This is my pitch for a prospective Level One adventure. It's also the entirety of my notes for the adventure. It's also as complete as the adventure is ever likely to be.
(an adventure for level 1 players)
I'm imagiing a small black dog that constantly foils the PC's
steals babies and runs off with them
breaks into houses and bites the noses off old women
extremely racist
an evil genius
sets up traps
lures you into bad situations
leads you into dens of criminals
hides in the bog and lures you in to drown
sometimes spasms and attacks own tail
steals burning torches and sets churches on fire
kind of wheezes and yowls insanely instead of barking
stampedes cows
jumps on horses and rides them, guiding them by biting
sends carts running out of control
steals rare and valuable things and leaves them in the PC's packs without them knowing
ends up setting a gigantic fire and escaping on the keel of an upturned boat that goes down the river
shits in the font
digs up fresh graves (it never seems to sleep) and runs off with wedding rings
drops pigeon corpses into the well, poisoning it
eventually ends up leading a pack of wolves through town
hides in the toilet, waiting for you
steals money and throws it in the river
steals magic items and throws them in the well
runs along rooftops, has learn how to use ladders and climb trees
confuses the lock-manager by killing the crowing cock that wakes them up, then imitating the sound at the wrong time, so they end up flooding the town
keeps the doctor awake all night by yowling outside his window
can scream like a cat
pisses in your bed, poops in your shoes
it will only poop in human shoes (this is its one weakness)
takes drugs when it can (another weakness) and drinks to a shameful degree (it never becomes incapacitated)
gestures with its eyebrows
can smell fear
thinks you're kind of a pussy
pushes old men under water wheels
thows dead cats in between the windmills grinding-wheels, ruining the corn
when the mill-wheels are taken out for washing, it removes the chocks and sents one rolling through town, smashing through walls
it uses this to break into the bank (it wants the money, which it will throw in the river)
people think an old man is master of the dog but he is terrified of it
you get sucked into its all-encompassing plan
it rules crime in this town, the thieves guild are all terrified of it
attacks pregnant women
spooks the shire-horses pulling the canal-boats through town and makes them pull the boats to one side so they block the canal and capsize
the mayor hired an assasin from the captial to kill it, the dog ate him an now wears his bloodstained cloak, the assassins guild refuses to believe this has happened and has sent another assasin to kill the mayor
the local wizard tried to remove the curse upon the dog, but there was no curse and the dog stole his spell book and dropped it in the well
the dog intends to blow up the brewery somehow
the local cultists tried summoning a demon to destroy the dog but the dog licked away part of their magic circle and the demon escaped and ate them
the demon is a little scared of the dog
at a wedding the dog jumped into the wedding cake and no-one could get it out
a widow of a colonel who retired in town has called up the guard but the dog has outwitted them at every turn
it seems to be everywhere
no-one will send help to the town as no-one will belive that its just a dog doing this and the townspeople are too scared to admit the truth
a small faction on the town council is considering putting the dog in charge, since it does what it wants anyway
people think maybe the PC's will help, but some think they are doomed and others, who still can't quite accept that its just a dog, think the real villian will eventually reveal themselves and that this might be the PC's
the town is consumed by paranoia, the existence of a 'dog-faction' has leaked out and a whispering campaign has divided the people, everyone is afraid that others might somehow be on the side of the worlds most evil dog
Ugly muses yield good words.
ReplyDeleteI seriously love this.
ReplyDeleteThis is delightful. I should run this.
ReplyDeleteIt pleasantly reminds me of Murder Dog.
http://harmonyzone.org/MurderDogIV.html
http://gamejolt.com/games/murder-dog-iv-trial-of-the-murder-dog/5807
I think my favorite bit is the pro-dog faction in town.
Small But Evil Dog
ReplyDeleteSo... What if a real dog is doing all of these things to me? Do you have any ways of stopping him? Ways to make it more convincing that a real dog is doing this around my town, instead of me? The police are starting to ask inconvenient questions...
ReplyDeleteThis is good stuff. I do feel that once you've had this as a '1st level adventure', you're sort of contractually obligated to bring the antagonist back for adventures when the PCs are higher level (which higher level? I guess, random dice table?).
ReplyDeleteMy offering for the list: Footprints. Maybe the players are tracking down someone or something entirely else, and at the end of the trail instead they find the dog, doing something smug and awful. Or, just its footprints appearing in places they shouldn't (like inside the player's loincloth), perhaps left in some horrible medium.
Yep. You know those- ooh the demon takes the shape of your worst fear kind of effects... well it's gonna be that dog. Every time.
DeleteThis is clearly the work of a mad genius.
ReplyDeleteI ran this for my party of Godbound characters with the addition of having a goal to matchmake some town members rather than just 'stop the dog,' 10/10 the Evil dog proved worthy of bedeviling the very gods as well as level 1 characters
ReplyDelete