Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Jaxom Feb 19, 2015 14:33:50	I have rules for Demon Possesion from the Third Edition Book of Vile Darkness that can be modified to 5e easily enough.   This would be an adventure to start a group of 1st Level Characters. I guess it has a lot of similarities to the movie Fallen.   I'm curious how some of you would plot out an adventure like this since having a demon that can travel from person to person ethereally and without being easliy detected can potentially be frustrating without some goals the demon is trying to achieve.   I picture the characters tracking down a murder suspect, catching them, and delaing with them and then later another murder is commited the exact same way. Durring their investigating they would find out that a lot of these people committing the crimes might have some criminal record or none at all.   Later on in their investigations as the demon possessing people finds out who the characters are, I could have random NPC's say the character's names without previous knowledge of who they are. I can also do other creepy things as time goes on... that's the easy part.   I'm more curious how you guys might structure this adventure idea so that it is easy to run and fun to play. I think it has potential becuase after the players defeat multiple crazy villains they'll realize that they're dealing with something bigger and that they'll have to do some research and find some help in defeating the actual demon.
#2 bawylie Feb 19, 2015 15:28:03	Episodic and thematic. The first couple of sessions something like murder or monster of the week.    Then maybe 3 sessions in (4) start up a copycat. Explicitly and meticulously copied. Use these sessions to set a baseline for rules that the evil entity must obey.    Concerning motivation - eternal creatures don't have normal motivations the way we fleeting mortals do. They simply are what they are. A killer demon is a killer demon. Less a matter of why than of what.    So the overarching conflict is identifying the what and hoisting it by its own petard.    Remaining adventures/sessions to focus on B-line and C-line plots and sub-quests. (Meet someone who survived an attack by evil entity, win the alliance of a powerful priest, other monsters on theme but not strictly related). Etx.    This would be freaking metal!
#3 Jaxom Feb 19, 2015 16:02:02	Definitely would have other demons and fiends enter the picture to fortify the theme of the overall adventure/campaign.   I want to lead the group to Skullport, a good place for a fiend to do it's stuff and also a great place to slowly corrupt characters since there's not much law there. But if I keep the story where the characters live, then I have options of the fiend posessing allies of the characters.   So "why" in a fiend's case, creating fear and corruption and mistrust could be good enough. Then maybe move from that to people summoning demons to fight against the fiend only to find out that's what the fiend wanted them to do.   As long as I have this much I think it's just a matter of watching what the players do and have the fiend change it's plans based on what it thinks they might do next, in some cases it may not even care. At least until the characters find out how they must track down the fiend's real form hidden elsewhwhere and kill it.
#4 Goon-for-Hire Feb 19, 2015 17:24:52	There was an adventure like this for Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death.  The idea wasn't to figure out the motivations of the spirit so much as the motivations of it's master (summoner in this case?) by doing detective work about the victims.
#5 Illithidbix Feb 19, 2015 18:24:08	I love the concept myself. And planning to use it in my campaign.   I'd play into is the concept of the “flesh is a prison as well as a tool” As a different take from the BoVD. - Once the fiend is possessing, it is far harder to both remove it from the host and for the fiend to leave the host.   This would fix it to a simple person. Which may or maynot be what you're going for.
#6 Barky Feb 19, 2015 19:39:37	Yeah, cool concept!     I find the high-concept stuff like this can be difficult to execute. Players tend to be focused on combat and loot and tweaking their characters and may miss clues and plots and the real richness of the campaign. Be prepared for disappointment if your players don't catch on right away. Resist the urge to telegraph the plot or compromise your vision (unless you think it's actually flawed) or give up on it out of frustration. Instead, stick with it. You may have to give more clues or abandon it for one quest or session and pick it up later when the palyers are in the right frame of mind or whatever.   Players get motvated when THEY figure out what's going on. Let them do so. It just may not happen when you want it to happen, so be patient. And until it does, cackle quietly to yourself as you give them all these clues and they STILL don't know what's really going on!   Good luck.
#7 Jaxom Feb 19, 2015 19:52:49	Barky, You're right, it is tough to pull off stuff like this, and it does depend on the group's focus, frame of mind, picking the right pace, and setting the tone. Then you have to give out the right amount of infomration at the right time to keep them hooked. I usually have a few threads for the players to choose from and I generally try to work their backgrounds into those threads. Even if this doesn't go anywhere in the begining I can keep it in the background and wait it out. Later it might hit closer to home and become personal, I have a feeling it will grab their attention if that happens.
#8 BRJN Feb 20, 2015 19:57:40	After a few identical murder scenes with different suspects, have a common thread appear: all suspects live in a particular ZIPCode.  (Maybe near a certain graveyard).  Later the demon fails to kill a target - somebody who was asking questions and getting too close.  Now the PCs have help and you have a way to feed in clues the PC miss.   To solve the problem, the demon must first be 'contained' inside the graveyard.  Then it can be pinned down and destroyed.  (What if it was away possessing somebody when the barrier goes up?  Does it have to leave its hosts and return to a certain place before a countdown?)  Is the demon tied to a particular artifact - Destroy it and banish him?   This could be made impossibly complicated; keep things simple so the PCs can figure out what is going on BEFORE the whole village is slain.