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I've been thinking about running a side quest where the PCs can learn more about Nualia; one idea I've been toying with is having her miscarried child, now an Attic Whisperer, causing some trouble around town.
I'm not sure how to present it though; rescuing another child after the goblin closet thing seems lame. Anyone have any suggestions?
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Attic Whisperers arise from neglected children, not stillborn fetuses. babies cant speak, they dont make creepy rhymes or play jumprope. They crap and spit up, and whine. It would be a different sort of undead monster, if you really wanted something that messed up.
A better option would be to point them in the direction of the Midwife. The elven woman who does that sort of thing, whats-her-name. The party could sit down for tea while she spins a quietly distrubing tale about that strange night. It would give background on nualia, since she would remeber her quite well. and she could be disturbingly vauge on the subject of the child.
"it was a mercy the poor girl didnt didnt bring it to term. I've seen some unfortunate births, but this...it wasnt a baby. it was a thing."
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You could have a tiny undead based roughly off of the smoke haunt (i.e. with similiar fire based abilities) and give it the fiendish template. Give it a few constant spell-like abilities (Confusion maybe?) and make it minorly intelligent. Then, make it so that it isn't meaning harm to its victims and doesn't understand its own destructive capabilities. Perhaps its only seeking warmth and companionship but in trying to get close to people it kills them witha fire aura or something similiar. That would make it even more tragic and memorable, perhaps even bringing a something of a moral quandry (Do we kill an obviously deadly yet pathetic, pitiable and helpless creature for seeking warmth and companionship?).
On an somewhat related note, if you're just looking for a sidequest and want something similiar to this, try using Tanethia Wheen's ghost. In the Sandpoint detail in Burnt Offerings its mentioned that Tanethia Wheen drowned several years ago. It also mentions that all of the mills except for the Scarnetti's burned down. With a minor altering of the timeline (I think that the two events occurred a few years apart.) it could be made so that she witnessed some Scarzni thugs burning a mill under the Scarnetti's orders and they drowned her to silence her. I used this and had her rise as a ghost, causing problems in a burnt out mill just trying to get attention and help from the people that didn't know she was there. She really meant no harm and was just trying to get help. The PCs managed to talk to her and she was put to rest after her parents came and said goodbye and her murderers were brought to justice. I started a whole campaign with this and made them do a lot of traveling, but it could easily be truncated to be a side quest.
My two coppers, hope they helped.
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Maybe I've just been playing too much Fear recently, but there was a movie on SBS (our Australian alternate-language station, pretty much) called (I'm grasping here...) I think it was "Baby with a Big Head" or something... a Korean movie, possibly Japanese.
There were a lot of quite scary bits in that movie which could easily be adapted to a "dead demonic baby" adventure. My favourite part is
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Hi Paladin, a fellow Aussie here (Melbourne).
Unfortunately, we live in a valley, and can't receive SBS signal even with outdoor arial :-( It was previously my favourite station.
Your spoiler does sound very creepy indeed! Will have to use that in an adventure sometime.
Although a different direction than the original poster's plot, I'm going to replace Koruvus with Nualia's abandoned child - probably keep the stats unchanged, just change the name. We know he was monstrously deformed at birth, maybe the midwives didn't kill him, and he grew at an accelerated rate in Erylium's lair.
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Ok thats just a creepy thought, that the baby might be undead. I also love the mid wife idea. I would probably combine the two ideas, but have the baby be a ghost or somthing like that.I would imagine that a side adventure like this would be in the vien of The Ring 2.Of course you wouldnt have the people dying from watching a video but maybe the spirirt has gone into a mirror or a music box that people listen to. This could have been a possion of Nulia's. When you look into it or hear it you have 7 days to get someone else to do the same or you die. Perhaps the Mid wife went insane and is in some asylum and the Pcs need to interview her. I think a side quest like this totally fits with this horror themed AP.
Although a different direction than the original poster's plot, I'm going to replace Koruvus with Nualia's abandoned child - probably keep the stats unchanged, just change the name. We know he was monstrously deformed at birth, maybe the midwives didn't kill him, and he grew at an accelerated rate in Erylium's lair.
That is sooo kewl! I just thought that I will change that but make it that the baby was either dug up by Erylium or the baby crawled out of the grave to suckle at the well where the Sin Spawn come from and this is what came of that. I don't know if the party will ever get the full impact of such a revelation but it is creepy and a great thing to add to my game.
Thanks!
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Use the Sandpoint Devil as her offspring. The legends of the Jersey devil talk about a human witch with satanic pacts giving birth to a monstousity, so why not a worshipper of a God of monstrousities? The Sandpoint Devil used to meet with Nuala once a month on a certain lunar cycle and now can't find her so starts terrorizing the town in an attempt to find 'mommy'.
It would be pretty creepy....
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That sounds a bit too much of a ripoff to me, but have at it. Hannah (the elven midwife) is a fixture in sandpoint, though, so you'd need another midwife.
I just feel that there should be, well, simple endings sometimes. the story is sad and creepy enough without adding in a miscarried fetus monster somewhere. not everything has to culminate in a combat encounter.
Use the Sandpoint Devil as her offspring. The legends of the Jersey devil talk about a human witch with satanic pacts giving birth to a monstousity, so why not a worshipper of a God of monstrousities? The Sandpoint Devil used to meet with Nuala once a month on a certain lunar cycle and now can't find her so starts terrorizing the town in an attempt to find 'mommy'.
It would be pretty creepy....
