Building an Adventure [Spoilers for an upcoming PBP game]

[AdamWarnock]

Hey y'all, hope you're having a fine day/evening/night wherever you are. I'm working on an adventure that I'm planning on running in a Play By Post (PBP) game here on the forums and while I have a beginning and an end, I'm kinda lost on what to do about the bits in the middle.

The set up is this: The PCs are the more adventurous sorts in the small town the adventure centers around. The big secret is that the town's Lord and the families on the council that helps run the place have a deal with the undead priests in the ruined temple the town is built over. In exchange for not trying to depopulate the town and the occasional spell, the leaders of the town send down regular sacrifices, and every year one or two of the townsfolk go missing, because they were the ones that got picked when the time came.

The secret the council doesn't know is that the Lord, who's desperate for an heir, has struck a deal with the priests behind their backs. He'll get them more sacrifices for their dark god if they'll help him by doing a fertility ritual so he can finally have an heir.

What the Lord doesn't know is the undead priests are losing the power they need to stave off death. A lot of the sacrifices are being used in an attempt to strengthen their slumbering god and extend their own existences while also trying to keep the bargains they made.

As a result of all of this, over a dozen townsfolk have gone missing in the last six months and rumors about who's behind it are starting to flow around town. Some of them implicate the council and the lord of the town, which makes the lord nervous that someone is going to find out about the big secret he and the council have helped keep from the townsfolk since the town's founding a few centuries ago.

While all of this is going on, the Fey in the woods to the north of town are growing more restless as they feel something foul going on in the ruined temple. The two courts, the Summer and Winter courts, have been divided about what to do, but have slowly come to agree that they need to keep the townsfolk out. recently several woodsmen and huntsmen that maintain the forest and gather wood for the town's needs have been chased out by fey hunts. The latest incident before the start of the game

The adventure starts when the lord sees an opportunity to direct suspicions to the fey and summons the PCs to give them a quest to find out what is happening to the fey. In secret, he's sent out his knights to set up a trap for the PCs that will trick the fey into attacking, and possibly killing them. The knights have captured a fey, tortured them, and left them for the PCs to find, hopefully about the same time a fey Hunt happens upon them.

In the end, the plan is to have the PCs fight the lord, his knights, and the undead priests in the ruined temple below the town. Along the way, I want them to find clues and discover the big secrets of the town's council and the lord. The problem is that I don't know how to go about doing that.

I understand that one of the philosophies of some GMs is to plan less and let the players dictate the path of the adventure. If you've been here any length of time and looked at the online campaign section of the site, I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but the thing with PBP is that it's not like a regular game where you meet, play for a few hours, then have a week or two to plan for the next session. The game's always going in a sense. It's harder to run in a lot of ways, but as a reward you can get some really deep and meaningful stories out the games you run or play in with PBP. A lot of PBP games die because the GM burns out from having to constantly prepare and run the game. One of the ways to avoid that is to plan out and get everything ready before you ever make a post looking for a group. So to that end, I need some help figuring out how to plan out the paths that my players can take get from where the lord calls them into his great hall to send them on a quest to where they are fighting him and his minions and the undead priest behind this whole mess in the unholy temple of an evil, slumbering god.

Any and all help is appreciated. I'm looking for some help brainstorming and hashing this out and I look forward to seeing what y'all have to say and what questions y'all ask.

[Mightypion]

Options:
--The players meet a Fey that is not entirely hostile before that encounter.

--There is a "suspicious" NPC in town, that could shed some background

--The summer Fae send a Swan maiden to negotiate, it may be the fae who was tortured (she would likely be lacking her cloak)

--There is a fey touched person in town, who approaches the party about the missing swan maiden, make her a good aligned female NPC, perhaps suffering from a serious disease (which the swan maiden transformation ritual can get rid off)

[AdamWarnock]

Maybe as an alternate start, but that still leaves us with how to get to point B from Point A. I supposed the suspicious NPC could be a vagabound or other local ne'er-do-well that saw something and is getting desperate for help. They disappear shortly after meeting with the PCs. Otherwise anyone that would know anything is a member of the council, the lord, a member of a council chair's family, or one of the lord's knights/servants.

