So I did a playtest of Chthonian. You can read about that here.

They players have left an open end, which needs to be tied up, but I would like to lull them into a sense of complacency before the evil assistant shows up again. A side adventure, basically.

I have been speaking to Zak privately about it, and he suggested that I put the idea to you suave folks to help me come up with something to help them forget their recent troubles.

If this is in the wrong place, please forgive. This seemed like the right place to put it.

This side adventure will be Hook + One Discovery/Action Stage + Climax.

The story that we (okay, Zak..) have come up with so far...

The attack on Vyvyan was witnessed by many students because it was in the quad. Most of them believed the story that someone snuck some kind of hallucenogenic into their food, but there's a few who believed what they saw.

they are a loosely tied group of conspiracy theorists who share websites.(?)

The whole point being that they are ignorable because of the massive amount of conspiracy websites out there that are so incredibly stupid/silly. This is good because one of my guys is an internet guy.

The guys get approached by the conspiracy theorists. Either to be recruited because they want to extend their membership, or they want people who are easily expendable. Which one I am not sure yet.

They want the players to investigate a local legend in a town in the mountains about a troll that is killing the local transient population. Since we are avid cavers, this adventure is right up our alley.

The hook would be: as they are investigating this cave, they run into a dead looking transient who attacks them. They kill the transient, and see a worm slip into the caves, in a place too small for the players to get to.

The discovery/action stage would be the players learning from the transients that there are a couple of brothers who seemingly control the goings-on (the mini-bosses) and find and confront them...

then find out that the mini-bosses are protecting some eggs or something (dont' know what yet, but the big icky thing, anyway) that is further back in the cave.

So the climax would be the players going back into the cave to find the big icky and defeating it. Whether it's some kind of "Alien" monster mommy thing with eggs or something else. I don't know yet.

I need a way to get them into the caves without being too contrived.

Once I get them into the caves is where I have my real problem. I just have these vague ideas that I am having trouble fleshing out. There are so many options and I want this to be a simple game that can be played in one night.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

melodie

I can see two options. (Oh, and this probably belongs in play, not design)

One is illusionism. If your players are expecting you to shuttle them along from one plot to the next, by all means do so. Send one of their Ecology classes into the caves and have them leave a cell phone there (players are remarkably forgetful). When they go back for it because they're waiting for an important call, spring the trap. Have a Radio station do some stupid promotional activity with the caves. Maybe one of their family members has run away from home and Mom sends the student into the caves to see if little James is hiding there. Be bold, if you seem apologetic your players will sense it.

The other option would be just to ask them, "Hey guys, I've got an adventure cooked up with some caves, wanna' play it?" Give them some planned background and have them tell you how they get to the caves. Play that part very quickly; it probably won't be exciting or important. Then, when they get into the caves, you can start the adventure.

The only important part of getting them to the caves is the introduction of the conspiracy theorists. I see them 2 different ways.

First, they could be the shadowy members of some cabal, who are trying to use the players to work to their own ends because they are expendable, and the players might (or might not) finally realize that and try to find and confront them. If that happens, then all the adventures, while seeming to be random encounters and wackiness, will actually be all linked together in the end, and the final confrontation (and subsequently the end of the game) would be with the shadowy cabal.

Second, they could just be a group of folks who have a little more knowledge than everyone else...just enough to know that reality as we know it isn't necessarily all it appears to be...and they are trying to increase their membership. This option isn't nearly as fun as the first.

Having said that, the introduction is only that..an introduction. I like the idea of the class field trip, so I will probably use that. They can be told they are going on a caving expedition for class. While preparing for the trip, one of them receives an anonymous email from someone informing them that they are being tested (?)....or maybe a warning of some kind. I like the being tested thing.

Then I'll send them on to the caves and the adventure proper will start.

I'm working now on fleshing out the transients being killed, and the 2 brothers who are being controlled by the icky entity further back in the caves. My most difficult question is..what is the entity?

Oh..and big oops on putting this in the wrong place. If it needs to be moved, please do so and I'll know better next time. Sorry....

melodie

Chthonian is all about the action, surprise and research. Probably in that order of importance, too. 2/3 of the Skills are action-based (Stamina, Aware, Shoot, Fight) and 1/3 is research (Persaude, Research).

