campus chaos (B.Y.O.C.) [Archive] - Wizards Community

campus chaos (B.Y.O.C.) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ryryguy
11-29-06, 01:17 PM (spoilers for my players! who I don't think read this board, but just in case... STOP READING!!!!)

Okay, so I'm planning a scenario involving a university town setting and a fiend. The fiend is an ultraloth, a yugoloth from Manual of the Planes.

The ultraloth is trying to find out more information about ancient historical events, and to that end has been investigating ruins of the ancient lizardfolk civilization. It has found a few clues there but is having a hard time interpreting them. So it has gone to a nearby university where there are a bunch of scholars of the lizardfolk civilization, planning to use them for help.

Of course a fiend can't just sign up for classes, and besides, it is always on the lookout for opportunities for fiendish fun via cruelty and chaos. So, its main plan is to use enchantment abilities to get the professors to have a special colloquium about the historical period of interest. It can guide the agenda and try to get some further information.

Here are a few of the yugoloth's plans and how the PC's will be involved. But first a sketch of its abilities and resources. (I don't have Manual of Planes in front of me, this is from memory.) At will, the ultraloth can use invisibility, suggestion, scrying, prying eyes, deeper darkness, desecrate, wall of fire, and maybe some others that I can't remember. (See invisible, probably.) 3 per day it can use mass suggestion and geas/quest. 1 per day it can use binding. It has telepathy 100'. Also, it has a duegar wizard hechman (who just happens to be CR-appropriate for the PC's).

The ultraloth is a CR 16 or 17 creature and could basically wipe out the whole town, including the PC's who are only ECL 6, without breaking a sweat. But of course it would not gain anything from that, and it also has reason not to openly reveal itself: it knows that in a short time, one or more celestials will come visiting. If they get any hint that a fiend is lurking around, they would be on its trail in a heartbeat, and the yugoloth would prefer to stay around the Material Plane for a while (it's basically stuck there for 9 months anyhow).

Here are its general plans: suggest and geas/quest one professor to be its cat's paw. This professor abruptly schedules a colloquium, and starts acting stranger and stranger. The ultraloth and its henchman hole up in an isolated lab where the professor starts spending more and more time.

Go over stuff in the campus museum related to the ruins and lost civilization. Plant some of its recently found clues there for the professor to "find". When the professor introduces these at the colloquium it causes a big hubub especially as he accuses the curator of having misfiled and lost these items. (Not wanting to deal with that mess the fiend will later have the professor ask one of the PCs for help in deciphering script on other things recovered from the ruins.)

The duegar stands by to distract if there is any danger that the yugoloth might be discovered.

The PC's are kind of killing time training in the village and catch the ultraloth's attention. For reasons not worth going into extensively, they are objects of curiosity to it, so it begins to spy on them. It devises a test of their abilities: it sends a child to their HQ with suggestion, then after the child leaves, suggests that he go north into snowy wilderness, away from town. (I think that with the combo of suggestion, invisibility and telepathy, the ultraloth can get people, particularly commoners with Will saves of -1, to do things without realizing they are being enchanted.) Previously, the ultraloth has found a winter wolf and geased it to wait nearby. When the child wanders into the snow, he geases the winter wolf like this: "Follow the child, but do not reveal yourself to him. When a group of adults is within sight, attack the child, then kill the adults." Of course, prying eyes watch everything. A possible twist is that if the winter wolf knows it's going to lose (which is likely), it could retreat, but the geas to kill the PC's remains in place, so it will track them and try again later. This "winter wolf with a grudge" is a potential clue something weird is going on - why is it so persistent?

The ultraloth will leave a few days before the potential visit by celestials. It will probably take along its pet professor using binding to put him in a jar or something. Optionally, it will direct its duegar henchman to remain and attack the PC's after a brief delay, both as a further test of them and to help cover its tracks. (Especially if there is a lot of suspicion going on, it figures giving them the henchman to fixate on should throw them off.)

