dragon).

Some miners were killed by others to preserve the secret, but a cover story had to be concocted by the survivors to protect their investment.

Word gets out around town of the "Giant multi headed monster" which gets meaner and scarier by the minute. This serves well to keep everyone out of that particular mine shaft...except the too-curious for their own good PCs.

The miners in-the-know offer to guide the PCs in to slay the beast (all the while leading them into deathtraps on purpose trying to get rid of them).

When and if the PCs actually make it to the chamber, they find the big pile of treasure and probably want to loot the holy heck out of it.

The giant reptilian owner of the treasure checks on it soon after and lays waste to the town until it gets its loot back.

DS

 

[Amaroq]

To really push the "Plot":

1. Why were we mining into a new level, anyway?
a.) Greedy mine owner?
b.) Corrupt pit boss?
c.) Accidentally broke through into empty space?

2. This babbling survivor ..
a.) Real miner?
. i. ) Telling the truth?
. ii. ) Lying about what was found?
b.) Somebody pretending to be a survivor?
c.) Something pretending to be a survivor?

I mean, at low levels, you could certainly combine all of these elements for a monster-less scenario: evil tycoon wants to buy the mine on the cheap, planted the miner .. but a corrupt pit boss found a new strike, and is mining something new, and doesn't want the PC's company ..

 

[Aeolius]

The new chamber is actually owned by a nearby clan of seven dwarves. They devised the multi-headed dragon as a ruse. If you look into the darkness, you can see its diabolical eyes...