Hey all; I'm putting together a kingdom building sandbox campaign, and I'd like to incorporate something I've yet to try: Some horrifying truth. Something to add tension and make the campaign feel legendary. (GMs like to dream)
Since the campaign hasn't even begun yet, I thought now would be a good time to build a few secrets into the world that I can hint at that the PCs will eventually discover.
The organization invaded and seized control of Almas 15 years ago.
One of the PC's parents, nobles of Almas, was killed 15 years ago in the takeover.
One of the PCs is the child of one of the leaders of the organization, but ends up siding with the party. She's currently 18 years old, or 3 at the time of the takeover.
So the way the story plays out is the PCs will encounter the organization, suffer loss, rescue some citizens of Almas before retreating, and begin a new kingdom. (The end of the railroad arc, before the story switches to full sandbox) The organization will continue to threaten your new kingdom until defeated. Then other enemies will be waiting for you in the world.
So what to do? I'd like to incorporate some horrible secret, but not sure what would be interesting. Something relating to the organization would be nice.
Maybe some mind control drama.
Maybe the organization isn't pure evil; maybe in some way, they're attempting to save the world.
Or there could be some other secret, less directly related to the organization, although the organization might hint at the existence of this secret.
...and that's where I'm at with ideas.
So has anyone had success with a good secret in their campaign? Any thoughts on what I could do in mine?
Father kills mother believing her to have been possessed. This was a tactic used by the organization to sway him into helping with their cause. He finds out. Kills himself.
Have the PCs fight the cocky wizard who did this. Have him boast about it the whole time, making the PC take a couple will saves to not uncontrollably cry. Nat20 on the will save causes the PC to rage like a barbarian.
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I started a game once with an assassin and a cleric of a murderous deity in the party mix as NPCs.
"Rex" (a derring-do rogue like Robin Hood) and "Cleese" (a bumbling oaf who was a retainer of Rex's) were the two characters that these guys were playing. Their real names were Vesper (assassin) and Aren (cleric). [As an aside: for added fun, Vesper and Aren would switch who played "Rex" and who played "Cleese," just to see if anyone would notice ... to test the party's sense of perception.]
Because one of the party members had traveled with them for a short while without incident, all the PCs used meta-knowledge to assume that I had added them in as a benefit to the team, rather than a hindrance (two of the party members were on the "to be assassinated" list, and the other was Aren's preferred victim type). Also, these two were self-proclaimed leather tradesmen, who harvested the skin from their victims (part of Aren's ritualism) and turned it into leather products, which Vesper would happily sell back to the very village the "leather" came from. The PCs used meta-knowledge to presume that I had given them this "business" in order to help them earn money and reputation in the town they started in.
Furthermore, I dropped bread crumbs about a tribe of orcs being in the area, and that a young girl (the cleric's favored victim type) had gone missing. The de facto leader of the group declared the orcs were responsible [ASIDE: they weren't; it was the two NPCs, though the orcs were helping], and demanded the party venture out to confront them.
Knowing this ahead of time, Vesper went to the orcs and planted a bauble that belonged to the de-facto-PC-leader's fiancee in the pile of goods the orcs were interested in trading to the villagers.
So, here's how this plays out:
1. Party sneaks into area around campsite at night, when the nocturnal orcs are most active.
2. De Facto Leader (DFL) and Vesper/Rex approach the orcs. De Facto Leader stupidly declares that only he and Rex are in their party. The other two PCs are left to freeze on their own in the dark night of the desert with no food, water, or shelter, and nearly get killed by a cobra guarding its nest.
3. DFL agrees to eat and drink with the orcs who are celebrating. Food tastes funny; not a kind of meat DFL had ever had before.
4. DFL pretends to get drunk and roams around campsite, pretending to need to pee. He tries to sneak into each tent to see if the girl is in any of them.
5. When DFL sees guards at the back tent containing the tribe's shaman, he sneaks around the back of the tent and pokes a hole in the tent fabric to look inside. Inside is a crazy, old orc shaman, burning all kinds of sagebrush-like weeds for smoke while he beats on these huge drums in the center of the tent. No girl anywhere.
The next morning, the orcs offer their trade goods to "Rex" and DFL. DFL sees the bauble of his former girl; the orcs tell him to take it with their blessing. The simple gesture completely flips DFL's mind about the orcs, and the party returns to town (the two PCs left in the desert start verbally abusing DFL for his treatment and failure).
When the PCs get back to town, the head cleric of one of the temples comes running out to tell them a vision of a girl's skeleton buried in a pit in the sand, left behind after the orcs flee. The PCs immediately run back to where the encampment was, and they discover that the oversized drums were both hiding the physical location of the pit containing the girl AND masking any noises she would make underneath.
Long and short: DFL realizes he ate human meat while a girl was tortured to death.
... That kind of horrifying truth?
Some ideas:
The leader of the Organization is actually one of the "Slain" Nobles. Aka: the PC's are actually siblings.
The King of Almas actually surrendered to the organization in exchange for the lives of the nobles he liked. PC's parents not included.
The Kingdom of Almas was founded on a nexus of Infernal Energies, which the king had been using to keep his nobles in line. The Organization was founded by a splinter cell of nobles who are trying to reverse the polarity of the nexus.
What is the organization? Are they still around? If so do they still control all of Almas?
Try this on for size:
We never meant to destroy anyone or anything; we were going to save you all.
When you look around Almas you see the faces of the common folk. Our leaders saw the demons lurking under the surface. This is not a lie or some metaphoric debate. Demons ride the souls of the citizens and our organization was founded to cast them out.
In our... zealous pursuits we fell in with lawful beings from beyond our world. They are not angels who claim that they can do nothing to aid our cause for it would infringe upon the rights of those we mean to save. No, in our desperation our organization made a pact with the one being capable and willing to help cleanse our people. Asmodeus.
The Devil's Horde that you hate us for is a necessary evil. They have a means of finding even those demons our magic cannot see and removing the offending parasite from their mortal host. You've seen battles in the streets with demons and our legions; what you haven't seen are the exorcisms, the inquistion and the good that we've brought with our rule.
You must understand: we have no intention of ruling forever. Our leaders will abdicate power once the threat is gone. You must believe me; once you are cleansed you will all be free!
So the idea would be that the "evil organization" isn't evil, just misguided. They have a rough way of doing business but the business they're in is saving lives, or so they believe. They're "ends justify the means" types.
You don't have to take my spoiler either as their reason. They could be looking to stop war by chemically lobotomizing whole regions (Firefly) or looking to bring law and order to a decadent republic (Star Wars). They have evil, corrupt beings in their ranks but the organization itself has or had noble ambitions.
As for personal revelations:
A PC's parent returns from the dead. This could be accomplished by retconning their death and saying they faked it; resurrection for a specific purpose; undeath inflicted by either the villain or their own need for vengeance.
A member of the organization feigns friendship only to turn on the PCs at the zero hour.
The PCs' noble family was actually the progenitor of the organization in the first place.
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The entire campaign is taking place in the players' dreams while they are thralls to an elder brain. Even if they break free of their thralldom, they'll find themselves horribly atrophied and trapped deep in the Underdark surrounded by psionic aberrations that can't even exist in Golarion.
Dot.
