SCENARIOS
The Mill The Unending Nostromo Missing Ships ON STRIKE! Dudley the Dragon. The Vault The vault is a deathtrap, through and through. Sometimes, dead is better The Paragon Super Soldier Academy The Lost City of the Ancients As usual, the above samples are from the twisted mind of Telustis here. I normally don't do the cut & paste thing, but I didn't wanna have to retype all of THIS, my
first scenario submission. My Thanks to Craig for his excellent work!
The Regiment Orchard Devilthorn's Dilemma
The workers of the local mill have all been laid off,
but the mill is running around the clock. Lots of local graves have
been desecrated. Of course, the mill owner has decided that zombies
make excellent workers! Even worse, he's even got himself a lawyer
to make everything nice and legal! The party is powerless to stop him!
...or are they..?
The PC's are lured to an estate to kill a vampire. The cordial butler
who meets them at the door follows them around in their search for the
vile fiend. As it turns out, the butler is the vampire, but that's just the beginning.
The vampire deliberately brought the party to the mansion for the purpose
of having them kill him. He is quite immortal, you see, far more so than
is normal for a vampire. He has finally managed to ward off the evil which so
consumed him, and wants to die while he is still good, just in case it matters.
The problem is that his attempts at suicide have all failed, which is
why he has decided to hire some professionals.
Killing him won't be easy, and in fact, if played correctly, the party
should feel sorry for the poor guy when their usual methods cause him
great suffering, but are not lethal for some inexplicable reason.
(the reason, and the cure, if any, I'll leave up to you.)
Dozens of the royal navy's greatest warships have vanished.
Surely no pirate could have taken them, and no enemy vessels have been spotted for months.
If the party goes to investigate, they find something they never expected.
Gnomes.
Gnomes under the evil influence of some major baddie.
Gnomes with submarines.
The tech is primitive, like those used in the Civil War, but they
are unmistakably submarines. They wait until the ships are in a certain pass, where the
water is very shallow, before they attack. There is quite a nice stockpile of loot in their
undersea headquarters.
Can the party free the gnomes from bondage? Do they want to? Do FIREBALLs work underwater?
The adventurers stumble upon the dungeon which they have sought for weeks.
They see a bunch of monsters wandering around the front entrance,
carrying signs-"unfair!","STRIKE", & "Support local 122"
When approached, the monsters will try to keep the players out of the dungeon, calling them
peculiar names like "scabs". Once they figure out that this is an actual adventuring party,
however, they will be more than happy to let them pass. In fact, they escort the party all
over the dungeon, pointing out traps, helping them haul treasure, and just having fun.
Finally, down at the bottom of the dungeon, which the party now knows to be a deathtrap,
there is a great cheer among the oodles of monsters and odd men in nice suits.
"The strike is over!, yells a minotaur shop steward. "Everyone back to work!"
The adventurers stroll through a new town. A great red dragon soon flies overhead, commanding
everyone to report for a town meeting. Everyone goes, including the PCs.
The dragon announces that his mate has been slain by a man he's seen before in the village,
and as such he has decided to destroy the village and kill everyone. He says that he will return
in one hour to lay everything to waste. Just then, a knight in full armor runs up to the dragon
with sword drawn. The dragon just reaches over, casually picks up the knight, tears his head off,
and tosses both pieces to the ground. He then bellows a mighty roar and flies away.
(do not let the PCs interfere)
The dragon then circles around, sets a hut on fire, and lands once again before the crowd. Silence.
Then, GREAT APPLAUSE! "All right! We were really scared that time" and such things are heard.
The knight pops his real head out of his oversized armor and picks up his fake head. Little kids
jump on the dragon's tail for horsey-rides.
As it turns out, this dragon has been the town's mascot since the day he hatched. His alignment is
lawful good! Unfortunately, The Great Dragon, Ruler of all Dragonkind, sent a messenger to
Dudlexxigghvey that he was to be evaluated upon a forthcoming visit!
Dudley is terrified that the Great One will punish him severely for not being true to the way of
his kind. He has been practicing the art of being mean and nasty, and the townsfolk are glad to help.
They'd hate to lose him, since on many occasions he has been very handy to have around the place.
(okay, they love the big lug)
The big day comes:
Dudley has 'em screaming in the streets, begging for mercy. The people pile up treasure and cattle
as their "usual" offering to their "Mighty Lord". The Great One is impressed, and says so.
"Excellent!", he says. "I had heard that you had gone soft. In fact, you've done such a good job
here that I've decided to make this town my new home for the summer! Congratulations, I'm very
proud of you. You are a fine example of what it means to be a dragon."
( by the way, this scenario can also be used if Dudley is a Player character. The above quote from
the Great One is sure to cause even more anxiety and hilarity than it already does.)
Of course, The Great One was not at all fooled by this ruse, but, since he has such a great sense
of humor,( hey, who knew? ) he couldn't resist putting a scare into everyone.
