[edit: updated version in post below]

I have finished a rough sketch of my scenario entry for the 2013 WFRP3 scenario contest. Initial ideas are presented from the expansion of the Adventure Seed in a railroad fashion. Feedback is very welcome.

WFRP3 2013 Scenario Contest Entry

TITLE

By (Emirikol)

An Adventure Seed from the Creature Guide expanded into a full adventure.

ORIGINAL: “ Beastmen Adventure Seed - Creature Guide p.23 - Lost in the Woods: The player characters are hired as bodyguards to accompany the vindictive and headstrong Lord Brucher. The young nobleman of Reikland is intent on recovering a priceless family heirloom stolen by beastmen in a raid on his estate. As the party scours the forest, hot on the heels of a fearsome minotaur and his herd, strange clues suggest that Lord Brucher is more than he seems. In fact, the nobleman is a Chaos cultist and the heirloom is a tome of dark magic. Brucher intends to reclaim the item and leave not witness alive, including the party.”

Part I: Recruiting the party. LB (Lord Brucher) has suffered significant damage to his estate and many of his guards were killed when beastmen raided. As such, he is seeking immediate help in recovering his stolen goods, including “several” heirlooms. This section must indicate what the heirlooms are. If a book is noted, the players will immediately suspect something evil, so figure on that.

Part II: A recount of what was stolen and some discussions with his staff may be had.

Part III: LB will LEAD the party and they will accompany him as bodyguards while he hunts for the beastmen. Two guards may also accompany them, the rest will need to remain behind. The guards themselves will gossip with the players from time to time.

Part IV: Initial Tracking requires some skill checks for assistance to LB and roles for the party. LB does the main tracking (think Princess Bride). Players may find clues that show that LB doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, but he is HEADSTRONG. The players also may discuss things with the guards. They may be allowed to have horses (include simplified horses rules in side-bar). Have LBs saddle on backward or other such things that make him frustrated with his group or guards. For example: complains that his guards are too slow, but has them overburdened with too much stuff and chainmail armor or that the shoes on the horses were not shoed by a proper ferrier, but he only trusts that ferrier.

Part V: First contact. Part of the beastman herd broke off and is currently enjoying some of the spoils of their raid. After the combat, LB searches ferociously for the heirloom. Not finding it, he is VINDICTIVE to the corpses of the Beastmen. He does not kill female beasties. Instead he ties them up (odd backstory for his dungeon under his manor). He insists on stopping by the local town, where he convinces a local group of “Zealots” (actually part of the Local Cult of Chaos chapter #2040..red crown or something) church (where he sometimes preaches), that the PCs he’s with are cultists and when he gives the word (probably by note) they should attack.

Part VI: Increasing Obsession and Agitation . LB seems more intent than ever, having some fits and angry tirades about the beastmen. He will attempt to cover this up by taking a sedative drug from his apothecary. Unfortunately, this will leave him over-sedated and unable to track or do things. This should give the players a chance to set things right for the group and get caught up, as LB’s mule-headedness should have everyone frustrated at their lack of progress. The guards tell some stories.

Part VII: Back on the Trail. As the party finally gets back on the trail, they will locate the beastmen at a set of ruins. Meanwhile, the ZEALOTS at the local town have been following the group waiting to attack after LB gives the order.

Part VIII: The RUINS. The beastmen have a camp at a nearby set of ruins. The ruins are overrun with all kinds beasties and this part will be a simple overland dungeon crawl, complete with some snares set up by the beastmen and mutants. TEW p.170 covers TRAPS for WFRP3 mechanics. LB will still be too drugged up (now he’s just faking it), to accompany the party and he pretends to offer them all kinds of money to continue.

Part IX: RUINS – the Minotaur and Bray Shaman. The Bray Shaman has been attempting to use the book for magical purposes. He has successfully cast spells from its secrets which have ENHANCED his local followers. This is a difficult combat. It is necessary that the players find out that LB’s book isn’t good afterall.