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I'm playing a PC who serves the Earth Mother Nature Goddess. The Earth Mother has become distressed at how 'Civilization' is consuming a too large a portion of Nature's Bounty. The PC was dispatched to infiltrate civilization, learn it's weaknesses, and discover ways to destroy civilization before it destroys nature. This mission is, of course, utterly secret. Worshippers of Abadar, in particular, would go to any extreme to extirpate the horrifying truths this PC has discovered, should they learn of it, and to prevent this demonstrably-true information from spreading.
The PC has now been at this task for some decades, and has learned some truly horrifying secrets. One terrible secret: Magic is a non-renewable resource! Once all the magical energy in a region has been used up it is gone forever. This means regions like the Mana Wastes will eventually be everywhere. This guarantees that any civilization based on magic will certainly collapse, although it may take millenia. The PC suspects the same must be true of a civilization based on Technology, but is still working out the details.
The (quite intelligent, motivated, and scholarly) PC has learned scientific stuff about Ecology and Population Biology. The PC has learned about exponential growth [Youtube, The Most Important Video You'll Ever See, and an especially difficult topic to understand], reindeer [illustrated comic-book style!], overshoot, Societal Collapse, and die off.
The PC has reached the conclusion that any 'Civilization' is 100% guaranteed to eventually overshoot its resource base and then collapse. The only question is how thorough will be the extinction of non-humanoid life, and whether any vestiges of nature will remain. The PC has written a book of historical case studies of collapsed complex societies in Golarion, using this model. The PC is working to extend the part about Technology and Society, along the same lines as Magic and Society. It turns out that Technology and Magic both impose limits to growth, but in different ways and different time frames.
The PC has informed the Earth Goddess that civilization is eventually doomed. She now understands the situation much better. As a result, she is more willing to cooperate with Gods who accept civilization, such as her sometimes-mate Erastil. She now understands that nature bats last. She now knows that civilization on Golarion will last for millenia, but not forever. She is very patient and will choose the right moment to act decisively, perhaps 'assisting' late-stage collapse with well-timed earthquakes & volcanoes, melting of polar ice caps, and/or giant asteroid impacts. She would do this because she is merciful, not for any vindictive reasons.
It may not seem like it, at first glance, but this all adds up to a Horrifying Truth that's worse than detailed knowledge of any Ancient Eldritch Horror [Cthulhu For President]. This sort of knowledge [TV Tropes] causes psychological horror because "You presume X but the horrifying truth is Y". E.g. "You presume that business as usual will continue for the foreseeable future, but the horrifying truth is that living generations already face collapse and dieoff during their current lifespan". Most humans are unwilling and unable to overcome the the cognitive dissonance these topics bring up, and can never understand them. Can you?
P.s. The author does understand these topics, far too well, thus the escapism of playing RPGs :-)
Some ideas:
The leader of the Organization is actually one of the "Slain" Nobles. Aka: the PC's are actually siblings.
The King of Almas actually surrendered to the organization in exchange for the lives of the nobles he liked. PC's parents not included.
The Kingdom of Almas was founded on a nexus of Infernal Energies, which the king had been using to keep his nobles in line. The Organization was founded by a splinter cell of nobles who are trying to reverse the polarity of the nexus.
Digging these ideas; perhaps "horrifying" was poor adjective for my thread; I'm looking more for... jaw-dropping. "This changes everything." Revealing that someone you've been traveling with for months is your brother or even half-brother is a pretty big freakin' deal.
Realizing the king you trusted betrayed the city is another good twist, depending on how you play it. Like... The organization intends to take over the kingdom and the king did absolutely nothing to protect his people and did everything to protect himself. Could add a certain legitimacy to the organization.
They are not the ones chosen by destiny. They are not going to do anything significant. They are the second last chance to save the world and as such will pave the way for the real heroes. No more, No less.
Or even better. It is all the beta test of a fully immersive VR game. They had had their minds wiped. They only know because someone came back in time to stop them because the game evolves into an intelligence which went back in time and is actually the entire royalty who are robots, and it will rule the world, because it made itself, and you can tell I have been watching way too many weird movies.
Some ideas:
The leader of the Organization is actually one of the "Slain" Nobles. Aka: the PC's are actually siblings.
The King of Almas actually surrendered to the organization in exchange for the lives of the nobles he liked. PC's parents not included.
The Kingdom of Almas was founded on a nexus of Infernal Energies, which the king had been using to keep his nobles in line. The Organization was founded by a splinter cell of nobles who are trying to reverse the polarity of the nexus.
Digging these ideas; perhaps "horrifying" was poor adjective for my thread; I'm looking more for... jaw-dropping. "This changes everything." Revealing that someone you've been traveling with for months is your brother or even half-brother is a pretty big freakin' deal.
Realizing the king you trusted betrayed the city is another good twist, depending on how you play it. Like... The organization intends to take over the kingdom and the king did absolutely nothing to protect his people and did everything to protect himself. Could add a certain legitimacy to the organization.
So either a {"Luke, I am your father"} or (from George Lucas In Love) a {"Mom?! ... Moooommm...?" >.> <.< "Oh... hi... kids...!"} are totally acceptable?
Because...
1) the summoner's eidolon is the summoner's/another PC's/NPC's parent/sibling/twin/clone/alternate-reality-self
- 1a) if summoner: it could be very interesting if the congenital twin (who was entirely absorbed by the summoner) had an independent soul that manifested itself; the summoner's parent or guardian ancestor; their deceased sibling returned to protect them
- 1b) if another PC: it could well be that they chose the summoner as a conduit to arrive to guard and watch over another of the PCs; because the PC grew up without their parent they may be bitter, or the eidolon may think that they're bitter, and so doesn't wish to reveal the truth; or perhaps the eidolon itself doesn't recall, having been returned "to protect those it loves" through the most expedient means, even if it's indirect
- 1c) if another NPC: it could well be the alternate-reality-self of a villain attempting to redeem their own self ("I am what could have been, but never was"); the parent of the villain ("I never wanted this for you; I'm so sorry I failed you"), or something else; perhaps it is the displaced original soul of the villain, having been exorcised from its own body by an evil spirit now inhabiting the flesh that was once its own
2) the cleric's/inquisitor's/oracle's/witch's "deity"/"patron" is, in fact, their own ascended [relative] (or [relative] of another character), as described above, or perhaps a solar or elohim
3) all souls except for paladins become lemures when they die; paladins become lantern archons; deities (which may or may not be solars, elohim, or other similar creatures (like titans, living lakes, or so on) (maybe with mythic tiers?) have the devil shaping ability to control lemures and create servants. (Maybe expand what they can be made into by the alignment of the deity in question; maybe give all of them swallow soul, death mastery, a couple of sets of "Master of Magic" abilities and/or the mythic simple divine templates - maybe the mythic agile as well - maybe with full divine source mythic powers.) Archons ascend based on their own merits. It is lantern archons who are the spirits who respond to paladins' calls.
4) the paladin code is created, maintained, and enforced by a coalition of ethereal valkyries, uh, er, Valkyries* (or maybe valkyries?, who can be tricked, deceived, or fall, or fall, or fall, or fall or something like that, and become patron(s) of the anti-paladins.
* They were basically 20-hit dice outsiders with a divine rank 0 who were level 20 paladins with pegusi as their special mounts.