Ok, so I'm pretty happy with all these plans for the B.Y.O.C. (Big Yugoloth On Campus). But if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Here's what I'm looking for in particular: what might the ultraloth do to amuse itself while all this is going on? The colloquium is necessary for its plans, but quite dry and boring. With that suggestion power it could do lots of nasty, cruel things to townsfolk, turn them against each other and such. I guess I'm having a hard time getting into that nasty, cruel frame of mind - nasty- and cruel-minded folk, please help! :)

The duegar henchman could have some kind of public cover id or could remain hidden. I'm thinking the ultraloth will be careful about using its powers on the PC's, as it wants to observe them long term and won't risk alerting them. Similarly, it might refrain from doing too much to the faculty since it doesn't want to upset its own plans involving them. But "townies" and students are fair game.
ryryguy
11-29-06, 09:26 PM :bump:

This forum scrolls fast!
megageek
11-29-06, 09:38 PM Yes, but wait 24 hours between bumps. It seems pretty cool. If I were your player I would play it! Now for constructive criticism. What kind of town is it like? Any details about the civzilation?
ryryguy
11-29-06, 10:59 PM Actually the town is rather unusual... here is a blurb I gave one player whose character grew up there:

You were raised in a university called Miterimas. At first you didn't know that a university campus is traditionally made up of stately stone buildings on manicured ground. Mitermas is built at the edge of a vast wetland, on the last tongue of rock from a mountainous shelf that peaks a few dozen miles from the bogs. Its buildings are made from oiled hides and leather. They present "papers" orally over campfires, conduct research via long fugue state visions. They need no libraries - the founder of the school (Mitermas), a great wizard, recovered a few scraps of knowledge of the long gone lizardfolk civilization from the few mystics of that race who still retained them. The most important bit of that knowledge were the secrets to advanced memory enhancement technique. The scholars of Miterimas's heads are each a unique library of perfectly preserved texts.

But to you that was the only place you knew, though your guardian, the jovial Assistant Bursar Harde Gritsmal, told you stories of other places in the wide world, places where visiting traders, merchants, experts and scholars came from. So by the age of seven, you understood when you heard a few visiting teenage students derisively refer to Miterimas as "Swamp School". They did not mean it kindly.

Additional details from my notes:

Population: 740. (Village)
73% human (540), 12% lizardfolk (88), 9% half-elf (66), 3% halfling (22), 3% other (22)

Power Center: NG, Faculty Council.

Students: 105 undergrad, 35 grad.
Faculty: 20

There is a town militia about 80 strong, and a company of 20 full-time guards who live in the keep. Guards are War 1 and War 2 with a Rgr 8 captain and Ftr 4 lieutenant.

Lizardfolk tend to be associated with the university, don’t mix too much with the “townies”. Provide labor, gather food (roots, berries, fish).

Many townies also work for the university, providing more advanced artisan services. Some hunt and tend the food gardens. Some are seasonal, leaving in the winter months when cranberries are not harvested.

Tent structures range from 10’ diameter yurts to the 120’ x 100’ student mess. The smaller tents are oiled hide and rope construction with wood poles – hardness 2, hp 7. The larger ones are hide on wood frames (hardness 3, hp 10) with thick ropes and metal poles.

Stone structures are masonry with sod (peat) roofs.

All have peat piled around them during winter for insulation.

Some of the school buildings have connecting covered walkways or courtyards. These walkways are flagstones and the coverings are wood, bark and peat.

As for the lost civilization, I don't have many details. I don't really plan to make that a big part of the campaign, more it's a tip of the iceberg kind of thing. I do need to come up with a few details for the adventure, I know at least one of the PC's is going to want to hear what is discussed at the colloquium.

In brief, here is why the ultraloth is interested in the civilization. The setting has an "orrery cosmology", meaning the inner and outer planes move around and rotate around the material plane. It was not always this way - there was a great Cosmic War, at the end of which the planar cosmos was sundered. That happened as the lizardfolk civilization was starting to go into decline. It's that sundering event that the ultraloth is trying to find out more about. The lizardfolk did not have anything to do with that directly, but since they were around at the time, they may have accounts of the event.

