Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Dreamstryder Nov 30, 2010 17:48:11	The campaign is Brothers Grimm/Pan's Labyrinth flavor. References: A, B A sandstorm raced across the erg, and, amidst the biting sand, the party followed a strange, dancing light into a cave. There they found a pit of bones at the base of a cliff and wall pictures depicting people throwing others off a ledge into the mouth of a man-faced lion with a scorpion's tail. They followed this hall to a door, finding the monster frozen in amber and an hourglass on a desk that unfroze the monster for as long as the sands crossed the middle. At the base of this structure they find ruins. I'm planning the ruins to be a lonely village sheltered by the sands by steep cliffs. Whispers have cut mazes in the stone. A spirit flits about the night sky above on fleshy wings, lamenting in a wind-like voice: "By thirst or sword 'twas taken not, yet silence came and followed rot. Seeping sand did take the bones and seal away dear Kerris Own." (PS: Kerris Own is the village) Fruit hangs unpicked from the trees, water is in the well, etc. Somewhere in the village, they find scrawled: "And we gave him way, and no one spoke Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak." (or some other excerpts from Maurice Ogden's "Hangman" or this famous quote) (PS: links added) PS: What I'm asking: (any of the following) 1. Hints as to what/who the "Hangman" is/was. 2. Hints as to the aims of the "Hangman." 3. Any other interesting features and threats of the village. ...but please: no pyramids! (just because there's sand...)
#2 saethone Nov 30, 2010 21:32:12	does anybody live there?  what if they turn the hourglass back over (or pick it up and inadvertently pass sand through the center)  is the fruit and water safe? why is the spirit there? Who is Kerris Own? whats the dungeons mystery? i'm quite confused about what your asking for lol
#3 theapokalypseshovel Dec 01, 2010 1:02:00	This sounds really cool, but like saethone, I have no idea what you are asking for. Just cool stuff to go in the place? Why are they in the dungeon/hope to do there?   What is the threat? I might throw in a chanting cavern, which creates the sounds of chanting as the wind blows through it, but when the PCs arrive it is empty (at least of chanters). Perhaps they find strange statues or whirling charms and glass bottles that channel the sound, perhaps it is just the natural shape of the caves?
#4 Dreamstryder Dec 01, 2010 3:48:55	Kerris Own: Name of the village. The spirit is there to be eerie and recite the rhyming lament. Why They're There: The current party is working off the meta-game reason that there must be treasure hidden in strange, out-of-the-way places. We'll need to rectify that somehow. The Monster and the Hourglass: Once flipped, the timepiece dropped, as if very heavy, and attached itself to the desktop below it, refusing to budge for as long as the sand flowed. The party cleverly flipped the desk upside-down to stop it (they'd guessed what it did when it glued itself down, for they'd passed a fireplace nearby wherein the flames were likewise frozen). It erased the amber field around the beast, releasing it, but the amber field reformed about the beast when the sands stopped, so it only moved for a round. The Dungeon's Mystery: The clues as to the dungeon's mystery are: 1. the wall drawings showing 2 weapon-bearers feeding a line of other people to the monster, 2. that the monster was apparently controlled by another person, 3. the whisper scrawled on stone, which I realize now is rather ambiguous for those who know not the poem). It is related to this famous quote. Perhaps I should use more excerpts or change them, which is good, because it will effectively take more puzzle pieces before the complete picture is recognized and the puzzle solved. Someone was using the village to fulfill... something, and that aim can be left unclear. What I'm asking: I've added it to the OP post.
#5 theapokalypseshovel Dec 01, 2010 5:39:50	That is an awesome poem. I think that part of the story of what happened might center around the manlion coming to the village and terrorizing it. The villagers were frightened and appealed for help. Unfortunately the Hangman answered, being a devil or aberration of clever wickedness. He suggested in a sly way, that the only means to holding off the monster was to make a sacrifice each day. Or perhaps an ailment had fallen on the town, and the monster, an ancient protection guardian, was called upon to root out the wickedness. The Hangman had obscured it's ability to discern good and evil, and the monster condemned all that were brought before it.  You should post more of poem out and create excerpts. Sounds like a cool scenario.
#6 Dreamstryder Dec 01, 2010 16:42:22	I can also derive my own couplets to be succinct and fit the setting: He came for a man from a foreign land, and we spoke not, for it was not our clan. He came for one who had objected, and we spoke not, to not be added. Now we too must leave alone, for no one spoke in Kerris Own. So we have a Surprise (mystery), but Need (what the PCs seek) and Risk are still absent. Need must be established before Risk. That is the next hurdle.
