Borca adventures plan

[Joël of the FoS]

In my campaign, after Bleak House, the PCs have to go to Levkarest, as they promised they will enquire the vanishing of many women around the Cathedral.

A) CATHEDRAL VANISHING

Since the women who vanished are often look-alike of Ivana Boritsi (who is a look-alike of Ezra), for the moment, the PCs suspect Ivana as the one killing these woman in exchange for her eternal youth.

This is of course false as the problem is the Gargoyle of the Cathedral (BoSorrows , by Andrew Cermak)

I'm wondering as how to make this enquiry and investigation interesting. The woman disappear about once or a few times per month only, so there is plenty of spare time in between.

They will investigate the few last vanishing, but I need to plan a few things to bring them in the right direction, as well as red herrings and make it all fun.

I will make clear that this all started when the Cathedral was inaugurated, to make a link with the Sculptor who made the Gargoyle.

Meanwhile, the Gargoyle has an obsession with Ivana, as she is the perfect image of Ezra.

B) IVANA NEEDS THEM

At one point where they will know it is a monstrous thing they are looking for (perhaps after witnessing it), they have a meeting with Ivana or Nostalia.

Ivana is worrying "as she saw a large monster at her window" last night, and she feels she needs protection.

The Juggler is away for two weeks "for family business". Ivana says he leaves every year at this time but do not know why or where (another GC mystery to solve later...)

Since three months, the PCs (unwillingly) write her "reports" of their actions so she knows they are capable and useful. Thus she asking them for protection. Can they refuse?

So she asks them to spend the nights in Misericordia's castle with her (that should please them ). They see the monster one night but it flees when the PCs attack.

And perhaps give them opportunities to explore the place ...

Perhaps an ongoing flirt with a PC (there were a few hints of that before), we'll see where it goes ...

C) IVAN ENTERS THE DANCE

They have a private lunch in an eaterie in Levkarest with Nostalia, to give them info or whatever.

Suddenly Ivan crashes the room, a bottle of wine in hand. He wanted to meet the heroes (from hearing of a previous good deed they made) and have wine with them. He brought a very good vintage of a famous Invidian Château and opens it.

(Ivan wants to know Ivana's eternal youth secret. He plans to give the heroes wine tainted with Borrowed Time, the poison where they have to take the antidote every day unless they nearly die. But it won't work that way...)

Nostalia will grab a pitcher of water and strongly suggest the PCs drink water before tasting the wine, "to cleanse their palate before".

Nosalia and some PCs drink the wine (or Ivan is very offended)

Nostalia teases Ivan over the exquisite taste of this bottle "isn't it, Sir Ivan? Can you show us the full extent of your wine knowledge and tell us ignorants what we should be finding as we taste the wine?" (She is a bitch as knows he can't taste anything). Ivan is a bit angry and keeps it in check.

At one point, Nostalia leaves the private room for the restrooms, leaving the PCs alone with Ivan. Then, he menaces the PCs, telling them they just drank Borrowed Time (with a description). He tells them he knows they are close to Ivana these days so they will get the final antidote only when they will bring him the secret he starves for!

Nostalia is back and Ivan shortly leaves.

She asked them if he menaced the PCs, and tell them their informants told them he would soon do such a thing. In the pitcher of water was a protection against ingested poison, so they are NOT under Borrowed Time.

She suggests the PCs play along and make Ivan believe they are poisoned and under his control.

At night, they meet an agent of Ivan, who, at their first encounter, gives them just five doses of daily antidote (they are six), "to motivate them", a cruel teasing. Every night, they meet this person and get the antidotes...

Possible false information transmitted to Ivan by Ivana through this channel?


X) Icon of Danzig side trek.

Lollar Boritsi will again ask the PCs about the Icon located in Ivana's bedroom.

"We just would like to study it a few hours then bring it back, she won't notice", he says

But his plan is to replace it with a forgery.


X) IVAN TRIES AGAIN

At one point, Ivan will understand the heroes are not under his control. He will have the PCs tailed by an informant, and will have a woman wrongly accusing one of the PCs of assault, to give them trouble.

Arrest by local police (led by Victor Momeala)

The PCs will have to wait until Ivana clears the matter and the PCs are losing time.

X) IVAN TRIES AGAIN PART II

Ivan found Severin's weakness (he loves Ivana in secret) and will manipulate him in causing trouble to the PCs.

I haven't thought of this yet, how it could go.

D) GARGOYLE ATTACK

One evening, Ivana has to be outside for an annual midnight feast.

On the way there, the Gargoyle attacks and tries to snatch her away. Ivana's poison is without effect on the beast.

And the PCs (hopefully) defeats the beast, or drive it away.

