Currently my players (blood hunter, sorcerer, ranger, and Monk) are in this town on stilts called Krezkovich and I am trying to figure out what adventure I could do to bring them together for a later plot. The idea behind the setting is that the town is standing over the waters of a Moor filled with disease and parasites from the amount of bodies that rot in its waters. The deeper ends of the moor are also rumored to have water witches that steal away people. What are some adventures that I can bring that both are good for connecting players while also fitting into that Gothic horror niche?
If your player's characters aren't already working together, you could definitely have an NPC offer them specifically a job if that NPC sees them handling a surprise situation. Maybe... This town has limited resources for balms to ward off this sickness, but they are an absolute must-have. The disparate party members (along with a good number of the town's residents) are in line for the distribution of this balm when they run out and frenzy ensues. Your party members could already have gotten theirs and would be approached or attacked by other residents who did not. They would be pleading with the party about why they need the balm while they attack, their family, why they don't deserve to die, etc. As this encounter is ending (or right before it does. maybe some people have died.), a little girl runs into the square with wooden buckets overflowing with this plant. She urges everyone not to fight- look! there's enough for everyone! The fronds of the balm passed out earlier were browned and flimsy and sad. The fronds in the girl's buckets are lush. If asked where she got them growing, she just says she ran everywhere to pick them. At this point, someone employs the party to investigate (because they were seen successfully (I assume) fending off their attackers, and they look tough.) This employer could be someone who was attacking them just a minute ago, or, if the party killed some of them and they're now frightened, it could be someone watching from a shadowy corner. Either way, their motivations are not selfless. They want to know where the little girl got her supply so they can capitalize off it later (and suspect the party will run into more trouble than they're leading on).
They give the party a lead. Maybe an elderly person the girl always runs errands for (now that her parents are dead) who might know of her recent suspicious behavior... seeing the knots of his rowboat tied differently in the morning and suspecting her of taking it out at night... But will only talk to the party if they can convince him they mean no harm. this old man might go with the party if they choose to use one of his boats to tail the girl at night. if this is the case, in the confrontation with the witch (the girl's supplier), the witch would target and drown the old man in front of the child first, calling it part of her payment. Maybe when the party is questioning the old man earlier, the consequences of her deal with the witch start creeping up. Maybe the girl left her buckets with him and now creatures of disease are climbing out of them. That might be enough to convince him there is witch business afoot and would agree to help the party put a stop to it. SORRY I have written more than I intended to no pressure with any of this.
TLDR: Little girl makes deal with a water witch for a supply of the balm that wards off the corpse-sickness. Maybe they always regrow in two enchanted wooden buckets, but then other, more nefarious things start growing in the buckets as well. Or maybe she unknowingly leads a large group of people into the witch's trap or agrees to do a small (seemingly innocent) favor for the witch in return, like placing bog-monster eggs around town.
here me out... kidnapped. by the water witches. in a stewpot. cuts fey deal to escape
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Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Gothic horror is a wonderful genre and it sounds like you've got yourself a cool setting. Here's a few ideas of the top of my head:
Some sort of monster is trying to chew/chop/cut/mold/burn the stilts holding up the city, causing structural instability and threatening to send the entire township into the plague pit below.
With the close proximity to disease, maybe there is a thriving guild of barber surgeons and plague doctors who ward against the illness.
Ghosts of the people killed by the witches start haunting the city. Targeting the local watchmen because they failed to protect them from the witches.
A huge part of gothic horror is the setting. Maybe you could literally personify the town with a spirit of Krezkovich who is sick and weak because of the plague swamp.
Maybe the water witches are given a child each year as a sort of offering to protect the town from their wickedness. The party could be approached by this year's child's parents who beg them to save their kid. Maybe the children given to the witches grow up into horrifying monsters under their influence.
I collect bits of folklore and mythology. I got a good section on spirits of disease and plague and I'll put some of it in a spoiler for you if you want to look through it.
Chuma: daughter of the god of the underworld, Chernabog
Pale woman with long white hair and and dress. Not negative. Brought a peaceful death. Carried a birch staff and scissors. She used scissors to snip the string of life. The staff was given to aid on the spirit's journey to the underworld. She protected people from demons. They thought that she liked a clean house so she spread cleanliness, protecting people from the plague.
