Alright, so I have been browesing this forum and have noticed fair number of threads croping up in relation to Halloween. They are GM's asking for suggestions about running a scary horror session for their players. Well I also noticed
zombies
are continually mentioned and I am honestly bored to death with them. Sure Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland are probably the two best things to come from this crazy undead obsession. (You can say the Walking Dead tv show but it's based off of a comic that was already around before this whole hullabaloo started so I don't count it
.) Anyway, I was writing my own idea in another thread when I realized that my reply was way too long, so I figure I'll just make a thread instead. It's a bit rough around the edges, but if you watch the four episodes and read the below, or have a great imagination, you'll have no problems filling in any gaps I may have left out
.
(P.S. I just copied and pasted it for all intents and laziness
)
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Alright. I have a Halloween session suggestion. It's based off of a horror anime called Ghost Hunt. The story arc I am thinking of lasts about 4 episodes and is creepier than all hell. The anime is about a goup that does ghost hunting. They are tasked with investigating a huge mansion full of confusing hallways, hidden rooms, dead ends, stairs leading to nothing, houses in rooms, and etc (think Winchester Mystery House ). They are asked by the owner of the mansion to investigate reports of very disturbing things going on that have occured there recently and in the past.
I recommend spending sometime watching the arc to understand what I mean before you read the rest of the post. Also I recommend that you watch it late at night, sound turned up and all the lights off for full effect. (I am also a wimp with scary/horror movies and video games so everyone's milage may vary!)
Here is the entire arc on Youtube:
Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4
You can also watch the whole thing on Netflix if you have subscribed to the website.
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Some minor SPOILERS and a SUPER quick summery of the arc:
1) The main character gets possessed by a spirit that was burtally murdered at the mansion.
2) Two minor support characters also disappear and are presumed to have been killed as well. (The main cast was never to split up because people disappeared when they were alone.)
3) One of the main supporting characters disappears but is rescued at the end.
4) The main "culprit" and his "aids" appear during the rescue attempt and no one can actually kill it, weaken it briefly yes, but not kill it or permanently injure it.
5) Those that worked at the mansion were all middle-aged/older people who were not from the local area/prefecture where the mansion was located. It was also connected to a hospital and another building.
6) All of the victims were young.
7) The main culprit was a monster, basically, and his aid were corporeal (I think) and he wanted eternal youth so he literally murded, quite gruesomely, hundreds of people and then bathed in their blood.
8) The main cast eventually finds the aplace where all of the gruesome events occured, giving myself chills writing this lol (seriously creeped me out), and engage the monster. But they cannot kill or injure it, just delay it.
9) Their conclusion is to let the house eventually decay and crumble or burn it to the ground.
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Transferring that over to Edge of the Empire can go like this maybe:
A company has discovered a planetoid that was owned and mined heavily by a wealthy organization (family owned and runned) in some era pre-Empire maybe. The head of the organization is a distant relative to the original owners and has recently discovered the location of this planetoid via a will or whatever. They hire the PC's to go investigate but give them a specialized ship with a to-do list when they arrive. They are hired personally by the owner to keep the discovery a secret. He also authorizes them to use the specialized Hyrotti HMT-3 mining vessel (designed by a fellow member here named Sturn and found in this thread ). He asks that they leave their own ship (if they have one) behind. He promises that no matter what the results, positive or negative, that he will pay them hansomely with credits as well as free repairs and or upgrades for their ship (for example if the GM desides to start them off on the wrong foot, the owner approaches them with this lucrative deal). That is so long as he believes the results the PCs return with. He also sends a number of his own people to tag along to check out the place for themselves (NPCs. Also, make sure that you have a couple of important NPCs for GMing purposes). (Some of the NPCs will be on the ship, bodyguard types, and the other will be coming in another Hyrotti HMT-3 or a different modern mining ship maybe). They also bring along probe droids to help scout the planetoid if need be (they have mapping capabilities and the ability to video record everything that goes on I assume).
One thing I almost forgot! The owner also lets slip that the Imperials have also sent a couple of teams to investigate the planetoid but none of them returned or only a few survivors came back. Since then they left it alone and generally avoided going anywhere near it. (This could have taken place before A New Hope.)
Possible idea for the planetoid and what the PCs and NPCs will encounter:
1) It was actually mined.
3) They find records that reveal all of the workers were over 30-40 years of age.
4) There appears to be no logic to the various mineshafts, homes, shacks, buildings, hospitals, and other buildings and whatnot. (Basically no blueprints exist. The players can use the probe droids to map it out.) An NPC can remark how it reminds them of a story from their home sector/system/planet about a very paranoid/wealthy official who went crazy with various addons to their own mansion both above and below ground.
5) The real cover-up was that the original owner of the planetoid and the operation(s) going on there were a cover-up for a very sinister and horrifying act. He was carefully searching out and inviting people who were suspected of being force sensitive. He had a very life-altering experience when he/she was younger when a Dark Jedi/sith battled a jedi. The jedi was butchered in front of them (or the DJ/Sith was if you want). He spent years researching how one obtained the force but was unsuccessful. His only conclusion was to step up his research. Thus, the results were the creation of a vast intelligence network that sought out, kidnapped, or hired those who were very young and showed force sensitivity. They brought them to the planetoid were they were eventually disected, dismembered, had their blood drained, and other horrific things happened to them. After which he'd drink it and bathe in it, and probably eat them with some nice cianti and fava beans. (Here the GM can use an NPC who brings up a legend of a Dark Jedi or Sith that did something similar everytime he killed a Jedi believing that doing so increased his force abilities.)
6) This explains why some of the PCs and NPCs have visions when they go to sleep, very vivid visions.
7) At somepoint the NPCs start disappearing (could start tensions between the two groups).
8) Maybe some old droids are found and repaired and relay some of the going-ons of the mines giving the PCs some details about the history of certain areas of the planetoid and the people that worked there. Famous incidents, etc... (Think of the droids as sentients, like C3P0 and R2D2.) Also, the droids can be found throughout the planetoid like how evidence is placed in horror/mystery video games.
9)
When they finally find the main spot where all of the above took place (like a labratory or something), they are all set upon by the monster and aids who resemble force ghosts. They can also grab them and kill the PCs and NPCs. The result of this encounter is a wild chase back through the labrynth to the ship(s) and freedom. Also make sure a NPC or two survive to help convince the owner, or bring back a probe droid that accompanied them that recorded the whole thing.
A note:
The crazy monster dark spirit guy's aids can follow you out to your ship (not on it, but the PCs don't have to know that
) but the crazy monster dark spirit guy cannot leave his lab (but the PCs don't have to know that
).
10) They can suggest to the owner that the only way to get ride of that planetoid is to either leave it alone and hope no one finds it or hire mercinaries with big ships to blast the planetoid into submission. Maybe in the next session, which could be a month later so-to-speak. The PCs learn via the holonet or some news source that the owner recently mad public his "discovery of the planetoid" and then his clearly bogus reasons for destroying it (only the PCs really know why he destroyed it).
So that's what I came up with. Let me know what ya'll think about it
