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So I ran my players through a little side trek that I made up while blatantly ripping off a major movie franchise.
Hook: Hired to check on the status of a purveyor of fine delicacies by a local noble, and if possible expedite the order the noble has placed with William.
Reward: reputation, thanks, traveling equipment, and some gold.
The problem.
“William was hired to make convections for (Insert inn, bakery, noble, whatever here), he is a good, reliable chap. Well off too, I can’t imagine him being beset by monsters or brigands, so please check on my old friend.”
William may be a good friendly fellow, yet he doesn’t suffer fools too well. Which has lead William to reside and work some distance away from the city, set in a mountain range.
The entrance to the establishment is overrun with kudzu and rust and wear. This seems like the place has been disused for more than the month it has been since last was heard from William. The gates are rusted off there hinges and do not bar entry.
Room 1: The entryway to the building, which is partially set inside a mountain top, seems easy enough to push through; the kudzu does hamper movement though. When inside the players see an overgrown estate, the room is large, about 100 yards by 50 yards. There is a stream passing into and out of the room (1d4 acidic damage every round when in the water) with dark water. The plants here too restrict movement to half which makes it hard to escape the impending disaster that is about to beset them. There are other nefarious plants here too, use your imagination. The players hear from all directions a synchronized chorus of high pitched voices singing “Hop hop hop, hoppity hop hop hop.” These are jermalain. Lots of em. There goal is steal magical items from the party and take the magic items to there holy leader who disenchants them (6 hours per +1 modifier to item). Depending on the speed of the party they may get all there items back at the end of the adventure. The jermalain will persue, entangle, net, and generally piss off the party until they leave area 1. They have needles for weapons (1 point of damage per hit). If attacked they will retreat to holes in the wall or gopher holes in the ground and become entrenched while other jermalain attack from other areas. There is a boat at the far end of the room in the murky water. This seems to be the only exit.
The jermalain should pincushion the party with needles and make off with at least 1 or 2 of the partys magical items they tried to use against the jermalain. Players will hate jermalain from this point on and have a true fear of the jermalain cadence ““Hop hop hop, hoppity hop hop hop.”
Room 2:
The boat/tunnel: The large boat, almost a pontoon, is slow to move, this may annoy the players trying to get away from the wicked plants and jermalain of room 1. The water is un-potable and smells of sewage. This romp is an illusionary terror. Start it out slow. Rat/bugs/snakes poking from out of spots on the boat, the boat picks up speed. More bugs and such, though larger, the boat picks up speed. Start calling for reflex saves to stay standing. Monstrous rats and bugs now threaten to overbear the boat, the boat picks up speed, call for higher DC saves to stay standing, any members who fail are swarmed, bugs crawl in there mouths and nose and ears. The boat picks up speed.
The boat stops, no inertial impact, any players who fell into the water are now on a calm, moist, slick shore. There is 1 door.
Room 3:
The asylum:
There is an illusionary night sky in this large area, 200 yardsx100 yards. The players are attacked by 5 gargoyles upon entering the area and are attacked by 1 more every 15 rounds thereafter until they find the source of the gargoyles. There are 5 structures. A large asylum, 2 houses, a factory, and a tower. Upon entering the area any casters can see a stray glowing piece of dust here and there. The dust seems to be attracted to the members of the party who cast. When a piece of dust hits them it makes like a baby firework and explodes on them. This is simply for effect; there is no game play value. But when someone sees something the others can it tends to freak them out. The dust does become denser around the asylum, and the dust does seem to be going toward the asylum.
3A: Asylum: Inside the asylum the players hear pleas for help and maniacal laughter and other such sounds. As the players follow the dust it gets drawn to a room where the players encounter a human in a cell begging to be set free. The human has long fingernails and long unhealthy hair that falls out in patches. If the players let him out he wanders area 3. He has a memory of about 30 seconds. Questioning him should be fun roleplaying but ultimately fruitless.
3B: House 1: There is a single room house, bed in a corner, an apparition of a woman on a rocking chair knitting. She looks to the party as they enter and whispers “Shhhh” and points to the bed where a skeleton of a young person lay. If the party stays there for more than 1 minute, or gets shushed 3 times the apparition attacks. Have fun with this. The scarf the ghost was knitting has a feint glow to it. It is magical.
Ghost Shroud – Deflection bonus +2, it is translutiant, (See through) When peered through the viewer gains true sight. Able to see invisible and polymorphed or magically disguised things for what they truly are.
