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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4891971" data-attributes="member: 19675">Here's basically how I started my last D&D campaign.  It was inspired by a combination of the cover art from a Stormbringer RPG supplement (Slaves of Fate) and Kodo's theme song to The Hunted."You're on the Isle of ________ for a great celebration- the wedding (admittedly, one of political convenience) of the children of two great warring nations, so to seal the treaty of non-aggression between them.After days of feasts and fetes, the celebration winds down, and it is time to go home.  Along with other celebrants, you board a ship to take you back to the mainland- the first step in your long journey home.About midway on your 3 day voyage, the spy on the mainmast spots a storm on the horizon...an impossible storm, flickering from within with bolts of multicolored lightning.  Covering miles and miles of sky, it roils towards your ship against the flow of the wind that fills your sails.  Witch-weather!  And at its fore, like the tip of an arrow, a ship.  A mastless, black ship.In no time at all, it is upon you, beside you...and its inhuman crew is launching grappling lines.  You're being boarded!"The raiders are large, catlike humanoids, like no being you have ever seen or heard of in the world.  They launch wave after wave of attackers, and after a heroic struggle, take the ship.  Those who surrendered are killed.  The mortally wounded are toyed with, then killed.  The ones who resisted but were ultimately captured are drugged, then dragged belowdecks."You wake, your head throbbing with the aftereffects of some drug.  The sun is above you, burning your naked (!) flesh, and your back rests upon hot sand. Your hands are bound.  The smoky smell of slow roasted meat wafts up your nostrils, origins unknown.'Ahhhh...good to see you stir, pinky!' a growling voice says to you.  Rough, furry hands yank you up from the ground without effort.You look around- besides you stand several other people you recognize as fellow passengers, all in a similar state to your own.'Pinkies! Because of your brave efforts, you have been granted an honor!  You are to be set free on this island- the private hunting preserve of our Emperor.  In 2 days time, he will arrive here, and will hunt you for his amusement.  You will know the hunt has begun when you hear the drums.  To be fair, and in honor of your bravery in battle, your gear has been scattered about the island.  If you run and fight, you may even win your freedom.  If you do not, your fate will be the same as his...'His great, furry hand points 20 yards down the beach, where a small humanoid body has been placed on a spit over a wood & charcoal fire...Behind you, a quick motion with a knife- or is it a claw- severs your bindings, and you are given a shove towards the treeline.'Run, pinkies!  RUN!  Hah hah hah haaaaah!'The PCs got to run into the island's foliage and I let the players discuss their options.  Let them search for their gear.  Let them find some of it.Then, after a while, I hit the "Play" button on my CD player so that Kodo's theme from "The Hunted" burst out of my system's speakers.  (It is a pure piece of drum music in the tyco style...very impressive and thundering.  The players actually acted as if they were being hunted & under time pressure- voices raised and stressed, shorter tempers, and the like.)</blockquote>

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