5) when a druid worships nature, they are actually (unknowingly) drawing on the power of a specific deity or group of deities (the physical planet they're on, the elohim, the titans, or the eldest, perhaps); ALT: the "natural" order revered by the druids is actually a cycle established by aberrations from deep space on an otherwise barren rock
6) the sorcerer's bloodline is a deception! It's actually something thematically similar, but fundamentally different!
7) though unbeknownst to the wizard/magus/witch, with every spell cast, he slowly indebts his soul to <insert power here>
8) the monk's or ninja's abilities are not their own, but rather find their source in a pact with an ancient spirit/their own ancestors/a specific <divine?> entit(y/ies)
9) dwarves are actually an alien race from beyond the stars: orcs and (maybe?) humans are the only "native" species to this world!
10) elves are actually magically altered descendants of the orcs and dwarves!
- 10a) elves are actually the decayed form of drow, who are the true original elf species
- 10b) the drow are descended from duergar who are descended from the derro!
11) someone in the party (or an NPC) is not actually what they seem: instead, when they were first born, they were an aasimar/dhampir/drow/fetchling/oread/sylph/undine/changeling/duergar/gillma n/samsaran/suli/svirfneblin/vishkanya/etc. - terrified by their odd features, their parents saved up and purchased a polymorph any object to make them the creature they are now instead
- 11a) this was because they were a throwback to their ancestors/because of their mother's infidelity/because of a magical accident!
12) Golems are people too! Unbeknownst to practically all sages (even the craftsman), golems are trapped and enslaved elemental spirits stripped of their sentience and free will and shoved into a crudely crafted form until they're destroyed, at which point they become free... and angry!
13) Undead are not inherently evil! Only those created with evil rites or by an evil creature are evil!
- 13a) they are the same alignment as the creature that creates them
14) Undead weaken the very viability of all life in existence! Their very presence slowly corrupts the world, increasing the affinity for negative energy, spreading disease, weakness, lowering constitutions/fortitude, etc!
15) All spells are really drawn from the oozes that infest the world; each spell consumes a minute portion of an ooze of a given kind. If all the oozes disappear, magic would not be possible!
- 15a) replace the above with a specific kind of ooze!
... so those are a few off-the-cuff ideas for now. Hope those help!
What is the organization? Are they still around? If so do they still control all of Almas?
Try this on for size:
** spoiler omitted **
So the idea would be that the "evil organization" isn't evil, just misguided. They have a rough way of doing business but the business they're in is saving lives, or so they believe. They're "ends justify the means" types.
You don't have to take my spoiler either as their reason. They could be looking to stop war by chemically lobotomizing whole regions (Firefly) or looking to bring law and order to a decadent republic (Star Wars). They have evil, corrupt beings in their ranks but the organization itself has or had noble ambitions.
Some good ideas here; "ends justify the means" is a way a lot of evil is accomplished by supposedly well-meaning people and would easily be applicable to the organization. And also like the thoughts on Firefly and Star Wars plots; plenty of great material out there for killing people with your brand of kindness.
As for personal revelations:
A PC's parent returns from the dead. This could be accomplished by retconning their death and saying they faked it; resurrection for a specific purpose; undeath inflicted by either the villain or their own need for vengeance.
A member of the organization feigns friendship only to turn on the PCs at the zero hour.
So many ways to surprise; are they really dead? Are they really your friend? I'll have to throw in a good mix of NPCs, most trustworthy (so they don't get too paranoid) and a few not so trustworthy.
The PCs' noble family was actually the progenitor of the organization in the first place.
Really strongly considering this one! =)
Some ideas:
The leader of the Organization is actually one of the "Slain" Nobles. Aka: the PC's are actually siblings.
The King of Almas actually surrendered to the organization in exchange for the lives of the nobles he liked. PC's parents not included.
The Kingdom of Almas was founded on a nexus of Infernal Energies, which the king had been using to keep his nobles in line. The Organization was founded by a splinter cell of nobles who are trying to reverse the polarity of the nexus.
Digging these ideas; perhaps "horrifying" was poor adjective for my thread; I'm looking more for... jaw-dropping. "This changes everything." Revealing that someone you've been traveling with for months is your brother or even half-brother is a pretty big freakin' deal.
Realizing the king you trusted betrayed the city is another good twist, depending on how you play it. Like... The organization intends to take over the kingdom and the king did absolutely nothing to protect his people and did everything to protect himself. Could add a certain legitimacy to the organization.
So either a {"Luke, I am your father"} or (from George Lucas In Love) a {"Mom?! ... Moooommm...?" >.> <.< "Oh... hi... kids...!"} are totally acceptable?
Because...
** spoiler omitted **...
WOW, that's a lot ideas. Many are a little too oddball conspiratorial, but one secret along those lines could be really earth-shattering to discover, and yet not completely break... Verisimilitude? I do especially like your first idea about the true nature of the summoner's eidolon. He imagines that the eidolon is some blessing of Iomedae, but in reality... A laundry list of potentially horrifying revelations.
Thanks for contributing.
There are myths that tell a story (200-500 years old) that starts to sound familiar, until they realize it is the exact same story they are currently doing. And the myth ends in terror death and destruction. And the roles are swapped a bit so that the guy who matches the guy who betrayed the myth heroes, is actually honest. And have many bits where the myth heroes get prosecuted so they can't trust people.
WOW, that's a lot ideas. Many are a little too oddball conspiratorial, but one secret along those lines could be really earth-shattering to discover, and yet not completely break... Verisimilitude? I do especially like your first idea about the true nature of the summoner's eidolon. He imagines that the eidolon is some blessing of Iomedae, but in reality... A laundry list of potentially horrifying revelations.
Thanks for contributing.
One thing I want to be clear on: I don't and never did expect you to use all of the ideas (although some of them work well when integrated together), but rather they were a list of brainstormed things while looking at lists of classes, races, and monsters.
The main reason I created so many ideas was so that you could adapt them to function with most any class or race. For example, the dwarven and elven elements are there for people of those races - turning their entire racial presumptions on their heads.
I created them with full expectation that, if you did take anything, you'd take and alter it heavily, tailoring it for your specific campaign.
Number 11 could be used to create surprising familial connections to a villain that looks very different from any of the PCs, as another example; while number 14 could be the basis for an adventure seed (perhaps it's a new kind of undead, or a undead created in a specific way, or something). Number 6 is just a slightly reskinned (and more poorly explained) version of number 1 and number 11.
With your original idea, numbers 4, 5, 7, 14, and 15 all work fairly well for "actionizing" various goals of the organization for various reasons, similar to Mark Hoover's suggestions (and perhaps they're even correct for whatever reason).
Effectively, these are meant to be starters or seeds, not the sum of the idea itself. That said, I'm glad you like the first idea!
Lets see.
1) - The organization is lead, unknowingly, by a brilliant corrupting force that hasn't set foot in the world for ages (or perhaps they've been in the plane for a long time. Lich, wizard, witch, etc...). Their true intention in taking over the city was to spread the Curse of Tainted Blood. A vile, ritualistic spell fashioned by the organizations leader that permanently contaminates all those its directed at. It cannot be removed through normal spells and healing. What the curse does isn't immediately obvious, but later, the players find out that the curse turns people into a sort of life guard for leader. As long as the cursed live, the leader cannot die. Therefore, in order to defeat the leader, someone hell bent on destroying those who dared to enter their city, they must either destroy all accursed, innocent or no, or find some other way to lift the curse before their war with the leader.
