twisted fairy tales

[nerdronomicon]

I thought of this chain of adventures a while ago and I plan to use it if I ever get my Gihon campaign going.

Oh, if you're Morrow, don't read this.

Okay. Twisted fairy tales:

-= Save the Innocent Witch from the Evil Children =-​

A pair of halfling assassins posing as human children enlist the adventurers to rescue their "father" from an evil witch. In actuality he is their quarry. He's been poisoned and is unconscious. Hopefully the PC's figure it out and rescue the guy, because he's a well-connected minor noble. If they don't figure it out and kill the "evil" witch and "rescue" the guy and return him to his "children" that's even more fun for me.

Another fun idea would be if the witch is someone the local villagers fear (even though she is good, maybe a retired adventurer). So the halflings convince the townspeople she's a witch who took their father. The party shines on to the ruse but no one believes them so they have to find a way to protect the witch from the torch and pitchfork waving villagers while trying not to kill them. They aren't evil, after all, just naive and stupid.

-= Put the Sword Back in the Stone =-​

After their success in rescuing the noble they are summoned by one of his relations to put down an uprising. If they failed to rescue him they are forced to do this errand as punishment. Seems one of the noble's knights has been running around killing people at random and the serfs are getting antsy.

The PC's go to the area and find out that he's been this way ever since he killed a local farmboy. The boy found a black sword and went on a killing spree. The knight tried to capture him but was forced to kill the boy. He claimed the boy's sword and (surprise) went on a killing spree of his own. The PC's should figure out that the sword is cursed. A successful history skill check will reveal the name of the sword and a possible location for the tomb the boy must have found it in. The will find out... somehow... haven't decided yet, that the evil spirit of some awful guy is in the sword and possesses whoever tries to wield it.

The only solution is to put the sword back in the stone it came from (high DC STR check) and to capture his soul in a specially prepared vessel designed to attract and capture evil spirits. They obtain such a goblet (again, i haven't decided how yet, probably another quest). They go find the tomb, have a nice old fashioned dungeon crawl and use the goblet, destroying the sword in the process.

-= The Quest to Lose the Unholy Grail =-​

The problem, they soon discover, is that the goblet can only contain one evil spirit, but it's constantly attracting them. Even worse, it appears to be indestructible and whatever they do with it, it keeps appearing in their pack. They have to go on a quest to get rid of it, all the while fighting off whatever kind of random undead and evil extraplanar badness i feel like throwing at them with no real justification because the unholy grail attracts this sort of thing. Eventually they will learn it can be destroyed by dragon fire, and go find a surly, but good aligned, dragon to take care of it for them.

-= Help the Brave Princess Rescue the Beautiful Prince =-​

The party visits their noble friend from the first adventure (or some other noble if he never made it) for a festival, complete with tournament and jousting and all that fun stuff. The hosting family has an uncooperative daughter who refuses to be meek and ineffectual and instead stubbornly insists on being an awe inspiring defender of the people. The commoners in the area are pretty clear on the fact that she's great. Her family seems to think she's doing this just to spite them. Two other noble families are visiting, one with a charming handsome, wimpy prince, another with a beautiful dusky evil-in-a-sexy-way princess.

All three noble children go missing at once and the nobles are all instantly at each other's throats. What happened was, the sexy evil daughter is an evil spellcaster in search of the Unholy Grail (by the way that's NOT what I'm going to call it in the final version, these are just notes and ideas). She tracked it down to the party but is unaware of its fate. She has some minions (in the literal sense not the 1 HP cannon fodder sense) kidnap the prince as a distraction. The princess (the tough good one) chases after him to save him. Eventually the PC's follow. The evil princess who was hiding while all this was going on now has the entire castle to herself (sans heroes anyway) to find the grail.

The party tracks down the princess and help her rescue the prince, who swoons in her arms. I might go for the full boat and have him dying of poison when they find him, only to be saved by love's true kiss, from the princess of course. That might be a little too... something.

-= Rescue The Beautiful Dragon from the Evil Princess =-​

The party returns some days later to learn that not only has the missing princess not returned, but young virgin females have been disappearing all over the immediate area while the party has been gone. The family of the evil princess insist she is one of the missing virgins. Just about every able bodied male in the castle can attest to the fact that she's anything but a virgin and that she's got very healthy appetites. Of course her family has no idea.

So it turns out the missing girls are being kidnapped by the dragon, the good dragon who destroyed the Unholy Grail for them. The PC's know the dragon is good so should suspect something odd is going on. What's going on is, the evil princess learned what happened to the goblet, and went to take it out on the dragon, who she dominated and forced to kidnap virgins so she can sacrifice them for some dark ritual.

The PC's go and do their thing, fight the dragon, and the princess, and hopefully free the dragon.


That's my chain of twisted fairy tales. In my campaign the reward from the dragon would include an ancient relic and a prophecy passed down generations from dragon to dragon. This would be the hook to get them started on what I hope is my slightly atypical "let's go save the world" adventure arc.

 

[papa_laz]

I like the first one quite a lot. Could work out to be quite sinister and evil if done well and get the PCs in a lot of trouble, which I always enjoy.

 

[magnusmalkus]

Sounds fun! I'd have at it.

 

[Set]

-= Put the Sword Back in the Stone =-

I like this one, but I'd tweak it so that the sword is inhabited by the spirit of an evil knight from ages past, something of a local boogeyman. He was so wicked that when he was finally killed (dropped down a shaft into some catacombs), priests consecrated the entire area and abandoned it to the wilderness.

The party has to bring the sword back to the catacombs and into the consecrated area that contained it's evil.

