Hi all,
My homebrew campaign has been stalled a lot lately because I'm having trouble coming up with a good penultimate installment for the story. One player suggested perhaps online forums would be a good place to brainstorm and swap ideas about the issue,so I'm giving this a try.
Campaign setting is East Asian fantasy, centered on traversing a country based on Tokugawa era Japan. The nation has been crippled by a terrible magical plague that is killing off only human men, causing social upheaval and political turmoil all over. The party, one kitsune monk and one "human" ninja (actually a kitsune who hasn't yet been noticed as such), are escorting a pregnant teenager to the mouth of the underworld to give birth to the newest incarnation of the recently missing sun goddess. The hope is that when the goddess is reborn, the plague will be cured (though presently they haven't quite pieced together whether the goddess actually caused the sickness in the first place). They're very nearly at their destination; after a variety of adventures and mishaps, they only have to get on a boat, cross the straits between one island and the next, and then they'll reach their ultimate destination. The finale is already planned, so I'm not worried about that.
However, I'm torn about how to handle the boat crossing portion. I don't want it to be too easy, but I also feel like at this late stage of the story I can't afford to be wasting time with side adventures any more. Still, there are a few loose ends I could pull in to make their seafaring more interesting:
- The party recently killed a popular cult leader, a warpriest of the storm god. This fight was *way* too easy due to me mismanaging the board, so the relatively tough boss went down with barely a whimper. The storm god is pissed off that his favorite disciple died a pathetic death at the hands of the heroes, and is also worried that if the sun goddess does return he'll lose his prominent new position in the heavenly order. He'll be looking for a chance to ruin the party's mission.
- The sun goddess being carried by their pregnant charge has been increasingly enraged; the goddess has started to posess her, causing violent magical outbursts and rapid deteriorations in her bodily health. The last time the goddess incarnated herself in a mortal form, she was betrayed and murdered, and thus has about the same level of emotional baggage you'd find on the average revenant. The heroes have missed several opportunities to mitigate this problem (mostly by being too cautious to confront an angry deity), and if they don't do something to address it before they reach their destination they might be doing more harm than good by returning the sun goddess to her full power.
If possible, I'd like to incorporate both these elements into the next phase of the game. The current plan is to make the party convince a local undine merchant to carry them across in her boat, risking attack by the infamous dragon turtle that lurks in the crossing. (However, the party is level 10, minus a bit for low number of players; this won't be too much of a challenge). With the storm god looking for revenge I have considered dropping the players into the middle of the ongoing feud between him and the ocean god, but I wouldn't want them to be staring these deities in the face, obviously. Dealing with a bunch of angry, feuding gods at the level of mortals has been a challenge for the whole campaign, and now things are really coming to a head.
Does anyone have any suggestions about what sort of challenges the party could face on the water, ideally including some of the recent plot elements? Any ideas are appreciated, thanks in advance!
Well, before the final challenge, in a lot of myth, is the time for purification, and revelations. Not a comfortable time for a "passing" kitsune Ninja. With the importance of dragons in the celestial hierarchy, wouldn't it be more thematic to have the dragon turtle ferry them across? They will have to show they are worthy of the honor. You should be setting the stage for some rainbow imagery for the storm giving way to the sun in the finale. (Where of course, the seeds of the next cycle of the storm occluding the sun are planted.) Has the party tried to use the farmer analogy to calm the Sun Goddess and the Storm God? You know, it takes both Sun and Rain for life to grow.
Well, before the final challenge, in a lot of myth, is the time for purification, and revelations. Not a comfortable time for a "passing" kitsune Ninja. With the importance of dragons in the celestial hierarchy, wouldn't it be more thematic to have the dragon turtle ferry them across? They will have to show they are worthy of the honor. You should be setting the stage for some rainbow imagery for the storm giving way to the sun in the finale. (Where of course, the seeds of the next cycle of the storm occluding the sun are planted.) Has the party tried to use the farmer analogy to calm the Sun Goddess and the Storm God? You know, it takes both Sun and Rain for life to grow.
This is a great way of rethinking it! You're right that this is far more thematic, mythologically; perhaps I've gotten stuck thinking in terms of western plot structures in the back half of this campaign, compared to the early stages. Thank you!