I guess what would be cool would be a "Bayeux Tapestry" sort of thing from there, where there was an image or something in the background that gave a clue. (FWIW, it's commonly believed that the sundering was the work of fiends, as this is also when the Blood War began, but actually it was the work of genies.)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ryryguy 11-29-06, 01:17 PM	(spoilers for my players! who I don't think read this board, but just in case... STOP READING!!!!) Okay, so I'm planning a scenario involving a university town setting and a fiend. The fiend is an ultraloth, a yugoloth from Manual of the Planes. The ultraloth is trying to find out more information about ancient historical events, and to that end has been investigating ruins of the ancient lizardfolk civilization. It has found a few clues there but is having a hard time interpreting them. So it has gone to a nearby university where there are a bunch of scholars of the lizardfolk civilization, planning to use them for help. Of course a fiend can't just sign up for classes, and besides, it is always on the lookout for opportunities for fiendish fun via cruelty and chaos. So, its main plan is to use enchantment abilities to get the professors to have a special colloquium about the historical period of interest. It can guide the agenda and try to get some further information. Here are a few of the yugoloth's plans and how the PC's will be involved. But first a sketch of its abilities and resources. (I don't have Manual of Planes in front of me, this is from memory.) At will, the ultraloth can use invisibility, suggestion, scrying, prying eyes, deeper darkness, desecrate, wall of fire, and maybe some others that I can't remember. (See invisible, probably.) 3 per day it can use mass suggestion and geas/quest. 1 per day it can use binding. It has telepathy 100'. Also, it has a duegar wizard hechman (who just happens to be CR-appropriate for the PC's). The ultraloth is a CR 16 or 17 creature and could basically wipe out the whole town, including the PC's who are only ECL 6, without breaking a sweat. But of course it would not gain anything from that, and it also has reason not to openly reveal itself: it knows that in a short time, one or more celestials will come visiting. If they get any hint that a fiend is lurking around, they would be on its trail in a heartbeat, and the yugoloth would prefer to stay around the Material Plane for a while (it's basically stuck there for 9 months anyhow). Here are its general plans: suggest and geas/quest one professor to be its cat's paw. This professor abruptly schedules a colloquium, and starts acting stranger and stranger. The ultraloth and its henchman hole up in an isolated lab where the professor starts spending more and more time. Go over stuff in the campus museum related to the ruins and lost civilization. Plant some of its recently found clues there for the professor to "find". When the professor introduces these at the colloquium it causes a big hubub especially as he accuses the curator of having misfiled and lost these items. (Not wanting to deal with that mess the fiend will later have the professor ask one of the PCs for help in deciphering script on other things recovered from the ruins.) The duegar stands by to distract if there is any danger that the yugoloth might be discovered. The PC's are kind of killing time training in the village and catch the ultraloth's attention. For reasons not worth going into extensively, they are objects of curiosity to it, so it begins to spy on them. It devises a test of their abilities: it sends a child to their HQ with suggestion, then after the child leaves, suggests that he go north into snowy wilderness, away from town. (I think that with the combo of suggestion, invisibility and telepathy, the ultraloth can get people, particularly commoners with Will saves of -1, to do things without realizing they are being enchanted.) Previously, the ultraloth has found a winter wolf and geased it to wait nearby. When the child wanders into the snow, he geases the winter wolf like this: "Follow the child, but do not reveal yourself to him. When a group of adults is within sight, attack the child, then kill the adults." Of course, prying eyes watch everything. A possible twist is that if the winter wolf knows it's going to lose (which is likely), it could retreat, but the geas to kill the PC's remains in place, so it will track them and try again later. This "winter wolf with a grudge" is a potential clue something weird is going on - why is it so persistent? The ultraloth will leave a few days before the potential visit by celestials. It will probably take along its pet professor using binding to put him in a jar or something. Optionally, it will direct its duegar henchman to remain and attack the PC's after a brief delay, both as a further test of them and to help cover its tracks. (Especially if there is a lot of suspicion going on, it figures giving them the henchman to fixate on should throw them off.) Ok, so I'm pretty happy with all these plans for the