Growing One Hundred Adventure Seeds

[Josh]

Seed 10 is A blackguard is organising monsters in the area
Well I like this one a lot. There’s just something about total villains that really resonates with me.
Who’s the blackguard? What manner of evil motivates them? What are these monsters they’re unifying and to what end? Why were they disorganised to start with? Lots of good questions.

Version 1: The prospectors of the salt plains gambled everything to come here in search of wealth. Instead they found hell: portals to the abyss, long-buried, at least one for every meagre seam of gold. When Galinar of the White Shield came with shining armour and noble countenance the terrified locals thought their troubles ended. But when Galinar emerged from the earth he was not the same. The pcs might be approached by a grim-faced priest, or a one-time friend of Galinar. Can they find out if Galinar has truly fallen? What is his purpose in gathering the demons of the plains ? Can he be redeemed? Find out and report back. Of course when they get there, they may find that matters are too urgent for that, and if they want to stop the Horde of the Broken Shield from breaking open the Black Chasm they will have to act themselves.

Version 2: border forts along the wild north marches are being burned and collapsed. Survivors’ accounts are confused and contradictory: some claim savage orcs were to blame, others shadow-cloaked drow assassins, while yet others swear deep dwarf infantry and tunnelling kobolds took the towers. Never mind that all these threats are well known to despise each other and that none have approached the border for decades.

The pcs are sent to find the truth of the matter: inspect the ruined forts and track the enemy to their base. This path leads to the fallen temple of dead Koldor. It’s lone remaining priest Ilana, grief crazed, has been busy gathering new acolytes from the disenfranchised of many peoples, and now they are set on punishing the world that failed them. When the raiders are deployed the giant temple is poorly defended, but there are dangers in the winding corridors and chambers of Koldor beyond even Ilana’s mad creations.

Version 3: the pcs are invited to meet a druid, or circle of druids in the Eternity Wood as a matter of some urgency, and are provided a magical map to do so. The map secures safe passage through the vast shadowy forest, but when they reach the druids, they find devestation and bloody carnage. A lone survivor, heavily wounded, tells them of the Black Bear, a rogue druid of unspeakable cruelty. She is corrupting the great predators of the wood, binding them into a Grievous Pack with her as their alpha. If the balance of the wood is to survive she and her creations must be destroyed. Even if the PCs balk at this task they must find their way back out of the predator haunted forest on their own: the map was only one way.

Version 4: Ten years ago, the twin cities through down their tyrant and formed a people’s council to rule. The path has been hard but many of the old injustices are being slowly laid to rest. The PCs might be hired by the guard to resolve just such an injustice: stop a dockside child-fighting ring, find proof of a merchant’s corruption, or evidence that a wealthy man is hoarding desperately needed food. Whatever the case, the pcs will soon find that they face unexpected, violent opposition. The guard who hired them disappears, scummy street thugs object to the investigation of the wealthy or elite assassins protect back-alley gang leaders. The only common factor is a small goats head tattoo hidden on the body of each reprobate. A cheerful, larger-than-life minstrel who works at the player’s tavern of choice may be able to offer helpful tips for their investigation. How many traps will they have to survive before they realise that true evil can come with a smile and a song?

[Josh]

Seed 11 A gate to the lower planes threatens to bring more demons to the world.

Version 1 The quiet countryside region of the White Fields is suddenly abuzz with violence and Big Events. Everyone knows that The Amulet of the Open Heart has been found , and that everyone who got hold of it so far has quickly wound up dead. Fewer know what the amulet is, except that it is clearly valuable enough to bring all these groups of killing men into the area. In truth, after a week of wear the Amulet opens a gate to whichever plane is most similar to the bearer’s values. Dark cultists wish to usher demonic hordes into the world, and noble paladins vow to bring the amulet to the Child as has long been prophecies, and allow the angels to return. Others think nothing good can come of this, and intend to throw the amulet deep into the nearest volcano. And then there are the anarchist collectives who think a bit of Limbo is just what this stultified world needs. Perhaps the PCs have come to White Fields aligned with one of these groups, or they find themselves on the route to somewhere more interesting when everything kicks off. A PC who has a go at wearing the amulet, a person who earns a living through violence, is most likely to find themselves opening a route to Archeron, or perhaps Ysgard if very virtuous, regardless of their stated values.

