Adventure #78

Theme

Comedy
This adventure is fun for fun's sake. Its basic purpose is to provide humorous entertainment with a minimum of actual danger or tragedy.

Goal

Escape
Early in the adventure, the heroes are captured. The remainder of the adventure consists of them learning enough so that they can escape. They have
to get to know their fellow prisoners, learn the prison's routine, inventory their possessions, acquire other possessions they need, plan an escape, and
execute it.
Mystery Woman

Story Hook

Create an NPC "mystery woman" sure to be fascinating to your hero and have her keep appearing inexplicably in his life. As he becomes interested
and investigates her, he keeps stumbling across the villain's plans and becomes inextricably mired in the plot. (For female player-characters, the
Mystery Man is just as useful.)
A-B-C Quest

Plot

This is an epic sort of plot. In it, the heros are given (or undertake) a task to perform: The taking of a city, the rescue of an innocent, the destruction of
a monster, the creation of a magical item, the defeat of a Master Villain, etc. But the path to victory is not a simple one. To get to their goal, Event A,
they find that they must first accomplish some other task -- Event B. But when they undertake the task of accomplishing Event B, they find that they
must first accomplish Event C. This goes on for several encounters, until the heroes accomplish all the obstacle events which prevent them from
returning to Event A, their original goal.
Scattered Duels

Climax

General Setting

In this climax, the heroes have gotten to the end of their quest -- they may have broken into, sneaked into, or escaped from imprisonment within the
villain's citadel, or have marched into the little town where the villain is holed up -- and they become separated. You can separate them by having
traps and tricks break the party apart, by having them see two or three things they must resolve (such as danger to innocents or the appearance of
minion villains) pop up simultaneously; they'll have to run in all directions at the same time or suffer failure. Once the party is broken down into bitesized chunks, you confront each individual or small group with the enemy or enemies he most deserves to face -- his personal enemy, the monster
which defeated him before, etc. -- for a grand series of climactic duels.
On the Road
Most of the adventure takes place on the road, as the heroes are travelling from place to place. This is especially good for adventures where heroes are
investigating a wide-ranging mystery, are part of a caravan, or are being pursued by loathesome villains.

Mansion of a Lord
Specific Setting I This can be the home of a villain -- the characters may have to break in and rescue someone or steal evidence, or break out if they've been captured -or of a heroic ally, in which case it may be used as the headquarters for the heroes' plans and activities.
Specific Setting Classic Dungeon
II
This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster troops.
Zealot
Master Villain

Minor Villain I

This villain is like the Conqueror, but he's not trying to conquer to own; he's trying to purge the world of something he feels is pure evil (another
religion, a human, demi-human, or nonhuman race of sentient beings, a custom). He operates just like the Conqueror, enslaving or killing all those
who belong to the "wrong" race or philosophy.
Avenger
This character is much like the Master Villain of the same name, but he's not in charge of all this villainy, and he's definitely an enemy of one of the
player-characters. You'll have to decide who he is and why he hates one of the heroes; he could be anything from a recurring villain to someone who
simply lost a fight to the hero once.
Coward

Minor Villain II This character is an ordinary grunt minion of the Master Villain, but he's a coward. He's deathly afraid of the Villain and the heroes. He's best used
when you plan to have the heroes captured; by his mannerisms, you can make it clear to them that this fellow is a coward and they will begin to work
on him psychologically.
Ally/Neutral

Tragic Fellow Hero

The heroes are in the company of some hero well-known to them; he may have been a companion or ally, or they may just know him by reputation.
He is a tragic figure; he may have lost his family to the master villain, or lost his properties and titles, or be afflicted with a curse he cannot be rid of,
or be committed to a quest he knows will take his life. He's dour, and gloomy, prophesying doom and having no fun at all.
King Beast

Monster
Encounter

At some point in their adventure, the heroes run across a King Beast -- some enormous, intelligent monster (which speaks the Common tongue)
which is the leader of its species. Perhaps it needs help; if the heroes help it they'll earn themselves a favor which the King Beast will repay at some
later time in the adventure. Perhaps the heroes are in deadly danger and need help; the King Beast can be persuaded to help, but only in return for a
deed or favor in the future.

Character
Encounter

Bureaucrat
Some time in their adventure, the heroes must deal with the local government and run into that most horrible of nuisance monsters, the bureaucrat and
his red-tape dispenser. The heroes don't have the right forms. When they have the right forms, they forgot to fill them out in triplicate. And so on.

Deathtrap

Pit and the Pendulum

Actually, we're applying this term to any of many time-delay deathtraps. In this sort of trap, the villains capture the heroes and place them in a trap
which will soon kill them -- it operates on a delay, often based on a timing device or a burning fuse.

Chase

Horseback
This is a relatively short chase -- it only needs to go on for a mile or so before even the best horses are winded. If it goes on longer than that, the
horses may collapse and perhaps die.

Omen/Prophesy

Hero Fulfills Prophecy

This is the most useful sort of prophecy. In the early part of the adventure, one of the heroes discovers that he fulfills some ancient prophecy.
Secret Embarrassment

Secret Weakness Finally, the villain may have some aberration or secret shame that will force him to flee when he is confronted with it. It could be something as
simple as the fact that his nose is too big, or that he is a small and nebbishly wizard pretending to be some vast, powerful demonic power. When his
shame is revealed, he is too humiliated to continue; this is a good option for comedy adventures.
Special
Condition

No Hurting the Villain

For some reason, the heroes cannot afford to fight the villain directly. For instance, what if a demon possesses the body of the child of one of the
characters, or a very important child spoken of in prophecy, one without whom the world will perish?

Honor Quandry
Moral Quandry

You want to use this on the character with the most strongly developed sense of personal honor -- someone who has lived all his life by a strict code.
Toward the end of the adventure, this character realizes that the best way to defeat the Master Villain is a violation of that code. For instance, the
character might be a paladin, who discovers that the only possible way for the heroes to defeat the Master Villain is to sneak up on him and stab him
in the back.
Lying Rumor

Red Herring

This is the worst and most useful type of red herring -- the interesting rumor which just happens to be false. In adventures of this sort, the best Lying
Rumor concerns the Master Villain; it gives the heroes some "important" information about him which later turns out to be useless.
NPC Turns Traitor

Cruel Trick

He may alert he enemy when the heroes are planning a raid; he may steal the artifact and take it to the villain; he may stab a hero or important NPC in
the back (literally) before departing.