2 ) - The organization has been burrowing secretly underneath each of the homes of the city. At first its as if they expect to find something, however, the tunnels that are dug are done so quite neatly and almost too perfectly. A map of the the tunnels will reveal that they actually create intricate 3 dimensional, interwoven summoning symbols. What are they planning on summoning? They intend to enslave angels as bargaining chips for darker means.
3 ) - The PCs parent's death was actually a convincing illusion spell. That parent was actually knocked unconscious, whisked away in the night by order of the other parent. The reason this was done, was that the organization demanded the death of a loved one in order to enter their upper ranks. So, in attempt to join the enemy so that they could destroy it from the inside, they went through with the plan. The other parent is actually locked or hidden away in another town. The organization itself plans to attempt to open a large portal to the shadow plane, allowing their masters entry into our world.
Probably too convoluted or complicated. Maybe even too dark in some aspects. But that's what I got off the top of my head. :)
The entire campaign is taking place in the players' dreams while they are thralls to an elder brain. Even if they break free of their thralldom, they'll find themselves horribly atrophied and trapped deep in the Underdark surrounded by psionic aberrations that can't even exist in Golarion.
They are not the ones chosen by destiny. They are not going to do anything significant. They are the second last chance to save the world and as such will pave the way for the real heroes. No more, No less.
Or even better. It is all the beta test of a fully immersive VR game. They had had their minds wiped. They only know because someone came back in time to stop them because the game evolves into an intelligence which went back in time and is actually the entire royalty who are robots, and it will rule the world, because it made itself, and you can tell I have been watching way too many weird movies.
Not really into a matrix idea or whatever; I like the idea that there's this world that exists where you can build kingdoms and accomplish things, a place where I as GM hold dominion... Gets too confusing and improbable to roleplay when reality is a complete fabrication.
Although, Goddity, I do admire the idea of the PCs NOT being the chosen ones. Maybe the organization in Almas are the chosen ones! Well, sadly, I feel the structure of my story lends itself to the heroes being, well, the heroes.
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Some ideas:
The leader of the Organization is actually one of the "Slain" Nobles. Aka: the PC's are actually siblings.
{. . .}
. . . but they only discover this after they've already married each other.
{. . .}
Confessions of an organization prisoner:{. . .} When you look around Almas you see the faces of the common folk. Our leaders saw the demons lurking under the surface. This is not a lie or some metaphoric debate. Demons ride the souls of the citizens and our organization was founded to cast them out. {. . .}
The Devil's Horde that you hate us for is a necessary evil. {. . .}
WOW, that's a lot ideas. Many are a little too oddball conspiratorial, but one secret along those lines could be really earth-shattering to discover, and yet not completely break... Verisimilitude? I do especially like your first idea about the true nature of the summoner's eidolon. He imagines that the eidolon is some blessing of Iomedae, but in reality... A laundry list of potentially horrifying revelations.
Thanks for contributing.
One thing I want to be clear on: I don't and never did expect you to use all of the ideas (although some of them work well when integrated together), but rather they were a list of brainstormed things while looking at lists of classes, races, and monsters.
The main reason I created so many ideas was so that you could adapt them to function with most any class or race. For example, the dwarven and elven elements are there for people of those races - turning their entire racial presumptions on their heads.
I created them with full expectation that, if you did take anything, you'd take and alter it heavily, tailoring it for your specific campaign.
Number 11 could be used to create surprising familial connections to a villain that looks very different from any of the PCs, as another example; while number 14 could be the basis for an adventure seed (perhaps it's a new kind of undead, or a undead created in a specific way, or something). Number 6 is just a slightly reskinned (and more poorly explained) version of number 1 and number 11.
With your original idea, numbers 4, 5, 7, 14, and 15 all work fairly well for "actionizing" various goals of the organization for various reasons, similar to Mark Hoover's suggestions (and perhaps they're even correct for whatever reason).
Effectively, these are meant to be starters or seeds, not the sum of the idea itself. That said, I'm glad you like the first idea!
Our party consists of 3 humans and 2 aasimar currently, and is just an overly human story thus far. Feels like it takes out some of the punch of those kinds of secrets. Although number 11 could be an interesting idea.
You do make a good point out 4, 5, 7, 14 and 15. Although I feel one of my selling points was that magic was absolutely unconstrained. (The other GMs in our group constantly restrict magic, banning teleportation, divination, and other things.) Number 14 fares the best in that regard; a horrifying revelation that has global consequences, but can be turned around. I just don't want to run an undead campaign.
...maybe I just don't like global secrets? I seem to have a strong penchant for personal secrets in this thread so far. =/
Lets see.
1) - The organization is lead, unknowingly, by a brilliant corrupting force that hasn't set foot in the world for ages (or perhaps they've been in the plane for a long time. Lich, wizard, witch, etc...). Their true intention in taking over the city was to spread the Curse of Tainted Blood. A vile, ritualistic spell fashioned by the organizations leader that permanently contaminates all those its directed at. It cannot be removed through normal spells and healing. What the curse does isn't immediately obvious, but later, the players find out that the curse turns people into a sort of life guard for leader. As long as the cursed live, the leader cannot die. Therefore, in order to defeat the leader, someone hell bent on destroying those who dared to enter their city, they must either destroy all accursed, innocent or no, or find some other way to lift the curse before their war with the leader.
2 ) - The organization has been burrowing secretly underneath each of the homes of the city. At first its as if they expect to find something, however, the tunnels that are dug are done so quite neatly and almost too perfectly. A map of the the tunnels will reveal that they actually create intricate 3 dimensional, interwoven summoning symbols. What are they planning on summoning? They intend to enslave angels as bargaining chips for darker means.
3 ) - The PCs parent's death was actually a convincing illusion spell. That parent was actually knocked unconscious, whisked away in the night by order of the other parent. The reason this was done, was that the organization demanded the death of a loved one in order to enter their upper ranks. So, in attempt to join the enemy so that they could destroy it from the inside, they went through with the plan. The other parent is actually locked or hidden away in another town. The organization itself plans to attempt to open a large portal to the shadow plane, allowing their masters entry into our world.
Probably too convoluted or complicated. Maybe even too dark...
These are actually quite helpful. I think my #1 priority for my campaign right now is identifying the goals/capabilities/members of this organization. Oh and of course the BIG SECRET of the organization, all to ensure they're a memorable foe.
...maybe I just don't like global secrets? I seem to have a strong penchant for personal secrets in this thread so far. =/
Okay, that helps guide the brainstorming in the future! I'll have to think more to see if I generate anything. :D
...maybe I just don't like global secrets? I seem to have a strong penchant for personal secrets in this thread so far. =/Okay, that helps guide the brainstorming in the future! I'll have to think more to see if I generate anything. :D
I feel like a punk after seeing you work that hard. O_o
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I started a game once with an assassin and a cleric of a murderous deity in the party mix as NPCs.
...
Long and short: DFL realizes he ate human meat while a girl was tortured to death.
... That kind of horrifying truth?
Wow, horrifying in spades. If you were my GM, I'm not sure how long it would take for me to trust your NPCs again.