The town was founded about two or three hundred years ago. Any group of conspirators that has managed to keep a lid on a secret for that long has to be competent, at least. The main thing causing it to unravel is the combined desperation of the town's lord and the undead priests leading to more people going missing.

This has got me thinking, though. I don't want you to think that I'm ungrateful or that this isn't useful. It's just not quite what I was looking for.

Okay, so what if we change up the start of this a bit.

- One or more of the PCs are approached by a shifty individual that's known around town as being a troublemaker. He's scared to death because he saw something and is looking for someone to get him to the next town. The PCs could coax it out of him with a successful diplomacy or intimidate.

- Meanwhile, one or more of the other PCs see a woman sneaking off into the woods. Her body was wracked by plague when she was younger, and time has not done much to heal those wounds. She's been a friend to the fey of the woods since childhood and has heard about the incidents of the fey hunts chasing out the woodsmen and the huntsmen who maintain it. She is going to try and convince the fey to let the townsfolk back in and avoid the lord taking action against them. If the PCs convince her that they mean well, she could give them some of the background from the fey side of things.

- The PCs are summoned before the town's lord and given the quest. Meanwhile, the lord's knights are preparing the trap.

- The PCs enter the forest and are met by some of the minor fairies. Depending on how their interaction with the woman went, they could warn them of something dark going on or they could try to force the PCs to leave.

- I like the idea you gave about using a swan maiden being sent to negotiate and having her cloak stolen. I think I'll be tweaking things a bit, though. She should have an entourage, and I think using one of its weaker members as the bait for the trap fits the character of the knights better.

- The PCs find the beaten fey and have only a round or two before the fey hunt arrives.

- Depending on what the PCs do, the encounter could start as a tense standoff or go straight for blows. If the PCs can convince the leader of the fey hunt that they had nothing to do with the beating the poor fey they stumbled upon received, then they could do a few different things.

-- they could go to the Fey courts deeper into the woods and learn more about what's going on with the fey.

-- They could go back to town, delivering the ultimatum that the leader of the fey hunt and the chosen negotiator was going to deliver.

-- They could agree to do some spying for the fey.

- If there's a fight, they could continue exploring the woods, but that could get very dangerous for them.

The problem is that I'm not sure what to do once the PCs get back to town. The fey can tell them that there's something dark and vile going on in the center of town, but not much more. They don't know about the temple ruins or the deal that the town's lord and council struck with the undead priests that guard the temple.

- They could report to the lord. How this goes depends on what they tell him and what happened in the woods.

- They could visit the woman who was trying to sneak into the forest if they convinced her to let them look into things.

- They could visit the vagabond who was trying to get them to take him to the next town, but there's only so much he can tell them. I'm also of half-a-mind to have him be disappeared when they get back.

I'm starting to think the real issue is I don't know what the next clue I should point them to is.

[Andostre]

It sounds like you're working out one of the two plot points, which is clearing the air between the fey and the humans in town. But the PCs still need to discover the plot between the town leadership and the undead priests.

Here's a thought that I have: since this arrangement has been going on for centuries, the PCs could come across (or even be directly handed) a clue from the past about this arrangement. Perhaps a reticent council member kept a journal because they were too afraid to speak out at the time, yet they died before they could come clean. And this journal is still kept by one of their descendants, who give it to the PCs as townsfolk who can do something about this. Or perhaps the journal came from a servant of a Lord from years past, who was jaded that one of their relatives or love interests was one of the people sacrificed.

The above is a clue to the arrangement, but not to the Lord's fertility problems. Once the PCs know about the arrangement with the priests, they could do some further investigation to know about the increased frequency of sacrifices. They could follow the Lord into the woods for a clandestine meeting with the priests (or a late night visit from a priest in the Lord's manor). Or they could outright threaten (or persuade) one of the Lord's knight to come clean. (I'm assuming that the knights are the ones doing the Lord's dirty work.)

[Mightypion]

Another option is a CR4ish Almuuth psychopomp, sent to investigate what is going on there. Pharasma likely has an opinion of this, and not a favorable one.

[Pizza Lord]

It's good to have multiple tricks to pull out of your bag to give the PCs some information.