Oops. The consecrated area seems to have gotten de-consecrated (perhaps by whatever meanie / event caused the sword to find it's way into the hands of some peasant boy a day's travel away...). The undead from the catacombs are rising up and the land itself is twisting from the festering evil left behind. Can the party restore the ancient consecration? Will they meet the undead form of the knight itself? (Or just his equally possessed and evil full-plate armor?) Can they just collapse the catacombs, somehow, burying the evil forever?

In any event, the sword wants to get back to it's master, once it's thoroughly drenched in the blood of the living. If it succeeds in returning to the withered corpse, it might somehow allow him to rise as a vampire, bloated on the blood that the blade has stolen!



And for a newer idea;

-= The Golem of Plague =-

A priest of a people feeling persecuted by outsiders has crafted a golem of clay to defend his people from the unwelcome invaders. Small problem. His people are the virulently racist ones, and the 'invaders' are refugees from a war-torn land, seeking only a place to settle down. He sends his Golem out by night to terrorize the refugees, at first to scare them away and destroy their 'nasty stinking hovels' huddled at the edges of town, but later he begins to direct it to more violent action. The unhealing nature of the Golem's wounds appear as plague-like symptoms, and the Golem does not actually kill people (generally) but only strikes them once, and then leaves them permanantly maimed by it's attacks (the better to spread fear and encourage them to leave, rather than fight back, the priest thinks).

Ah, but something has gone even more wrong. The Golem is no longer following the orders of the priest, and he has lost control of it. He is forced to hire the party to deal with 'the monster that has been terrorizing those poor refugees!' (not bothering to mention that the only reason he wants it destroyed is because it is now attacking HIS people!).

Turns out the Golem's animating spirit has broken free, and is a goodly sort, more interested in justice than vengeance. It is now punishing the rich people who created it, instead of plaguing the 'filthy refugees.'


-= Cinderella =-

There was once a beautiful maiden, forced to live with her wicked step-mother and her two ugly step-sisters. She was so lovely that her suitors sometimes called her 'thrice-blessed,' a compliment that brought a sly smile to her lips, as she was indeed beautiful enough for three women, having magically stolen the beauty of her step-sisters!

Like a changeling child, she has come into the family and stolen vitality and beauty and vigor from all of them, and her suitors indeed often find themselves worn out by a night dancing with her, although they always have fond, if somewhat fuzzy, memories of their encounters...

But hey, these things happen when you are dating someone with both fey and succubus ancestry... If you survive the endless blather about her wicked family, and the occasional unsuccessful attempts by her 'wicked' relatives to kill her, in hopes of freeing themselves from her control, you might live long enough to find out that she's no keeper.

 

[nerdronomicon]

thanks, i like some of your suggestions for "Put the Sword Back in the Stone" and your ideas for other adventures in the same vein. i'll have to do some more work on this when i have time.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some good stuff!

You should post a link to your thread in this one:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=102706&page=5

Among other plots, you'll find some other twisted fairy tales as well- like mine where the PCs are bounty hunters looking for Prince Charming- the bigamist.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I was also on one of these ideas for a little while. I was going to use it in D20 Modern, or M&M.

Mine were more along the lines of Scary Tales though.

Red Riding hood is actually Working for the Wolf (Lycanthrope) trying to lure unsuspecting adventures into the house where they both keep her grandmother (Ancient forest hag or somthing).

Peter Pan is kidnapping children and selling them into the slavery of Captain Hook, who feeds his alegator some children to sedate its hunger.

Scarecrow, Tinman (maybe a Warforged now?), and the Lion team up with the vampress Dorothy to overthrow the great kindom of OZ, plunging it into eternal darkness.

Just totaly twisting all the old fairy tales into pure evil, where the PC's have to "fix" the storys ... or not.

 

[Foxen]

Great ideas...I love these and probably will incorporate a few into my campaign!

 

[arcanaman]

What if the entire party is evil or close to evil

 

[Set]

Red Riding hood is actually Working for the Wolf (Lycanthrope) trying to lure unsuspecting adventures into the house where they both keep her grandmother (Ancient forest hag or somthing).

Peter Pan is kidnapping children and selling them into the slavery of Captain Hook, who feeds his alegator some children to sedate its hunger.

Scarecrow, Tinman (maybe a Warforged now?), and the Lion team up with the vampress Dorothy to overthrow the great kindom of OZ, plunging it into eternal darkness.

Oh, the wickedness. Remember that the Scarecrow needs a brain and the Tinman needs a heart. What do they need them for? Some spell, perhaps? To escape curses that have befallen them? And not any brain will do. The brain of a wizard or psion is required. Not any heart will do. The heart of a warrior, paladin or barbarian is what the Tinman wants. And the Cowardly Lion, perhaps some bestial Shifter Barbarian, or Weretiger, or Wemic, who needs to take the courage of a brave man (preferably a Knight or someone who isn't easily frightened) to regain his own.

Dorothy just wants to go home. Much in the same way that Glorificus wanted to go home, even if it requires her to tear this world apart and plunge it into her own hellish 'home' to get there...


As for Peter Pan, he comes by night, tapping on windows, luring children out to play his games, to come to his magical Neverland, where they will never ever grow up. Indeed, once they are undead, they'll never age at all! His retinue of flying undead children follow behind him, occasionally getting left behind or lost, and he is always replacing them, rap, rap, rapping on childrens windows. Come play with us, he says... If only those nasty pirates weren't hunting them! Poor Peter has lost so many of his Lost Boys to that nasty Paladin, Jim Hook!


The Big Bad Wolf didn't devour old grandmother, at least not in the literal sense. From deep within her, it comes to the surface, and Red Riding Hood must go into the woods and find 'grandmother' the special sweetmeats that she craves when the wolf moon rises...