So, what do they PCs do?
For starters, they could try to help Dudley pull off his scam.
Maybe they could keep the Great Dragon away from the town long enough to get the act down pat.
Perhaps they should just try not to screw up and get killed by one of the Great One's nine escorts.
Eventually the truth should come out somehow, and The Great One could announce that it is perfectly
okay for Dudley to be good and friendly to these particular humans.
( no one knows the Great One's alignment. All that is known is that he, or she?, was once a dragon
whose temperament didn't match it's color. If the PCs do any spying on the VIP's, they may well
learn that the Great One is making a list of candidates to replace him one day. Dudley is not passing
the test so far (when the spying takes place ), so helping a good dragon pass the real test of truth
may well be a good goal for the PCs in itself)
The Universitidad du Magica has been the premier school of magic for six centuries.
Phlendo, the chancellor, has made it his his life's work to take those foul or too-
powerful magics that the world really can't handle and place them into an impenetrable
vault, safe from fools and prying eyes. Only he knew the secrets of the vault, which
took well over a century to build. The problem now is that he is dead and no one knows
how to get inside the vault. It is well known that whosoever posesses the powers within
could easily rule the world! As such there is quite a race to see who it will be. It is a
seller's market for mercenaries and equipment merchants, and incredible sums are being
offered to those brave or foolish enough to try to claim the prize, for everyone knows
that if they do not win, someone else WILL.
There are no living monsters in the dungeon, but it is chock-full of deadly traps.
Any monsters should be of an elemental, undead, or other magical nature.
Drolems & Demos Magen guard the outside perimeter, and quite a few PCs should die
before even making it to the front door. None should survive the first level unless
they truly deserve to by playing with exceptional skill. The treasures within are
indeed very awesome, so as GM it is your duty to keep them from being unleashed upon
your campaign. Use every trap you can think of that makes sense and has a high lethality
factor. This is an excellent tournement dungeon, with half the fun being seeing who
lives the longest. However, the rewards are vast, so if you fail to kill everyone,
the survivors will become very powerful, very quickly.
It might be fun to offer the Vault as a challenge to characters who have gotten too
powerful and need to be eliminated (fairly?). If they live, they keep the goodies.
Just remember, Phlendo really, REALLY didn't want this stuff to get loosed upon the world.
The PC's find an entire village or small town wiped out by either poison in the water or an enemy attack.
It was very important that they find one of the residents so that he/she could help them with some other problem.
They find the local sage clutching a book in his dead hands. The page describes a rare orchid, the nectar of
which not only has incredible healing properties, but is said to be able to bring the dead back to life! Exactly how
this is done is not mentioned. The adventurers can then go on a nature hike through the rainforest looking for
the silvery Ahmyulna orchid blooms. After quite an adventure, they can figure out how to use the nectar to save the
townsfolk. YAY!
Alternately, if you don't have a rainforest handy, the PCs could instead read of a mystic idol with the miraculous
power to restore the life of all within 120 feet or so, which will send them through your latest dungeon in their search.
They have a perilous adventure, get the idol, and save the city. YAY!
Better still, they could be presented with a choice between the two. They will probably pick the idol as a matter
of expediency, since they don't know what to do with the Ahmyulna's nectar. It doesn't matter which they pick, really,
for either one will have the desired effect, or so they will think.
Using the idol to restore everyone, or using the nectar improperly, will cause everyone affected to return to life.
Unfortunately, wounds will not be healed, diseases not cured, nor poisons nullified. This won't seem to be a problem,
though; everyone seems able to ignore their suffering with ease. Why? They have all been possessed by evil! ( Have you
ever seen the movie "Pet Sematary"? ) Sometimes, dead is better.
The only way to avoid this is to undertake research to discover the correct way to use the nectar. What are the chances
of that happening in a race against time? Now the party has about one day to get the NPC they were looking for in the
first place to help them and get out of town before finding themselves attacked by an entire village of evil, homicidal
semi-dead maniacs!
Young children from many nearby communities have been disappearing for about fifteen years. So far, no one has ever
been able to solve the mystery. However, today a stranger was seen in the marketplace who looked remarkably like one of the missing boys.
When accosted by the police, he promptly kicked their butts and fled to the wilderness. Since this is the first lead in the investigation
to present itself, the party of adventurers is hired to track the man in hopes of solving the mystery at long last.
If successful, the party will find a citadel deep in the wilderness, flying an unknown flag. ( or the flag of an enemy nation ) Many adventurer-soldier
looking types can be seen undergoing training of various sorts, and the cadets range in age from their early twenties to mere children. Most are boys,
but there are a few girls who don't look especially ladylike. Judging from appearances, it is difficult to tell just what, exactly, the class of person each
one is. However, it is plain to see that none of them seem to be of particularly high level.
