Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 WolfgangDroven Sep 27, 2014 9:05:12	Hello,   I am about to run a story line where my players run into a town where a succubus has taken hold. The idea is for them to start doing mission to try and solve the mysterious events happening in this small town. As the do the succubus send them on missins to try and currupt them. What I am looking for is a few more ideas for corruption based missions. Here are the few I have so far:   1.They try to convince the group the mayor's kid is evil and must be killed 2. Need to seduce a married woman to get info 3. A mute illterate man has been sneaking to the water supply and doing stange things...in fact he has found out the water supply is being poisonned and is trying to stop it, but with the communication issue we will see what my players do 4. A towns person is hording money that could be used to protect the town...in reality it is a charitable person saving collections to aid a family or families down on thier luck.   I am looking for at least 2 more corruption based missions. Hopefully my group will investigate see thru it and attack the succubus. If not I guess the succubus gets its 3 corruptions and goes for the kill...   Thank you in advance   Wolfgang
#2 Llenlleawg Sep 27, 2014 12:22:38	I'm not sure that all of these, indeed most of these, count as corruption. After all, to have acted rightly based on what one believes to be the truth, especially if nothing about the situation suggests further investigation, is hardly wicked, even though the result may be a bad one. So, if the PCs become truly convinced that the child is evil, then killing him might be an option. Might a better option to be to convince the PCs that a band of evil cultists need the blood of the living child to fulfill a horrible ritual, and that, although tragic, if they just kill the child then the town, perhaps the world itself, will be saved from horrible and unrelenting evil. The second one is actually a good case of corruption, leading the PCs to do "whatever needs to be done" to achieve their ends, even at the cost of the innocence or virtue of others. The third one is fine if the idea is to tempt the PCs to act rashly, to accuse or kill the mute on mere suspicion. The money hoarder? Another version of #3 I suppose (i.e. the temptation to rash judgment).   I think that #2 is a good model for corruption. Let there be things the PCs need to get, or need to prevent, and make the most obvious and "best" way open be one that involves leading other people into wicked acts:   1) Seducing or threatening a servant spy on or betray the trust of his master to get the PCs "crucial" information (however crucial the information, is it worth the moral integrity of someone else? what if the information also ruins the master's life, leads the servant to despair, etc.)   2) Torturing a captive to find the location of an "important" item (which turns out not to be so important at all; or then again, maybe it is, but torturing someone, even a criminal, just for information...)   3) Allowing a man the PCs know to be innocent to be convicted of a crime [and possibly be put to death] in order to prevent him from unwittingly realeasing a great evil. For example, there might be a merchant who has learned an ancient ritual he wants to try out. He's memorized it, so there's no hope in stealing a book from him. However, he is also accused of (and trumped up evidence is provided by the succubus) some grave malfeasance, for which he will surely hang. The PCs know he's innocent, but also know he will perform the ritual if set free. (NB, the ritual is probably harmless, but the succubus does what she can to convince the party otherwise.)   Anyway, my two cents.
#3 OrwellianHaggis Sep 27, 2014 16:14:01	I think "corruption" needs to be handled carefully.   The scenarios you presented are cool, but I agree with the above that they don't really involve corruption as much as deception. Find out the character's desires and target them. Maybe offer Inspiration Dice to players that allow their characters to succumb, or promise a sub-story to players who are their characters to succumb.   1.They try to convince the group the mayor's kid is evil and must be killed 2. Need to seduce a married woman to get info 3. A mute illterate man has been sneaking to the water supply and doing stange things...in fact he has found out the water supply is being poisonned and is trying to stop it, but with the communication issue we will see what my players do 4. A towns person is hording money that could be used to protect the town...in reality it is a charitable person saving collections to aid a family or families down on thier luck.   The character corrupts the kid: his or her violent tendencies rub off, the kids follows and learns some bad habits, the kid gets into drink or drugs because of the character. Alternately the kid corrupts the character (ever seen/read Apt Pupil?) by bringing up old feelings/habits/people from the past the character would rather not see. A character simply wants the married woman, no reason why. Consequences can be fun to deal with. The character takes a dislike to the mute man, egged on by the magic of the succubus. Inspiration every time they treat him badly. The character is put in a position where the money is there for the taking. This might not take much arm twisting, knowing what some players can be like.
#4 MechaPilot Sep 27, 2014 23:38:21	I agree with others who have said the things you mention don't sound much like corruption.  Corruption, at it's heart, is very much like seduction.  Corruption is offering that which is pleasurable (power, wealth, respect, sex, covenience, and so on) in such a manner that it causes or allows others to be harmed by taking it.  It is the justification of this harm (he has so much money it won't matter if I steal a little; standing up for that woman, despite her being wrongly accused, would be too inconvenient; and so on) and the reinforcement of that justification that evidences corruption as surely as rust evidences corrosion.
#5 Dreamstryder Sep 28, 2014 14:33:30	Not missions, but "rewards": Offer them magic items or tons of gold to do something that happens to be bad for most other people involved (ie to be magically compelled to vote a certain way at a trial without having heard any of it, or to let the dragon eat the village. Allow them to knowingly and instantly "borrow" hp from a random NPC (changes daily, and they don't know who) to add to their max hp for a day. Give them "get out of jail free" cards. This could be corrupting depending on your group.
