Hey guys - and of course Ladys,

I am outlining an adventure to be played this week for a group of players new to Harn.
The plot is quite simple (I love the simple ones).
The group is on their way on the border between Rethem and Kanday -
on the Kandian side - where it was calm for quite a while.
They want to reach a village they know to spend the night.
By sunset they see far back on the horizon a rider coming over a hill.
And then another one and another one. And some men with big dogs
and other men with wapons. Very soon it gets clear, that this must be a patrol
form the Cooper Hook. All they can do is run and hope to reach the village before
they are caught. They reach the village just to see that it is totally devastated.
Everything burnt down. This was the only thing they had. What to do ?
They run into the village and hide somewhere.
Here it really begins.
All they can do is try to stay alive during the night until something
might eventually happen.

What I need to do the outline more detailed is:
- a map of a ruined village
- maybe some floorplans of ruined houses
(maybe the village had a stone chapel or something)
- a map of the Rethem - Kanday border.
(I can not get my own maps for some days now)
- other ideas of what might happen during the night.
- and of course your comments...

I plan the end in on the next morning when a Kandian troop comes to see the
ruined village they heared of and drive the cooper hooks out of the town.
Of course only if some charakters are still alive.

Eager for any comments
Wolfgang

Well if the patriol has dogs the PCs are in a fit. Dogs smell-sense is quite superior so simply hiding won't work for a while. Perhaps you should play this scenario hour-by-hour (kinda like 24 y'know ). Nothing is cooler than making PCs sweat it out through a night of horrors when there is no way out and everybody is out to get them.

I'd say that to make things interesting the PCs should be discovered at least once through the night. A desperate chase through the burnt down remains of the village with the dogs howling and the men shouting and so forth, GMs live for the desperate cries of the players and their little beady eyes filled with murder-lust as they gaze upon the GM!

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Poorly paid academic. Will do research for food.

Writing out a time line of events that will definately happen helps as well as opportunities for the pcs and "standing orders" for the Cu Hook lads. There should be at least a few of the villagers who were in the fields that may come back to the village to sift through the remains. There will be root cellars and the like, water butts or pools to hide in. Vengeful villagers, something to throuw the dogs of the scent ?pinesmoke, herbs, spices.
Maybe the party might like to stalk and kill the Cu Hooks? Maybe theres a third party that is stalking and killing the Cu Hooks? A gifted or lucky amateur or a skilled professional person/creature/force.?
Perhaps the party and the Cu Hooks need to band together once they realise this.
I would choose just about any photocopyable map that suits, and mark the buildings you want to be destroyed, indicate bodies, active fires, caches of goodies, wind direction, water with depth and clarity, the interiors can be a simple as you like, most stuff is destroyed or looted. As for a wider map, the party may not know a lot about the wider world, so use a poetic map or a "vague" sketch.

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"Am I still on the roof?"

Yes, a third sinister party in the ruins of the village could be cool as JRC said. What devastated the village? A raiding party or something more sinister, something that still lurks out there? Perhaps this could turn out to be a nightmarish survival fight where perhaps the patrolmen and the PCs have to work together in the end just to survive?

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Poorly paid academic. Will do research for food.

Many thanks for the comments.

The idea with the third part is great.
I thought, that the very same Cu Hook party destroyed the
village in the early morning and chased some fugitives through
the day. In the evening they return to the village just to having
fun catching or killing the returning peasants and boasting their stories of
hero deeds during the day by a warm camp fire.
Maybe it was some trial of courage for some of them and with their
raid they become full members of the copper Hook.
Of course they caught some fugitives and play their nasty
games with them at the camp, in the middle of the village -
just to hear them scream befor selling them to a slave trader on the
next day.

At first there are only the party and some silently returning peasants
in the village. After midnight and just before the party is caught by the
copper hook dogs there comes the third party into play which spreads
fear over the hook party. What that should be I do not know by now.
That the charakters and the party should work together in the end
is really a great idea. Espacially as the copper hooks probably know that
there will be a Laranian troop coming in the morning (they are always there
watching out)

JRC do you have a suitable village map you can sent to me ?
I do not have anything here as I am far away from home,
only my computer and of course my imagination.

Wolfgang

There's quite a few maps and links that have some maps and names for inspiration.
If its a one of game, you could make up anything, but if it's to be along campaign, there's a lot of detailed stuff to help in some of these links (and there are lots others) I'd personally base the layout on an exixsitng map, but add unusual geography or location: side of a mountain, surrounded by swamp, mineworkings etc. I guess a more claustraphobic enviroment will increase the tensions, but there may be something more scary about having someone dissapear in open lands.

http://www.geocities.com/chybisa/lerenil/tyannal.html

http://www.ketherian.org/paxtharda/plac ... index.html

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jchokey/harn ... n/#Cuthren

http://homepage.mac.com/jeremybaker/tow ... anday.html

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"Am I still on the roof?"

I have a few ruined village maps, but they all depict places that have been overgrown by wood and forest.

But you can use any village map and describe the place as razed and still smouldering. There are a few on my site you might find suitable....Meldun springs to mind.

Click on the button nearest to the map you are after.
.

I ran across a story some years ago that I have not had the opportunity to use in my campaign yet, though I have run a variation.

The novel in which this appears is The Lion of the North a fairly conventional historical romance set in the wars of religion during the period of Gustavus Adolphus.

A party of Scots mercenaries (pikemen) are seperated from their formation and pursued into a ruined village (seems like there wasn't any other kind around at the time) they eventually make their way to a small ruined tower. (Two stories and the remains of a platform on the top.)

They run inside and slam the door to find that most of them are standing on the stairs going up. The bottom floor is solid fill except for the stairway and the entrance for the door, which opens in.

Some go to the top and start chucking rocks at those trying to break in the door, while others try to hold the door shut. It quickly becomes clear that the door will not stand for long, but the rock chuckers are enthusiastic enough to make the opposition take a pause.

During the pause, the Scots rip the door off its hinges and haul it up the stairs. They then lay the door down on the stairs, anchoring it at the top so that it forms a steep ramp. They cut short their pikes and wait.

What follows then is assault after assault by the numerically (much) superior enemy up the stairs/ramp, which is soon slick with blood as the entryway at the bottom is filled with bodies. Between assaults the Scots are forced to throw down the bodies that are on the ramp to prevent them becoming a means for the enemy to mount the incline.

This goes on through the night with pauses for attempts by the foe to set the tower on fire etc. Through this the Scots suffer increasingly from hunger, thirst, and fatigue so that each attempt more nearly succeeds until in the morning help finally arrives.

I have always wanted to do this to my players, enjoy.

Wm

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There is a chair and an NPC for visitors on Saturdays. We play most weeks. PM me. "You will always be my friend. You know too much."