Hi all.
Last year for my birthday I took my level 3 players on a side-quest. This was shortly after the release of the movie The World's End and I had the idea to send them on a competitive team challenge with each team having a different god being the sponsor. Cayden's team was otherwise indisposed, so he grabbed the first all human adventuring party he could find (my PCs) and transported them to the opening ceremonies of the 12th Annual Brewfest Bar Crawl. My PC's competed against a few other 'teams'. Dwarves, Elves, Demons, etc. I took them thru all the bars from the movies, each bar had a theme (based on name) and/or event, and even an ambush or 2 from other teams cheating. The group all chugged their brews, made (or failed) their fort saves, and they were off to next bar. It was immense fun.
This year I'm trying to think of something to do, but my work schedule has been crazy psychotic lately and I'm down to 3 1/2 days to think of something fun & crazy.
So I am putting this out here looking for Help! I am leaning towards either a scavenger or treasure hunt. Or possibly something like the old Wacky Races or Laf-a-lympics cartoons. Or any other deliciously evil idea you delightful people can help me with.
STATS:
2-3 hours play time
All human party
Level 10 characters
Paladin, Bard, Rogue, Sorcerer, Gunslinger, Cleric
All are experienced gamers with very creative ways around problems
They are currently following the Carrion Crown adventure path (almost finished with book 4) but I'm not restricting it to there. Last time I had them deifically transported to a small town with alot of bars next to a big oversized football stadium setup so the crowd could watch the bar crawl. Could have been set anytime/anywhere.
I'm looking for a single one-shot "commercial break" from the normal adventure line just for the one game session.
I would like to keep the setting more standard fantasy, instead of say Outerspace or 2014 New York. But I could be convinced otherwise.
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I would probably suggest a riff on The Mind of Madness Quest from Skyrim (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mind_of_Madness) with a Night to Remember (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Night_To_Remember) and a little Christmas Carol thrown in.
Cayden appears to the players and explains that there is a particular brewmaster who will revolutionize something or other.
There's just one problem: the brewmaster is a young, stubborn noble who has no interest in the craft. The PCs have to try all manner of disguise self and appear as apparitions (maybe as ghosts in the library ala Ruddygore?) so that the noble is truly convinced it is destiny, not the intervention of the PCs.
Worst, the PCs have to let the brewmaster (who is not an adventurer) blindly stumble along on a quest while playing "guardian angel", making sure all the clues are obvious and nobody interferes.
First, there's the "find the secret recipe" task. Then it's "convince the noble to brew something". Then it's "get all the ingredients". Finally, the brewmaster brews it exactly according to Cayden's lost scriptures.
Turns out it's just a really vile hangover cure, not even a good brew. The worst part? They had to conceal their involvement and don't even get any credit!
You could go for the whole "it was just a dream" angle. Book 4 is the Lovecraftish book, use it as a springboard. Have them suddenly find themselves in a deep pit made of swirling colors and bizarre noises. No idea how or why they're there. Then have them start fighting their way through stranger and deadlier encounters (a pack of hezrou with big cartoon mallets, maybe some dullahan with Talking Tina dolls where their heads would be) with no resting and a Titan who is constantly picking his nose urging them on. Keep pushing and pushing and pushing until they finally fall. Then have them wake up for real.
Have the party act out the first hangover film and have them make fort/ will saves to remember hints from the night before, and upon completion they receive xp for all they did that night.
The party get's drugged somehow (maybe accidently, maybe a monster, some npcs...) and spents the session running around through a magical realm full of mad hallucinations and wunderful theories about the universe. Would probably work best in a big city, lots of input there. At the end they wake up to the laughs of spectators on the market place or something.
I once ran a twisted fairy tales adventure where the party had to find and destroy the source of the "twistedness". The three billy goats gruff were in cahoots with the troll under the bridge extorting money and robbing travellers. The seven dwarves were duergar purveyors of illegal substances - Druggy, Thuggy, Cranky, Boozey and so on. Snow White was their evil gang leader. Hansel and Gretel had taken over the witch's kidnapping racket. And so on.
I once ran a twisted fairy tales adventure where the party had to find and destroy the source of the "twistedness". The three billy goats gruff were in cahoots with the troll under the bridge extorting money and robbing travellers. The seven dwarves were duergar purveyors of illegal substances - Druggy, Thuggy, Cranky, Boozey and so on. Snow White was their evil gang leader. Hansel and Gretel had taken over the witch's kidnapping racket. And so on.
I ended up doing a combination scavenger hunt & maze.
See the demon lords weren't too happy about these mere human's winning the Bar Crawl Event last year, and the Demon Lord of Labyrinths plopped them down inside. The maze was full of past Scavenger Huning groups (or the remaining demented survivors) and other denizens. The "party" they encountered on drow, duergars, gnolls, & goblins, who at the last minute I decided to name after their Real Life names (and evil versions of their characters) they got a kick out of it, as I had them mirroring EXACTLY the players actions at at the exact same time * initiative roll. Lead to some very very funny moments. Oddly enough, the bard was last to die!
But Gallo, I do say, you have such an evil mind, I will definitely keep this idea in reserve.