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scenario_e_country_horror_story

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===== Country Horror Story ===== === Level 3 Exploration Scenario === Travelers passing through a village have been disappearing in unusual rates, and even some of the local villagers have gone missing. The culprits are a couple that own a farm in the village countryside. They have fallen into worship of demons of pestilence and mostly abduct travelers for sacrificial purpose, nabbing the occasional villager that learns too much. Inside the PCs find hellish iconography and bloodstains. Eventually they will reach the sacrificial altar where they can save the latest would-be victim. Consider why a pair of farmers would turn to worshipping pestilence demons. Did it start with efforts to protect their crops? Or was it sinister from the start, with the goal of inflicting pain on neighboring farmers, perhaps as some kind of payback for perceived wrongs? In keeping with the horror theme, avoid the temptation to provide answers to everything in the game. Every answer you give should lead to two more questions, each with further disturbing implications. ==== Map ==== ^ Setting | Civilization | ^ Type | Normal | ^ Lighting | A, B, & C are lit; remaining regions are dark | <file> (start) (1F) (B1) B < E - F ~ G | | (goal) A - C < D (start) </file> ==== Regions ==== ^ (Region A) Before the Farmstead ^^^ | //You have tracked the source of the vanishings to a farmstead at the edge of the village. It's eerily quiet.// ||| ^ Note ||| | PCs may choose to treat the setting as Wilderness at will. ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | North | B | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#reinforced_locked_door|Reinforced Locked Door]] | | East | C | - | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#poisoned_surface|Poisoned Surface]] ||| ^ (Region B) Farmhouse ^^^ | //The interior of this house looks nothing like what you'd expect from country farmers. It's filled with candles, small altars, and horrific iconography. Blood stains the wooden walls and floor in several places.// ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | South | A | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#reinforced_locked_door|Reinforced Locked Door]] | | Down | E | Hidden: 1d8 | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#unsettling_ambiance|Unsettling Ambiance]] ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#poisoned_surface|Poisoned Surface]] ||| ^ (Region C) Empty Barn ^^^ | //Old straw and discarded junk is scattered about this barn. It doesn't seem as though any animals have been raised here in quite some time. Suddenly, a huge section of straw gives way as the rotted floor beneath collapses!// ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | West | A | - | | Down | D | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#rocky_wall|Rocky Wall]] (Height 2) | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#deep_pit|Deep Pit]] | Height 2 | Fall to D | ^ Secrets ||| | [[Analects Book 5 Chapter 1|Fortune]] | Hidden: 1d8 || ^ (Region D) Corpse Pile ^^^ | //Bones and bodies are piled about in this hastily-dug tunnel. The bodies are mutilated and largely drained of blood.// ||| ^ Note ||| | PCs may treat the setting as dungeon at will. ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | Up | C | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#rocky_wall|Rocky Wall]] (Height 2) | | North | F | - | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#plague_rats|Plague Rats]] | Respawn: 2 | Will chase to F and E only | ^ Secrets ||| | [[Analects Book 5 Chapter 1|Fortune]] | Hidden: 1d8 || ^ (Region E) Cellar ^^^ | //This cellar is stockpiled with food as though the owners are expecting a shortage. There are also a scattering of strange devices - sharp metal things, vials of questionable contents, bloodstained restraints, and shelves of old tomes.// ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | East | F | - | | Up | B | - | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#plague_rats|Plague Rats]] | Respawn: 2 | Will chase to E and D only | ^ Secrets ||| | [[Analects Book 5 Chapter 1|Fortune]] | Hidden: 1d8 || ^ (Region F) Expansion Tunnels ^^^ | //These tunnels are freshly-dug, an expansion to the cellar that can't be more than a few months old. Demonic banners and displays of bone are everywhere, and the dirt ground is covered in blood.// ||| ^ Note ||| | PCs may treat the setting as dungeon at will. ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | South | D | - | | West | E | - | | East | G | Hidden: 1d8 | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_4#macabre_display|Macabre Display]] ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#poisoned_surface|Poisoned Surface]] ||| ^ (Region G) Demonic Shrine ^^^ | //Hidden behind one of the larger banners is a shrine clearly devoted to demons of pestilence and decay. The moment you enter, clay serpents come to life, slithering angrily toward you.// ||| ^ Note ||| | PCs may treat the setting as dungeon at will. ||| ^ Exit ^ To ^ Obstacle | | West | F | - | | South | Goal | Hidden: 2d6 | ^ Hazards ||| | [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_4#knot_of_serpents|Knot of Serpents]] ||| ==== Tweaks ==== This scenario assumes the PCs intend to directly investigate the farmstead. You can easily expand the scenario, adding more regions to the 1F area for PCs to explore. For instance, you could add a maze of crops (wilderness setting) that features [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#whispers_of_madness|Whispers of Madness]] and becomes suddenly blocked by an [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#overgrown_paths|Overgrown Path]] upon entering, though it holds an additional Fortune secreted away for brave PCs to discover. With five players, lower the Respawn timers for the Rats to 1. Consider adding some more Obstacles, such as [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#daunting_corridor|Daunting Corridors]] or [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#haunted_passage|Haunted Passages]] at some of the B1 unblocked exits. You could also add a [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_4#jump_scare|Jump Scare]] or two. If you want to switch the theme from pestilence to some other form of evil, swap the Poisoned Surfaces for Jump Scares and the Knot of Serpents for [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#wandering_spirits|Wandering Spirits]] (changing the description of region G appropriately). You might also swap the Plague Rats for more Wandering Spirits or some [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#mud_hands|Mud Hands]] or [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#cave_bats|Cave Bats]], particularly at lower player counts. Add an impish agent of the pestilence demons by including a respawning [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#saboteur|Saboteur]] that stalks the PCs throughout the scenario. Turn the scenario into stealth by swapping a country couple for an entire cult (or a large cult-family). Use [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#guard_dog|Guard Dogs]] outside and [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#torch_bearer|Torch Bearers]] underground. Be sure to add several Jump Scares, and include a [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_3#magic_mouth|Magic Mouth]] that utters terrifying things. Include [[analects_book_4_part_2_chapter_2#bell_tripwires|Bell Tripwires]] somewhere key, such as B, F, or G. Triggering the Deep Pits Trap should cost the PCs a Stealth Token, and bashing down doors shouldn't be an option without automatically failing (nor should illuminating underground passages except with sources like a Wax Candle). [[dm_s_toolbox_book_2_chapter_3|More level 3 exploration scenarios]]

scenario_e_country_horror_story.1546551057.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/01/03 13:30 by triptycho