WANTED: Dark Secrets

[CruelSummerLord]

Here's something I originally posted in the "Creepy" thread, inspired by the thriller movie Cube, as well as some of the goings-on in the old 1E G3 module:

A cabal of nobles is abducting people-children, poor people, rival nobles, whoever-and does all sorts of horrible things to them, including various types of torture and abuse. What makes this cabal stand out is that they have a deadly maze beneath the mansion where they meet, where they throw down their prisoners and watch them run like rats through a maze until they are inevitably killed by either the deadly traps or the killer monsters. The prisoners are trapped for the nobles' sick entertainment, and are almost helpless to escape, much like the characters in the Cube movies.

Just as Rechan borrowed from Arthur Conan Doyle, so too will I borrow from Alexandre Dumas...

Several years after a civil war threatened to overthrow the monarchy, a dashing young army captain seems to have everything a man could ask for. He is about to be promoted, and given noble rank; he is about to marry his beloved; he is famous for his skill in the field and his loyalty to king and country.

And then, on his wedding day, he is arrested and charged with treason, as an agent of those elements who sought to depose the king. The captain is never brought to trial...he simply disappears, much to the despair of his fiance and his family.

Twenty years later, a mysterious new aristocrat, known for his wealth, poise and intellect, appears. Few indeed can match his skill with the sword, the sheer size of his fortune, or the distance and breadth of his experiences and travels. Everyone strives to gain the friendship of this new nobleman, who styles himself a count.

At the same time, a series of tragedies begins to befall some of the other prominent nobles and wealthy citizens, coincedentally enough those who were once the friends of a certain army captain who disappeared...

As it turns out, those other prominent nobles have some very dark secrets of their own:

-One of them, as it turns out, is a prominent general who has risen on his reputation as a strong and fearless military man. The general, however, has a record of treason and betrayal as long as a storm giant's arm, surrepetiously arranging the deaths and murders of everyone from military rivals to valued allies to innocent noncombatants, so long as it advances his own personal power, status and reputation. Obsessed with his personal status, he is insanely jealous of any who rival him, or might stand in his path to glory and power.

-Another nobleman rose to prominence as a wealthy banker and trader, well-known for his opportunism and greed. He is also known for his stunningly attractive wife, who just happens to be the former fiance of a certain army captain who disappeared many years ago. Knowing he could never challenge the captain in honest combat, he instead uses underhanded methods to destroy those who might have what he covets, whether it be in gold or women. The pen is truly mightier than the sword...and who knows what lives he has destroyed in his quest for wealth?

-A prominent magistrate, one of the highest in the land, is well-known for his ice-cold demeanor and harsh sentences from the bench. Never does he smile; he is simply depicted as a marble statue of the law itself, occasionally given to bursts of temper and rage, or depression and melancholy. His cold-blooded behavior strikes many as odd, unless they realize the depth of his ambition and how far he might go to nurture it, including destroying the lives of the innocent if he believed the truth they hold might ruin his advancement.

-A respectable, upscale innkeeper and baker by day, by night he is a murderous and cruel thief, who fences loot for criminals, robs the houses of the wealthy, shelters murderers, and robs and even slays the most wealthy of his guests. It is odd indeed, for fortune has given this baker the talents and chances to live well...and yet his greed returns him to seek wealth by any means possible, regardless of how he gets it. He has little sympathy for those he envies, viewing the wealth and power they might possess as his by right, ready to spite or destroy those on whom fortune has smiled more.

These four men could easily play roles as antagonists or NPCs in your campaign, as could their mysterious foe.

 

[Thurbane]

Heroes of Horror has some great ideas and rules for this type of setting - I would definitely recommend it.

Also check out the rules on Sanity and Taint, for free here at the expanded SRD:
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedTaint.html
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedSanity.html

As for an idea for a dark secret: the head of a noble house is secretly a powerful necromancer, and for the last few generations has been possessing the body of his firstborn son to achieve a form of immortality. The problem is that his latest wife has been unable to produce an heir, so he is looking to other sources for a new body...

 

[Rechan]

We have a lot of stuff for nobility/aristocracy. Though, because we don't know how much of the OP's campaign is nobility (two PCs yes, but it can't be all High Society), I'd like to ask the OP: What is the rest of it?

I mean, we've got a plethora for the aristocracy. What do else is needed?