Now, a clever party could find a way to repurpose an attack by Storm Minions to bring water to a parched village. My Moon's Daughter character did that in a Glorantha Vormain campaign. (Vormain is Glorantha's Japan analog)
The failed cleric could be sent back as a Heckuva, to orientalize it give him a magic mask. His hopping ghosts have been harassing the kappa, who worship the dragon turtle. The characters must bring back the shattered masks as proof of the destroyed undead.
Thanks for the great contributions, everyone. I really appreciate the help!
A trickster being could misdirect the party into a bad situation, perhaps a tanooki or a kijimuna, or even a wayang merchant.
The party could find themselves in a valley with no way back up, so they must cross it to get out the other side, or find themselves in a cavern that is sealed behind them.
Or have a minor disaster befall a nearby town, fish have dried up, the wells are empty, mysterious fires spring up all day, some beast (or beasts) hunt townsfolk during the night. Something that will eat up days of party time to fix. Something they could bypass, but would be seen a non-good acts.
This could offer them a chance to gain a boon from a local lord, earn the wrath of a local lord and his samurai, wrath/boon of a local fey protector or harasser. Calm a spirit that can become an ally of sorts, delay the pregnant goddess and put stress on the mortal vessel (forcing medical intervention as well as emotional conflict).
Have bandits aided by a spiritual intermediary attack the party with intent to steal the goddess vessel for great reward (smokesticks, stinking clouds, smoke pellets, tanglefoot bags, preset traps along path of escape). Have them bring her to a camp/cave to await further instruction only to be contacted by ANOTHER gods bandits/minions on the same task. Bandits could fight, enter unsteady alliance, or set up camps and point weapons at each other.
(Bring up god politics through their spiritual emissaries)
(Chance to see the gods conflict and use it to parties advantage).
(Chance to sneak into camp and sew discord among greedy, underpaid, and hungry bandits on the verge of their largest payday ever).
Enter an area of dangerous plants only to be poisoned/cursed/diseased by hazards forcing a trek to a temple for aid. Temple can be kind (offering cures), Corrupt (requiring coin or deeds for service), Poor (forcing party to forage for materials), or evil (loyal to a rival god and aware of the vessels true nature).
Could force players to choose between the vessels wellbeing or the goddesses wellbeing.
Have 2 choices for travel across the water, 2 rival villages desperate for coins, have the party choose one over the other (both have advantages and disadvantages, and neither is likely to be especially welcoming). Let them alienate one by choosing the other (classic: two squabbling merchants on the road offer conflicting guidance to their own town vs the other terrible town - unchosen will badmouth the party in town).
The goddess needs a teaching moment to see Human empathy and kindness, maybe a loyal monk speaks to the party after rendering guidance or aid. Maybe the monk was around for the previous incarnation or is aware of the story.
Then you can give them chances to render minor aid to strangers and stop minor crimes (at the cost of time and goods).
Farmer attacked by bandits and the lord is too far to help in time; wagon missing a wheel, fey lost and alone, normally evil foe teen attempting to be good and join a local village only to be shunned (near point of giving up and turning evil once more), squabbling merchants, party needing medical aid, catch a thief, starving widow beggars, evil monster somewhere near by (obvious signs it threatens the road, must be tracked and hunted, or it may be wandering away and a waste to hunt down now), local lord seeks some prestige and requests aid in gaining status for no reward, two people arguing over a single item/plant/animal with equal sob stories, a monk needs help deciding between love and spiritual devotion before taking his final vows.
Opportunities to avoid combat and go around or wait (Especially if the goddess is annoyed by killing the creatures being fought if they are from her faction).
Water can have its own hassles, navigation, kelpies, storms, boat damage, pirates, mermaids, tempting detours like treasure, lack of wind (if sails), crew issues, on board disease, lack of appropriate payments, blockades (such as from a dragon turtle who has been constantly harassed by the suddenly revealed to be evil ships crew. PC's decide help the crew and risk turtle wrath, or help the turtle and hope the turtle helps back).
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The sun goddess being carried by their pregnant charge has been increasingly enraged; the goddess has started to posess her, causing violent magical outbursts and rapid deteriorations in her bodily health... and if they don't do something to address it before they reach their destination they might be doing more harm than good by returning the sun goddess to her full power.
I second the idea of using the Dragon Turtle to cross the straits...but have them prove their worth to it by performing a quest of some sort.
