I have a setup for my halloween sidequest. It'll be a fun take on GREMLINS. But I'm having a difficult time deciding where to go with it.
First, the set up:
A body is discovered in the streets of Sandpoint. The party's investigation leads them to believe that Pidget Tergelson did it. (Back story...the PCs took him from Habe's Sanitarium and took him to Sandpoint. An old woman adopted Pidget and he locks himself in a shed during the full moon.) After investigating, they figure out that Pidget couldn't have done it.
After further investigation, they figure out the killer came from The Feathered Serpent (not sure how i'll lead them to this conclusion...still working on this part.)
When they get to the Feathered Serpent, Vorvashali tells them that he recently sold a strange creature from a far away land to a father looking for a present for his son's birthday. Vorvashali sold the man the creature and gave him three rules: 1. Don't expose it to strong light, especially sunlight, 2. Don't get it wet and 3. Never, ever feed it after midnight, even if it begs.
Okay, so that's all I have. I figure gremlins will start running wild, but I can't think of a good way to escalate this with a few encounters until a bigger conclusion. I'm usually okay at this point, but this is eluding me.
I could really use any help you'd like to offer.
After further investigation, they figure out the killer came from The Feathered Serpent (not sure how i'll lead them to this conclusion...still working on this part.)
Perhaps a discarded wand with a price tag from the Feathered Serpent? This sets up having the odd Gremlin with assorted wands shooting off sub-optimal spells.
May I suggest grappling Gremlin swarms jumping on the big weapon wielder, forcing him to drop his weapon in the grapple, then other Gremlins running off with his weapon? Dirty Tricks and Improvised weapons. A battle in a barn with panicked horses and a fire.
Heck, rewatch Gremlins and Gremlins II.
My first thought was also to rewatch the movies. In terms of escalation: it seems that when they go to whomever bought the gremlin from Vorvashali, the party should find that the rules have already been broken. They'll round up the gremlins the owner knows about, but won't find them all. Cue them finding easy clues to where the missing one(s) have gone, only to find that these were the cunning ones who knew to get themselves wet. Which means a bigger batch to clean up and the second time they'll have no clue how many have been unleashed. Escalation is easy this way. It'll happen almost instantly, from the player's perspective. Resolution will then be tough, though. What will be their options for knowing _for certain_ that they've killed/captured ALL of the ones that have been running around? This direction will take a lot of on-the-fly shot calling by you, and also working with the players to insure that whatever scheme they hatch to take care of the problem has a very good chance to work.
Perhaps someone else will have an idea for a more controlled escalation.
This gives me a lot of great stuff to think about. Thanks!