A magistrate, or some other prominent public figure (who has a public persona of being manly and authoritative), is in an abusive relationship; his wife beats him. He has thusfar concealed the damage by supposedly by moonlighting as a pugilist, brawling in taverns, or some other rakish sort, but his wife's abuse is growing more severe. His image would be shattered if it was uncovered.

(Insert) has a deformity. Nothing dehabilitating, but something that is distinct enough to draw the eye: a clubbed foot, an extra finger. No one acknowledges it, but as soon as the individual leaves the room, it's the talk of everyone. Except, within the last week, the deformity is gone, and no one is bold enough to bring it up to the individual.

The wife of a prominent priest (or high ranking laymen) in the church has finally been able to carry a child to term. She has lost the last two, and this time, she has managed to give birth. She goes into labor in a public place, and is swept off somewhere remotely private to give birth. Except rumors from those who helped deliver the child say it had fiendish qualities.

 

[roguerouge]

Suddenly, the best food in London...

Sweeney Todd plot spoilers:







He is a wrongfully imprisoned barber named Benjamin Barker who returns under the name Sweeney Todd to London after fifteen years in Australia to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped and murdered his young wife, adopted his daughter, possibly with unspeakable intentions. He swears revenge, but when his plans face obstacles, he begins to slash the throats of his customers. Mrs. Lovett, the innkeeper with the worst food in London is his accomplice and bakes the corpses of his victims into meat pies. The tension comes from her desire to be his lover and her neglecting to mention that his wife was not killed, and is in fact the mad beggarwoman. He is also assisted by an unwitting servant lad named Tobias Ragg, who later aids in unmasking his crimes. In most versions of the story, Sweeney either helps or hinders (sometimes both) the love affair of a young woman, Johanna, his daughter (unbeknownst to him, but knownst to us) and a sailor named Mark Ingesterie.

 

[roguerouge]

Keeping up appearances:

A family is being driven under by the debts accrued by a wastrel son.

A family is isolated by the shame of the alcoholism of its patriarch.

A husband and wife, perfectly respectable, despise each other, but struggle not to express it in public and ruin their perfect image. Whispers have already started.

A lady has married for love beneath her station, only to discover that the match was a poor one due to the man's inconstancy and temper.

A lady has married for station, improving her lot, only to realize she can barely stand the impossible boor in declining health.

Middlemarch: A lady has married the local vicar for the intellectual stimulation, to be a part of his masterwork scholarship, and to be taught a world of literature, ideas, and art. On their honeymoon, she discovers it will be hard to consummate their marriage due to his various infirmities and over-intellectualism. Then, to her horror, his lessons reveal that his life-long project, a book, is on an impossibly narrow topic of interest to no one.

 

[roguerouge]

Late Spring plot:

A daughter, age 27, cares for her father, a mildly eccentric professor. She finds profound joy in the small domestic details, especially after her hard manual labor in a prison camp and long recovery to good health. Yet, everyone insists that she must marry, and marry quickly. Even her best female friend married a soldier, then got a divorce and a job. Still, she urges this woman to get married. Her father's colleague remarries, which she finds humorous and disgusting. Her father's assistant is engaged, but clearly interested. She firmly and diplomatically makes him a friend rather than a potential romantic partner. Her aunt begs to set her up with a handsome young man with prospects. She refused, arguing that her father needed looking after and that she was perfectly happy. So the father pretends to be interested in remarrying a particular woman in their social circle to force his daughter into a marriage for her own good.

 

[roguerouge]

Take a look at A Mansion of Shadows, a Bleeding Edge module. Spoilers.....






Basically, it's a lord's household driven to evil and depravity and tyranny. The father's succumbed to lust. The family priest's been subverting the children to devilish possession, only to be tossed out by the mother in desperation. The evil son's driven the local village to rebellion, complete with torches and pitchforks. And you're really better off staying away from his sisters....

You'll have to adapt it, though. Some of the depravity is way over the top and too obvious. And the single day timeline makes no sense, so you'll have to alter that feature of the module. And it's really best if you have the players experience the village and the manor fully, not one or the other. But it's highly adaptable and has a plethora of sketched servants and guardsmen.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

A lot of old Dr Who stories would be a good resource for this, but a very recent episode (ie David Tennant as the Doctor was fantastic. Spoiler'd for those who haven't seen "Don't Blink".