If the party hangs around too long they will be caught and interrogated. Afterward, they will probably be killed in order to keep the citadel's diabolical secret.
The secret? This is the Paragon Super Soldier Academy. Here, children are trained in the arts of magic, religion, war, thievery, tracking, survival, combat, alchemy, smithing, and
much much more. They grow up to become highly multiclassed supersoldiers, each endowed with astounding capability. Level progression is of course very slow, with most of the
cadets being below fifth level in all classes. Those who cannot muster are killed off to keep the secret until the time is right to launch the offensive. The Lords of this place
built the academy in order to produce such supersoldiers for use in a plot to seize control over the surrounding lands and form an empire.
Assuming the party survives long enough to figure all of this out, they will have to decide how to proceed. They might be able to join the academy as students or staff, but this is
highly unlikely. More likely, they will have to figure out how to put a stop to this madness and this sinister plot. There isn't much time, for it looks like the campaign is about to begin
within a few weeks. Can the party take on over 300 fanatically loyal supersoldiers? Can they get an army of reenforcements in time? Can they break the spell that makes the young
soldiers so loyal to their mysterious master and turn them against him?
Three kingdoms border a huge area known as the forbidden zone. No one really knows why it's called the forbidden zone, since it's been forbidden for longer than anyone can remember. Those foolish enough to explore the area have never returned.
( This would be a good place to use the Paragon Supersoldier Academy, by the way, for reasons that will become clear momentarily. )
Lately, tensions have been rising between the three kingdoms, and each is growing more and more suspicious of the others. Patrols of troops sent to spy on the others have all been lost, along with a few townspeople, and naturally everyone suspects everyone else of foul play. The entire region teeters on the brink of all-out war.
The PCs are called upon by their king to investigate. What they find is a secret order of people living in the zone, sworn to protect it and keep all others away at any cost. However, they won't say why. ( The Paragon Academy would make a good base for them. ) The members of the order come from many backgrounds and have many specialties as well as a lot of good cross-training, and they use all their skills and knowledge to keep the forbidden zone as forbidden as possible.
Ideally, this scenario should not be used as a short tern game, but more as a quest or other longterm goal, which is of course to discover just what these people are trying to protect. Give the players a few clues every now and then, but make them work for it.
Eventually, the game should reach a climax when the PCs finally discover the Lost City of the Ancients, buried for millenia under the sands of an ancient river delta. As they dig and dig and dig, they find that this city is quite amazing. It is round, surrounded by a sturdy wall, and completely covered by a great domed roof. How great? The city is three miles in diameter! ( I doubt they'll dig that much of course, but they can measure it once inside ) The architecture is very strange.
OKAY, HERE'S THE DEAL-- This city was buried in a freakishly huge hurricane some 17 thousand years ago. The people within had sealed the place in anticipation of the storm, but they had no idea they would be buried by it completely. Everything is still in remarkably good shape.
THE SECRET ORDER-- These are those who know about the city, and more importantly, know about what lies beneath it. What lies beneath it? The Ancient Ones! The Ancient Ones were technologically very advanced, and they have created, under the city, a little pocket dimension in which they've likewise created a nice little civilization. The Ancient Ones were devoted to the task of conquering the world, and the Secret Order knows that if they were ever released from their prison, the world would be doomed.
WHAT THE ORDER DOESN'T KNOW-- The world is doomed already, precisely because the Ancient Ones are trapped. The Ancient Ones are time travellers from the far-flung future. One day, in that far-flung future, an alien invasion will wipe out almost all life on the planet and enslave the rest. The Ancient Ones made a desperate attempt to go back in time, unify the world, and bring the ancient world up to the technology lever of the future. The goal was to make the world capable of destroying the alien threat before the aliens themselves were capable of becoming troublesome. Unfortunately, they went back too far, to a time when there were no people to conquer. They were disappointed about not being able to raise an instant army, but were also glad that they could save themselves the steps of conquering and training a planet of primitives. They set about the task of building a new civilization, but disaster struck. The herdsmen and farmers fled to higher ground when the storm hit, but everyone else was buried along with the city. Unable to get back inside after the storm was over, the ones stuck outside eventually just drifted away, becoming the first tribes of the world. It wasn't long before they themselves became the primitives thay had sought to conquer.
TODAY-- The city lies silent and seemingly deserted. The secret order takes pains to make sure that it stays well concealed at all times, and will try to distract anyone who gets too close to it. They themselves have never ventured inside, on the advice of their elders, who in turn were advised by THEIR elders, and so on. Not one living soul has seen the inside of the city in over 1600 years, ever since the investigating sage at the time learned the terrible threat the Ancient Ones posed. Should the PCs make it inside, they will find many odd things beyond their comprehension. The Ancient Ones were far, far more advanced that we 21st century types. While it's certainly possible for meddlers to get the city's many subsystems up and running again, it shouldn't be very bloody likely. In the dead center of town there is a circular courtyard with a gleaming white marble Stonehengelike structure. Manipulation of a few buttons and levers will open the floor of it, revealing the way down to the pocket dimension.