3C: House 2: This is another single room home with an apparition of a young man, in his early 20s, stuck in a hole in the ground, the party can only see his torso, head, and arms. He seems friendly, helpful, and intelligent. He asks the party to pull him out of the hole. He can tell the party the source of the gargoyles (the factory makes them) and offer them some magic items. If the players pull him out his hands feel cold and slimy but leave no remnant of slime or moisture. They pull him out and he is only a torso, head and arms. He doesn’t seem to notice the rest of his body is gone and he walks with his hands. He tells the party of the gargoyle machine in the factory and tells the party to break it. He points the players to a couple potions, a couple scrolls and a vial of Oil of Impact.
3D: The Factory: Disheveled stone building, inside is 30 feet by 60 feet and there is a machine dripping liquid stone. The liquid is forming a new gargoyle. There is a ghostly form pulling a lever to draw more liquid stone out of the gargoyle machine. If the players kill the ghost, the machine still pumps, if the players attack the machine the ghost attacks them.
3E: The Tower: on the far side of the area lay the tower. From every vantage point you look at the tower the moon is behind it. Just odd. The tower is 1 level deep and 4 levels up. Debris lines all the floors, it seems to be vacant, 3rd floor doesn’t prove to be so. Victoria, lesser vampire, opens a can of whoopass on the party. If the party doesn’t kill her in 3 rounds the turns to mist and goes to the 4th floor. The 4th floor has a doorway, not a window, a door. Open the door and it leads to infinite space.
3Ea: Infinite Space: There are 1 foot diameter bubbles floating here in infinite space. Red, blue, and green. There is also a doorway some 300 yards away and 200 yards up. There is no floor or bridge. Through trial and error or however it happens the bubbles are the answer. Green casts a 1 minute levitate. It should take 2 green bubbles to get to the other side. The red ones knock you unconscious for the duration of your stay in this infinite space area, there are falling skeletons in free space. The blue ones poison you. If the party member falls they fall 30 feet and get teleported 300 feet up. Roll randomly for hitting a bubble while falling.
The other side: Vampires extra dimensional living quarters. Count Slugs Worthington. Vampire. If Victoria escaped this can be a very difficult fight. Proceed to open can of whoopass. The area consists of 3 rooms, bedroom, living room/library, and a domestic area (Kitchen/prep area). There is a window here, illusionary yellow sun, green hills, blue skies. The sunlight doesn’t hurt our vampire friends.
Upon defeat of the vampires the horrid domicile reverts to that of the owners intentions. The castle is hugely illusionary; the infinite space develops stairs, rolling ones at that (Escalator) the bubbles when touched now explode and fill the players mouth with exquisite watermelon, cherry, and blueberry flavors. The tower can be seen it is white with purple ornamentation and the sun is shining and there are clouds in the sky the players can go through on there way down. The asylum has turned into a bunk house with beleaguered Halflings pouring out and a relieved looking human. The human they say in the asylum, he thanks the party for putting an end to the madness that took hold of his beloved factory, and he introduces himself as William Wonkem.
(One of my players says “You did not just do what I think you did.”)
They are gratefully welcomed to stay with William as he sets things strait in his factory, the player’s jermalain stolen items are returned to them, maybe slightly upgraded thanks to Williams mighty prowess. They are shown the rest of the factory as they hadn’t seen, the boat and tunnel were a far cry different. The tunnel walls played with lighthearted pictures, the boat didn’t speed up. The entryway with the jermalain is now a guarden of resources for Williams’s convections. And the river brims with sweet chocolate waters now instead of vile muck. The players are given the nobles confections. 10 boxes of chocolate bars from William Wonkems Chocolate Factory.
Party grumbles at this point, 1 player cluelessley says, “What are you groaning about?”
"How d'you do, I
see you've met my
faithful handyman
He's just a little brought down
because when you knocked
He thought you were the candyman.
Don't get strung out by the way that I look,
Don't judge a book by its covah-ah-ah
I'm not much of a man by the light of day,
But by night I'm one hell of a lover"
Seems like you could just slip that into any normal conversation.
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I was thinking of having the time warp be like a mass summoning looking thing, people/undead moving in unison chanting, but to maintaining the transvestite seems almost intrinsical. If you don’t have Frank, it’s not close enough to the RHPS. Maybe just make him effeminate like Bowie.
I figure Rocky can be a flesh Golem, Frank a mad wizard, the Party would see things from Brad and Janets view, or have Brad and Janet as NPCs.
The stage show has to be involved.