Version 2:
At the mouth of the Shadow Canyon sits the Fortress of the Lamp, its inhabitants ever watchful for demonic incursions from the canyon mouth and standing vigil over the penumbra key. That’s the theory anyway, but after 2000 years without an incursion, the Order of the Lamp has grown small and irrelevant. So when a mysterious figure breaks into the Fortress and makes off with the key that opens the door to hell, the faithful have no recourse but to hire adventurers to venture into the Canyon and stop the thief before it is too late. The PCs must face ancient specters, vertical climbs up treacherous walls, demon-corrupted hawks and guardian golems whose control words noone remembers. The thief, set on releasing his dark mistress on the world, is unlikely to miss their pursuers, and the twisting canyons provide ample opportunity for ambushes.

Version 3:

The PCs are drawn by rumour or promise of employment to the fantastical gnommish town of Glenholm-by-Everwhere. Its mayor and first citizen is a wizard-inventor of marvelous skill and his Gate of Infinite Possibilities stands proudly in the town square. With it, the locals have convenient, instant travel to metropolises across the world and are becoming fabulously wealthy through trade. But all is not well in Glenholm. Demons stalk the sewers and shadows, killing and corrupting what they will. A concerned apprentice comes to the PCs. He has proof that the mayor’s portal is dangerously fraying reality, allowing demons into the town every time it is used! His calculations suggest erupt into a full-fledged tear to the Abyss within months, but the mayor is unconvinced and has cast him out. He implores the PCs to travel through the gate and destroy the four Gate-Anchors that allow it to function. He promises the PCs some of his master’s less flawed magical creations that he has stolen if they undertake this fast paced romp leading through sun-baked souks, windswept arctic plateaus, a coral-encrusted city beneath the waves and the goblin-markets of the underdark.

[Josh]

The next seed is Miners have accidentally released something awful that once was buried deep

Version 1. Poisonous gas

The iron mines on the edge of the city are the source of all it’s wealth, but the crumbly ground is full of dangers, and abandoned half-collapsed tunnels become havens for bandits and worse. Recently the miners have hit a gas pocket: a vast portion of the operational mine is full of toxic gas. Their are a dozen miners trapped beyond, and they may still be alive, but their food and air will run out for sure within a day or so. The old maps suggest an alternate route round to them through the abandoned ways, but it would take brave souls indeed to make the journey.

Version 2. Cursed murder rubies

In a village market an old woman bludgeons a stranger with an iron pan. In a quiet tavern, a respected, hard working man cuts the throat of his best friend. In the mining village of Coalseam, the local beadle turns to outside help for understanding these inexplicable crimes. It is the rubies of course, a seam recently uncovered and worth more than the whole village put together. The working man stole one for his retirement. The old lady was gifted one by her son, the owner of the mine. a simple thing for the PCs to collapse the mine tunnel and gather the offending cursed gems. Except the mine owner has already sent a hundred fine jewels for sale in the city and is unwilling to recall them…

Version 3. It hurts when you don’t write

The miners of Whiteport have released an aboleth, long buried in the abyssal sea beneath . Now, they are it’s mind controlled agents, and pursue it’s plans to excavate a tunnel to the open ocean beyond, uninterested that this is starting to collapse the town above. Some have noticed the changed personalities of their friends and family, or that some of the beggars have vanished (turned into skum slaves) but none have realised anything substantial is wrong. The pcs are perhaps asked to check on the health of a patrons pen pal in Whiteport, who works as a mine architect. They have not heard from him in some months. The perfectly healthy architect will simply say he has started to find the patron annoying. If the pcs investigate then slowly the full conspiracy will become apparent. Otherwise next time they come this way they will find only a new canyon leading to the sea.

[hughbongo]

Isn’t that just it, eh? Mining by its very nature has that ‘ope, you hit the wrong seam’ thing going for it. Something buried that shouldn’t have been released.

I wonder.. might try a quick variation table because I think that’s a hard one to get past. I’ll go 2d6, acknowledging that daylight is going past me:

2d6 Ways Mining Can Be Interesting

02 - Mining often leads to invention and technological change
03 - The development of mines require imports of secondary means of power
04 - Mining creates complex, even labyrinthian structures
05 - Mining opens into other ancient underground space
06 - Mining is by nature an unsafe working condition
07 - Miners discover vast profit
08 - Mining creates secondary environmental issues
09 - Mining creates political instability through a change of economy
10 - Mining tends to be done by people who would probably rather be doing something else
11 - Mines get exhausted of material that for a time is thought inexhaustible
12 - Mining is often associated with land rights but in a way that is outside legal boundary

And then you just couple one of these with ‘Miners find something unexpected’ and I think you get a quick plot?

Maybe not.

I dig this one though. Loved the Aboleth in particular, in how if left unexplored, the landscape shifts; but the potential for ‘murder rubies’ as a weird form of ‘stone fire’ spreading through town is dope too.