This I like! I've been considering doing something about this part of Nualia's background, but hadn't thought of this. However, in my campaign Hannah (the midwife) is murdered in a most gruesome way (and it wasn't the skinsaw man)...
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If you really *need* to do something with this, I'd personally suggest making it a noncombat encounter, perhaps something akin to the Foxglove Manor haunts. Perhaps whoever gets affected picks up a feeling of lonely confusion and despair, or hears a small child crying someplace they can't find, or something along those lines.
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In a D&D ghost story an actual ghost is expected, almost required. It might be more interesting to give it a new treatment: there is no ghost baby, but the terror and shock of thar birth has ruined the psyche of the midwives. They believe they are haunted, and they weave a frightening (false) ghost mythology for the characters.
Basically, scare the crap out of the players and draw them into a demented tale. Leave them hanging - like most good ghost stories.
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Thanks for all the suggestions. Right now, I may end up combining Jodah's and Kassil's ideas. Basically, the PCs seek out Hannah to help resolve an unrelated issue (something involving a certain employee of the Pixie's Kitten), and have a chance to talk to her and encounter the foxglove-style haunt in her basement, which would further help establish/foreshadow this mechanic.
For the Haunt, I think a vision of Nualia's birth would pique their interest in her history. Nualia's screams of agony, and then the inevitable shrieks of terror from the midwives as they recoil in fear...perhaps inducing a fear effect? Charisma drain? Nausea?
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Thanks for all the suggestions. Right now, I may end up combining Jodah's and Kassil's ideas. Basically, the PCs seek out Hannah to help resolve an unrelated issue (something involving a certain employee of the Pixie's Kitten), and have a chance to talk to her and encounter the foxglove-style haunt in her basement, which would further help establish/foreshadow this mechanic.
For the Haunt, I think a vision of Nualia's birth would pique their interest in her history. Nualia's screams of agony, and then the inevitable shrieks of terror from the midwives as they recoil in fear...perhaps inducing a fear effect? Charisma drain? Nausea?
Whose point of view are you attaching it to?
Play Fear before you do this scene- it has some great "operating room" flashback/dream sequence things which are really creepy and recur, with you getting closer to the room each time, and then the walls catch fire and the air starts bleeding and I'm never sleeping again...
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I haven't had the opportunity to play F.E.A.R., but when I finish BioShock, I'll see if I can get around to it.
Whose point of view are you attaching it to?
That's a good question...I don't think I could legitimately do Nualia if she's actually still alive. Maybe I'll fudge the story so that the baby was born alive, but died shortly thereafter. Then the perspective can be the baby's, and it might offer an interesting dramatic component of not knowing what it looked like, just that it was hideous.
Also, I realized that putting the haunt underneath Hannah's house didn't make any sense. I think Nualia would basically have been a shut-in after her father found out she was pregnant, so the birth probably happened in the cathedral. I'll just get my PCs to go to the basement for some reason.
I'm not sure whether the haunt should be tailored specifically to one PC or universal. I really want them to see it, so maybe the more the better? But having only one could make it creepier. I also haven't worked out an effect yet...any ideas?
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I'm not sure whether the haunt should be tailored specifically to one PC or universal. I really want them to see it, so maybe the more the better? But having only one could make it creepier. I also haven't worked out an effect yet...any ideas?
IIRC, most of the haunts tend to latch onto specific people. In this case, people feeling alone or outcast or otherwise isolated for some reason might be what it picks up on.
As for the effect, I'm not sure. Can you give a description of your PCs, maybe something there'll suggest an idea?
I'm not sure whether the haunt should be tailored specifically to one PC or universal. I really want them to see it, so maybe the more the better? But having only one could make it creepier. I also haven't worked out an effect yet...any ideas?IIRC, most of the haunts tend to latch onto specific people. In this case, people feeling alone or outcast or otherwise isolated for some reason might be what it picks up on.
As for the effect, I'm not sure. Can you give a description of your PCs, maybe something there'll suggest an idea?
That's actually still very much in flux, as we probably aren't going to play until May. I was thinking along the same lines for an individual haunt, but if none of them fit the bill, I'll probably pass it on to the Paladin/holy guy type.
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I briefly considered advancing Nualia's age and the time that's elapsed since the Late Unpleasantness, and replacing the Scarecrow in Chapter 2 with her monstrously deformed child. Probably using a ogrekin fighter, to provide a strong link between chapters 1-3. I didn't go with it, though.
I very much like the thought of replacing Koruvus with the child, however. I think I'm going to use it myself.
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That's actually still very much in flux, as we probably aren't going to play until May. I was thinking along the same lines for an individual haunt, but if none of them fit the bill, I'll probably pass it on to the Paladin/holy guy type.
In order, if you're using the child's PoV, I'd put it to someone who has been abandoned in some way or another, then someone who has some kind of sorrow in their background, then whoever would be the most 'empathic' of the group (which, if all else fails, would indeed likely be the Holy Type Person).
As for the haunt itself, I'd call it as being a hllucination (on a slip of paper, perhaps), with a shaken condition and the character feeling as if he's being abandoned/reviled by everyone, at least for a moment. Or maybe an intense feeling of claustrophobia, like the character's being buried. This particular haunt might weave in later in the adventure - if the character tries to 'resolve' it in-character, maybe give them a small bonus against Nualia? Like a +1 to attack rolls, since she's clearly given herself to the idea of birthing monsters in spirit as well as flesh, as opposed to the poor innocentsoul who spawned the haunt.
Or I could just be fishing for ideas on getting people to roleplay.