Why not tie these two things together? Maybe the turtle refuses to carry them over because he can sense the Sun Goddess' unstable mood? In shintoism, there is a lot of focus on purity/impurity and the rituals needed to remove impurities in order to appease the Kami.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto#Purification
Perhaps he could direct them to a shrine where they can use a ritual to appease the Goddess. For the ritual itself, the wiki page on shintoism has a lot of fodder that you can use for inspiration.The article mentions something that sounds very close to your homebrew Goddess:
"Shinto teaches that certain deeds create a kind of ritual impurity that one should want cleansed for one's own peace of mind and good fortune rather than because impurity is wrong. Wrong deeds are called "impurity" (穢れ kegare?), which is opposed to "purity" (清め kiyome). Those who are killed without being shown gratitude for their sacrifice will hold a grudge (怨み urami?) (grudge) and become powerful and evil kami who seek revenge (aragami)."
The cleansing can be as short or as long (RP speaking) as you want. Perhaps they will need the party to collect materials for the ritual, perhaps due to the raging Storm God. Or you can just have them go through the ritual and have the Goddess warn them about the angry storm God and have them fight it on the way to the final area.
The penultimate stretch is where the answers posed in the characters' backstories are answered. How they deal with that determines how they will be able to do what they have to do in the last chapter. Facades, lies and illusions will fall. Intraparty conflict have to be resolved. If at all possible, confront them with who they used to be, either literally or symbolically. You could, for example, put them in a similar situation to their first real challenge. Reaffirm them as heroes, say by having them receive thanks for something they did. And the flip side, of course, is that life is more complex now. They are no longer innocents. And finally, impress on them what the price of failure will be.
Going with what everyone else says: have the dragon turtle be the only way across and have it refuse to take them until they figure out how to calm down the sun goddess. The dragon turtle could already be upset because the storm god may be causing the waters of its home to be turbulent and it just doesn't want to deal with two deities that are acting like overgrown children.
Have there be a temple close by where they can try to find purification. I'd suggest it involve a mirror. If you want to go with a pun, the temple could be guarded by white wolves that are fairly powerful. They'll let the PCs enter, but maybe only as their true selves. They could help in a battle if the storm priests come calling (though they might not quite dare to attack the temple, they certainly could wait for the group outside).
I'm not sure what the rainbow means to Shintoism, incidentally. I'd love to find out!
I do know that many Shinto shrines are at springs or on river-banks. Maybe the shrine they'll need is at the mouth of a river on the island where the party is now. Thanks to the Storm God, a storm could ravage the coast and disrupt the purification ritual. Again and again until they propitiate him.
Again, I'm both ignorant of and curious about how one propitiates a god in Shintoism. I'm pretty sure it does NOT involve killing more of his devout!
Is the party native to this area? That is, would one of them reasonably know how to propitiate a god?
Rainbows are bridge symbols in Japan, much like in most of the rest of the world. In a lot of classic Shinto "folktales" respected ancestors come down to visit the living lands via Rainbow Bridges. Now bargaining at all directly with with gods is more of a Ryubo-Shinto focus. (Buddhist Shinto fusion). In Shinto traditions, once you are purified (this is important) you would beseech the Kami to intercede for you. The whole bargain thing is not really traditional Shinto. Now I suppose you could say that the petitioner is still impure, because of a wrong he or his family was responsible that he must set right before he can be truly purified. This is not to say that gifts, freely given to the shrine won't help your case.
Our Bushido game had several 'purification' rituals in order to accomplish goals, allowing the GM to wow us with tea ceremonies, etc (he was half Japanese). We had a Karate Kid bit, the bridge non-fight and a number of 'zen' moments. No reason you can;t pull off your own.
Under my homebrew rules, failure of the ritual could result in a brand that will persist till they announce regret before at least 2 witnesses.
Failure could amount to holding the tea brush wrong or something.
If the impurity is being born out of wedlock, they have to apologize for their birth parents. They might need to find out they were adopted.
I just want to chime in, I really REALLY want to find out that the Sun Goddess is born a boy, throwing everything into chaos lol. Maybe have that magical disease try to effect it. Maybe that can lead to a cure? I know you said you have the ending planned already, have you made it past the crossing scenario yet?