Murder 'Neath the Mistletoe (v0.1 Playtest)

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Whew, I'm tired.





I stayed up all night.  Literally.  But it was an incredibly productive night.  Anyway, you don't care about that.  I finished the rough draft of the rough draft of my new Christmas adventure, Murder 'Neath the Mistletoe.  It's a B/X style adventure inspired by LotFP's No Rest For The Wicked, my love for old Santa stories, and my fucked up desire to turn something wholesome into something twisted.  The players arrive in a tiny village with a dark secret.  Every four years, the villagers sacrifice one of their own to a coven of hags in exchange for peace and prosperity, but this year, the sacrifice survived.  Imbued with the power of the cruel hags, this Santa knock-off is coming to town to lop off some heads.

This particular adventure is much more dungeon light than my usual sorts. It basically works in three phases.

Phase I: Investigating the town.
Phase II: Hunkering down to survive the blizzard or venturing out to seek survivors before Evil Santa kills them.
Phase III:  Getting the fuck out of there or visiting the hags.

The weather makes it difficult for the players to simply leave the region, which is an unfortunate side-effect of making efforts to make the elements inhospitable for both ambience and a sense of danger when walking outside.  However, if the players prepared, a Resist Cold spell will protect them from the harsh effects.

That said, I took some lengths to ensure that the players have plenty of hints to bring them in on the hidden plot, and all they have to do is stay in the town to get wrapped up in the events.

I hazarded a guess that this will be appropriate for about 5-6 PCs of levels 3-4, but I could be greatly underestimating the kind of stuff I'm laying down here in this adventure.  Combat-wise, there are up to 6 random encounters (2 of which are completely avoidable), one rather deadly fight that can be avoided with diplomacy, and another creature will attack at one point that is fairly easily to scare away if you're using your noggin.

All in all, I could easily see a TPK happening with a group that makes bad choices.  But that's half the fun.  I'm looking forward to running a group through it. I'm posting a link to my playtest Doc for people to take a peek at and try for themselves if they like.  EVERYTHING is subject to change.

I hope to get a mildly complete version of this out by December 5th, so feedback is greatly appreciated.

Here's the link:






Comments

  1. Venger SatanisNovember 29, 2020 at 6:37 PM

    Cool, hoss!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlandreFebruary 2, 2021 at 8:40 AM

    I always turn to Vampire any time I want to. I became a Vampire because of how people treat me, this world is a wicked world and not fair to anybody. at the snack of my finger things are made happen. I am now a Powerful Man and no one steps on me without an apology. I turn to Human beings also at any time I want to. and am one of the most dreaded Man in my Town. I became a Vampire through the help of my friend who introduced me into a Vampire Kingdom by giving me their email. if you want to become a Powerful Vampire kindly contact the Vampire Kingdom on their Email: Vampirelord7878@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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