Although not exactly the horrifying I'm looking for in my campaign; mostly just good secrets. Neat story, though.
I feel like a punk after seeing you work that hard. O_o
Pffft~! Change "work hard" for "have insomnia (and also have to stay awake to care for an infant)" and you've got a correct vision of what's going on. Mostly if I think of stuff I do so with some sort of inspiration.
ON THAT NOTE:
Our party consists of 3 humans and 2 aasimar currently, and is just an overly human story thus far. Feels like it takes out some of the punch of those kinds of secrets. Although number 11 could be an interesting idea.
Classes?
I'm guessing one is a summoner (based on your earlier responses), but what about a paladin?
On your races,
Something like:
Fetchling (Changeling)
Racial Scores: +2 DEX, -2 CON, +2 CHA
Medium Outsider (changeling, native)
Speed 30
Language: common plus host-society
DEFENSIVE TRAITS
+1 nAC
Shadow blending: dim light grants 50% miss chance instead of 20%
Shadowy resistance: energy (cold, electricity) 5
OFFENSE TRAITS
Claws (1d4)
FEAT AND SKILL
Skilled (world walker): +1 knowledge (local, nature), +2 bluff and stealth
MAGICAL ABILITIES
Spell-like Abilities: (1/day) disguise self, sleep {becomes deep slumber at 13th} (1/day) shadow walk {at 9th}
SENSES AND RACIAL TRAITS
Darkvision 60 ft., Low-light vision
... or something like that. See, she's descended from a Night Hag...
... so anyway, there's an idea. It's a tad more powerful than the aasimar, but it makes up for modifying the player's stats a bit, and changing their specific bonuses and defenses.
Carefully consider the impact that something like a reincarnation spell might have on your game, if such a thing is present in it. Because they are outsiders, you might want to make a custom list for your aasimar, for example. This can make all sorts of strange and complicated plots even more strange and complicated! Delightful! ... but potentially ruinous!
And don't feel obligate with any of this. It's just a fun thing. :D
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{...}
Confessions of an organization prisoner::
{. . .} When you look around Almas you see the faces of the common folk. Our leaders saw the demons lurking under the surface. This is not a lie or some metaphoric debate. Demons ride the souls of the citizens and our organization was founded to cast them out. {. . .}
The Devil's Horde that you hate us for is a necessary evil. {. . .}
Spoiler:And if you try to follow up on their claims, you find that indeed, the common folk are being taken over by Demons, but if you manage to take one of pi]those[/i] prisoner, you find that they insist that they are doing this as but a necessary evil to free the populace from Infernal domination.
This could even make a great finale, the final battle being against a demon lord or even asmodeus.
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Wow, horrifying in spades. If you were my GM, I'm not sure how long it would take for me to trust your NPCs again.
Although not exactly the horrifying I'm looking for in my campaign; mostly just good secrets. Neat story, though.
That was precisely my point in doing so. The whole theme of the campaign became "don't trust what you think you know." I mostly messed with the meta-knowledge (i.e., what races looked like, how they functioned, etc., so that the DFL/Ranger wouldn't immediately, for instance, use fire/acid on that troll over there without any reason why he would know that), but it ended up being a good tool to get the party to think exceptionally critically before they took any actions, because EVERYTHING they did had consequences.
Oh, and I don't know if something like this has already been pitched, but:
What if that were, in fact, the intended purpose of the Organization? Something that knew enough of the secrets to get past guards and kill only those that were required to be killed per "Organizational Pact"?
This, of course, opens up questions of why:
1. Something like an intellect devourer/mind flayer/etc. has taken control of the minds of the Nobles. This prompts several attempts to contact said Nobles by said Organization. When these are not met with proper countersigns, the Organization acts.
1a. This could also lead to not all of the monsters who started this being killed, which could, in turn, lead to corruption of the Organization.
1aI. Which, in turn, could trigger some other entity or device being employed to remove the existential threat, like mages nuking the city from orbit, just to be sure. (Allows you to not only have the Organization be the big baddies, but then opens up the potential of having the Mages be even bigger baddies to contend with.)
1aII. Perhaps that's why the party formed when and how it did. Prophecies can be funny that way.
2. The call to arms was an accident. One of the Nobles mentions something completely in-passing to one of the members of the Organization, and, like a bad game of "Telephone," the Organization fears the worst and takes action. Oops.
3. A minor noble with connections instigates the Organization to action over a major slight at court. Think: temper-tantrum, so I'm going to call these guys in to deal with you.
3a. The minor noble doesn't even know that the Organization is meant to kill the Nobles; he/she just thinks it's a good scare tactic and tries to leverage them for power. Oops.
3b. The minor noble sees the opportunity as a power vacuum and gathers forces to take down the Organization after he/she watches the strike and gathers all the necessary intel.
3c. The minor noble fears that the Organization may decide to take him/her out as well and flees, leaving no witnesses as to who actually called the Organization into action ... or so he/she thinks.
4. The instigation originates inside the Organization.
4a. One of the Organization members wants to seize power for self, and thus calls in the strike, manipulating the rest of the Organization to satisfy the desired end.
Any of those grab your fancy?
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Pffft~! Change "work hard" for "have insomnia (and also have to stay awake to care for an infant)" and you've got a correct vision of what's going on. Mostly if I think of stuff I do so with some sort of inspiration.
...
Carefully consider the impact that something like a reincarnation spell might have on your game, if such a thing is present in it. Because they are outsiders, you might want to make a custom list for your aasimar, for example. This can make all sorts of strange and complicated plots even more strange and complicated! Delightful! ... but potentially ruinous!
And don't feel obligate with any of this. It's just a fun thing. :D
Haha, you really enjoy messing with the mechanical choices players made at character creation.
This idea is actually somewhat tempting for my 2nd Aasimar, the bard who doesn't have much of a story so far. My 1st Aasimar, the child of dead nobles Summoner/Paladin/Oracle seems to have enough action in his backstory, so trying to shift gears to add interesting history for other members in the party.
Classes?
Gah, I keep on forgetting that this thread is not THIS THREAD, so the same things aren't known.
Relevant Excerpt:
Step 2: Have players work on their backstory together:
This worked out better than I anticipated:
The group is largely LG or CG.
The Witch and Druid are brother and sister.
The Synthesist is an acquaintance of the Bard.
The Synthesist was a noble of the starting city, Almas, before his parents were killed 15 years ago.
The parents of the Witch and Druid used to live in Almas 15 years ago.
The Swashbuckler is the child of one of the leaders of the evil organization that took control of Almas 15 years ago.
Aasimar Synthesist, child of "dead nobles", we're having a field day with his backstory currently.
Aasimar Bard, child of an elven druid who runs a natural reserve of sorts, protecting dinosaurs of a region. She may be full elf or half-elf assimar, the father is missing. I don't think even the Bard knows which she is.
The Human Witch and Human Druid were raised in a forest not too far from Almas. They frequent a nearby town called, tentatively, Storybrooke. (Per the Druid's backstory, considering renaming for verisimilitude, but it has its charm) I believe the story will begin close to Storybrooke, where the population is majority people who fled Almas.
