I want to create a group of 'healers' that are actually the reason behind the horrors plaguing the surrounding lands. Something like a non-profit organization consisting of a few alchemists and other such individuals. Now most of these 'doctors' are decent people who are trying to help the people who come to them. However about ten to twelve of the members (who happen to be the higher ranking people) are the evil ones.
One idea I have is that a clinic (for lack of better term) could be set up in a kingdom's capital and offer free check ups and cures for ailments. While doing said examinations the 'doctor' samples the patients blood to see if it is habitable for a type of parasite. Something similar to the Las plagas from the resident evil games. Perhaps the doctors could be told to look for a certain blood quality that is said to increase the immune system or the such.
Another idea is that a clinic could be paying people for signing wavers to donate their corpses to the clinic upon their time of death. perhaps the corpses could be reanimated and used to dig a system of tunnels running below key locations in the kingdom.
Perhaps the highest ranking healer is possessed by a demon/devil and is trying to modify people bodies to make them easier to possess or control.
Or maybe the head healer is experimenting on people trying to find a way to create the perfect person. Immune to disease, sickness, and even the effects of time. However the way s/he is doing the experiments could be considered inhumane and evil.
What other ideas can you contribute? I would like for the campaign to eventually take a horror/silent hill/resident evil twist.
You use a lot of modern medical terminology. It would sound cool, more medieval, if you google some historical medical language.
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Looking over what I wrote earlier I realized that I essentially described Umbrella corporation. I find that funny since I mentioned about a resident evil twist.
@Matt Clay- The diabolist trying to trade souls may be a good thing to incorporate. Perhaps a low level demon could be bound into a mark or scar that unbinds upon the patient's death freeing the demon to do what it wants on the material plane.
@Blueluck- Thanks for the history link. It made me think of a plague doctor that travels from town to town curing illnesses while secretly capturing strains of the illnesses to refine and improve them. For example: A airborne virus that causes rashes now causes rashes so badly that the skin splits and oozes a bloody pus. Perhaps this pus can be cultivated off of people to fuel some sort of plague cannon or catapult. Or perhaps can be used to create some sort of contact poison.
Edit: what if the skin rashes are actually forming symbols that summon demons randomly that can only be seen by and effect the infected? People who are uninfected would see the infected as loosing their grip on reality due to their illness and would quarantine them. Raving? check. Self inflicted wounds? check. Seeing things? check. Prognosis? Cray person. Cure with fire or holy water.
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Edit: what if the skin rashes are actually forming symbols that summon demons randomly that can only be seen by and effect the infected? People who are uninfected would see the infected as loosing their grip on reality due to their illness and would quarantine them. Raving? check. Self inflicted wounds? check. Seeing things? check. Prognosis? Cray person. Cure with fire or holy water.
Holy. Crap. That is brilliant!
*yoink*
That's the sound of me stealing the idea for my campaign.
And speaking of crazy people, I created a villain once that might suit this scenario. He was a charm specialist wizard who ran an asylum with his mentor, experimenting (in good ways) in ways to cure various diseases of the mind with their charm magics. They had some success and unfortunately, one of these were a CE psion that thanked them by sparking an inmate revolt and torturing the two of them. The mentor died, but the apprentice lived, now quite mad. He became obsessed with control of others, "for their own good." His familiar only responds to him when he's in his rare, lucid moments (CG) and actively looks for someone to help his master. The mage is well known in the area for his good work in the asylum and can be cured, if the PCs can find and subdue him. He is essentially still a good man, but in his insanity, does evil things for what his warped mind thinks are good reasons. I reflected this by having his alignment "flicker" between CG and CE. If the PCs just found him and killed him, the backlash of the populace would bring harsh consequences down on them. I tossed in liberal hints as to the mage's predicament. Never did play that to completion, game fizzled for other reasons. :-(
That sounds like it would be a good addition to the clinic. While in lucid moments he tries to cure peoples trauma but while hes insane he plants or intensifies trauma.
To anyone who wishes to use any ideas, by all means take whatever you think is good. If somebody out there likes one of my ideas enough to use it, I'm happy.
You'll want at least one PC with a crazy high Bluff score, just in case.
I've decided to take this group of npc villains and make them the center starts of my campaign. In what place can a person of great thought and low morals have free reign to do what they wish?
Why in the wonderful, nightmarish world of Rapture of course.
I plan to have the pcs start in a town that has been visited by a caravan that has come from a 'town' inside rapture.
The pcs will have some hook that brings them into rapture at the time a revolt between factions starts. This causes the pcs to become trapped in rapture until they can find a way to restart whatever it is that allows them to escape the underwater city. This of course leads them through several areas and through several members of the group as well.
The way I see it, the undersea world of rapture was created by high level alchemists and other learned people to enhance society without relying on gods and kings. Over time the methods of the group have gone from benevolent to twisted and cruel. People grow sick and abominations of machinery and flesh run rampant. As is that wasn't bad enough a cult has formed consisting mostly of dissenters. The high priests speak of an ancient god that slumbers in the deep who will one day awaken and free them from this immoral hell.
I figure this would be a way to incorporate a bit of body horror, gore, and diplomatic challenges. Will the pcs try and help the people of this twisted sub-world find their way to the surface or will they conquer and create a nightmare world of their very own to rule?
I plan to allow body grafts and 'splicing' to allow players to play some unusual races or do things that wouldn't ordinarily be done in normal adventures.
You want your arm bones replaced by metal? Not a problem. You want razor spines jutting from your forearms that can shoot like little darts? That's fine. Just put a few drops of blood here on this contract. Nothing important really.
What do you think? Suggestions?
Edit: I plan to introduce the cult first as people who are trying to survive by following a new god who promises to protect them from their tormenters. Make the cult seem like good people. But make something seem... off. Perhaps they never seem to blink or have a weird smell or the such. Little things at first. Then later on the pcs find a shrine dedicated to this god covered in grisly offerings and guarded by cultists who are slowly becoming monstrous. Then things begin to fall into place. The pcs are hunted by the cult for 'desecrating' holy land with their unclean bodies and the such.
I want to add some sort of enforcer golem to patrol the under water city of elation. Something akin to a big daddy but one hand is a long slender grasping claw and the other is some form of melee weapon.
What kinds of things could we come up with for a pseudo big daddy?
Heres the wiki I'm working on at the moment.
http://taintedsea.wikispot.org/Front_Page
It's my first so don't expect too much when it's done.
Just finished some minor tewaking on the wiki and added a large number of pictures that shall be used. Still looking for more inspiration.
Maybe the doctors use leeching and the leeches are actually the psionic or magical versions of the puppeteers from the Psionics Handbook?
That's a pretty good idea. Leeches fit in with the undersea theme.
I can see there being variant of the leeches that cause people to mutate due to some sort of bacteria.
Love the idea of "donating blood" to the vampire running the clinic.