Eastern Islands: jungle, monkeys, temple and Extended Contests

From: Philippe Sigaud <sigaud_at_...>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 21:45:13 +0100

My third HQ campaign is going well for the time being. The characters are exploring the strange eastern seas of the Isles of Wonder, where dreams and reality are both the same and separate [*], where weird wise men still magic with their inner calm, and where the Orlanthi gods are seen as disturbing Antigods.

Right now, they are on the jungle island of Paralamambo, complete with a volcano, cannibal monkeys, a lustful goddess, friendly natives and Haragalan conqu... merchants taking the interests of the Commonwealth very seriously.
Last session they saw gigantic statues of Belintar (the Pharaoh, their God-King) emerging from the steamy jungle. The natives told them they were made by the great sage Pembo-Pembo, who lives near the volcano [**]. I bet they will try to investigate.

As the Haragalans and a dangerous Kralori sect are also trying to get into the jungle, I'm preparing some action scenes. I would also like to have a ruined temple, probably linked to the island goddess or one of her ancient lovers (Belintar ?). Interested by the recent thread on HQ-rules on Extended Contest, I may well play the travel through the jungle as an EC, or maybe the temple exploration, I don't know.

Do you have any ideas of events that could happen ?

Jungle:
- river and piranhas

• some carnivorous beast, maybe a small dinosaur? One of them has a strong Orlanthi daimon with him, so I may introduce some Zorns (nightmarish pterodactyl Keets)
• a creaking rope bridge across a steaming chasm?
• marks of cannibal monkey village nearby: heads on pikes, rotting bodies hanging on a tree, guides fleeing, etc.
• cannibal monkeys attack!
• A volcano explosion is almost compulsory, but maybe should happen only at the very end, when the try to get out? The goal of the jungle would be to kill/disgust them, make them live 'it' alone. If they get the jungle to 0 AP, they find what they want to find.

Temple:
- crumbling walls

• water (got to swim)
• gigantic stone ball I'm a bit short on ideas for this one.

   Philippe

[*] The game is slowly evolving into a main campaign in the Waking World and another smaller one, in the Dreaming. Not much right now, but the players told me they were interested by this development. [**] Pembo Pembo is (of course?) a giant ape. A thoughtful, meditative, sculpture-loving, deeply religious, human-eating giant ape. He may well fall in love with a young and beautiful female character. Let's see.