Adventure Ideas: Page 1

The following pages are filled with adventure ideas the Host and various House Guests have written for use in your Beyond the Supernatural RPG home games.

We hope you find these ideas both inspirational and horrifying!

This first adventure is titled “Under the Red Sky”, and was submitted by Mephisto.
This adventure was written for a contest on the Forums of the Megaverse, and after winning the contest, Mephisto submitted it to the House for all the House Guests to use and enjoy.

Introduction: “There exists in the world rare, strange events that defy explanation. What the Red Sky is, 99.9% of the time, is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is entirely natural, and based on astrological movements. However, it can also be the result of another rare situation,
one that is an atmospheric result of something much more profound.

For you see, the Red Sky is simply the visual association of something much more remarkable, a specialized Rip of Magic.”

Click on the image to download the PDF. Note: This file has been updated with an illustration of The Xorn by krateworx, who drew the creature as a prize to Mephisto for winning the contest. My thanx to both Mephisto & krateworx for sharing their talents with the House.

Haunted

And I'm haunted...
By the lives that I have loved
And actions I have hated (all of my lives)
I'm haunted...
By the lies that wove the web
Inside my haunted head...
-Haunted, POE

Those wanted adventure ideas for either low-level Player Characters (PC's) and/or intro-level adventures for new players will enjoy this one...

The investigator PC's have been invited to a house that is said / reported / believed to be haunted. The family that lives in the house swears that its haunted, and they say that the paranormal activities are becoming unbearable; the activity is making their lives miserable, especially for the children. They can't afford to move elsewhere, and they'd take too serious of a financial hit to sell the place, so they're more or less forced to stay and suffer all the haunting activity in their house.
  GM Angle: While psychics and PC's with good alignments should feel compelled to help a family in need (especially one with children in the house), the family can offer the PC's home cooked meals, a spare room to put their stuff in and take shifts resting, and maybe a few hundred bucks to offer the holdouts and professionals complaining to be paid for their services.

The house can be described in various details, but can be summed up as “It looks exactly like the kind of house you'd expect to be haunted”.
  GM Note: The house should be two stories or at least large enough that paranormal activities and events can take place at different locations at the same time. Splitting the party up as things are happening is always exciting, if not concerning for worrisome PC's /players.

Going over the case file or while interviewing the family members, the PC's will learn that this place has many familiar ear marks of a haunting: discarnate voices, objects that seemingly move or teleport to other places in the house (or disappear / go missing entirely), strange smells, sounds that seemingly come from nowhere, creaking footsteps in the dead of night, chills down people's spines, feeling like they are being watched, banging on the walls, a general air that something isn't right can be felt all over the house, electrical problems and similar phenomena are all.

This one can be played with the simple angle of entities haunting the place (Poltergeists and Haunting Entities are always crowd pleasers), and simply destroying the entities, or exorcising them, or getting them to leave somehow can make for a good first time intro adventure.

However, for those wanting to take a deeper dive into the paranormal...

Instead of finding ghosts / entities as expected, they'll find things much more dangerous lurking within the walls (perhaps literally) of the house, and these creatures are getting more agitated / excited by the presence of the PC's being present, becoming just as much of a threat to the investigators as they are to the family. This can be especially interesting if the PC's packed for a ghost hunt rather than a monster hunt and don't have all their weaponry with them.

The same basic idea applies for another adventure angle, only in this case the ghosts / entities begins hunting them back.

In another example the entities all stay quiet during the ghost hunt, so quiet in fact that the PC's leave and go home. However, when they leave, the entities also leave the house, following the investigators back to their homes to haunt and hunt them there. On one hand, they've succeeded in removing the ghosts from the house; but on the other hand, their own dwellings are now haunted and will need to be dealt with.
  RPG Angle: For GM's wanting to get the characters interacting with each other, having them visit each others homes to deal with supernatural pests is a great way to get them interacting and talking and working together.

Condemned

The PC's are in pursuit of a supernatural being in the middle of the night (could be a vampire or similar night creature) when it slips into the back door of an old condemned building.
  GM Note: The idea of trespassing onto private property to chase a monster through a condemned building should be scary to anyone, let alone paranormal investigators. But if need be, the creature could be carrying something of value, like a notable item or magic object, or perhaps a small child. Its about encouraging the players to find their courage and go in no matter how obviously dangerous the situation is.

