Children of Road's End, story thus far, Fdbk/ideas welcome
Feb 29, 2016 22:30:50 GMT
joatmoniac and dmsam like this
Post by dmonic on Feb 29, 2016 22:30:50 GMT
Hey, Thought I'd share with you the broad outline of the game I've been running for the past 5 months or so, I'd like to see what you 'see' in it, and hear what ideas or directions you come up with. I'm actually at something of a mental crossroads right now, because I feel like my existing story/justification for events in my head is a wee bit too complicated/involved, If there is interest I'll make a follow up post that describes the plan of the bad guys, and all the complications therein. I'm 99% my players aren't on here.
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The Children of Roads End/Rise of the Magic Empire
The PCs are 11-12 year old kids in a village that, unknown to them, has been plagued by zombie attacks, in the evening in the first week of fall, for the last decade or so. The PCs were in the dark about the attacks until one day, in early fall, they were attacked in broad daylight by the creatures while in a field with their friend/nanny/mentor/oldest child in the Village, Moier.
They escape, The village holds a meeting, the kids are filled in on the truth and told that they must not talk about it with outsiders, because trade is already bad enough, the village doesn't want to get a reputation as a cursed village.
They do some basic character development stuff, one of them (child of the clergy of the village) is obsessed with magic (even though the countryside at large is very magic-phobic - especially the church) Another wants to learn how to be a ranger, One finds out she is the descendant of demon hunting bards. Will, the Orphan of notorious criminal parents, tries to get in touch with his brother, who should have returned from a trip months ago.
The village takes to training the kids to fight in self defense, a year goes by with occasional groups of walking dead stumbling into the village - looking for something. The village elder calls the kids to her house, and tells them her theory - A necromancer might be at work within the village - and asks them to covertly investigate this under the guise of "play".
Their investigation turns up nothing, until they search the old Fletcher house (the Evil parents of Wil the Orphan), it's a slightly burned out farmhouse on the edge of town that hasn't been used since the Fletchers fled town to avoid arrest years ago. In the basement they discover a trail of blood, that leads to a room with what appears to be a very demonic and one might say, necromantic, altar, with a corpse of a mailman smack in the center of a magic circle on the ground. They -predictably- freak out (they're playing kids, and they're good at being in character). They grab the mailbag, it has a letter from Will's Brother that says something to the effect of "Our parents are alive, I'm going to find them, and Kill them - Love eric!"
They report their findings to the elder, she says she'll look into it. Two weeks later she announces her suspicions to the town at large, resulting in a suspicious, paranoid, witch hunt type atmosphere, with some villagers calling for calm (Like the Husband of the Mayor) and others calling for blood (The Church Elders)
The children get asked by another friend, Lisa, a traveling merchant to 'help her on a job' 'acquiring some goods' from a temple, She was hired to retrieve a book, and an artifact described in the book, they break into the temple, and after the usual amount of dungeon nonce they find the book, and then the artifact, and escape into a cave system connected to the basement.
They make their way through the cave and head back towards town, but they're unexpectedly caught up with by a group (An Elf, a Vampire, and a Human Boy) who identifies themselves as the employer of Lisa on this particular quest. Lisa tells the kids to stay hidden and goes into the clearing to talk it out, she plays dumb, trying to buy time - knowing this was neither the time nor place agreed upon for the handoff, and that something isn't right. Eventually the Elf woman asking her to hand over the item gets tired of the game, and has Lisa shot through by her minion with a heavy crossbow. Roll Initiative. It's very much a combat they were in no way high enough level for, but I'd built in a few solutions/get-away tricks if they figured them out. One of which was destroying the artifact - They opted for this. It caused everyone within 50 feet or so to be thrown forward in time, with the greatest effect (2 weeks) being centered where the artifact was, weakening as it radiates out (the bad guys ended up being thrown a few hours into the future.