#6 WolfgangDroven Sep 28, 2014 20:32:31	Thank you for your input.   My scenarios that I mentioned were meant as vague ideas. They are way more intricate than what I stated. And what I was asking for was ideas of other corruptions.   The mayor’s child being evil and must be killed. Upon visiting the child all obvious indications are going to be that the kid is a normal healthy child not something evil. The succubus (whom has started a relationship with my group…one sexual, the rest view her as a beaten down on her luck person believing all heroes are lost to the world and they are trying to prove heroes exist) will try to get them to do it anyways. With holding sex until it is done, for the one. The others she will try to get them to kill the kid despite all evidence to the contrary so they can prove heroes exist and will do what is right…FYI detect evil spell is “failing for some reason currently” and besides these events the succubus has corrupted others in town and it is currently plagued with murders, racism and other crimes. So my group is pre-disposed to the fact something is wrong in this town and want to find out what and prove themselves as heroes. The parents and towns folk will all say nothing is wrong with the kid…only the succubus` persuasion will be the proof otherwise. She will say "I know he looks innocent, but that is part of his evil...nobody believes me...please help me and kill him any way"   The second scenario…they believe the husband is doing wrong and the only one that can prove it is the wife. Again all evidence is going to say he is innocent. The succubus will try to convince them to seduce her for the information as she has the only info. If they follow her steps to seduction the wife will actually frame her husband for the crimes (double wammy seduce a naive wife and get her to frame her innocent husband).   The third is definitely to see if they act rash. Because he cannot get anyone to understand what is going on, he has taken it upon himself to neutralize the poison. The succubus will try to get the group to act before thinking.  Her goal will be to get them to stop someone from doing good for to town. If they investigate they find antidotes, and the guys own investigation into the poisoning. This is also the first task and is meant as a test more than a corruption. If they act rash, it will look like the guy was poisoning the town`s water supplies and they should be more inclined to trust the succubus. If they investigate properly then they will find their first reason to mistrust the succubus. The succubus needs only 3 corruptions so some of these `tasks` are more to build up the succubus as someone that can be trusted as being right. Even as I have listed them above, there is still more to each task. What I was and am looking for are more `missions` I can do for the actual corruptions. I am sorry if that wasn`t clear. After I have ideas I can flesh everything out.   I like the "rewards" idea and it has given me a few more ideas of things the succubus can do to pressure them. The "borrow HP" reward is a really good idea. I like it.   The end result isn't suppose to be that they get corrupted anyway. I would hope they figure out the tasks are evil and begin to investigate the source of the tasks and find out she is a succubus and kill her. This is a stepping stone in my campaign of where demons and devils are coming into the world. The end of the succubus story is suppose to be that they find out there has been a child produced in a different town years ago by this very succubus which was born a Cambion. Which I am hoping will lead them into hunting the Cambion down for my next story in this campaign.   Again I am only really looking for corruption ideas to throw at my group. Thank you again for the input.   Wolfgang
#7 ArcticFawx Sep 29, 2014 6:40:25	Maybe you should think about examples from movies where corruption began with things like moreal dilemmas or "justifiable" acts.  Think of examples like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi... when the Emperor was baiting him, tempting Luke to try and murder him as a way of saving his friends.   An act of murder to end a war?  (Note that Luke does eventually succumb to the temptation, but Vader stopped him from succeeding.)     Try and create a scenario in which the PCs can only choose the lesser of a given set of evils, rather than find a "right" approach.   Possible ideas may include:   -The only way to defeat the unnatural creeping vines that are slowly destroying the village is to smash the Lifestone kept in the chapel... but that same stone is used to cure the sick and heal injuries for the townspeople.  Destroy the stone and save the town, but deprive the sick and crippled people access to their cure?  Leave the stone but let the town be destroyed?   -A merchant has been robbed and his money must be recovered from the brigands, but that merchant happens to be a slave trader.  Do you bring the brigands to justice and recover the gold?  That enables more slavery.  Do you bring the brigands to justice but confiscate the gold?  That's an unlawful act.  Do you just let the brigands get away, calling it karma for the evils committed by the merchant?  That's inaction allowing evil to escape justice.    -Undead entities that can only be harmed by a specific magical weapon are terrorizing the town.  That weapon can be acquired from the Necromancer who lives nearby... for a price.  A very unethical price.  (Perhaps a living sacrifice, or a piece of one of the PCs' soul)   -Perhaps the party has been sworn to secrecy on a desperately needed mission from the mayor... only to learn that keeping the secret will result in the deaths of an entire family in an outlying farm.  Keep the secret and save the town at the cost of sacrificing the family, or warn the family but in so doing fail the quest, thus causing calamity in the town?   Once a couple of these moral dilemmas have been dealt with, the PCs (even the players) will feel a little less secure in their righteousness.  That's exactly the sort of corruption a fiend would enjoy.
(Reply to #7) Llenlleawg	ArcticFawx wrote: