I need some Adventure help, bring your weird brains in here

[Pieh]

Hey all. I'm here to ask for some help today. It's been too long since I've been able to write anything and now I find myself needing to. Anything you can throw at me is awesome, a jump start is what I want, a  place to build from.

The situation: I've got my turn coming up in a round-robin GMing game. My mind absolutely drains of thought when I sit down to think of a plot, a hook, or anything. I've had a few small landscape descriptions and nothing I can use.

The setting I need to write for: Homebrew. Has Renaissance Earth-styled Europe analog, as well as an Atlantic ocean analog, and we have just crossed it over to the "new world." There is "Magic." Magic is when a human does something superhuman. It can be a normal thing, like a feat of strength, but beyond normal mortal limits. There aren't a lot of people with magic, so naturally all of the PCs have magic (This was intended).

The party can be summed up as: Savage Barbarian with a Mythical Sword, Highly Skilled Duelist and Nobleman, Highly Alert and Coordinated Priest, High Profile Prostitute who can Talk to Animals, and my character, a Wizard who excels at controlling earth and stone. We are playing FATE using a setting-replaced version of Kerberos Club edition.

So far in the adventures...

Ship hit some land, exploration took place, discovered a "Stone henge"-type circle, that night it gave off a huge light and made a sound like a giant bird, stones look the same the next day, creepy shadow thing pokes the Barbarian while she is sleeping next night, no one else sees anything, next night sailer's are slaughtered gruesomely, next day ship is repaired, leave island in a hurry.

Arrive at assumed main land, 3 crewman,  a dingy, and the ship compass are missing, there are a few torn apart bodies like on the island found on deck, on the shore is a village with people in it, first contact with people living here, head up to glowing disturbance on distant hill, find shadow things have removed sailor flesh suits and are using compass to open a rift of some sort, stop them, wake up sailors and return compass.

Town demands justice, ship's captain kills the 3 who stole the compass execution style, and then starts raving about gold, sets up a camp on the beach, requests all of the town's food with threats of violence (with guns, yikes!), and proceeds to stomp a path inland to where he says there is gold, PCs go out to the ship to talk to remaining crew (2 people), find out captain has a letter and map from an anonymous party pointing to gold and intends to get it (not the mission we signed on for).

We have followed the large trail left by the captain and crew and left last session off after setting up camp near theirs.

This is my first round-robin (taking turns GMing) game and also my first FATE game and also an unfamiliar setting style.

I don't know where the group will be or what the situation will be when I take the controls and I'm a little worried because I want to plan something. If anyone can provide me with ideas/events to include in this setting or point to some submissions that might fit, any help will be greatly appreicated.

Thanks all! And feel free to ask for more details that would help, tomorrow is thanksgiving so I won't be around but I'll get to them asap. I still have at least a week and a half, probably more, before my turn to run. So there is time. Thanks.

[caesar193]

Is there other settlers put there in the "new world?" If so, you could have the PCs stumble upon this world's equivalent of Jamestown, with everyone not bothering with food production, and instead disobeying orders and searching for gold. You could have the PCs be hired by the town's leader to get the men following his orders again. Maybe this Jamestown is along the path that the captain's on.

[Pieh]

I could probably work that in, with some tweaks of course. I'm still not sure where the party will be when my turn to GM comes along but this has potential. There have been a few other expeditions on the legal records, and certainly more off of it. A captain seeking help rounding up his crew would have to do it without the crew knowing - You don't respect a captain that hires help to get you back to work. This leads me down another trail of thought, though. What if the men are too afraid to work? Hm. Digging and exploration found something creepy, maybe someone disappeared, and work isn't getting done. PCs being brave and/or stupid is almost mandatory so I wouldn't take much of a push. Then I'm free to open up a big can of weirdness, which is what I really like.

Thanks, Caesar. More ideas still welcome.

[MysticMoon]

Any updates on this?

My first inclination would be to come up with some source of whatever is doing the killing. Some sort of creature on the land? A crewmember (or captain?) who is transforming in the night? An unknown, monstrous, invisible stowaway? Maybe one that can make people forget that they've seen it and that can plant suggestions in their minds but also needs to feed off of human flesh.

There's also the angle of the captain and what his game is.

[Pieh]

Still working out the kinks in this. The creatures doing the killing have been discovered and beaten (for now). The captain's motives have been revealed. It's a lot to explain. It was done by the GM who introduced the content, as I expected, so there wasn't room for me to completely define the monsters. I think I'm just about ready to run my content (Coming up on Wednesday). Discovery of the lost colony of Roanoke, examining what has happened there, putting clues together and hopefully surviving the reveal.

UNCHARTED HORIZONS PLAYERS WHO MAY BE READING THIS - STOP HERE: SPOILER ALERT
UNCHARTED HORIZONS PLAYERS WHO MAY BE READING THIS - STOP HERE: SPOILER ALERT
UNCHARTED HORIZONS PLAYERS WHO MAY BE READING THIS - STOP HERE: SPOILER ALERT

















Right now my ideas are a bit loose and floating around in my head, though I'll reel them in soon.

Town of Roanoke is discovered (by boat, on purpose). Empty homes, next to nothing of personal items to find, no signs of struggle or hurried departure. The Town was built around a large chunk of quartz-like rock. It's an odd terrain feature but rather majestic and pleasant to look at, likely why it's the centerpiece of town.

Careful searching may yield a few interesting clues. The only personal things that mar the uninhabited scene are tobacco-related objects. Occasional smoking pipe, pouch of chew, or sprinkling of tobacco leaves.

There are also a few odd markings of trees to the west of Roanoke. It looks like someone has sloppily carved warnings (in the form of a widely recognized symbol for danger. Note to self: Look up some Hobo trail markers) into the bark with a blunt object. There are dark stains spotting the bark and filling the carvings. Blood?

There is a monster at work here. An ancient guardian trying to prevent the hatching of the White Egg (Quartz-like town centerpiece). The monster is made of shadows that creep along the ground and entangle and strangle unwanted visitors to the White Egg. One of his banes in Tobacco. He cannot touch it, pass through an area containing it, etc. His daytime resting place in an underground cave system in the woods to the west (beyond the warning signs).

The White Egg is that of a rare force of purity and life, a good creature. To hatch, it must be deemed a thing of beauty by many people. Word of mouth, visitors coming to see it, it gets more and more glorious to the mind's eye until it hatches (what happens at that point is still open but not an immediate concern). The shadow monster suppressed the appreciate of it by killing those who see it.

The Shadow has "Taken" the villagers of Roanoke and stripped them of everything that made them human. They are stored in his cave as blank slates. They are still technically alive but empty, soulless, creatures even lesser than animals and insects. They guard the cave and will defend it against trespassers.

There is still work to be done. Collecting stray thoughts, finding a suitable ending to the story, and a few ways to draw it out will surface. If you have any ideas or comments I'd still love to hear them. It's been a busy month so I took my mind off of this in favor of more important things but I'll now be looking around for ideas again.

Thanks!