The Human Swashbuckler is the child of a member of the organization. (3 years old when the takeover happened, 18 years old now) She is not very deep in service to the organization and has lead a more normal life than not. Tentatively, I have her on her a mission to Storybrooke where she is to investigate the small town to gauge it's potential as a threat to the organizations intentions (whatever those might be) The Swashbuckler will come to Storybrooke, fall in love with an admirable NPC human Ranger and meet the rest of the party as they come to Storybrooke. A major event will cause the Swashbuckler to reconsider her loyalty to the organization and switch sides to the PCs.
Hope that helps clear things up!
Yes! Thinking...
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Kind old ex-adventurer Cleric who sells you scrolls at a discount sends you on several quest errands to get random cool stuff. Tells you that when he retired he had an excess of gold, but wanted items he could point at while telling stories to the local children. All the items you're collecting for him are from dungeons, castles, and mountains he adventured in.
Turns out he was much higher level than you expected and all those items were necessary for his ascension to Lichdom.
Oops.
I can't take credit for this since I first heard the idea from Tonyz if I remember correctly.
Kind old ex-adventurer Cleric who sells you scrolls at a discount sends you on several quest errands to get random cool stuff. Tells you that when he retired he had an excess of gold, but wanted items he could point at while telling stories to the local children. All the items you're collecting for him are from dungeons, castles, and mountains he adventured in.
Turns out he was much higher level than you expected and all those items were necessary for his ascension to Lichdom.
Oops.
I can't take credit for this since I first heard the idea from Tonyz if I remember correctly.
Nice! That seems like a perfect little subplot to play out during the kingdom building part of my campaign.
Send my regards to Tonyz and thank for sharing/stealing his idea. =)
When you read a novel that uses this premise. The author's foreshadowing starts letting the reader know something is up (if maybe not quite exactly what) long before the character in the novel catches on.
If the author doesn't foreshadow it at all, then it is just an abrupt left turn in the plot for no obvious reason. Most people don't like that.
You have to remember, in an RPG game the player is both the character and the reader. So it never seems to work out quite as well as the GM hopes.
Not saying don't try it. Just don't get you hopes set on the 'horrifying revelation' reaction.
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When you read a novel that uses this premise. The author's foreshadowing starts letting the reader know something is up (if maybe not quite exactly what) long before the character in the novel catches on.
If the author doesn't foreshadow it at all, then it is just an abrupt left turn in the plot for no obvious reason. Most people don't like that.You have to remember, in an RPG game the player is both the character and the reader. So it never seems to work out quite as well as the GM hopes.
Not saying don't try it. Just don't get you hopes set on the 'horrifying revelation' reaction.
Nah, I'm not super caught up on a "horrifying revelation" reaction. I'm just trying to sow secrets into the world so it has the feel of an actual, intentional story and not just a sandbox of "Well, run in a direction and I'll throw some random monsters from a table at you."
So yes, I'm attempting to foreshadow some of these secret by creating them right now; months before the first session of my campaign. Then toss hints at them at the existence of these secrets as the story progresses. If someone has an over the top reaction to the big reveal, awesome! If it's just a subtle acknowledgement of good story, that also makes me quite happy.
EDIT: You make a great point about the player being both character and reader, which makes it a challenge to unilaterally create secrets and expect the execution and unveiling of the secret to invoke the exact response you had in mind. It's shared storytelling after all. I'll keep that in mind and temper my expectations. Perhaps it'll be best to create several secrets, but only reveal the ones that fit best with how the story is shaping up with the decisions the PCs make.
That was precisely my point in doing so. The whole theme of the campaign became "don't trust what you think you know." I mostly messed with the meta-knowledge (i.e., what races looked like, how they functioned, etc., so that the DFL/Ranger wouldn't immediately, for instance, use fire/acid on that troll over there without any reason why he would know that), but it ended up being a good tool to get the party to think exceptionally critically before they took any actions, because EVERYTHING they did had consequences.Wow, horrifying in spades. If you were my GM, I'm not sure how long it would take for me to trust your NPCs again.
Although not exactly the horrifying I'm looking for in my campaign; mostly just good secrets. Neat story, though.
That's really cool; I like stretching my players and force them to get outside their usual habits.
Oh, and I don't know if something like this has already been pitched, but:
** spoiler omitted **...
Option 1: Horrifying.
Option 2: Tragic unintended consequences.Option 3: Less tragic unintended consequences, because we're less sympathetic to this petty noble.
Option 4: Not sure I understand what you're getting at? Like... in Naruto where there original members of Akatsuki; Nagato and Konan, still consider themselves the head of the organization, but in reality are pawns being used by Madara. (Sorry if this reference was lame?)
Some interesting options; 1 & 3 I don't see especially fitting in my current campaign. I feel like I could use a variation of 2. And I'm withholding judgment on 4 until I understand your point!
No apologies necessary on the lame reference. Allow me to clarify!
(4a) was just a secondary suggestion that perhaps this was done intentionally, the tragic consequence being that now both the Nobles and any good-ish-aligned people in the Organization are now gone.
Intentionally or not, the problem in (4) originated from within the Organization, whereas in (2), it came from someone outside.
Make sense?
A few stories I've used in my homebrew that, to this day, have yet to be resolved by any group :(
A player character is a noble that lost their family and possessions during a recent war, and what remains of the estate is being claimed by some other noble, leaving the character destitute save for their starting gear. The 'other noble' turns out to be not only a vampire, but also the players' great grandfather, and only finds this out while sent on a vampire hunt by a third party. Needless to say, offers are made when the vampire discovers this, and the question of what the player is willing to do to regain what was lost is presented.
An infamous villain is wanted not only by law enforcement, but is being hunted by his former guild. One of the player-characters is secretly given a backstory element and connections as an informant for that guild, and there's a lot of money on the line for tip-offs. The party is fed leads while following other adventures, while the informant likely passes information off to the guild. The party meets confrontation at some points, or are beaten to the punch in others (whether tipoffs are made or not). The end result is a three-way confrontation, with options along the way for a shift between the 'official manhunt' to the 'underworld manhunt'.
The leader of a thieves guilds' daughter has gone missing years ago, along with a valuable possession, after eloping (and invariably evading pursuit). The party is later tipped off to the trail of the husband, who has recently resurfaced alone. The daughter winds up imprisoned somewhere with the valuable.. which happens to be a powerful relic very much desired by church and kingdom. The question is: whose favor does the party curry by returning the artifact, should they succeed in retrieving it? That, and whose ire is gained when she doesn't want to go back to her family?
A powerful necromancer has become obsessed with meddling with bloodlines, seeking to combine the hereditary traits of naturally opposing Outsiders to obtain a more powerful result. A player with Outsider heritage or special bloodline is abducted, tortured, and experimented upon while the rest of the party mounts a rescue... only to find the player dead. However, a clone and successful experiment, is found nearby. The player must now contend with a one-notch forced alignment shift depending on the Outsider he was 'spliced' against and an interesting set of additional abilities. The question remains of who was backing this research. (I'm actually still trying to hash out an NPC named 'Lillith', literally a portmanteau of Lillend and Marilith, if you need an idea of what this guy is doing)
There's more cogs spinning in the backgrounds of my little game world, but these are some of the bigger ones that have been pursued, and added to the histories of abandoned heroism.
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Double post, but this one is VERY involved and may be a bit of reading.
