I'd like some critique or additions or advice with an adventure I'm working on. Things I'd like in particular:
1. Nature of the Great Old One/Lord of Madness/whatever that is beneath a city.
2. Any ideas for fleshing out the actual adventure portions of this text as presented in bold.
Thanks very much in advance.
the adventure so far:
(based in part on "The Lost City", "Tatters of the King" (CoC) and also on very good ideas I was given on EnWorld)
The pcs have the following hooks
1. Scholars approach them requesting escort--following a particular path in a heavily forested wilderness will lead to landmarks that somehow magically enable finding this lost city, which is said to be the resting place of magical items and lore of great antiquity.
2. The pcs stumble upon it while on a journey following the same landmarks by pure chance/destiny accident.
(or others as necessary)
Upon arrival they discover that this city seems to have been in ancient times carved smoothly out of living rock and tree so that it has a strange smoothness and elegance. It is at first eerie and seems uninhabited, but this is only because the number of inhabitants has dwindled.
The people living there wear masks. These are almost entirely elves, most of whom live lives of a strangely artistic bent. A population of servant creatures (I'm not sure what these are yet, but lesser fae of some kind who are not very intelligent) provide food and drink and any necessary maintenance, leaving the masked citizens free of all cares. They spend their days either in delusions brought on by hallucinogens or else in pursuit of philosophies, poetry, music, dance and theatre.
On the outskirts of the city are felldrakes, which were driven out, and are wary and suspicious of strangers. These small wingless dragons as far as the present day elves are concerned are dangerous predators, though in fact they were raised as defenders. The felldrakes are among the only creatures in the area though that have some idea of what's really going on. There is a curse preventing them from re-entering; if the pcs break it they can receive help from them.
There are also three factions of outsiders, descendants of heroes who have long ago forgotten their purpose and have become rivals, fighting for the privilege of protecting an artifact locked away in an ancient building. This is an ancient sword that is a weapon of enormous power but also of great evil. Part of the adventure is this: the pcs must find a way to prevent one of the factions from getting it and ignoranly invoking its power again.
Finally there are the strange priests of the Great Old One beneath the city. The city is locked in its demi-plane to prevent this Great Old One from waking, but the inhabitants have long forgotten that. Even the priests do not remember, they only know that the Great Old One must be appeased. The pcs discover that the priests' actions are not appeasement but a process of wakening that will unleash the Great Old One unless they are stopped.
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There were 2 adventures in Dungeon, which revisited the site of the original Lost City of the Cynediceans (aka Basic module B4).
One was in the issue with the cover, featuring the ziggurat, with the 3 statues on top, the other had art-nouveau (think Alphonse Mucha) by Michael Kaluta.
While both these adventures kept the older desert setting, they could be a useful resource for NPCs and evocative art, especially as Kaluta's art has always had a 'fey' look to it, which could suit your needs. The free web-supplement did have a full-page spread of animal masks, to set the mood.
I have that issue, thanks very much for the suggestion. Where is this free web supplement, on paizo?
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Try this.
Scroll down the page; you may get a high-res and a med-res option.
It's 30 pages of maps and art, from the mag.
Have fun!
Thanks, its nice to have handouts. Well I have lots of time to plan this one--about 2 months till my next session really due to various busy stuff going on, so it should be really solid by the time it happens.
Any other thoughts on the Great Old One at all? I'd like something a little more interesting than Zargon.