Hi. I'm looking to run a home brew game pathfinder game with a small group of kids; average age of about 11/12. I want them to meet by discovering missing posters of family pets. The pets may or may not be their actual real-life pets. No, Fluffy!
I'm not well versed in the game so am struggling with ways to make this happen. I'm looking for creatures or characters that would be interested in pet napping...that would make sense. Does anyone know a good "monster" that would want to collect pets?
The Wolf-in-Sheep’s-Clothing (link below) came to mind but don't necessarily want to kill the pets. I want them to be rescued.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/wolfInSheepSClothing.html
What about Gremlins? This paragraph here can give you a starting point. Maybe the Gremlins are holding the pets hostage so that the big folk will try to work with them and not kill them as pests (or something along those lines)
"Other communities take a much more active path in ridding themselves of gremlins, training small animals like cats, dogs, falcons, or even weasels to seek out and attack gremlins on sight. Tiny trained animals can pursue gremlins into their cramped warrens with ease and, when their claws are fitted with cleverly constructed cold iron spikes, can inflict significant damage on a tribe of these creatures. Many gremlin tribes have learned from such tactics, however, and utilize trained (or not) animals in their on lairs for protection."
Click the link and have fun!
Are the characters going to be children as well, or are the kids playing adult PCs?
If the former:
Perhaps a witch kidnaps the pets, not to eat them, but to lure the kids into her stew pot instead.
Or, perhaps another child from the town who was bullied/an outcast took the pets as revenge.
If the latter:
Perhaps a pied piper type of bard came through town and enchanted all of the towns pets (not just the PCs) and they must figure out what happened.
Or Perhaps a local farmer forgot to introduce his son's new pet to the farm Dvorovoi(bestiary 5 or the PRD bestairy index) and the creature took offense and talked the other Domovoi and Dvorovoi in the area to take the pets until a formal apology is made.
Hope these ideas help, have fun.
I second goblins. They eat everything.
Great ideas, everyone! I've gone from no clear idea to having too many...which is a great problem to have.
Had not considered if the party would be child PCs or adult. Will have to think on it.
I like ALL the ideas but was thinking along the lines of the Domovoi (never heard of them until now) but also like the mage and witches idea. Goblins work but the one game we played already had goblins. They enjoyed that part, though.
Thanks everyone!
It's a lonely Otyugh who pulls them into the sewers so it has some company.
Whoah, the poor Otyugh seems like it could use friends :)
I LOVE IT.
There are kappa. In mythology they are more likely to kidnap children instead of pets. But in pathfinder they are pranksters so, maybe they're doing it just for laughs, literally.
if you want to go the scary/creepy route (which not knowing your group might be a fantastic or terrible idea). You could have the culprit be something like an attic whisperer who remembered having pets.
Thanks for making this thread great. The Kappa and - hehe - Boxtroll ideas are fantastic. I do like the multi-layered approach cause some new Dwarven Forge stuff should be here by then so we can use a dungeon setting where the players have to get by obstacles to reach the pets. Could be run by witches, as mentioned earlier, who were about to use them for a complex spell. The goblins were the henchmen and betray them cause the witches stiff them in the end. Or something.