E) The DEATHSTONE

After, Ivana asks them about having a conversation with a dead person!

During the GC, the Deathstone emited voices and a servant came to Ivana to tell her. But she was with Ivan, who was crying in fear over the GC troubles. She waved the servant away. Problem is, Ivan killed the servant the next day so the servant would not tell of his cowardice, so Ivana never knew what were these voices coming out of the Deathstone...

Can the PCs contact the spirit of the dead servant and ask him? (what message?)

Also, as she now trusts the PCs, so she could ask them to identify the Deathstone's magic.

Then she will learn of the problems that will arise soon if she makes many more ermordenungs (the spirits will exit the rock).

I haven't thought a course of action after this.

F) IVAN ATTACKS and END OF IVAN?

*** possibility to explore *** Haven't an idea on how for the moment, but after this attack on the PCs, Ivana is fed up and approves an assassination attempt on Ivan.

Details to be thought of.

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This is my Borcan plan for the moment. Ideas welcomed!

I need to infuse this plan with a few cool battle encounters.

[Joël of the FoS]

One more question. The Gargoyle kills woman that look like Ezra. And then? What does it do with the corpses? It doesn’t eat them, so where does it leaves the bodies?

The article say the women vanish, so the bodies are never found...

—-

I am also thinking of giving it a cool supernatural ability, something unique for this creature. Two possibilities.

- a gaze attack that would give someone an obsession with Ezra. Save missed : drop everything and pray Ezra

- something associated with height. It spends so much time up there! Perhaps a phantasmagoria or illusion like thing. Save missed : you think you were teleported to the top of the church tower and now you are falling.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I thought up a few abilities that the gargoyle could have:

-- Aura of Vertigo: Similar to the height illusion, but approaching the gargoyle causes one to get the sensation of height and loss of balance. Should the gargoyle land and a combatant charge it, this aura could break off such an attack.

-- Reach through Stone: When the gargoyle puts his limbs through a patch of stone, it can cause them to emerge from another connected region of stone at a distance. For example, as the adventurers are fighting it, it reaches into a nearby wall, then its claw emerges from the floor to trip someone.

-- Induced Automatonophobia: Victims of this attack become convinced that all statues are alive, malicious, and moving while no one is looking. This drives them to distraction and paranoia, and makes it easier for the gargoyle to evade notice. What is one statue when you think the problem is everywhere?

[The Lesser Evil]

I'm gonna shoot out a lot of ideas here with the expectation you'll pick and choose whichever of them you'd like. (To include them all might make for a pretty busy game.)

Ideas on making the investigation interesting:
1)Investigation into Ivana Boritsi could lead into any number of her atrocities as red herrings, such as the creation of ermordenung. (Besides Nostalia Romaine, there's a few listed in the city stat blocks in Gaz IV, and there's an NPC profile "Elenia Windalla" in the Book of Crypts.) Ivana also may have had a illegitimate daughter at once point, that might resurface. She could be targeted for assassination by Ivana but become kidnapped by the gargoyle or vice versa.

2)Toret Johann Severin could be a link to shift their attention from Ivana Boritsi back to the Cathedral. His possible obsession with Ivana Boritsi may cause him to become targeted by the jealous Gargoyle. The Gargoyle may observe him seemingly enjoying the affections of Boritsi (only for her to be playing with him, of course, but the Gargoyle won't know that.) The Gargoyle could try to murder Severin, or could kidnap him to interrogate him what he knows about Ivana and how to win her love.

3) The spirit of the Gargoyle's sculptor could periodically manifest in the Cathedral, perhaps to fix the church after it's vandalized by one of the Gargoyle's victim's lovers cursing his loved one's fate. (If the murdered woman resembled and had faith in Ezra, the grieving lover might blame Ezra for not protecting her. The spirit of the creator's dedication to seeing the church's construction may cause it to rise from the grave in order to see the church fixed.) The player characters might witness or hear about it coincidentally when they visit Lollar. At the time, they (or at least, Lollar) may just pass it off as an oddity. Historical records might show that the spirit manifested periodically during the construction of the Great Cathedral and then stopped once it was completed. Depending on your needs, the sculptor's ghost may become more than a clue to the Golem and become a menace in its own right.

4) The player characters might be approached by Ratik Ubel, who will give them information on Ivana and/or the missing persons (information gained back when he worked for Ivan) on the proviso that the player characters turn on Ivan, either killing/severely wounding him or finding a piece of information that Ratik believes Ivan has on his killer that Ivan withheld from him. Ivan may or may not really have the information, of course, but that won't sway Ratik. If they find nothing, Ratik may come after them.