B.Y.O.C. (Big Yugoloth On Campus). But if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Here's what I'm looking for in particular: what might the ultraloth do to amuse itself while all this is going on? The colloquium is necessary for its plans, but quite dry and boring. With that suggestion power it could do lots of nasty, cruel things to townsfolk, turn them against each other and such. I guess I'm having a hard time getting into that nasty, cruel frame of mind - nasty- and cruel-minded folk, please help! :) The duegar henchman could have some kind of public cover id or could remain hidden. I'm thinking the ultraloth will be careful about using its powers on the PC's, as it wants to observe them long term and won't risk alerting them. Similarly, it might refrain from doing too much to the faculty since it doesn't want to upset its own plans involving them. But "townies" and students are fair game.
ryryguy 11-29-06, 09:26 PM	:bump: This forum scrolls fast!
megageek 11-29-06, 09:38 PM	Yes, but wait 24 hours between bumps. It seems pretty cool. If I were your player I would play it! Now for constructive criticism. What kind of town is it like? Any details about the civzilation?
ryryguy 11-29-06, 10:59 PM	Actually the town is rather unusual... here is a blurb I gave one player whose character grew up there: You were raised in a university called Miterimas. At first you didn't know that a university campus is traditionally made up of stately stone buildings on manicured ground. Mitermas is built at the edge of a vast wetland, on the last tongue of rock from a mountainous shelf that peaks a few dozen miles from the bogs. Its buildings are made from oiled hides and leather. They present "papers" orally over campfires, conduct research via long fugue state visions. They need no libraries - the founder of the school (Mitermas), a great wizard, recovered a few scraps of knowledge of the long gone lizardfolk civilization from the few mystics of that race who still retained them. The most important bit of that knowledge were the secrets to advanced memory enhancement technique. The scholars of Miterimas's heads are each a unique library of perfectly preserved texts. But to you that was the only place you knew, though your guardian, the jovial Assistant Bursar Harde Gritsmal, told you stories of other places in the wide world, places where visiting traders, merchants, experts and scholars came from. So by the age of seven, you understood when you heard a few visiting teenage students derisively refer to Miterimas as "Swamp School". They did not mean it kindly. Additional details from my notes: Population: 740. (Village) 73% human (540), 12% lizardfolk (88), 9% half-elf (66), 3% halfling (22), 3% other (22) Power Center: NG, Faculty Council. Students: 105 undergrad, 35 grad. Faculty: 20 There is a town militia about 80 strong, and a company of 20 full-time guards who live in the keep. Guards are War 1 and War 2 with a Rgr 8 captain and Ftr 4 lieutenant. Lizardfolk tend to be associated with the university, don’t mix too much with the “townies”. Provide labor, gather food (roots, berries, fish). Many townies also work for the university, providing more advanced artisan services. Some hunt and tend the food gardens. Some are seasonal, leaving in the winter months when cranberries are not harvested. Tent structures range from 10’ diameter yurts to the 120’ x 100’ student mess. The smaller tents are oiled hide and rope construction with wood poles – hardness 2, hp 7. The larger ones are hide on wood frames (hardness 3, hp 10) with thick ropes and metal poles. Stone structures are masonry with sod (peat) roofs. All have peat piled around them during winter for insulation. Some of the school buildings have connecting covered walkways or courtyards. These walkways are flagstones and the coverings are wood, bark and peat. As for the lost civilization, I don't have many details. I don't really plan to make that a big part of the campaign, more it's a tip of the iceberg kind of thing. I do need to come up with a few details for the adventure, I know at least one of the PC's is going to want to hear what is discussed at the colloquium. In brief, here is why the ultraloth is interested in the civilization. The setting has an "orrery cosmology", meaning the inner and outer planes move around and rotate around the material plane. It was not always this way - there was a great Cosmic War, at the end of which the planar cosmos was sundered. That happened as the lizardfolk civilization was starting to go into decline. It's that sundering event that the ultraloth is trying to find out more about. The lizardfolk did not have anything to do with that directly, but since they were around at the time, they may have accounts of the event. I guess what would be cool would be a "Bayeux Tapestry" sort of thing from there, where there was an image or something in the background that gave a clue. (FWIW, it's commonly believed that the sundering was the work of fiends, as this is also when the Blood War began, but actually it was the work of genies.)