- If/when the lord sends the PCs to investigate the woods, they run into some knights, but instead of automatically making it obvious the lord is up to something, the lord also has a more skilled henchman he's just employed (so not really known in town). Maybe a bard, despite their race (or maybe because of it if they're elven, half-elven, or gnome), they have on make-up, glitter, fake wings (or disguise self or hat of disguise).

The PCs hear the combat or the beating of the fey bait, and when they arrive (assuming the knights or the false fey hear them coming), the imposter is making a declaration about how the townsfolk are declaring war and how he's just charmed all the knights (so if they do need to administer a beating on the PCs it can be waved away later), the knights can protect and defend the imposter if the PCs try to rush him before he finishes his misleading monologue.

Give the imposter a suitably fey-sounding name, like 'Torynelle the Lavender Glove' or something silly.

- If the PCs end up beaten by the 'charmed' knights and the imposter, they're left behind (assume they were knocked unconscious instead of killed) and captured by one of the fey groups and forced to flee from a wild/fey hunt. Assuming they aren't dumb enough to fight, give some set encounters or scenes where they have to cross a log over a deep ditch or pass some really nasty bramble patches. But they can come to a small, waist-high stone wall with wrought-iron spikes on it, the wall encloses an overgrown yard for a small, neglected old chapel. Maybe it's the wrought-iron or the old hallowed ground, but the fey won't enter. They will fade back and make it known that they're circling and waiting.

They can also find the chapel if they end up escaping other fights or are just wandering around the woods exploring.

-The PCs should explore the chapel. Maybe it contains an enigmatic old man who refers to himself as 'Brother Him (or Hymn?)'. He looks human... but he's different in some indefinable way. He seems pleased enough to have guests but anything he says is confusing in relation to time, there's no way to get a straight answer about how old anything including himself is, or how long ago anything he talks about happened. If they can stay on his good side, he will show them a secret stone trapdoor that leads to ancient catacombs beneath the forest to help them evade their fey pursuers.

The initial tunnels are filled with bones and skeletons of his past brothers, making it a very creepy unsettling visit, especially since Brother Him won't talk at all while down there unless really pressed, though it seems more a respectful silence than anything sinister (though the PCs can think otherwise). In fact, he doesn't even need light to see, so won't think to bring any (he knows the way by heart, he'll say, since he's been tending the place for so long). He can offer the PCs a candle. The bones are harmless, but if anyone disturbs them in any way (possibly because they're walking in the dark) he flies into a rage, berating them and leaving the PCs behind, shutting the heavy stone trapdoor behind him and it cannot be opened. They'll have to find their own way out.

Otherwise, he takes them safely a short distance to an iron-bound old door and turns and leaves them. Beyond it are a few more chambers, but these will have some clues, either about the fey in the area or hints of the undead priests or the ruins (now beneath the town), possibly with a symbol or recognizable landmark, like an obelisk in the town square. The passage comes out somewhere in the forest, but the PCs should be able to find their way back to town (whether they can find this spot again is unknown).

-If the PCs return to town and mention fey troubles, the lord and council will be quick direct the town's anger towards the fey. If the imposter fey's name is mentioned, the Lord will support it, saying that he's been a constant problem. The other members of the council will have never heard of him, but they're not beyond believing that such a fey exists, especially with the PC's story. If they meet any of the lord's knights, the story will be that they were either released (being chased by a wild hunt), or were attacked and broke the charm and escaped.

If need be, the lord or council can send them out to deal with this 'fey brigand', where it's just another ambush. The imposter might have a note about the old ruins on them, or a symbol that some friendly fey (if the PCs can sway them) might recall as belonging to an old temple, but that was supposedly destroyed and built over by the town.

[Pizza Lord]

- If the PCs are still having trouble, you can have one of the undead priests' past victims/sacrifices' ghost or spirit arrive. Either the PC notices them prowling around the town at night or someone mentions 'fey trickery' in an alley at night, to lure victims away. Maybe they recognize the spirit (with a hard Perception check), or it's an old victim from years before that they never knew. It can't speak or be communicated with (or if it does it just says something obscure or prone to misinterpretation, like "Ruuuuiiin!") but it might try to possess one of them and lead them to a sewer grate or hidden entrance to the tunnels leading to the ruins. Or if attacked it will 'flee' and drift through any concealed entrances to lure them down. Once it has lead someone to the ruin entrance it can pass on.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Evil undead worshipping a dark god = Fertility? I would think Fey = fertility.

