Re: Help!

From: Bryan <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:56:01 -0000

Not a fully worked out scenario, but I quickly typed up an adaptation of some ideas I'd had bouncing around in my head (Greedy Gulper came out of the Stormsteads project, for those that recall it). See below, and see if it works for you. You'll have to make some choices and stat out some NPC roughly.



Premise: Someone is messing with a powerful landscape spirit nearby. Go find out who, and resolve the situation safely.

Setting: host clan, then the lands around a bog outside the tula. The bog is a powerful landscape spirit (not daimone) called Greedy Gulper. The bog has expanded recently and is killing off adjacent forest, leaving ranks of dead trees standing ominously in the thick mists that cling to the bog.

Cast: The player-heroes, "someone else." Someone else could be outlaws, members of a rival clan, aldrymi, rogue members of the host clan or something else entirely (motive will vary by who they are, see below). The others must include at least one being with good ritual magic abilities, probably not theist—however could be an animist or an expert in common magic. Great Gulper the spirit: Swallow whole 10W3, swallow wind 10W, swallow sound 10W, Greed 10W3, swallowed treasures 10W2. (yes, the spirit is powerful! Players should not take it on directly).

Background: Greedy Gulper has great power to swallow anything and never give it up—who knows what treasures it might still hide? However no local clan has ever come to a sufficient agreement with it that they want to include it in their clan lands. The host clan has a ritual which they use to beat back the spirit whenever the bog grows too large. A side effect of this ritual is always that things get released from the bog, most often spirits but sometimes things stranger, more dangerous, or more valuable. This past year the clan failed badly at the ritual, with the result that several clan folk were possessed by spirits of greed, and the bog grew even larger. Only with difficulty were the greed spirits dispelled, and the clan does not like to talk of this failure. However outlying herders and hunters have reported several strange encounters on lands near the bog lately, and the clan fears that someone is trying their own ritual with the bog. Normally the clan would drive people off, but until the effect of their defeat wears off they fear to approach the bog in case they again get possessed by greed.

What is going on?
Someone is reacting to the clan's failure to contain the bog. You have to decide who, and why (see list below). Whoever it is tried to perform a ritual, however the result was their leader getting possessed by a powerful greed spirit. The leader is now trying to negotiate with Greedy Gulper, convinced that great powers close enough to grasp.

Plot:
Scene 1: Host Clan
The heroes are taken aside by a ring member, given small gifts, and asked to keep a confidence. They are then told of the situation. It is intimated that if they would go investigate, their hosts would be very grateful. Various political, relationship, and personality factors can come into the mix here.

Scene 2: Bog lands
The hollow holding the bog is thick with mists at all times, and sounds are curiously muffled (due to Greedy Gulper swallowing sound over the bog). As they approach the bog anyone with wind powers active will find them failing.

Appropriate hunting or searching skills will find remains of a campsite, and signs of some ritual having been performed there, probably a few days ago. However nobody is there now. Exploring all around the bog will show some other tracks and signs of activity, but nobody there. However there is low ridge, now mostly swallowed by the bog, extending out into the bog. In one place it is only a few scattered boulders rising above the foul and stagnant waters. With some care the heroes can cross these boulders, and explore the small, wooded, island formed by the end of the ridge.

Scene 3: the Island

On this island they will find the intruders camped. Their leader is planning a ritual for that evening, and refuses to wait any longer— great powers and treasure await, and he or she has to get them now before someone else steals them. The leader is possessed by a spirit of greed (10W).

The last part is up to you and the players. Can they convince the rest of the intruders to work against the leader? Or can they overpower them? Can they dispel the greed spirit somehow without cooperation? Whether the ritual succeeds or fails it is probably bad for their host clan!

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