#7 Dreamstryder Dec 04, 2010 5:02:47	I feel the tale of the village's past should relate to the party's present, but I'm not sure how to do it other than making it relate to some current threat the PCs encounter there or elsewhere. As for threats while there (tho' I know not how they relate to the "Hangman"): The party could be cursed by a creeping malady, gradually growing scales of bark and sprouting twigs, or something. They can Disenchant things, but have no Remove Curse item, and the one likely capable NPC they know is days away. The cure will be in the village. Another possibility is that they find themselves somehow unable to leave. How? Again, the key is in the village.
#8 saethone Dec 04, 2010 21:11:36	I like the idea of the curse - think of the game "Hangman" - where you draw a gallow, and guess letters for the words. They slowly take on the traits of the curse that covers the city - one starts to find himself cased in crystal, one finds himself starting to moan his own couplets, etc. They must find the answer to the puzzle before time runs out. To me, the answer seems very simple: "He came for a man from a foreign land, and we spoke not, for it was not our clan. He came for one who had objected, and we spoke not, to not be added. Now we too must leave alone, for no one spoke in Kerris Own." The party just needs to stand up to the hangman and tell him what he's done is wrong. As for the parties reason for doing so, it's kind of difficult to tell without knowing the party at hand. Maybe you can figure out why. Hope that gets the clockwork rolling
#9 Dreamstryder Dec 07, 2010 0:49:41	It does! The monster was kept and controlled to combat a greater threat. Under the belief that it is what it eats, and they wanted a reasoning guardian, they fed it humans (only criminals and outcasts at first; no one most would miss)... Thoughtless with fear and anger, the feeders may have still been lucid enough to keep themselves on top (not eaten). What is that greater threat (real or imagined) the monster was to fight? Instead of another creature, should it be less centralized, like an event or force of nature? It must be creepier. If the monster was not supposed to physically fight it, was it supposed to grow into another form, say a large, bright, moonlight beast with silver wings to bear the city away?
#10 theapokalypseshovel Dec 07, 2010 7:44:08	I'm going to say that the greater threat was a curse or illness that was causing all sorts of strange happenings to those afflicted. I would think that it might cause behaviors that while not malign in and of themselves, still posed a threat to the village as a whole. The cursed erected strange structures, were found cowering in other people's homes, dressed their animals up as people and all sorts of bizarre things. Perhaps they manifested strange arcane powers or transformed into strange creatures. The beast was brought in to devour the curse, as the typical methods of dealing with the curse failed and killing a cursed individual seemed to bring the curse on oneself. The monster could devour and undo the curse, and there was some success at stopping its spread. However it was replaced by paranoia and more and more sane individuals were fed to the beast. Worst yet the curse still was  awakening from an unknown source (up to you) and the party has to find this and feed it to the monster in order completely break it.  I'm not sure on your party's history in game, but you might consider making them the weapon bearers who did this to the village. They abandoned the village after fearing what they had done and the strange warp of the desert and the curse has flittered away their memories and disjointed time itself.  The only problem now would be fleshing out the curse and where it came from.
#11 Dreamstryder Dec 08, 2010 20:07:35	Good idea! (Making the PCs the very "Hangmen" they hunt is so exciting I'd have to use that idea elsewhere if not here.) I'll work in some worn pictures of people, hardly more than silhouettes. Even in silhouette, one can tell some of these figures were drawn differently from the rest, all in the same way. In another picture, people are fed to the man-eater, but only differently drawn ones. What this different style means will be up to the players' interpretation; a solid answer won't be as lingering as a mystery. I've arrived at this: The village entrance is cut off. The parties wander a maze of paths and row houses on the floor of the gorge. There are safe fruit trees and water here, but the whispers on the wind are unsettling, in a language too indistinct to understand. The only exit, at the end of a long tunnel carved into the mountain, is a wall of impenetrable ice or glass. In places the whispers are more distinct and some words recognizable. In such places the party should find a couplet worn by the dusty wind in a surface. At night, something silently patrols the village. It makes footsteps in the dust, and a spotlight shines forth above it, pointing forward. The thing itself is invisible and party's level +4 or so. If somehow made visible, it resembles mud or dust in a vaguely human shape, perhaps. There may be more than one. Most dangers in the village, besides being found, will probably be quiet things that nest in crannies inside the derelict houses. The construction can be in disrepair and form traps in places. There should be something creepy locked in a cellar somewhere, but it needn't be a monster. If the couplets are recited in order before the wall, the wind will pick up and fractures will creep everywhere across its surface... not normal fractures: names! Scratched in tiny, controlled hand into the wall! Sounds of invisible foot falls and a metal lid falling into place are heard from the entrance to the tunnel, and the wall begins to creep forward... (The entrance has disappeared; the party must destroy the now vulnerable wall before it crushes them.) Perhaps the wall's shattering sounds like a voice that warns the PCs that they were safer with a wall around them. Now I can play anxiety games with the PCs as to the existence of any old and forgotten threat outside. Thanks for everyone's suggestions! That really facilitated the process.