( NOTE- There are no traps or monsters in this city. There may have been a great many of them outside, along with a small army of fanatics, but once inside the party will be safe, unless the Order chases them inside for a final assault. )
As it happens, the device which serves as the gateway between the pocket world and the real one is broken. It was damaged slightly during the storm, leaving the Ancient Ones trapped. It shouldn't be too hard for a really smart PC to figure out how to re-align the thing and make it work. The potential for adventure withing the ancient one's little world is great indeed, even if the adventure takes the form of trying to stop them once they discover the threat they unleashed.
Telustis. Now it's YOUR turn! Send something!
Submitted by: Craig Hallstrom
The players come to a small town and hear rumors that every couple of
nights, an obviously insane fighter in ancient armor comes stumbling into
the town and threatens or kills a villager. The townsfolk think they are
spirits so have begun locking and barring their doors, listening to the
crazed warriors thrashing through the streets at night. In the morning no
trace of the warriors are found, though when one was injured, he left behind
real blood. The player characters can either try to track a warrior in the
AM or follow one at night to lose in in the Regiment Orchard.
The Orchard is a strange growth of trees which grows a few miles outside
of town. It is a square almost one mile to a side with evenly spaced rows
of trees. Hundreds of years ago when two, now forgotten, empires were
fighting in the area, one side came up with the idea of ambushing the other
side by disguising his men as trees. Unknown to the general, the wizard who
performed the transformation on the army was a double agent and he betrayed
the general by then making the magic, which was planned to expire at
midnight the next day, permanent. The lost Regiment is now forgotten,
except the strange name attached to this forest. The towns folk have always
avoided the forest because of fears that it is haunted. The general stands
in the middle of the forest as a great oak tree. He carries an artifact (I
use a magical shield) which is now embedded into the trunk of the tree. The
artifact's magic has been slowly leaking out to keep the spell which trapped
the army going. But the magic has begun to fail and the soldiers, now
insane from hundreds of years as trees, have begun returning to their normal
forms for a few hours each night. Eventually the magic will fail
completely. This will happen sooner if the characters find the shield and
remove it from the tree.
An additional twist I use is a green dragon which approached the
characters as they first get to the forest. The dragon knows there is a
magic somewhere in the forest and wants its power for itself. If the
characters get the shield, they will have to deal with the sudden appearance
of the whole army and decide if they want to face the dragon.
Submitted by: Devilthorn@hotmail.com
The party wanders into a strange city, which happens to be the capitol city of the land. They have an average day of miscellaneous adventures, and the next day they set out to continue their business. However, something seems amiss. It may take awhile, depending on the clues given and the sharpness of the players, but eventually the party should notice that today is actually yesterday.
In fact, no matter what they do, the very next day they'll wind up right back where & when they started, even if killed. The only thing they'll carry back in time with them is their memory. ( Yes, that includes experience, so be careful.) No one else seems to notice this one bit. It like that movie "Groundhog Day" only this time with a sinister twist.
As it happens, the king of this land had been given a prophecy that he would die very soon. Being rich, powerful, and oh-so very evil, he coerced a council of mages to bestow a curse upon this city, plunging it into an unending time loop. If time couldn't pass, figured the king, he'd never die.
Ah, when will evil kings ever learn their lesson when it comes to coercing councils of mages to do anything? For their revenge, the mages rendered the king himself immune to the curse, so that he and he alone would continue to age and die someday, and possibly go mad in the process, while everyone else remained blissfully unaware that anything was out of the ordinary.
Well, never put anything past an evil king. He wound up being rather fond of the arrangement, and like Bill Murray's character in the aforementioned movie, he too wound up having a great deal of fun with it. Instead of growing old & infirm, he instead took the opportunity to make himself even more powerful than he ever was before all of this, and has taken great delight in really learning everything there is to know about his subjects, even to the point of almost caring about at least some of them.
Since the party wasn't anywhere near at the time of the bestowal of the curse, they were not affected by it. The same holds true for others who wander through the city, although most of the time they probably never notice anything odd. Those who DO notice anything odd will wind up incurring the king's wrath and, one way or another, ceasing to be a problem for him. If the party should investigate and discover the nature of the phenomenon, the king will no doubt go to every length to stop them from finding a way to break the curse.
That way is, of course, up to the Gamemaster.
The King will also be most displeased if he notices anyone else trying to take any advantage of the situation in the way that he does, and with loyal eyes & ears everywhere, he'll notice...
As a side note, the king has learned some nifty ways of keeping governmental business moving apace, so the surrounding countryside has no clue that time has stopped in it's capitol.
