Serious narrative spoilers below for THE THREEFOLD MYSTERY adventure path, AND the SIGNAL OF SCREAMS adventure path.
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REALLY spoilerific.
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Ok, here goes. In THE HOLLOW CABAL, our brave heroes encounter a 3rd faction of the Unseen: the fungal parasitic Dycepskians, who have not only corrupted a number of Reptoids who'd already infiltrated a major Steward precinct on Roselight, but also finally developed the necessary genetic adaptations to take over Barathu bodies as well. They use the latter to completely correupt the upper administrative and middle-tier scientific staff of GAMUT BIO, a small biotech startup.
The main narrative centers on learning of Gamut Bio's new HepatoDyne implant, which is in final testing phase, and is actually a secret Dycepskian infection tool. The PCs have to raid Gamut Bio's HQ, then follow the trail of their CEO, a Barathu, who flees to a moon around Bretheda, infecting some folks at another research facility, then onward to a Barathu hospice for victims of the Brethedan blight.
I've been wondering...the book makes it clear that implanting one of the HepatoDyne devices is likely to cause infection by the fungal tissue, and take over the victim, but what about a more subtle, growing threat? In another AP, Signal of Screams, the characters have to deal with a form of slow-growing corruption caused by the twisted energies of the Shadow Plane. This is measured with Corruption Points. I'm considering doing the same here in The Threefold Mystery with "spore points", but am still struggling with the exact exposure parameters (e.g. save DCs), and the overall cumulative effects of the spore counters, which in theory, should threaten to culminate in effectively destroying their identity and making them one with the fungal mass mind.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Feedback? Are you too already one with the Dycepskian mass mind? Glub glub glub? *mushroom sounds*
I have not read that far ahead and I haven't read the Signal of Screams AP, but since there seem to be only three people on the Threefold Conspiracy board (coincidence? I think not!), I'll still share my reactions:
I generally like the idea to make things more subtle. But is there really any benefit from slowing down the narrative like that and from layering on a mechanic like these points?
The slow-burn corruption works as a theme for an AP (albeit a shorter one), but for a single chapter in a larger AP, it might bog things down a bit.
And a point tracking mechanic is also a bit ambivalent. Most of the times I run an adventure that includes them, I end up ignoring them, when they don't really reflect how my games develops, or they end up not really adding anything because things develop organically driven by the narrative itself.
But is there really any benefit from slowing down the narrative like that and from layering on a mechanic like these points?
The slow-burn corruption works as a theme for an AP (albeit a shorter one), but for a single chapter in a larger AP, it might bog things down a bit.
So, the Dycepskian menace is actually the main intrigue for most of books 4 and 5, with the canonical threat being represented as one with huge ramifications. Additionally, these books involve a fair bit of investigating and infiltrating as well as travel, so it would feel organic and not rushed, I think. To illustrate that threat and make it real--to demonstrate that thus fungal parasite can infect and convert anyone, over time--I was hoping that a slow-burn, growing horror/awareness accompanying some sort of spore counter mechanic would be useful.
And, if I wanted to model it on the corruption concept from SOS, I could even give out some boons that come with unfortunate side effects. Kind of a devil's deal thing. "Oh, this weird fungal rash helps me do XYZ, it's not so bad..."
Does that make better sense? Not sure what other DMs have reached this point in the AP.
That does make a lot of sense. I very much like the "deal with the devil" idea. Although I doubt that my paranoid players would go for anything like that... :-D unless they don't know it's the devil. Maybe it should be presented like just another magic/tech item
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Would you care to share with the class? I would love to see how this could affect my playersit would be nice to have affliction rules for the bad guys in 4 & 5
i built some basic ones... nothing elegant.
i seem to have lost them. i really just cribbed from the Shadow Corruptions.
I added one per level, so the PC ended up with three of them... the last one, which was really for RP purposes, gave +2 to diplomacy and bluff and -1 to fort saves.
they weren't balanced or well thought out or anything.
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Personnaly I would not go with a slow corruption skeme like SoS. Dycepskian make a point of being a fast and agressive infection. You have a "Death by Dycepskian" chapter describing the horror in the eyes of a recent victim which has lost control of everything.
The Hive mind is kind of young too, so deploying a slow corruption attitude would be counter intuitive.
But hey, it could be a great spin of for a module 7, just infect a gray in module 5. It learns from its host, so a new covert approach would be evermore dangerous.
i did it for story purposes. ended the AP w/ one of the PCs taken over by the infection.