Adventure Idea Lab: DM's ONLY! :)

[Dr Bloodworth]

A lazy city sewer worker somehow managed to capture an otyugh he found living deep in a dank pit far below the city.

And this would be the first I *ever* heard of an otyugh's use in Masque. Nice ideas, though.

[Lady Ligeia]

Thanks! I hope that is not *too* much of a faux pas.

My ideas are well-suited to a "Monster of the Week" sort of campaign similar to X-Files, Kolchak the Nightstalker, the Friday the 13th series ... err ... Scooby Doo ... etc. Take a monster, build a mystery around it, and have the PCs investigate it and find out how to combat it. This is the campaign style I have to run with because the game store where I play is about an hour and a half drive away, and I can only make it up there every other weekend. I have to run a series of one-shot adventures rather than an extended campaign with major storylines and subplots.

Glad you like my ideas, though. I'll have more ...

[Lady Ligeia]

Fire on the Mountain
Something is killing miners at a mountain top mine. Men are found slaughtered like animals, crushed as if dropped from a great height when there is no way for them to have had such a fall, and even burned almost to a cinder. The miners are threatening a strike, and the company has sent in thugs to keep them working. The work site is becoming a powder keg of heavy-handed strike breakers, scared but angry miners, and company men who just want it all to stop so the work will get done again. Meanwhile, the strange killings go on. The miners are now starting to suspect the strike breakers – but that doesn’t explain the killings that took place before they arrived.

The Real Story: The miners have drilled close to the nest of a wyrm (you can use the wyrm from D20 Modern, or a low-age dragon from D&D). They are far too close for the wyrm’s comfort and it is attacking the miners to drive them away from its precious clutch of eggs. If the miners or strike breakers find out about the creature, they want to kill it. If the company men find out about it, they want to capture it and put it on display. All the wyrm wants to do is defend its young – it is the innocent party in this case. The fate of the little dragon and her eggs depends on which side the PCs chose: the miners and strike breakers, the company men, or the wyrm itself.

This is a Victorian-era science fantasy version of one of my favorite Stark Trek episodes, The Horta. Inspiration can come from a great many places.