It also shouldn't be put anywhere near a paladin, or anyone who is sensitive to piles of F-bombs. Be prepared for one hell of an NPC.
Bertrand the Smith
Years after being razed by snakemen five years earlier, the party enters the what-was-old-is-new frontier village. Among the first NPC's the party meets is Bertrand, the smith, and only survivor from the razing.
Bertrand (NE), a muscular smith with a short chain about his neck, is the literally the foulest, meanest person on earth you can possibly enact. He has nothing nice to say about anything, and will F-bomb nearly every sentence, make crude analogies, and generally refer to the party as walking sacks of sh**. However, somewhere snuck amid his beratements, he'll let drop that he'll make things for the party if they bring him the materials. And he will!
Anyone 'messing' with Bertrands' belongings at the smithy invariably and inevitably has their skulls caved in and their corpse thrown in the quenching water, and Bertrand will continue work unabated. In fact, to head off this, I encourage a shallow grave nearby with the name F***ker crudely etched in it.
I encourage the DM running Bertrand to come up with inventive and helpful gear, and ensure that Bertrand continues to be a character of interest. Once supplied with Mythril, Bertrand will begin work on Bertrand's Blade.
When the party recieves Bertrand's Blade, he will vanish when nobody is looking. Investigation in the smithy will reveal a chest of snakeman bones (whole and finely powdered), and the village foreman will point them to where he thinks Bertrand's home was. It's a ways off and Bertrand was always working, so nobody's really been out that way before.
At the smiths' former home, they will find an old, burnt down building. Inside are the bones of an adult and child, and outside, the remains of an adult, chained by the neck to the outside of the house. The snakemen chained the door of his home shut, with him tied by the neck on the outside, before burning him and his family alive. Bertrand wasn't a survivor, he was a revenant.
The blade is his legacy, and all of his anger. It's not a nice F'kn blade.
Bertrand's Blade
Bertrand's blade is an ash-white bastard sword of mythril infused with powdered snakeman bones. Motifs of snake skeletons run the length of the blade, the hilt is wrapped in chains, which hang loosely about the crossguard. This sword is every bit as angry and venomously bitter as its creator, and takes care to handle properly. In its default state, treat the blade as a +1 Mythril Bastard Sword, strongly Evil aligned.
Bertrand's Blade behaves differently depending on its situation, and imparts different sensations to its wielder.
vs Snakemen - Rage - The weapon's enhancement bonus increases to +4, and inflicts 2 points of Level Drain (DC22) against Snakemen. One for the wife. One for the kid.
vs Reptiles - Hatred - Bertrand's Blade is more than a little racist, and becomes a Bane weapon against reptiles or creatures with reptile qualities.
Targeted - Offended - If the sword is specifically targeted by an enemy (spell, sunder, disarm) or is targeted by an Identify Item spell, the effort fails, and the sword becomes an Acid (1d6) weapon, and deals 1d6 acid damage to any object the blade touches for 1 minute.
Divine - Rejection - Bertrand's Blade rejects all forms of divine augmentation. Holy/Unholy water boils off without ever touching the blade.
Fire - Comfort - If deliberately heated or exposed to at least 10 points of magical fire, the blade becomes a Fiery weapon, dealing 1d6 fire damage on a successful strike. As with the Acid effect, the wielder does not control this enchantment and any objects touched by the blade suffer 1d6 fire damage as well, and risk being set on fire. This continues until the blade is quenched in fluid.
Note: This is probably best considered something of an artifact weapon, but its unpredictability and rejection to being identified makes it seem like a fun toy to let loose. The players shouldn't be aware they're completing this quest, so there's always the risk they'll forget about the foul-mouthed blacksmith before thinking about bringing him some special materials.
The "kind old NPC who uses you to become a lich" is something I tried in one campaign, but for some reason the players never completed the final step of opening the box he had given them "for an emergency" -- it contained an intelligent darkskull that would have been throwing enervation beams around like nobody's business and turning everyone in the PCs' village into wights, absorbing enough life energy to power the transformation.
Feel free to adopt the idea as needed. ;)
As far as this particular thread goes, the first idea that comes to mind is that one or more of the supporting NPC cast is actually an agent for the Organization. The PCs are being nurtured by the secret police to identify rebels for ... disposal.
No apologies necessary on the lame reference. Allow me to clarify!
** spoiler omitted **
Make sense?
Interesting... So under this scenario the organization itself is split. If I used this idea, the internecine conflict could have resolved itself 15 years ago. Or it could still play a factor in how the organization functions today.
"You expect common magic items to be readily available, but the GM secretly only gives out (minorly) cursed items (or other items with drawbacks that could influence your abilities) while putting you against supposedly appropriate CR'd encounters."
That would be pretty horrifying!
(And not what you're looking for. Still thinking...)
A few stories I've used in my homebrew that, to this day, have yet to be resolved by any group :(
A player character is a noble that lost their family and possessions during a recent war, and what remains of the estate is being claimed by some other noble, leaving the character destitute save for their starting gear. The 'other noble' turns out to be not only a vampire, but also the players' great grandfather, and only finds this out while sent on a vampire hunt by a third party. Needless to say, offers are made when the vampire discovers this, and the question of what the player is willing to do to regain what was lost is presented.
An infamous villain is wanted not only by law enforcement, but is being hunted by his former guild. One of the player-characters is secretly given a backstory element and connections as an informant for that guild, and there's a lot of money on the line for tip-offs. The party is fed leads while following other adventures, while the informant likely passes information off to the guild. The party meets confrontation at some points, or are beaten to the punch in others (whether tipoffs are made or not). The end result is a three-way confrontation, with options along the way for a shift between the 'official manhunt' to the 'underworld manhunt'.
The leader of a thieves guilds' daughter has gone missing years ago, along with a valuable possession, after eloping (and invariably evading pursuit). The party is later tipped off to the trail of the husband, who has recently resurfaced alone. The daughter winds up imprisoned somewhere with the valuable.. which happens to be a powerful relic very much desired by church and kingdom. The question is: whose favor does the party curry by returning the artifact, should they succeed in retrieving it? That, and whose ire is gained when she doesn't want to go back to her family?
A powerful necromancer has become obsessed with meddling with bloodlines, seeking to combine the hereditary traits of naturally opposing Outsiders to...
Story 1: Interesting squabble among nobles; the concept could be applied in a variety of ways. Some villain who's taken something the PC considers their birthright.
Story 2: A double-agent of sorts, although the PC might not actively be against the party, it's just that the guild trumps the party then. Could lead to some interesting situations, and might be applicable to my Swashbuckler who begins the campaign with instructions from the organization.
Story 3: I very much like this concept, where there's a quest, but there's more than one party willing to pay a hefty sum for the valuable artifact. Could be a decision with lasting consequences. Considering I'm playing running a kingdom building campaign, something like this could make or break alliances with nearby cities in the struggle against the organization.
Story 4: Might be something horrible I could do to my Aasimar Bard. ...but not too sure I want to go that route. Still, fascinating plot.
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Double post, but this one is VERY involved and may be a bit of reading.
It also shouldn't be put anywhere near a paladin, or anyone who is sensitive to piles of F-bombs. Be prepared for one hell of an NPC.
