Stepchild of the Sun |
So this is my 2nd time through Runelords, but my first as DM and this time I want to make sure my players know more about the plot and history and characters in the AP than I did (granted we didn't have a wizard or anyone who could read Thessolonian or even anyone with ranks in Knowledge History).
To this end, I've made handouts a BIG part of the AP, finding and printing out journals for Nualia, Lyrie, additional pages for Tsuto's journal and am putting a big focus on the mysterious Late Unpleasantness (in the words of one of my player's PC sleuth: So Nualia lost her baby, fell into a coma, Ameiko's mom died AND a mass murderer all happened around the same time??? That CAN'T just be coincidence).
Said sleuth PC is an oracle of bones with a backstory involving a vision of "a dark dangerous cloud over Sandpoint's Cathedral" he believes was granted to him by Pharasma and the party bard is a worshiper of Desna and so I've been considering giving the party dreams/ nightmares that hide symbolic clues and details about current and future events (especially now that the oracle's made a point of destroying several holy objects of Lamashtu, goddess of nightmares)
I've already mentioned to the bard (object of Skinsaw Man's obsession) that several of her things have been going missing (she even paid a wizard in Sandpoint to cast Locate Object for her but by then Aldern had fled town) and I'm considering having her wake up in a cold sweat every few nights before I start Skinsaw Murders, convinced someone's watching her.
So what I'm looking for is inspiration for dreams and nightmares hinting at later plots and clues in the AP, particularly creepy nightmare-fuel ones and I'd love your suggestions!
Basillicum |
Earlier in my game, in the middle of Burnt Offerings, the group visited Madame Mvashti in Sandpoint, and I gave each of them some pretty stereotypical fortune teller mumbo jumbo.
Looking back, I gave them (collectively) way too much. Luckily, my group paid none of it any mind at all, and simply decided Madame Mvashti was full of crap.
If this is the kind of thing you're looking for, I could give you some of the more elaborate descriptions I used.
Basillicum |
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Alright, here goes! Sorry for the delay. These are the ones that I still feel make any sense.
A large lump of darkness (a shadow?) wearing only a strange mask looms over you, a tendril vaguely hand-shaped pointing accusingly at you. You realise that its form spreads about the area effortlessly, and there are people, helpless observers, swallowed by the darkness.
A large stone boulder is being pulled by an army of ogres.
A girl with silvery hair sits crying in a cell, and she hides her face, even though there are no one else there. Underneath her forms a pool of blood, which someone seems to burn with angry and swirling hues of red and black.
There is a gargantuan pile of snow and ice. At its top is carved a gigantic eye above a similar carving of a hand. The eye is living and observing, and it alone remains as the world falls away. A woman with fiery red hair flies into a rage and screams.