Lord and council have an uneasy alliance with evil undead for years; during this time, lord can't conceive. Recently a group of fey have entered the nearby wilderness, sensing the unnatural aura of the ruined temple and it's occupants.

If the lord is aware of the fey in some way, why would he make a secret deal to send MORE souls to their deaths for some potential fertility rite when he might instead negotiate w/the fey?

How about: the undead are growing restless as their god is beginning to weaken. They demand greater sacrifices. The lord however, with his eyes on the future and his own legacy, grows a conscience. In secret he begins grooming the adventurers; giving gold anonymously to their efforts, planting clues to guide them towards the fey and so on.

Meanwhile the noble is trying to coax the fey into a war against the undead. He will then swoop in, reveal himself as the mysterious benefactor, and beg a boon from his fey "allies" to ensure an heir.

[AdamWarnock]

@Andostre: Regarding the knights, you assume correctly. I think finding a journal of a former council member or one of their family members could be one way to hint at or reveal the truth to the PCs. I'm still fleshing out the town and its inhabitants, so this has me thinking that someone in on the conspiracy is troubled by what they see, but since they are seen as the black sheep of a respectable family, they don't feel there's a lot that they can do.

As far as clandestine meetings, I need to figure out where the entrances to the ruined temple are. When I say the town's built over it, I'm being quite literal here. The center of town is right over the center of the temple complex. I was thinking that the entrances were outside of town, but they could also be in the mausoleums of the lord's and council member's families.

@Mightypion: Two things. First, I'm not worried about monsters right now. I appreciate the help, but I need help with the plot and what encounters are needed, not necessarily what the stats of the monsters in those encounters are. Second, I know I didn't make this clear in the first post, but this isn't Golarion, and I don't have any plans to use Golarion dieties.

@Pizza Lord: I like the bard henchman idea. I think I'll play around with that some. I don't know if I want to have the PCs run into the knights this early in the adventure, though. At least, not when the knights are doing the lord's dirty work. It's a good idea and definitely something I want to look into.

The chapel idea is neat, too. I think I may just need to work my way through some scenarios and figure out how they can flow together or lead to similar clues.

The ghost idea is actually something like what I was hoping for. Ideas to get them from fey causing trouble to there's something dark going on in town, and from there to the council and lord know about this to "Oh crap! The lord's up to something even the council doesn't know about."

@Mark Hoover 330: So you'd go to a group that you have no connections to, do not trust, and whom have a reputation for capriciousness instead of the group that has been doing you and your family a solid for centuries by providing spells and aid while keeping their word about not destroying the town and all you have had to do is give them some troublesome citizen of the town once or twice a year when you couldn't find some itenerate people passing through town to nab when the bill comes due?

EDIT: I want to apologize for the above. I realize that this wasn't the best way to convey what I was trying to get across. I appreciate the help, but this isn't a route I want to take and the idea isn't as goofy as it might first seem.

I know that I haven't detailed the fey and their relationship to the town that much, but the relationship between the priests and the town's leadership is pretty clear and I think I've implied that the lord, at least, considers them a nuisance and is willing to use the opportunity to get rid of them while deflecting scrutiny from himself. I mean, I get it, and the god's epitaph is The God of Red Iron which makes this even funnier on a meta level given that the dude's clearly a "Blood for the Blood God" sort, but that also doesn't preclude his faithful from having rites of fertility, and depending on how the god's faith is fleshed out, it could even make sense. Want to cause war and have a legion of demon-blooded troops to crush your enemies under heel? Then what better way to raise that army than to increase the chances of your followers having children and imbuing them with Eau du Diable?

So fertility rites and rituals doesn't mean that the process is clean, nice, or even good. Besides, I pretty much ripped that part straight from Feast of Ravenmoor, and I don't think anyone is going to think Ghalunder is a fertility god.