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After much time spent steeping my brain in H.P.L. and some classic Pathfinder/GameMastery/Dungeon adventures, I've finally cobbled together a campaign to share with my gaming group. I will post the events here (spoiler free) as they unfold.
This is the campaign teaser that I have on our campaign page:
"Falcon’s Hollow is a peaceful, sleepy lumber town nestled deep in the wild and beautiful Darkmoon Vale region of Andoran. It is a prosperous and busy place. Its people are generally kind and industrious. Although life is simple and the work is difficult, few here have ever known true hardship, and the strangeness of the outside world has had little influence here…until now.
Dark Harvest is a dark fantasy campaign, where the heroes will be pitted against the agents of a sinister plot to shatter reality as we know it. They will experience an underlying sense of latent dread, punctuated by moments of terror and weirdness. Once it is finally revealed, the horrible truth may be too much for them to bear.
Try to imagine the tone being more like an H.P. Lovecraft tale, where the horror lies in the atmosphere and story, rather than in the blood and gore of a slasher film or house of horrors. Make no mistake, there will be violence (this is a fantasy RPG after all), but the gore will be a means, not an end in itself.
The campaign begins Summer (Serendith 1, 4712 AR), just at the spring lumber is being prepared for shipping down river. Events of this campaign occur sometime after Rise of the Runelords and before Second Darkness."
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Dreams and nightmares will figure prominently in this campaign, so I wrote a little teaser for each adventure to give the players a clue as to what to expect. Some is stolen or paraphrased from source material, and I will assign dreams to the characters based on what campaign trait they chose.
Dream #1:
"You are dreaming. The sun is high in the sky, birds call to one another, and insects buzz lazily in the summer heat.
You look around you and see your companions; cheerfully ascending the lightly-wooded foothills of the majestic ice-capped mountain, in search of the old hermit who can help you find the ingredients you need to cure the sick child in your village. You awake screaming in a cold sweat."
Dream #2:
"You are dreaming. The kindly dwarven smith smiles and pats his young visitor on the shoulder as the youth tenatively makes his first swings of hammer on metal. The anvil rings cheerily as the two newly-made friends work together, forging a new weather vane for the family barn.
The jovial old smith becomes aware of your presence and gives a good-natures chuckle; knowing that it is time for you to return his new friend to his family in time for supper. You awake, screaming."
Dream #3:
"You are dreaming. The moon is high in the sky; its light shimmers off the ice like pale ghosts dancing in the darkness. On the surface of the frozen lake, fairgoers revel and hoot, stomping their feet to rollicking fiddle music, played by a band of gnomes dressed in grig costumes, that maniacally bow their instruments while hopping about the bandstand.
A gong sounds from the stage and scores of colourful rockets suddenly spring into the sky, where they explode into glistening coulds of multicoloured sparks that drift gently to the ground. You wake, screaming."
Dream #4:
"You are dreaming. The passage opens to a wide room with a doorway on the far end. The floor is decorated with a mosaic of a thousand brightly hued peacock feathers. Upon closer inspection, you can clearly make out the characteristic "eye" pattern carefully laid into each image. You blink in amazement, and then a thousand eyes blink back at you in concert. You wake screaming."
Dream #5:
"You are dreaming. Crisp winter air fills your lungs as you ascend the low hill. A sacred mound rises before you; its standing stones dusted with clean, wholesome snow. The sound of ethereal music tinkles faintly on the breeze as you approach. You wake screaming."
Dream #6:
"You are dreaming. At last you feel able to act, and stretch yourself vigorously to regain command of your muscles. Arising with a caution more impulsive than deliberate, you find and don your hat, take your valise, and start downstairs with the flashlight’s aid. In your nervousness you keep the revolver clutched in your right hand, being able to take care of both valise and flashlight with your left. You wake screaming." -Yeah, you read that right! :D
Dream #7:
""You are dreaming. From within her throne room of ancient branches and verdant leaves, the faerie queen beckons to you. Clad in the emerald and gold of the forest, she waits for you to attend her. A familiar looking grig, dressed all in motley, sits playfully on a huge orange pumpkin. You wake screaming."
and finally...
Dream #8:
"You are dreaming. Your galley finally reaches the horizon, where the sea meets the sky. Here the galley pauses not at all, but floats easily in the blue of the sky among fleecy clouds tinted with rose. And far beneath the keel you see strange lands and rivers and cities of surpassing beauty, spread indolently in the sunshine which seemed never to lessen or disappear. At length Athib tells you that your journey is near its end, and that you would soon enter the harbour of Serannian, the pink marble city of the clouds, which is built on that ethereal coast where the west wind flows into the sky; but as the highest of the city’s carven towers come into sight there is a sound somewhere in space, and you wake, screaming."