Angont: A dragon serpent from the Huron in Canada. It causes disease and death. Sorcerers would rub small objects like hair, nails, animal claws, wheat leaves, etc. The object becomes malevolent and cursed. It penetrates the flesh of the target causing immense pain and the target can only be saved if the object is found and removed.
Fad Felen- yellow maned hag who brought plague to Wales. Would sometimes appear as a towering pillar of yellow mist. Anyone caught in the pillar would die.
Iku-Turso: From the Kalevala, a giant walrus/squid monstrosity. He is the father of the nine plagues. Protects sacred items and rips apart those who try to steal them with his tusks.
In Scotland, it was believed that the plague traveled through the air so wheaten loaves were raised in the air on poles to catch the plague. When the bread was discolored they would bury it to protect the village.
The three sons of Louhi: Ruho/Rujo (carcass), Rampa (crippled), and Perisokea (blind from birth)
Nezit: Zombie-like monster that can spread disease, deafness, blindness, and cause people’s teeth to fall out by a touch.
Toothworms: demons that caused toothache by burrowing inside of a tooth and wriggling about to cause pain. Looked like eels or maggots
The plague is often a backrider, forcing a poor wretch to carry her about from town to town where she kills everyone. When he spots her steering him towards his native village, he drowns himself to save them.
Likho: A small, one eyed goblin, bringer of misfortune, backrider, tantalizer, drowner. Chases people. The victim spots some valuable item, they stop to pick it up out of greed but they discover that their hand sticks to it and they have to cut off their hand to get away. Eats people. “Don’t wake Likho while it is quiet.” Associated with odd numbers.
Akaname: Scum licker. A yokai with little to no real information about it. Creepy creature that licks dirty bathtubs and is often depicted scratching its head. Because of its association with scum, it could be a servant of Pesta. More goblin-like
Tenjoname: Ceiling licker. A tall yokai with a mane of paper strips who licks scum and filth off of ceilings. They leave a stain where the lick that sometimes takes the form of human faces in distress. Staring at these faces for too long can drive one mad and even lead to death. There was a Samurai who captured one and it cleaned his palace of cobwebs.
Currently my players (blood hunter, sorcerer, ranger, and Monk) are in this town on stilts called Krezkovich and I am trying to figure out what adventure I could do to bring them together for a later plot. The idea behind the setting is that the town is standing over the waters of a Moor filled with disease and parasites from the amount of bodies that rot in its waters. The deeper ends of the moor are also rumored to have water witches that steal away people. What are some adventures that I can bring that both are good for connecting players while also fitting into that Gothic horror niche?
This setting sounds really cool!
If your player's characters aren't already working together, you could definitely have an NPC offer them specifically a job if that NPC sees them handling a surprise situation. Maybe... This town has limited resources for balms to ward off this sickness, but they are an absolute must-have. The disparate party members (along with a good number of the town's residents) are in line for the distribution of this balm when they run out and frenzy ensues. Your party members could already have gotten theirs and would be approached or attacked by other residents who did not. They would be pleading with the party about why they need the balm while they attack, their family, why they don't deserve to die, etc. As this encounter is ending (or right before it does. maybe some people have died.), a little girl runs into the square with wooden buckets overflowing with this plant. She urges everyone not to fight- look! there's enough for everyone! The fronds of the balm passed out earlier were browned and flimsy and sad. The fronds in the girl's buckets are lush. If asked where she got them growing, she just says she ran everywhere to pick them. At this point, someone employs the party to investigate (because they were seen successfully (I assume) fending off their attackers, and they look tough.) This employer could be someone who was attacking them just a minute ago, or, if the party killed some of them and they're now frightened, it could be someone watching from a shadowy corner. Either way, their motivations are not selfless. They want to know where the little girl got her supply so they can capitalize off it later (and suspect the party will run into more trouble than they're leading on).
They give the party a lead. Maybe an elderly person the girl always runs errands for (now that her parents are dead) who might know of her recent suspicious behavior... seeing the knots of his rowboat tied differently in the morning and suspecting her of taking it out at night... But will only talk to the party if they can convince him they mean no harm. this old man might go with the party if they choose to use one of his boats to tail the girl at night. if this is the case, in the confrontation with the witch (the girl's supplier), the witch would target and drown the old man in front of the child first, calling it part of her payment. Maybe when the party is questioning the old man earlier, the consequences of her deal with the witch start creeping up. Maybe the girl left her buckets with him and now creatures of disease are climbing out of them. That might be enough to convince him there is witch business afoot and would agree to help the party put a stop to it. SORRY I have written more than I intended to no pressure with any of this.
