The Unusual Predicament of Sophie De Murtas
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:52 pm
EDIT by Solomoriah: I've added the PDF and ODT versions of this adventure to this post.
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An adventure for character levels 7-10.
Preamble
As written this adventure is set in Vallerin in Enterone in the World of Glain. It is easily adapted to your own game world, as virtually any city will work for this setup; it will need wealthy people with bored teenage/young adult offspring. In my version Sophie De Murtas and her friends are the descendants of nobles.
Background
A few months ago a young man by the name of Chauncey Lafayette arrived in the city. He was a storyteller by trade, but unlike the cheerful and moralistic fables told by more wholesome raconteurs, Lafayette's stories were always strange, grim and violent. Lafayette's patron (the person who paid Lafayette for the story) always appeared in it by name, and in the story the patron died ---- in some horrible, gruesome fashion. Lafayette described to a lot of people their own bloody, eviscerated or disembowelled corpse. And then he would never accept that person as a patron again. If someone asked him for a second story, he would refuse, and tell them, "You're already dead."
Within a few weeks Lafayette was immensely popular with the dilettante crowd ---- the offspring of nobles. Most evenings, he would be invited to some fashionable house in town, where he would tell a spine-chilling tale to the assembled company. His patron would pay him his fee (he always asked for two gold pieces), and the dilettantes would shower him with praise and, often, substantial gratuities.
The next Walpurgisnacht, when the moon was gibbous, Lafayette disappeared. He has not been seen in the city since. And his stories began to come true. One by one, in the order that they had asked him for a tale, each of Lafayette's patrons began to die. In exactly the way he had specified in their story.
The nobles, of course, took various measures to protect their children ---- and quickly learned that nothing worked. The effect was not removable by dispel magic or remove curse. There didn't seem to be any defence. Locked in a cell with no sharp objects anywhere within, and a dozen guards outside, the young nobles still got ripped open. Blessed and anointed with holy water, watched over by a dozen priestesses constantly praying for their souls, they would nevertheless be gutted by invisible claws.
In desperation, the family of one Sophie De Murtas tries to engage the services of a certain adventuring party. "Surely there must be something you can do."
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An adventure for character levels 7-10.
Preamble
As written this adventure is set in Vallerin in Enterone in the World of Glain. It is easily adapted to your own game world, as virtually any city will work for this setup; it will need wealthy people with bored teenage/young adult offspring. In my version Sophie De Murtas and her friends are the descendants of nobles.
Background
A few months ago a young man by the name of Chauncey Lafayette arrived in the city. He was a storyteller by trade, but unlike the cheerful and moralistic fables told by more wholesome raconteurs, Lafayette's stories were always strange, grim and violent. Lafayette's patron (the person who paid Lafayette for the story) always appeared in it by name, and in the story the patron died ---- in some horrible, gruesome fashion. Lafayette described to a lot of people their own bloody, eviscerated or disembowelled corpse. And then he would never accept that person as a patron again. If someone asked him for a second story, he would refuse, and tell them, "You're already dead."
Within a few weeks Lafayette was immensely popular with the dilettante crowd ---- the offspring of nobles. Most evenings, he would be invited to some fashionable house in town, where he would tell a spine-chilling tale to the assembled company. His patron would pay him his fee (he always asked for two gold pieces), and the dilettantes would shower him with praise and, often, substantial gratuities.
The next Walpurgisnacht, when the moon was gibbous, Lafayette disappeared. He has not been seen in the city since. And his stories began to come true. One by one, in the order that they had asked him for a tale, each of Lafayette's patrons began to die. In exactly the way he had specified in their story.
The nobles, of course, took various measures to protect their children ---- and quickly learned that nothing worked. The effect was not removable by dispel magic or remove curse. There didn't seem to be any defence. Locked in a cell with no sharp objects anywhere within, and a dozen guards outside, the young nobles still got ripped open. Blessed and anointed with holy water, watched over by a dozen priestesses constantly praying for their souls, they would nevertheless be gutted by invisible claws.
In desperation, the family of one Sophie De Murtas tries to engage the services of a certain adventuring party. "Surely there must be something you can do."