Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

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Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by Lurker Unseen »

Good Evening,

Before we begin, allow me to introduce myself. I am a Lurker, one who hovers Unseen at the edges of the forums, always watching, listening, never revealing myself. But recent events have forced me to come out of the shadows. I stand before you because I require the assistance of The Fraternity.

I am currently in a position where I am able to witness the antics of a motley crew of “heroes”. They are presently in a small town named Barovia and have taken it upon themselves to destroy the legal ruler of the land, a person named Count Strahd von Zarovich. Despite the tremendous difficulties such a quest will entail, I have reason to believe that these bravos may in fact succeed.

If such occurs, I intend to offer a new challenge to these daredevils. That challenge would be Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill. In the expectation that they will take up this gauntlet, I have been plotting the course that they will follow. However, despite my preparations, I have failed to discover a plot point that surely will be critical to my success.

The narration of this venture requires these characters to bring together certain people, and certain artifacts and properly operate a great Apparatus. But as I read through the clues that will be presented to the hooligans, it occurs to me that they will not behave as expected. Based on my readings up to this point, I believe that they will choose to simply dismantle or destroy the Apparatus.

So, I ask you esteemed members of this Fraternity, what incentive is there for these ruffians to operate the Apparatus? Have I missed something in the text? Am I required to add a motivational plot of my own design? How have members of The Fraternity addressed this in their own enactments?

I thank you for the time you have devoted to reading my poor missive. I look forward to receiving your dark wisdom. And finally, I hope you have a Good Evening, or at the least, one with no lethal incidents.



Your Most Unapparent Admirer,

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Lord_Pruitt
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by Lord_Pruitt »

Something you as a DM should try, in situations like this, is to make the plot-points very personal to the PCs. A suggestion is to have at least one, or more, NPCs affected by the Apparatus that your PCs would care about having returned to the correct body. Perhaps a family member or a love interest.

Although, sometimes, without beating the players over the head with ye ole plot-hammer, you just can't get them to stay on focus for your plot ideas.
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

IIRC the key to getting them to use the Apparatus is to have it do damage that is best repaired by using it again: the personality-swapped residents of Mordentshire. Destroy the device, and the town clerk will forever be stuck in the body of a ghast, the laundress in a shadow, the banker in a giant spider, etc.

I would even fudge die rolls if they are about to kill the "monster," and give them extra opportunities to figure out that it's not a threat. Make sure they leave the majority of the monsters alive, so that they are literally begging to be swapped back at the end. No mercy killing allowed--that's an AoUD in my book, at least once it's all clear. They have the chance to make things right, and they just destroy the machine and kill two dozen innocent people? They might get through five before I declared AoUD and took away their character. Play up their social connections to these people before they were switched. Especially if there's anyone who's a native of the town, these are their friends, family and neighbors. What else would they do to set things right?
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by Lurker Unseen »

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Good Evening Lord Pruitt,

Thank you for your advice. I believe that I could indeed include an affected character dear to the heroes. Although, the concern I have is not that they will be uncaring about the plight of the villagers. It is that the clues do not instruct them to operate the Apparatus. However, if I do as you say, I can have a trusted ally who is in deliver the required instructions to them.

At this time, I intend to implement the fine advice you have shared. I wish you a Good Evening.

Ever in your debt,


The Lurker Unseen
Last edited by Lurker Unseen on Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by Lurker Unseen »

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Good Evening Sir DeepShadow,

I am grateful for your reply. But it seems that I have not properly explained my dilemma. The narrative explains that there is an item of magick, namely The Ring of Reversion, that is quite effective in restoring the poor transpossessed souls to their original bodies. As such, there is no reason to utilize the Apparatus to achieve their restoration. The heroes only must prevent it from being used on additional villagers. I suspect, they will devise the most direct way to prevent its operation and dismantle it.

Luckily, Lord Pruitt has made a fine suggestion that I believe will guide these heroes to the desired conclusion. However, if I am missing some information, I beseech thee to enlighten me.

I have enjoyed our correspondence and I wish you a Good Evening.

Humbly yours,

The Lurker Unseen
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by DustBunny »

Lurker Unseen wrote: ...namely The Ring of Reversion, that is quite effective in restoring the poor transpossessed souls to their original bodies. As such, there is no reason to utilize the Apparatus to achieve their restoration. The heroes only must prevent it from being used on additional villagers. I suspect, they will devise the most direct way to prevent its operation and dismantle it.
The ring of reversion just needs a tweak or two to cut it down to size.

The most direct way is to link its function to the Apparatus itself. It draws its power from the machine (both were created by the alchemist and both work with transposession), and if they destroy the machine the ring wont work anymore. They can find this information in the alchemists notes or from the alchemist himself. And unless they obtain the apparatus, then all their efforts are for naught as for every person they fix another gets transposessed.

A lesser way to make PC's agonize over using it is to assign it charges. It has limited charges and can only be used a number of times before it runs out of power. They can recharge it of course - either by draining their precious magic items or feeding it expensive gems. Hero types are always loathe to sacrifice 'their stuff' when another solution exists.

Or finally, split the difference of the above two - the ring has limited charges and must be placed in a slot on the on the operational apparatus to be re-charged. Until all the villagers are reverted to normal they can not destroy the machine as they need it to repower the ring after a certain number of reversions - and quite convientley there are more villagers than charges, especially if the PC's use its power without thought.
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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by Lurker Unseen »

Good Evening Sir Dust Bunny,

Please excuse my delayed response. I have had matters to attend to that have kept me away. Also, your suggestion of linking the power of the Ring of Reversion to the Apparatus has given me much to ponder. I believe that this solves the dilemma quite nicely. The adventurers will not be able to dismantle the Apparatus without nullifying the powers of the Ring. Therefore they will be forced to find the Creature and put an end to nefarious plan.

Thank you sir, and you again Sir DeepShadow and Sir Pruitt. All of you advice has been of benefit and will be utilized.

Gratefully yours,


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Re: Assistance Request: House on Gryphon Hill

Post by The Lesser Evil »

Lurker Unseen wrote:.
Good Evening Lord Pruitt,

Thank you for your advice. I believe that I could indeed include an affected character dear to the heroes. Although, the concern I have is not that they will be uncaring about the plight of the villagers. It is that the clues do not instruct them to operate the Apparatus. However, if I do as you say, I can have a trusted ally who is in deliver the required instructions to them.

At this time, I intend to implement the fine advice you have shared. I wish you a Good Evening.

Ever in your debt,


The Lurker Unseen
You don't necessarily have to hand them instructions on a silver platter; they might be responsible for going about some of the legwork. Other hints on how use the Apparatus might be found in assorted notes scattered about or from interrogation from captured rival parties whom may try to use the Apparatus for their own (nefarious?) ends. Former colleagues of the Alchemist or toadies of the Creature might seek it, as might the the Ildi'Thaan (see the Forbidden Lore boxed set) or the Brotherhood of Contemplative Power (from Thoughts of Darkness, a module that has a rod with a special connection to the Apparatus.) A little competition from (misinformed or sinister) third parties for the Apparatus might make for a nice complication and some additional incentives to find the Apparatus all the quicker.

On another note, I believe there's also a sanitarium/mental asylum mentioned in I10: the House on Griffin Hill, and the player characters could visit some people driven insane (or perhaps just seemingly driven insane) by the Apparatus there.
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