Seeds

What is this About?

Following is a bunch of adventure ideas and seeds. Some are going to be much more developed and involved than others. One or two may even look familiar from past rants that I have done. These ideas are NOT ready to play right out of the box (so to say). Some will have gaping holes that are there for the GM to fill in. Most aren’t even complete, just enough to let an imagination run wild. I will cover different genres here, too. So, without further wasting your time...

Cliché Gone Wrong

The main requirement for this adventure is that the characters are experienced and have something of a reputation about them. If that is not the case, the very beginning of the adventure will make little to no sense.

The local rich guy (does not have to be royal) comes up to the group saying that his daughter has been kidnapped and to please bring her back safely. Of coarse he is willing to pay a handsome reward; half now, half after it’s complete. He seems to be on the up and up. He does not have a reputation as a bad person or that of a backstabber. The PCs should trust him.

Finding the daughter will be difficult enough. The characters will have to go through many different towns only to find that there is no evidence of her disappearance anywhere. Out of desperation the characters go to a legit psychic. The psychic does manage to point them in the right direction, but the answer is very vague, if not down right cryptic.

The PCs do find the daughter, but to their surprise, she was not kidnapped. She ran away. Her father is very abusive and she ran away because she feared for her life. It’s up to the PCs whether or not they want to bring her back. If they do bring her back, they get their money, but at what cost? If they do not, they lose the money and risk having mercenaries come after them (the guy is loaded).

She does miss her father and love him very much, so she can be persuaded. If the PCs do persuade her, she will insist on going through a cemetery to visit some graves of dead relatives. She’s neglected to do so for far too long, she will say. This cemetery is not very far out of the way, so there should be very little problem for the PCs to agree. If they do not, she will have to be forcibly taken. And the father will not approve of a bruise on her.

In the cemetery, the PCs will see two headstones that they will find disturbing. One has her name on it, and the other has her father’s. And they both died 25 years ago today, cause unknown…

Ghost Town

For the past few years you have been living an empty life, unable to move on. But then you received a letter. That letter made all of the difference in the world. The handwriting is very familiar to you. You’ve read it many times over the years. It is that of your wife. The letter said:

“Remember when we spent the day up in Misty Creek? We had such a wonderful time.
We’ve never laughed so hard or smiled as much in our lives. Well, I’m there now,
waiting for you. In our special place. Please meet me. --Sylvia”

And the letter was right. You did have a wonderful time in the quiet little town 5 years ago. What could she mean by “our special place?” The whole town was your “special place.” Sure the handwriting is right, the language is right, but there is something wrong with the whole thing. After all, she did die 3 years ago.

The character will remember Misty Creek as a very peaceful small town. Contrary to its name, it was on a lake, there was no creek involved. He and his late wife spent their week at the Misty Hotel, overlooking the lake. They spent a full day at the park there, just chatting and holding each other.

But when he drives to the town, he sees that the only underpass into town has been blocked off with a brick wall. There has been nothing in the news in the past five years that would warrant this, either. Even on the way there, he knew something was strange. A fog came out of nowhere and swallowed him up. And this fog is very thick, almost unnaturally so.

The roadblock is not much of an obstacle, however. The map from 5 years ago shows a path that goes around and into Misty Creek. Hope he brought his hiking boots.

On the way through the path, the character meets a female NPC. There is something that is not…there…about her. Something just isn’t right, but he can’t put his finger on it. He’s never met her before, he’s sure of that, but there is something. She says that her father was supposed to meet her here, but almost like she’s not sure she believes it. She says to stay away from Misty Creek, that it’s a dangerous place. Doesn’t know why or how, she just knows. She will not accompany him into town and won’t let him stay with her, either.

The character continues to town. But when he gets there, he sees that the town looks like it was abandoned over a decade ago. Cars are left in the street, batteries long dead. Many locks are broken and doors cannot be opened because of it. Windows are boarded over all over the place. And where they are not boarded over, they are broken.