Spoiler

The crux of the story is that the villains are stone statues - but only when you're looking at them. When you can't see them (because you've blinked, for example) they're lightning fast death dealers, sucking the souls from people and leaving the husks behind.

So you end up with extremely paranoid players, as Every. Single. Stone. Statue. in the city might be One Of Them. Not sure how you'd stat them up, but it'd be a great game anyway!

Hope you like the idea!

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Consider the noble McHalastar family, while not wealthy, they have the support of the military, since Gregor McHalaster helped win the war for the king. They came to promenance when a recent Gregor exposed a traitor during the recent War, none other than General Terrance Mhorial. The betrayal was shocking, since the Mhorial family was a long renowned family with a glorious military history. The newly promoted Gregor also played a key part in the peace negotiations with the opposing side, which has secured his reputation as a just and righteous lord. As a reward, the Mhorial family had their lands and titles seized, and said lands were granted to the McHalastar family. The Halastar Knightly order was formed shortly after, and is now the most prestigeous military order in the kingdom. What is left of the Mhorial family now serves the McHalastar's as household slaves.

What no one knows is that McHalastar was the traitor. His side was already losing the war when Terrance discovered him. McHalastar was able to kill Mhorial, and decided to frame Terrance. He then contacted his handlers on the others side, and gave them enough information to bring the war to at least a stalemate. Then he and his counterpart proposed the peace, and both profited from it.

McHalastar is hoping to position himself to eventually rule the kingdom. However, his counterpart has evidence of his treachery, and McHalastar is desperate to destroy that evidence before it can harm him.

Also, his treatment of the Mhorial survivors is noted to be particularly harsh and depraved. He throws parties where Mhorial survivors are chained to a wall so guests can beat them and spit at them. Every year at the anniversary of the end of the war, the Mhorials are paraded in chains throughout the kingdom. Every new Mhorial child is branded from birth as a traitor, with a mark burned into their face. And on the 16th birthday of any Mhorial, they have their tongues torn out, and are then told the true story of the treachery.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Psychotic Jim]

A young daughter of a prominent nobleman or magistrate has begun seeing visions. Her visions are vivid and inspiring enough that it has got certain family members and staff within the household. The patriarch of the clan knows, and has to his best knowledge shut up and confined the girl from the rest of society. Secretly, however, while he is away at work filling his coffers, his daughter continues to gather a secret cult from her locked bedroom.

How she gains converts or followers remains a mystery. Perhaps she has some extraordinary means of telepathic communication. More likely it is the work of the superstitious hired help- the lower class maids, butlers, and cleaning staff. Imagine if the ambitious girl’s nanny acted as some sort of high priestess for the cult? The servants are able to go about invisibly because they are so ubiquitous and socially not thought much of. The cult is soon sizable in number, and numbers a few dozen as her father goes overseas for war or business. This new, small religion gains converts because it is simultaneously vivid in its graphic depictions of the other-worldly yet subtle in the action it prescribes. It gives the downtrodden small ways to improve their dull, dreary lives and offers a kind of special, secret and elite redemption.

This outbreak of a cult could very well be supernatural in origin, but it might be more fun to give it mundane origins. Maybe the nobleman’s grain silos were infected by ergot fungus, the same stuff that is in LSD and was thought to have incited the Salem Witch Trials. If the whole of your society has been experiencing this, the church might be on high alert looking to confine, cure, or exorcize any people who shown evidence of strange behavior. Instead of going with the malignant, tyrannical church cliché, perhaps their motivation is generally benevolent, and they seek to maintain order while at the same time helping anybody affected by these delusions. It is individual agents on the ground or within the structure that might deviate from this general ideal. Dealing with a church involved like this would add another layer of complexity to the proposed adventure.

If the patriarch finds out about his daughter’s continued activities, then he might disown her or have her confined to a sanitarium. However, that would be unlikely to end the young would-be prophet’s mission; instead she would speak to the other inmates confined within the halls of the asylum. She either manages to sway the guards to her cause by giving them baubles she managed to stow away before her father confined her. Or she could let them know about certain secrets they could use to blackmail her father. Either way, she depends upon them to communicate with the outside world. Certainly, working from within locked up confinement would seem like a perfect alibi against being implicated as being involved in any sort of play for power and influence.