TLDR: Little girl makes deal with a water witch for a supply of the balm that wards off the corpse-sickness. Maybe they always regrow in two enchanted wooden buckets, but then other, more nefarious things start growing in the buckets as well. Or maybe she unknowingly leads a large group of people into the witch's trap or agrees to do a small (seemingly innocent) favor for the witch in return, like placing bog-monster eggs around town.
here me out... kidnapped. by the water witches. in a stewpot. cuts fey deal to escape
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
I really like the initially one, while I'm still in the market for other possibilities, this is a great one, thanks!
Gothic horror is a wonderful genre and it sounds like you've got yourself a cool setting. Here's a few ideas of the top of my head:
Some sort of monster is trying to chew/chop/cut/mold/burn the stilts holding up the city, causing structural instability and threatening to send the entire township into the plague pit below.
With the close proximity to disease, maybe there is a thriving guild of barber surgeons and plague doctors who ward against the illness.
Ghosts of the people killed by the witches start haunting the city. Targeting the local watchmen because they failed to protect them from the witches.
A huge part of gothic horror is the setting. Maybe you could literally personify the town with a spirit of Krezkovich who is sick and weak because of the plague swamp.
Maybe the water witches are given a child each year as a sort of offering to protect the town from their wickedness. The party could be approached by this year's child's parents who beg them to save their kid. Maybe the children given to the witches grow up into horrifying monsters under their influence.
I collect bits of folklore and mythology. I got a good section on spirits of disease and plague and I'll put some of it in a spoiler for you if you want to look through it.
Chuma: daughter of the god of the underworld, Chernabog
Pale woman with long white hair and and dress. Not negative. Brought a peaceful death. Carried a birch staff and scissors. She used scissors to snip the string of life. The staff was given to aid on the spirit's journey to the underworld. She protected people from demons. They thought that she liked a clean house so she spread cleanliness, protecting people from the plague.
Angont: A dragon serpent from the Huron in Canada. It causes disease and death. Sorcerers would rub small objects like hair, nails, animal claws, wheat leaves, etc. The object becomes malevolent and cursed. It penetrates the flesh of the target causing immense pain and the target can only be saved if the object is found and removed.
Fad Felen- yellow maned hag who brought plague to Wales. Would sometimes appear as a towering pillar of yellow mist. Anyone caught in the pillar would die.
Iku-Turso: From the Kalevala, a giant walrus/squid monstrosity. He is the father of the nine plagues. Protects sacred items and rips apart those who try to steal them with his tusks.
In Scotland, it was believed that the plague traveled through the air so wheaten loaves were raised in the air on poles to catch the plague. When the bread was discolored they would bury it to protect the village.
The three sons of Louhi: Ruho/Rujo (carcass), Rampa (crippled), and Perisokea (blind from birth)
Nezit: Zombie-like monster that can spread disease, deafness, blindness, and cause people’s teeth to fall out by a touch.
Toothworms: demons that caused toothache by burrowing inside of a tooth and wriggling about to cause pain. Looked like eels or maggots
The plague is often a backrider, forcing a poor wretch to carry her about from town to town where she kills everyone. When he spots her steering him towards his native village, he drowns himself to save them.
Likho: A small, one eyed goblin, bringer of misfortune, backrider, tantalizer, drowner. Chases people. The victim spots some valuable item, they stop to pick it up out of greed but they discover that their hand sticks to it and they have to cut off their hand to get away. Eats people. “Don’t wake Likho while it is quiet.” Associated with odd numbers.
Akaname: Scum licker. A yokai with little to no real information about it. Creepy creature that licks dirty bathtubs and is often depicted scratching its head. Because of its association with scum, it could be a servant of Pesta. More goblin-like
Tenjoname: Ceiling licker. A tall yokai with a mane of paper strips who licks scum and filth off of ceilings. They leave a stain where the lick that sometimes takes the form of human faces in distress. Staring at these faces for too long can drive one mad and even lead to death. There was a Samurai who captured one and it cleaned his palace of cobwebs.
Nosoi: disease spirits that escaped Pandora’s box