On Ivan's death and the fallout thereof:
1) Sensing his imminent death, Ivan may have set off a contingency sour grapes plan that some of his minions to blow up or otherwise destroy the death stone if he periodically doesn't check in every so often. Ivan may know of the consequences, but his minions may not. Stopping said detonation could make for an investigation and/or combat encounters in and of itself.

2) Third parties may try to take advantage of any strife between Ivan and Ivana. Falkovnian spies may in the loop of Ivan and Ivana's complete breakdown of faux civility and decide to take advantage of the situation. they could beat hemming and hawing PCs to the punch and attempt to frame them. With Borca in chaos, the Falkovnians may try to invade.

Alternatively, Thissallra Torr (see Children of the Night: Demons on the Kargatane website) may try to push something. He could have fallen in league with the Jongleur and the Gentleman Caller in some horrible plan, but then betray them with his own schemes (as outlined in CotN: Demons). In any case, Thissallra and/or the Jongleur could be a pivot point to shift to the Gentleman Caller if/when you decide you were done with Borca.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

One more question. The Gargoyle kills woman that look like Ezra. And then? What does it do with the corpses? It doesn’t eat them, so where does it leaves the bodies?

The article say the women vanish, so the bodies are never found...

If there is enough crypt space beneath the Cathedral, the Gargoyle could inter the women in old tombs. No one would be likely to look, since most would not want to disturb the rest of those honored with burial beneath the Cathedral. This could result in a restless dead problem; the spirits of murder victims build up in the Cathedral and properly entombed dead rise in anger at the violation of their graves.

[DustBunny]

One more question. The Gargoyle kills woman that look like Ezra. And then? What does it do with the corpses? It doesn’t eat them, so where does it leaves the bodies?

The article say the women vanish, so the bodies are never found...

Crypts under the cathedral is logical but a bit 'meh'.

1) Maybe some of the lesser statues around the cathedral are a bit more than they appear, given the petrification special attack. With a grand cathedral with many alcoves, rooms, gardens and such no one would notice an extra statue or two which looks like Ezra. A bit dull, but suppose one of the lesser statues starts crying blood or such...

2) It's trying to make its own 'perfect' form out of the 'inferior' parts. A bit like Adam it has a concealed lab where it is trying to assemble the 'perfect' image. This however isn't a brilliant surgeon but a butcher, so the 'lab' is a house of horrors. Maybe it even got one to 'sort of' work - but the thing wandered off and now people are reporting they have seen Ezra wandering the chapel (not to closely of course as the skin job is bad)

3) It turns them to stone and grinds them up, using the dust for repairs to the cathedral. Since they deceived it with their 'false form' they can serve it for the greater glory by keeping the building in good repair. However the material still contains the spirit of the victim, and some disturbing patterns (twisted faces and such) can be seen where the 'special mortar' has been used.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

3) It turns them to stone and grinds them up, using the dust for repairs to the cathedral. Since they deceived it with their 'false form' they can serve it for the greater glory by keeping the building in good repair. However the material still contains the spirit of the victim, and some disturbing patterns (twisted faces and such) can be seen where the 'special mortar' has been used.

If the gargoyle uses its victims as building materials in any way, shape, or form (or just bricks them up behind some walls) the cathedral could accidentally gain some Living Walls. That could make the undercroft severely dangerous, and acolytes could start disappearing when they attend to stuff down below. The choice of the corpses' ultimate fate could be made to have far reaching consequences that are beyond the gargoyle's control or awareness.

[DustBunny]

If the gargoyle uses its victims as building materials in any way, shape, or form (or just bricks them up behind some walls) the cathedral could accidentally gain some Living Walls. That could make the undercroft severely dangerous, and acolytes could start disappearing when they attend to stuff down below. The choice of the corpses' ultimate fate could be made to have far reaching consequences that are beyond the gargoyle's control or awareness.

Oooh, I like that one.

But instead of your typical horrifying amalgam living wall, perhaps the cathedral has something like the Sistine Chapel ceiling - a grand mural of Ezra's glory.

However at certain times, the ceiling comes alive due to the 'special plaster' used for repairs and absorbs anyone below. And the unfortunate victim appears as a character in the grand mural - usually in one of the 'sinners get punished' scenes. Nobody has really noticed the 'extras' because those who stay around and examine it too closely for a long time tend to disappear....

But I fully agree with the disposal having additional effects. Sure the PC's may solve the gargoyle problem (or not) but its' legacy remains...

[Joël of the FoS]

Very interesting ideas, keep them coming! That idea that the G is building something is creepy!

Joël

[DustBunny]

Hmm, okay...

The G is trying to re-create it's who it thinks is its creator. Not the sculptor but Ezra.

