Adventure Idea (was: Worldwide Adventure Writing Month?)

Keith Davies <keith.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi All,

I stumbled on the Worldwide Adventure Writing Month project[1] today.
I'm wondering if anyone here is taking part, and if there are any more
guidelines beyond 'write a 32-page adventure'.

I'm skimming through the forum now, but nothing's leaping out at me
about this.

[1] blog: http://woadwrimo.blogspot.com/
forum: http://www.treasuretables.org/forum/index.php?board=10.0

I've got an idea for this, I'd like to bounce it off the group and see
what you think.

I haven't gotten as far as nailing down names or the like, but they're
not terribly important right now. I won't bother dressing this up much
(no tone, descriptive stuff, etc. yet), I know it'll sound pretty stark.


I expect to aim for about a fifth- or sixth-level adventure; completing
it should be worth about a level's advancement.


Background:
Long ago there was a temple in the middle of a swamp (goddess with
Water, Plant, Healing? Life? domains... Good is a possibility but
seems a little too pat). The swamp was a bright and healthy place
(something like the more open areas of the Everglades, perhaps).

[when people nearby died, they would be sewn into shrouds, weighted
down with rocks, and 'returned to the swamp', cycle of life sort of
thing]

Bad Things Happened. I know the temple was taken over by an evil
power, I still need to work out why. Right now I'm leaning toward
there being some natural resource nearby that the evil power wanted
(the temple's on a node of magic, perhaps -- which helps explain the
next bit).

After the temple was overrun the swamp changed. It was no longer a
healthy place, but became brackish and murky. The trees changed,
growing closer together and hiding the water from the sun. The water
become somewhat necrotic.

[corpses that were interred after the power change were being
animated in various forms -- weakest probably being 'zombies with
claws' (rather than slam attack) and working up the closer to the
temple they were interred. In some places (closer to the temple)
getting the swamp water in wounds or drinking it can lead to disease
(filth fever, maybe?). People eventually realized there was a
problem and stopped doing it.]

Current situation:

(this has room for adjustment -- it can happen before the heroes get
to the settlement (village or town) or it can happen while they're
there, depending)

A small horde of undead swarmed through the settlement, grabbing the
[offspring (son or daughter, either works)] of the settlement's
leader. The leader's family used to be associated with the church
(the priests came from this family, perhaps; after they were driven
from the temple they came to govern the area). There were some deaths
among the people of the settlement, and lingering disease (as from the
swamp water) among those wounded in the attack.

[if the party's present they can try to help, or they might come
into town a couple of days after the attack.]

[the next bits are not 'well-known', but could come out through
research/deduction/etc.]

The offspring was taken (relatively unharmed -- this is significant)
back to the temple. There is either a full moon (midsummer) or a
waning halfmoon (equinox). On that night the stolen offspring is to
be (sacrificed is too easy, let's say married to the high priest(ess))
in order to complete the conversion of the temple. The evil power had
been *using* the temple (and associated local power source), thereby
corrupting the swamp, but didn't actually 'own' the temple. The
ceremony will bind the power to the temple.

This is obviously a bad thing.

Known (to me) threats and hazards:

. undead in the swamps (ranging from 'a bunch of zombie-types' to a
few that are more powerful.

. very unhealthy water (ingested or wound-type disease; closer in
there may be directly poisonous qualities, though 'weak')

. temple occupants (cleric of Disease, Undeath, Evil (probably, maybe
something else); might go with 'dark' rather than 'evil'; probably
some kind of minions)

. perhaps a small black dragon somewhere (avoidable, I expect; not
very old because the swamp hasn't been corrupted that long)

Known (to me) help and (potential) allies:

. the settlement, obviously

. small tribe of lizardmen (or variant thereof). Used to be more, but
the hazards of the swamp are getting to them. Those that are left
are fairly tough (they survived the diseases and whatnot) but very
cautious. May be willing to help if properly approached -- can
provide a place to rest up, information about the swamp, etc.

. perhaps the *priests* were driven from the temple, but the goddess
is still there. The dark power is 'wrapped around' the temple (and
controls the source of power) but does not yet control the temple
(this is what the ceremony is for, to complete gaining control).
The temple might be a more or less safe place -- 'unnatural' bad
guys can't get in (permanent protection from evil, maybe).


Keith
--
Keith Davies "History is made by stupid people
keith.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx "Clever people wouldn't even try
keith.davies@xxxxxxxxx "If you want a place in the history books
http://www.kjdavies.org/ "Then do something dumb before you die."
-- The Arrogant Worms
.

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