When the PCs finally all meet up again, they realize Lisa is gone, presumed taken by the bads, but plus side, they recovered eric (will's brother) who had been under a thrall like mind control from his father (the vampire). Eventually they find out from Eric bits and pieces about where he had been, and who he had seen, he describes two locations, one; a mansion in the city to the north, two; a cave in a valley to the North West. He's too weak to travel, as he was grievously wounded in the combat, and still is under unknown effects from the mind control he had been subjected to. Will comes up with a great plan to get supplies together and get out of town, that lead into some great roleplaying.
While the PC's were away from town, Knights and monks from the Order of the Flame, a monastic, xenophobic, magic-hating, fairly fascist Order arrived in town to "help provide security" and to aid the town against it's perpetual threat of undead, and to aid in the tracking down of the rogue necromancer. (The Temple the PC's broke into belonged to them, and one of the other PCs a half-orc, was almost killed by them as a kid, so, yeah, they're one of my very clear antagonists)
The OOTF (order of the flame) Sets up shop in the church, working hand in hand with the clergy (also magic-phobic, peas in a pod) and start sweeping the village for any traces, confiscating old minor magical family heirlooms etc.
Upon returning, Cedric (the child of the clergy, who wanted to learn magic, and actually had begun dabbling in very questioningly dark arts (he found a prayer book possessed by a demon that began tutoring him)) is confronted by his parents, who want him to be tested for demonic or magical corruption by the Order of the Flame, Cedric books it the **** out of there, and escapes into the woods.
The Clergy parents then set their sights on Will, who is a distant relation from the other side of the family (shared grandmother) and capture him, inform him of their intent to adopt him and his brother, raise them 'right' and 'holy' and precede to interrogate him about the location of Cedric, and what it is that Cedric has been getting into that has made him so disobedient (Other than you know, bad parenting)
The PCs rescue Will, and get out of town, They're on their way to the city to the North.
I left out a few things, like, a really creepy kid in the village who is constantly trying to spy on/hang out with the PCs. I mainly use him to troll them, his name is Wally, and He's gotten them paranoid to the point that they stab the hey with pitchforks, and search their windmill hide out top to bottom before every meeting. I'm halfway tempted to have him stow-away with them to the City, but I'm afraid they'd murder him in the woods once they found him.
Anyway, Sorry for the Giiiiiiiiiiiiigantic wall of text. Hope it was mildly interesting, Please share with me what feeling you got from it, or any ideas you might have. If you were a player, what would you think is "Really" happening based on this? Thanks!
---
The Children of Roads End/Rise of the Magic Empire
The PCs are 11-12 year old kids in a village that, unknown to them, has been plagued by zombie attacks, in the evening in the first week of fall, for the last decade or so. The PCs were in the dark about the attacks until one day, in early fall, they were attacked in broad daylight by the creatures while in a field with their friend/nanny/mentor/oldest child in the Village, Moier.
They escape, The village holds a meeting, the kids are filled in on the truth and told that they must not talk about it with outsiders, because trade is already bad enough, the village doesn't want to get a reputation as a cursed village.
They do some basic character development stuff, one of them (child of the clergy of the village) is obsessed with magic (even though the countryside at large is very magic-phobic - especially the church) Another wants to learn how to be a ranger, One finds out she is the descendant of demon hunting bards. Will, the Orphan of notorious criminal parents, tries to get in touch with his brother, who should have returned from a trip months ago.
The village takes to training the kids to fight in self defense, a year goes by with occasional groups of walking dead stumbling into the village - looking for something. The village elder calls the kids to her house, and tells them her theory - A necromancer might be at work within the village - and asks them to covertly investigate this under the guise of "play".
Their investigation turns up nothing, until they search the old Fletcher house (the Evil parents of Wil the Orphan), it's a slightly burned out farmhouse on the edge of town that hasn't been used since the Fletchers fled town to avoid arrest years ago. In the basement they discover a trail of blood, that leads to a room with what appears to be a very demonic and one might say, necromantic, altar, with a corpse of a mailman smack in the center of a magic circle on the ground. They -predictably- freak out (they're playing kids, and they're good at being in character). They grab the mailbag, it has a letter from Will's Brother that says something to the effect of "Our parents are alive, I'm going to find them, and Kill them - Love eric!"