It is turning the 'close appearance' victims to stone and removing the bits it thinks is suitable and is slowly building an Ezra statue, cementing the bits together with 'special mortar' and matching the parts carefully. The imperfect leftovers are used for building maintenance as above - and also providing security for its holy work (aka the living walls). It thinks that when the statue is comlpete, its creator Ezra will return and fix it of its ugliness.

The statue is almost done but it needs two more bits - a head and a heart. It has decided that Ivana's head is just right for the task. It can't just grab her as it may damage the head.
So it has to work by other means (Ivan?). As for the heart ... Hmmm... isn't there a magic stone with spirits inside it around somewhere nearby.

Of course all those spirits of the G's victims inside the statue could push it over the limit once installed...
If it doesn't, will the statue auto animate once G is gone and now you have a headless Ezra looking for a head?

[Joël of the FoS]

Those are all very cool ideas. I’ll try to keep a maximum in the final plan.

Turning the church into a house of horrors at one point is very cool.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It is turning the 'close appearance' victims to stone and removing the bits it thinks is suitable and is slowly building an Ezra statue, cementing the bits together with 'special mortar' and matching the parts carefully. The imperfect leftovers are used for building maintenance as above - and also providing security for its holy work (aka the living walls). It thinks that when the statue is comlpete, its creator Ezra will return and fix it of its ugliness.

Finally had a chance to read through and was going to post my idea and then saw it was essentially already here.

I was going the flesh-golem route instead of the stone-golem route, but yes, I think the Gargoyle might definitely be building a "bride" or a vessel for Ezra out of the bodies of its victims.

Severin might serve as a good red herring here, if you can use his Ivana obsession to get the PCs to mistake him for the culprit controlling the gargolye.

I don't remember if your PCs have access to flight. If not, just the idea of the gargoyle snatching up people, flying into the air and then dropping them is scary enough without any supernatural powers.

[Joël of the FoS]

Severin might serve as a good red herring here, if you can use his Ivana obsession to get the PCs to mistake him for the culprit controlling the gargolye.

Or more simply, he could be suspected to kidnap these woman, as they look alike Ivana

Then he vanish himself, making him look guilty.

But the G kidnaped Severin (as suggested above). The heroes save Severin and then learn the culprit of the whole thing is the Gargoyle.

The Gargoyle attacks Ivana (to finish the statue/golem), as DustBunny said above.

Meanwhile, people disappear because of the Living Wall, strange faces appear in the walls, etc.

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I was thinking, could the Gargoyle kills the woman and store the women in rock (the church crypt or the pillars) until it thinks it has enough, then turn them back to flesh and butcher them to make the golem, or a statue? At one point, a part of the church could turn to a house of horror, and that seems like a cool scene.

Joël

[DustBunny]

I was thinking, could the Gargoyle kills the woman and store the women in rock (the church crypt or the pillars) until it thinks it has enough, then turn them back to flesh and butcher them to make the golem, or a statue?

I would also be good for explaining why the cathedral hasn't been a horror house until now.

The stoned Ezra women are stored intact, and the others G has killed get mortared, which is enough to 'prime the pump' for potential horrors. As G approaches the final phase of its plan, de-stoning victims and beginning construction - all the latent horrors it created start getting woken up and causing the problems.

Maybe even turn the cathedral into a temporary greater animator. The animator is completely insane - it hates everything especially G. So now both G and the PCs are stuck inside an insane cathedral trying to complete their tasks. (With the animator you can have bleeding walls, room shifting, the whole nine yards of horror).

Eg: G is about to stomp the PC's when suddenly stone arms erupt from the wall to the sound of insane laughter and grabs G giving the PC's a change to escape, only for them to run into a two creepy juju zombies. (Come play with us PCs! Forever and ever, and ever!)

Get rid of G and its plan the horrors go back to sleep and the effects are undone ... for now.

On Edit: Thinking a bit though since you follow up with Bleak House. The animator may be a bit too close to the 'House comes alive' ending. Hmm...

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

If the Gargoyle is mortaring some and storing others, the Living Walls or Living Evil Sistine Chapel Ceiling (whichever one it ends up being) may become active during the latent phase of the Gargoyle's work, making the cathedral subtly sinister and dangerous, but not a full-blown horror house until the Gargoyle disinters its victims.

Perhaps, after that point, the cathedral becomes infested with necromantic detritus (forsaken shells, crawling claws, etc.) hostile to both the Gargoyle and anything else that gets too close. The spirits of the Ezra-like victims congeal and awaken into a phantasmagorum as the cathedral's sinkhole level plunges, and they maliciously phantom shift everyone into perceiving the twisted impression of the cathedral that has formed in the Near Ethereal.

On a side note, I was just reminded of a piece of music appropriately named Gargoyle Cathedral that I bookmarked some time ago. I included a link to it, in case it is of interest.