The angle is that the fiend lives in this building, or at least makes extensive use of it. Not only is it more familiar with the territory, but it has prepared for this situation; the building has been rigged with hazards and traps in an effort to slow down, injure, maim or even kill its would be chasers. Some example ideas of what could happen during this adventure include:

-The PC's find a sprung trap with a dead person still trapped in it. Perhaps it's an investigator or monster hunter they recognize or knew, or someone who's helped the group on in the past. This scene raises the stakes and the tension of their situation.
If a Medium is present, the ghost / Haunting Entity of this fallen person may reach out to them and offer clues or info of some kind.

-They find an injured hunter/investigator, or perhaps a homeless man who's sought shelter in the wrong place. This person somehow injured themselves after springing a trap and is slowing bleeding to death. They will need medical assistance to survive the night (first aid or even paramedic help only slows the blood loss; the victim will need a doctor, or a psychic healer or magical healing somehow).

Even if they manage to patch up or heal the injured person, they're weak and fading, too exhausted and terrified to even try leaving the building without help. Are the investigators willing to simply move on and leave them here? Do they make the effort to help the injured person get out of the building safely? Do they split up the party and let someone help the injured person get out of the building?
  Note: If helping this person get out, for an extra challenge the original entrance could have since been blocked off (ceiling collapse for example) or another supernatural being(s) in building comes across them, probably by smelling the blood that's on both of them. Lots of angles for role-playing opportunities as well as experience points potential are all available for this scenario.

-They might discover a person (or group of people) who lives in the building (perhaps alongside the creature/monster they came in for), and THEY are the ones who are designing and building the traps! Are they possessed? Are they just sick individuals?
Are they allied with the supernatural being for whatever ungodly reason? Does the creature provide for their needs in return for their help/support? An alternative idea could be that its Gremlins that are living in the building, and they're the ones putting up traps to protect their home/lair.

-The PC's eventually hunt down the creature, only to discover that it's subservient, or under orders, or under control of something much larger / stronger / more dangerous than the group expected. The PC's will likely not be fully equipped nor prepared to encounter such a great being, especially if the being they were chasing is there with them, not to mention there could be other minions/cultists/witches/enemies to confront as well. Fleeing may be the best thing to do here.

-The PC's destroy the fiend and rescue whomever needs saving, but the fiend had set a “self destruct” trap of some kind before its demise and suddenly, small, random explosions are going off and fires are spreading all over building! The structural damage will eventually level the several story building, burying the PC's alive if they don't get out fast!

GM Notes: The traps themselves are only limited by your imagination. Weak floor boards, spike traps, trip wires, mazes, poison dart traps, nail bombs, fire bombs, ceilings caving in, lethal contraptions that could've come right out of the “SAW” movies... it can all work here.

Also keep in mind that this is taking place in the dead of night while in a condemned building with no lighting (remember that most supernatural beings can see in darkness), or dim lighting at best, which should only make this scene much more terrifying and dangerous as light sources or psychic abilities / magic spells will be needed to see.

Adding in details like graffiti, dusty cloudy air, creaky floor boards, strange sounds echoing through the hallways, finding office spaces or apartments that still have various old equipment and/or furniture left behind, rotting animal / people corpses, used up magic circles, deep claw marks imbedded on the walls, sections of walls that have been broken or torn down in places, signs of water damage, smoky rooms and hallways if there's a fire present (and possibly spreading if they don't put it out) and the like will only add the the vibe of this adventure.

Finding makeshift weapons like pipes (lead, gas, conduit), 4 x 4's or broken planks of wood (maybe with nails or bolts still in them), broken lengths of rebar (might still have a chunk of concrete attached to it), an emergency fire axe, and more could be found and used by friend and enemy alike.

This next one was designed with the spirit of the House of BTS in mind. ;)

The PC's investigate what's said to be a “haunted house”, but its the house itself is actually the problem (as opposed to ghosts/entities). This can be explained in whatever way you like (or left as an unexplained mystery as its the unexplained that we remember most), but the important thing is for the PC's to discover the secret(s) of the house in order to escape it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that they cannot seem to escape / leave the house until they find something vital to get out (like a key, magic object, secret door, etc.), or slay a monster lurking inside the house, or solve a mystery or a riddle of some sort.