They report their findings to the elder, she says she'll look into it. Two weeks later she announces her suspicions to the town at large, resulting in a suspicious, paranoid, witch hunt type atmosphere, with some villagers calling for calm (Like the Husband of the Mayor) and others calling for blood (The Church Elders)
The children get asked by another friend, Lisa, a traveling merchant to 'help her on a job' 'acquiring some goods' from a temple, She was hired to retrieve a book, and an artifact described in the book, they break into the temple, and after the usual amount of dungeon nonce they find the book, and then the artifact, and escape into a cave system connected to the basement.
They make their way through the cave and head back towards town, but they're unexpectedly caught up with by a group (An Elf, a Vampire, and a Human Boy) who identifies themselves as the employer of Lisa on this particular quest. Lisa tells the kids to stay hidden and goes into the clearing to talk it out, she plays dumb, trying to buy time - knowing this was neither the time nor place agreed upon for the handoff, and that something isn't right. Eventually the Elf woman asking her to hand over the item gets tired of the game, and has Lisa shot through by her minion with a heavy crossbow. Roll Initiative. It's very much a combat they were in no way high enough level for, but I'd built in a few solutions/get-away tricks if they figured them out. One of which was destroying the artifact - They opted for this. It caused everyone within 50 feet or so to be thrown forward in time, with the greatest effect (2 weeks) being centered where the artifact was, weakening as it radiates out (the bad guys ended up being thrown a few hours into the future.
When the PCs finally all meet up again, they realize Lisa is gone, presumed taken by the bads, but plus side, they recovered eric (will's brother) who had been under a thrall like mind control from his father (the vampire). Eventually they find out from Eric bits and pieces about where he had been, and who he had seen, he describes two locations, one; a mansion in the city to the north, two; a cave in a valley to the North West. He's too weak to travel, as he was grievously wounded in the combat, and still is under unknown effects from the mind control he had been subjected to. Will comes up with a great plan to get supplies together and get out of town, that lead into some great roleplaying.
While the PC's were away from town, Knights and monks from the Order of the Flame, a monastic, xenophobic, magic-hating, fairly fascist Order arrived in town to "help provide security" and to aid the town against it's perpetual threat of undead, and to aid in the tracking down of the rogue necromancer. (The Temple the PC's broke into belonged to them, and one of the other PCs a half-orc, was almost killed by them as a kid, so, yeah, they're one of my very clear antagonists)
The OOTF (order of the flame) Sets up shop in the church, working hand in hand with the clergy (also magic-phobic, peas in a pod) and start sweeping the village for any traces, confiscating old minor magical family heirlooms etc.
Upon returning, Cedric (the child of the clergy, who wanted to learn magic, and actually had begun dabbling in very questioningly dark arts (he found a prayer book possessed by a demon that began tutoring him)) is confronted by his parents, who want him to be tested for demonic or magical corruption by the Order of the Flame, Cedric books it the **** out of there, and escapes into the woods.
The Clergy parents then set their sights on Will, who is a distant relation from the other side of the family (shared grandmother) and capture him, inform him of their intent to adopt him and his brother, raise them 'right' and 'holy' and precede to interrogate him about the location of Cedric, and what it is that Cedric has been getting into that has made him so disobedient (Other than you know, bad parenting)
The PCs rescue Will, and get out of town, They're on their way to the city to the North.
I left out a few things, like, a really creepy kid in the village who is constantly trying to spy on/hang out with the PCs. I mainly use him to troll them, his name is Wally, and He's gotten them paranoid to the point that they stab the hey with pitchforks, and search their windmill hide out top to bottom before every meeting. I'm halfway tempted to have him stow-away with them to the City, but I'm afraid they'd murder him in the woods once they found him.
Anyway, Sorry for the Giiiiiiiiiiiiigantic wall of text. Hope it was mildly interesting, Please share with me what feeling you got from it, or any ideas you might have. If you were a player, what would you think is "Really" happening based on this? Thanks!