Part X: Leave No Trace. At the recovery of his book, he will use a whistle to call for his Zealots to come destroy the party so he can get away with his book. Preferably, he will have snuck away during the previous encounter to get his allies. This, coupled with the previous encounter will make for a likely TPK. There will need to be some way for someone/something to save the day such as one of the guards helping, the players using something magical leftover by the beastmen, a chance at escape, or something. (will need opportunities to secure this earlier.)

..

Nicely laid out. I admit I find the "patron is really the villain" twist over-used though. There is an old list of adventure advice for PC's, I think near the top was, "Kill your patron first" and back in 1986 recall a video game that ended that way (yeah when I got back with the gizmo I was hardly shocked that my final fight was with the "good wizard" who sent me etc.).

I admit, I was part of a PC group that pretty much tried to do that , though the GM essentially railroaded us into not switching sides because it didn't fit his vision (coincidentally by using an NPC he was playing - cf the GM playing PC thread).

Something that "looks like that" but "pushes through/twists it" as in the noble is doing this because his family is being held captive by cultists and if he doesn't get the thing back they will all be killed. So the final adventure is see if you can rescue his family (or discover they are all already dead/zombies etc.).

I agree on that. "The man who hires you tries to kill you" is an overused plot device. I may have him instead be the unwitting pawn requiring him to "have no witnesses or his family gets it" kind of thing. Then the PCs will have to move into rescue quietly mode or something. Great idea!

Thanks jay, I have been working on the adaptation of my steward of grauwerk adventure, with an option for less plot heavy version. Need a couple of simple maps, an optional extra encounter thread to mix in more gothic stuff, and some editing to finish it. Meant to print it off to edit it while at work earlier today and forgot.

Get to it slacker! Don't you know work can wait?

jh

[edit: altered back to original plan]

jh

By Jay's advice here is my entry, I reserve right to edit a bit but it's pretty much done.

Jay suggested others could see how I formatted etc.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehoihaktwmd56n1/The%20Steward%20of%20Grauwerk%20Manor%202013%20Contest.pdf

Thanks to Jay for suggesting and pushing it along. We all need to stand on each other's shoulders.

Rob

Here is my 2nd draft. It is roughly complete, but some ideas are not fleshed out and I left out all mechanical details such as skill checks and stat blocks.

Thoughts?

edit: see link below

jh

Downloaded. I like presentation, will e-mail comments.

I hope Jay and I are the not the only ones cooking something up. Be it an encounter, an episode or an epic it's all good and inspires more from others. If you've created an adventure for own use already, you have a play-tested start that your players can give feedback on!

Rob

Just an updated version before I get major feedback from our millions of devoted readers

Finding Heirlooms by Jay Hafner

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/167876/Scenario%20Finding%20Heirlooms%20WFRP3%202013%20scenario%20contest%20V2.1.docx

My plan is to do a final read through and fix any glaring plot holes and make final alterations from suggestions (although it's about my most free-form scenario to date).

Valvorik: Hey, spoils go to the warriors eh?

[edit: I tried to throw in a LOT of rules use from the various products this edition has produced. I used everythign from mosnter templates, to nemesis sheets, location cards, item cards, insanity, corruption, mutation, alternate beastmen, etc. ]

jh

Haven't done much except a one pager (sweet marrow) and a quick TTT conversion.

If I get the time I'll venture into the dark corner of my mind and breathe life into something twisted :-)

Only my sapphic vampire killer : intro adventure to discover warhammer 3 based upon the horror comic movie Lesbian vampire killer... So...

Thats probably a little beyond the expiration date, but who am I to complain

I have noticed that viewing my entry straight from dropbox produces some oddities at times, downloading and viewing gets a cleaner view.

Rob

Rob, you might want to post your link at Strike to Stun as well.

http://forum.strike-to-stun.net/viewforum.php?f=22