While trying to get out, the group will face things like never ending corridors, rooms they've visited before that keep showing up randomly in other rooms, doors and objects disappearing and reappearing, outdoor windows and exits can't seem to be found anywhere (or they look like exits, but they lead to another room or corridor), sudden temperature changes, etc. Think of the short story and movie 1408 for some inspirational ideas and moments.

Throwing in iconic horror bits like walking skeletons, aimlessly wandering ghosts, bats flying down the hallway out of nowhere, the lights going on and off and odd times and for no reason, finding people who have been trapped in the house for years and their sanity has broken down (or at least fractured), familiar objects that seems to keep showing up in new rooms (“Wait... wasn't that painting in the other room?”), coming across random monsters or supernatural beings and more would mysterious and unusual events would be appropriate.

You're left to your own devices to come up with whatever puzzles or solutions the players need to escape the house. That said, I wouldn't make it overly complicated as its more about the journey than the destination with this one.

Waxing Crescent

In the middle of
“Nowheresville, USA” is a small town wrapped in many acres of agriculture. The town has been been suffering from random abductions (or at least have gone missing) for months with no real answers or help from the County Sheriff's department. The frustration and anger from the locals are getting to the point of self policing and mistrust in each other; not a good place to be in.

After the latest missing person (another teenager for that matter), both members of the community and the undermanned and unprepared County Sheriff's department are no longer picky about where they get their help from and has reached out to various sources. Enter the player characters.

The township has nothing noteworthy about it (not even a Starbucks, Applebee's or even a Wal-Mart to be found). One of the few mildly interesting parts of town (and one of the most recent) is a wax museum build upon the bones of an old ice factory. To the locals, the eccentric out of town owner (who lives 30-40 minutes away where where is a Starbucks and a Wal-Mart) seems to be out of his mind for opening and operating a wax museum in such a place as tourism here is minimal. Also, the locals all say that all the art is made in “bad taste” as the museum is basically a menagerie of horrible, monstrous looking things.

The low hanging fruit angle: The “Waxing Crescent” wax museum is housing creatures in the guise of monstrous wax pieces during the day, but at night they come alive and hunt people to capture, dragging them back alive, feeding off their P.P.E. and altering them into more wax monstrosities. It can be as simple as that for the player characters to confront.

For those looking to dig for a deeper adventure...

The town thinks the eclectic proprietor of the museum is to blame. Turns out he's not; he's simply a spoiled, rich, macabre, artistic young man who left from his rich, stuffy family and high society life behind, wandering his way out here by happenstance. After discovering the giant refrigerator of an closed down ice factory, he had a wild idea: start up a wax museum of monstrosities.

Being a trust fund baby means not having to worry about or even care if the museum makes any real money or not. He likes it and that's enough for him. But the locals see this strange newcomer with strange artistic eccentricities and his grotesque museum as an easy scapegoat for their anger. It doesn't help that people started going missing the very week he opened the museum. There have been random threats, a rock flew through the front window of the museum not long ago, and the tires of his expensive car have been slashed more than once. But he's as stubborn as he is in love with his museum and is not going anywhere.

If things don't change soon, someone will carry out an act of vigilant justice on the owner; likely lynched or shot one night by an angry friend or relative of one of the missing people. Even after the museum is shut down and a vengeful wealthy family of the victim inflicts their wrath on the community, people will still end up going missing, and more pointed fingers, injuries and murders will follow.

The real threat could be a cult, a coven of witches, one of the other artists who have been supplying pieces of wax art to the museum; a human (or humans) could be the culprit, or it could be something supernatural; maybe a demonic being is be the mastermind behind the abductions, collecting the souls of those he kidnaps and shackling them within the “wax menagerie monsters” as his minions. It could be a problem with tectonic entities possessing the wax monsters, making them come alive at night to hunt humans every so often. Maybe as a grand bit of irony, they hunt during the waxing crescent moon).

Whatever the reason, if the characters get captured, they'll be turned into a wax creature by morning unless rescued (this is a great angle if playing a Victims adventure). Killing the monsters means destroying private property (a rich kid's private property with a hot shot lawyer on speed dial and retainer no less). Destroying the entire museum means destroying the small town's only real tourist attraction (the locals grumble, but they like the slowly increasing tourism dollars in the community since the museum's opening). The proverbial death of the museum or its proprietor would likely be a big nail in the coffin of this dying community.