Off in the distance, the PC will hear a static-like sound. When the PCs find the source, they will also meet one of Misty Creek’s inhabitants. It almost looks human, but the flesh seems to be rotting away, and his forearms are attached to his torso in much the same way a strait jacket does. And it attacks the PC. When the PC kills the creature, the static on the portable radio goes away. But whenever a creature gets near it, the static comes back. It’s like an early warning system.

And she wanted to meet here?

Note: This plot is taken almost directly out of the video game Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams for the Playstion 2 and the Xbox.

Sealed Inside

The PCs are hired to escort a young woman to a tower near the village in which they are staying. They are unsure of the mission that she is being sent on, but it will take much of the day and night. All they know is that she is supposed to meet some people at the tower. Satisfied with simply getting paid (handsomely), they agree to escort her. It seems like a simple enough mission.

After a couple hours of travel, they arrive at the tower. She goes in and instructs the escort to stay behind and watch the entrance. She insists on going in alone. If pressed, she will say that she is doing a very delicate ritual and the PCs very presence can disrupt it. She wants the PCs to watch the entrance.

After about an hour of waiting, the PCs hear an explosion from inside the tower. Anyone who will look at the top of the tower will see that it is engulfed in a black cloud. At this point the PCs will probably go into the tower to rescue her. After all, they haven’t gotten all of their money yet.

They fight their way to the top of the tower to find that everyone but the girl has been killed. She is unconscious and there is a small, purple cloud surrounding her. Any attempts to get into the cloud to pull her out will fail. But after about 30 seconds, the cloud lifts and she wakes up. She wants to go home and asks for the PCs help to get there. She is a very polite and friendly young woman. Always has been.

She will go into her home and will talk to her father (also the one that hired the PCs). He is also the priest of the local church. A little bit of research into the girl will show that she is a member of the choir and has a golden voice. Any character that hears her will agree.

The father will insist that the PCs stay while he talks with his daughter in private. He conveniently does not pay yet to make sure that they stick around. He finally comes down, very pale, and asks them to stay for dinner. At this time, he also pays the PCs in full. If the PCs decline food, he will insist. Basically, he will not take no for an answer.

When they sit down, he tells them that she was sent to do a ritual to seal [insert evil god’s name here] away for all eternity. This evil god has been dormant for quite a while, but lately has been showing signs of waking. But something went wrong with the ritual. Apparently, a piece of the evil god has been sealed inside of his daughter. He pleads with the PCs to bring his daughter to the holy city to try to get the god out of his daughter.

But when the PCs get to the holy city, they discover that the church is corrupt. The head priest is either unwilling or unable to get the got out of the innocent little girl. After a while, it becomes apparent that the church is actually worshipping the evil god. And that evil god eats away at her very essence a little more every day. What will the PCs do? What can they do? The life of a young girl, and possibly the world, hang in the balance.

Note: This is taken from Grandia 2 for the Sega Dreamcast almost directly. A few things have been changed, but not a whole lot.

Alone

The PC is a normal guy. He goes to work, pays his bills, buys groceries, and does anything else that an average person does. He was driving home from work one day and he noticed something. Something strange. There were no other cars on the road. Not thinking a whole lot of it, he goes inside his house.

When he gets there, he turns on the TV, but nothing happens. Hmmm…power must be out. He picks up the telephone to see what is going on, but there is no phone signal, either. Then the silence strikes him. There are no noises except those that he is making. There are no birds singing, no kids playing outside, no cars driving by, nothing.

He gets into his car to drive around and see if something is going on…see if there is anybody else out there. But the car does not start. The starter does not turn. There isn’t even a clicking noise. Nothing. How could a car that was running perfectly an hour ago suddenly stop working altogether?

He eventually leaves the house and runs into some complete strangers (the other PCs) stuck in the same situation that he is in. They decide that maybe they should stick together and try to find out what is happening. Is it the end of the world? Another Dimension? What is going on?