Bertrand the Smith
** spoiler omitted **...
That's a pretty sweet story; the sword of a revenant blacksmith. With a few adjustments, I think that could be a nice subplot for the kingdom building arc of my campaign.
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"You expect common magic items to be readily available, but the GM secretly only gives out (minorly) cursed items (or other items with drawbacks that could influence your abilities) while putting you against supposedly appropriate CR'd encounters."
That would be pretty horrifying!
(And not what you're looking for. Still thinking...)
I have been tossing around the idea of using artifacts, cursed items, intelligent items, items that grow more powerful as the wielder gains levels. But these will be related to various subplots and probably won't show up in the typical crafting of a Belt of Str +2 or whatever.
The "kind old NPC who uses you to become a lich" is something I tried in one campaign, but for some reason the players never completed the final step of opening the box he had given them "for an emergency" -- it contained an intelligent darkskull that would have been throwing enervation beams around like nobody's business and turning everyone in the PCs' village into wights, absorbing enough life energy to power the transformation.
Feel free to adopt the idea as needed. ;)
I'm really enjoying the possibilities for this idea; I think he'll make his debut in the very 1st session, giving the PCs free potions. He'll later be captured by the organization and then rescued by the PCs. (among several other captured NPCs)
Did the organization capture this kind old cleric because he was a citizen of Storybrooke? Or was it because they knew he was aiming to become a lich, among other things? That in and of itself could add an interesting layer to the true nature of the organization.
After the cleric is rescued, he will be an NPC in the kingdom the PCs are building. Then I can execute the subplot where he attempts to recruit the PCs to get the pieces he needs to complete his phylactery.
At least this is how I imagine this all playing out. Seems fun!
As far as this particular thread goes, the first idea that comes to mind is that one or more of the supporting NPC cast is actually an agent for the Organization. The PCs are being nurtured by the secret police to identify rebels for ... disposal.
I'm definitely considering multiple ways the organization may have infiltrated "the supporting NPC cast." Heck, they've potentially infiltrated the PC cast with the human Swashbuckler. (Although I believe she will switch allegiances) But other seemingly average citizens of Storybrooke and Almas may be secret agents of the organization.
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Other horrible truths to find out: You were planning to become a Mystic Theurge, Arcane Trickster, or Eldritch Knight, and then this happened (see the new FAQ itself and this other thread).
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Other horrible truths to find out: You were planning to become a Mystic Theurge, Arcane Trickster, or Eldritch Knight, and then this happened (see the new FAQ itself and this other thread).
Eeeeaaaaaurrrgghhh!! I'm. So. Startled.
*le sigh* Yeah, I spotted that last night and it made me sad. I had been scheming to try one of those, but it never came up. And now it's illegal. I suppose I don't play in pathfinder society or whatever, so I can do whatever homebrew I want. Still, playing by the rules when possible is preferable.
[half-sarcasm]How else are you going to brag about cool builds on these forums? Bragging about how much your GM loves you and gives you whatever you want isn't as shiny as bragging about your system mastery.[/half-sarcasm]
It's not exactly applicable to your campaign, but here are a few that I've pulled in my games...
After a while, one PC (one who'd stolen the avatar of Shar) named Crystal and Xan fell in love, and planned to get married... but then Xan, after showing her an amazing world and love abruptly left with no explanation. Using clues he'd left for her, she was able to figure out the truth - though the use of the avatar was forever denied Shar, the avatar's senses were not, thus he could never tell her, except in the quiet secret of her own mind: he was really just an eidolon the whole time! (An "eidolon" in this case, being a kind of lesser limited-duration replica of the epic caster who created it.) The "real" Xan, it seemed, had died in the ritual to steal Shar's avatars (and was happily in Selune's paradise), and the eidolon had been left behind as a trick to gather Shar's attention. His time had effectively nearly "run out" so he left to distract Shar one last time to allow all of the PCs to complete another mission. Crystal had also received a "gift" - a silvery sphere containing all of his memories (so she could access the good times together, and so he couldn't accidentally betray secrets he told her in this to Shar; they'd been removed from him).
In an effort to stop the Spellplague and defeat Shar "for good", the PCs were also on a quest to create a new god! They eventually succeeded at all of the rituals, but didn't prevent the Spellplague at all: the "god" that they purposefully made was an wild, anarchic mess (though this reveal was kind of lost on them, as they blacked out at the end of the ritual, woke up, went, "Huh, that was weird" and never checked on the god they'd just made, allowing Shar to steal the mindless thing for her own purposes...)! The did defeat Shar and caused her great frustration in her attempts to make everything end, but didn't prevent the eventual assassination of Mystra (sort of - more accurately, they did, but in so-doing split the timeline... so they both exist, though this has never been touched upon as we all moved away from each other after that game).
(Crystal was also later able to enact a magic ritual among several willing individuals which kind of erased Grazz't from existence and gave her a nifty new body to place all of Xan's personality into. Those probably weren't related.*)
* This is a lie.
Crystal made a special guest appearance (the player had a different character in this game - I temporarily also gave her control over her old character again), juuuuuuuuuust in time to see what had become of her old "husband" (as a bitter act of revenge on Shar's part)*. In an attempt to gain ultimate power and destroy some gods who'd vexed her (Crystal, another PC from a different older game named Basha, and the third being the other one who stole her avatar), she dropped the primordial onto the PCs' location, where it kind of went wild for a while, until the PCs completed a ritual allowing one of them to effectively disintegrate and become the primordial, taming its power with sanity and an actual mind.
* "Crystal's Xan" still existed (though the Spellplague had not been kind to him - he'd sprouted a Grazz't** (who'd escaped) and lost most all of his power - and was also present and a bit weirded out when this happened.
** TOTALLY UNRELATED, I SAY!
For parts one and two: a PC had learned she was a mutant dragon - she had transformed in the egg, and been raised by her father not knowing her true nature (or his) until now* -, her father (who "died" a while before the beginning of the campaign) had become a dracolich!
In the effort of finding him, she'd made a bargain with a Night Hag which culminated in the destruction of Shar, all of her servitors, and a few other evil gods and all of their servitors (including the complete eradication of Hell, Bane, and related gods and devils), but also the loss of the PC's goddess Basha, Crystal, and most of the PC's friends and family and important people. And then, because there could never not be a Shar, the PC became the new Shar with all her old evil memories intact.
There were tears, crying, rage, bitterness, and finally acceptance, as the new Shar finally accepted her role, and vowed to make the darkness no longer be a thing of torment and evil (and became neutral instead of the PC's good or Shar's evil).
... aaaaaaaaaaand then she woke up, when her father the dracolich killed the night had feasting off of the PC's worst nightmare.
Everyone was so mad at me for a while, and then they all got back to playing their characters and loved that scene.
* He'd called himself her "mentor" and "guardian" but never revealed the family relationship to his weird mutant daughter. He did look human, due to transformation power, however.
In the end, she faced and killed said demon lord, and destroyed the artifact to bring him back into existence (instead of taking on his power and essence) and spread love and beauty to the world.
Mind, this is after she found out that she's basically the reincarnated essence of a hundred-thousand souls manipulated and formed into her current aspect by the accidental manipulations of a stupid wizard and his demon familiar (who all died in the making of her). All of which was orchestrated by her godly self a long time ago...
Although these are all way too over-powered for your game, they might help give inspiration! Here's hoping!