The locals have begrudgingly accepted that the museum is bringing in more business to places like the local diner, gas and convenience store, the local bar and grill, the orchard on the edge of town, the small artisan “goat's milk soap” family business that's starting to take off, the bed and breakfast (where the PC's will likely have to stay) and the like. Even the local farmer's market saw an increase in sales last season and see the potential of the extra foot traffic. In time they'll learn to accept him and his museum, especially as more businesses start opening; there's rumors of interested parties who might want to open a brewery or winery in the area that specializes in locally sourcing their products.

While eventually anger and frustration will win out if the PC's don't get involved, the PC's getting involved may find some locals seeking retribution or restitution either during, or when they're about to leave town after upsetting or disrupting their lives.

An alternative to the wax museum angle: The museum is not the problem, it's several of the townsfolk themselves. The kidnappers / killers could have possessed folks amongst them, a minor occultist dabbler who has a few hell hounds at his command, a Devil Ghost that's infected a residence as it enjoys all the sick minds congregating so close together, etc. Supernatural beings hiding in plain sight is easier to do in places with lots of open space and few people to witness their activities.

Whatever their reason(s), they have an unwritten truce amongst themselves; as long as they don't interfere with each other, they're free to do as they please to the random people passing through. This means that once they realize that all the new attentions the kidnapping / missing people has brought, they'll likely start turning on each other, especially those they suspect are responsible for the attention.
  Example: The PC's might be closing in on a suspect, only to find them murdered the next day.

One of the player characters wake up one morning to prepare for the daily grind, and when they turns on the news while getting ready, they hear something to effect of the following:

(Reporter): According to the police report, the cause of death was determined to be due to “extreme starvation” and added that Adam Johnson appeared to have not eaten in the last several weeks. Adam's son, a Mr. Thomas Johnson, had this to say concerning his father's cause of death.

“This is impossible; I had just taken my dad out to dinner two nights ago. He was in good health. He always eats like a horse. In fact, he told me during dinner that during his recent physical his doctor told him he's getting a pot belly and needs to consider a diet. I don't care what the autopsy says; my dad didn't die of starvation!”

(Back to the reporter): With no further explanation available for what seems to be an extremely unusual occurrence, the police have considered this a closed investigation.

If the PC's don't see this as enough of a reason to investigate, more bizarre occurrences like this will keep happen until they do. Eventually one of them will start quickly losing weight, becoming emaciated and gaunt overnight. The PC will perish within a day or two if this isn't solved and resolved.

What's behind the strange starvation death(s)? A curse? Black magic? Energy leeching monsters? A freak natural occurrence in the area? A bizarre side effects of some new experimental drug that the pharmaceutical company isn't aware of? Or worse, the big pharma company is aware and wants to use a controlled list of patients as guinea pigs to see what the public reaction will be?

“There's things worse than alligators in those sewers!”

Those silly reports of alligators in sewers are making the rounds again (happens every summer or two), but this time there's a twist: the alligators are coming up to the surface to snatch people up and drag them back to their lair. That last part is only being reported in more tabloid oriented media outlets, mainstream news wont touch that angle. However, after several weeks of people going missing and the eyewitnesses of giant sewer alligators keep speaking up, the PC's should consider that this tabloid-like rumor is worth investigating.

When they head down into the sewers and investigate further in, they will find a lot more than they bargained for...

For they are not giant gators... no, they are “man-gators”; human sized biped beasts that are roaming the sewers. Even stranger, jungle foliage is growing over every surface of the sewers. Even stranger yet, the sewers are experiencing atmospheric changes (like mist) and even drizzling or rain is taking place down there! What's behind this bizarre scene, and how do the PC's deal with it?

Antagonists: Could be a Jungle spirit / entity / minor godling, or a cultist plan in motion, a completely unexpected and mysterious anomaly of magic energy, some kind of bizarre time warp or rapid mutation of people and plants, a strange dimensional shift of some kind, or a perhaps a science experiment gone badly and is spiraling out of control, etc.

Whatever the cause, people are mutating into gator beings and foliage is growing and expanding by about half a block every hour or two. It's only a matter of time before this mess makes its way to the surface and overwhelms the city and beyond!