Whenever possible, do a forceful setup (I have to come up with a better name for this). Basically, begin the adventure with "This is what is happening right now." optionally (and recommended) prepended by "Here's a way you, as Players with input and suggestions from me, as GM on how to start."

So, applying this to the caving adventure, open play with "You are going to investigate some caves near Chattanooga. Why would you do this?" Then, depending on your group, you can provide zero or more suggestions (here's the two already discussed):

* You are all taking the same Geology general ed. class and are on a field trip.
* After the mass-hallucination, there are some local conspiracy buffs who want to hook up with your group and check out these caves.

Note the similarity between this setup and the Festering Cure's setup (http://www.harlekin-maus.com/chthonian/serum.html): Players have the setup handed in their lap (You are all students in the same dorm with a reason to go out late at night. Why?)

---

About conspiracies: I prefer the not-so-cabal route, but that's a matter of preference. No matter what, I wouldn't advise any outright "you are being tested" type messages. Keep things strange and uncomfortable. Instead of a straight-up announcemnt, try the following:

* A Character is almost run over by a car.
* They receive mail containing photographs of a previous supernatural incident.
* A package arrives with a heavily-photocopied and marked-up declassified documents that vaguely tie in to the Characters' current situation/previous experiences.
* Small evidence that the Characters aren't the only ones investigating.

This way you can read your Players during play and set things up appropriately. Their assumptions based on your clues should shape the world around them.

---

The conspiracy theorists should be normal folks. Don't make them shady weirdos or men in black. They are fellow students and professors who have a website dedicated to weird goings-on. A portion of the site's links go to other small clubs/groups dedicated to the weird. There is a certain amount of isolation that goes on, and providing the Characters with a ton of powerful contacts won't help this. Instead, the local club can be headed by an anthropologist with an interest in bigfoot and the rest are mostly cryptozoologists who decry paranormal phenomena. Just a bunch of folks who are not zealously skeptical.

---

Here's the one-night adventure (think of it in terms of an action/horror video game):

Hook: Find transient who is dead. As they are at their most relaxed (this is scare (dead guy) + relax (oh, he's really dead) + shock! (yoink! he's getting up!). He's killed and worm enters little crevice. Note that there's a larger cave just beside the crevice. And you can hear water or something.

Stage One: Something leading up to mini-boss. Since it's a one-nighter, they follow the sound of water, hoping the human-sized caves and crevice meet up again. They face these things:
* A couple of zombies/zombie animals controlled by the worm-things.
* Mounds of mulch, made from dead bodies, animals, moldering plants and the like. They've got little, harmless (but freaky) worms in them. The worms are burrowing into insects and stuff. The mounds are semi-alive but mostly for feeding the smaller, ineffectual worms.
* Mini-Boss: Someone who's made a pact with the worms' intelligence. Analogy: The worms are all one entity like our hand underwater. When the hand surfaces, you first see fingertips. These fingertips are the worms, and the whole hand is in some other realm.

Climax: Leading up to the climax is finding where the "controlling cortex" thing is going to appear. Follow the trail of mulch and maybe the mini-boss is only half-dead and willing to coopereate.
* Final Boss: Controlling intelligence. It creates worms out of thin air (or erupting from any surface, including the Characters!) and takes some doing to kill.

---

Optional stuff:
* Perhaps the worm thing is attempting to be controlled by a cultist. The miniboss is the cultist who's bit off more than he can chew and wants help after being defeated?
* The controlling cortex is merely a small organ, part of a larger creature. This can work into extended campaigns. Things like worms and beetles can then be symbolic of this loathsome entity.

---

Remember, keep it simple and work off the Players. It's a one-nighter, so a simple hook + mini-boss + final battle, with brief breathers for some exposition should be fine.

I'm definitely planning on telling them they are going on a caving expedition for their geology class. They will have no options in that respect.

As far as the conspiracy goes..I'll throw something vague at them, like a hint that they are not the only ones investigating weirdness, and see where they go with that.

Optional stuff:
* Perhaps the worm thing is attempting to be controlled by a cultist. The miniboss is the cultist who's bit off more than he can chew and wants help after being defeated?