[Rq-rules] HELP! Quick scenario ideas needed!

[Tom Cantine]

I find myself wondering about the pathology of zombism (is that a  
word?). How does one become a zombie? How long does it take? How did he  
survive 17 years of zombie captivity? What did he eat?

Here's a possible approach. Agents of his cousin arranged for him to be  
trapped by zombies, but expected that he would never return. They did  
not know that he had an enchanted gold coin that would protect him from  
zombism, or that he wore an amulet that could put him into a stasis if  
he fell asleep under certain sorts of dangerous conditions.

The cousin's plan was to have him eaten by the zombies, but as a  
somewhat resourceful adventurer, he managed to get himself into the pit  
where the zombies couldn't get him. Out of immediate danger and  
exhausted, he figured he could afford to take a short nap, not  
realizing how long he would sleep. The zombies never came close enough  
to wake him, but since he was still stuck in a pit with almost no food  
or water, the enchanted amulet kept him in stasis so he wouldn't  
starve. He woke up once or twice, for a few hours, taking the  
opportunity to write a message on a piece of cloth he had with him,  
then going back to sleep. One day, by chance, a curious seagull landed  
in the pit, and he woke up. Still trapped in the pit, he figured his  
only chance was to send some sort of message. Not knowing the purpose  
of the gold coin his father had entrusted him with, he decided to use  
it to send a message. He caught the gull and sent the message, and  
eventually fell asleep again.

His amulet kept him in stasis as he slept (another three or four  
years), but without the coin he gradually began to be afflicted with  
early stage zombism. Yet thanks to the amulet, he still has his own  
memories and personality, and thanks to the pit, he hasn't been eaten  
or fully zombized.

Is there a cure for zombism? Yes, but only if you catch it in the early  
stages. Fortunately, the noble is only in stage 1, and the presence of  
the gold coin (assuming it is returned to him) will prevent further  
advancement of the condition. But to fully cure it calls for a ritual  
involving a potion which requires a rare ingredient for which some  
adventurers will need to go on a long quest...

On 2-Sep-06, at 11:28 AM, Peter Maranci wrote:

> I'm running a one-shot RQ3 scenario tomorrow, and I need to work  
> something original up. I have a concept, but it needs something. I  
> don't know how many people read the list on weekends, but maybe I'll  
> get lucky.
>
> Here's the concept:
>
> The players (medium-level non-Glorantha PCs, a good mix of types) will  
> be travelling in the woods when they'll spot a glint of gold. It's a  
> pierced gold coin, and tied to it is is a piece of cloth with the  
> following words, apparently written in mold or dirt:
>
> "Help! Trapped in the ruins north of Spike Rock. Rich reward for  
> whoever saves...[blurred]...eware of the...ead...enter left...ord of  
> the Glittering Pav..."
>
> The cloth is covered with bird droppings, and the remains of some  
> unidentifiable but decayed foodstuff.
>
> Assuming the players follow up, they find the overgrown ruins of what  
> was apparently a royal graveyard, including many zombies. Once they've  
> fought their way through, in the bottom of the main tomb, they'll find  
> the author of the note - who looks very much like a zombie himself,  
> but can speak and acts as if he's NOT a zombie.
>
> He's a high nobleman who has been trapped in the tomb by the zombies  
> for (it turns out) seventeen years. Once he's freed, he'll ask the  
> party to escort him to his home in a city not too fa away so that he  
> may reward them. But of course once they get there, he finds that he  
> has been presumed dead for some time, and that a distant cousin is now  
> the master of his estate.
>
> He himself doesn't recognize that he looks like a zombie. He can't  
> believe that he has been trapped for so long - his memory is vague,  
> but to him it was just a few weeks at most, surely.
>
>  So...now what? Was he deliberately trapped by the agents of his  
> cousin, or perhaps his cousin's father? Is he in fact a zombie? Is  
> this whole thing going to take too long for a single five- or six-hour  
> session? Any suggestions would be very welcome!
>
> ->Peter
> --  
> Peter Maranci - pmaranci at gmail.com
> Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying! http://www.runequest.org/rq.htm
>  The Diary of An Invisible Man:  
> http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/ 
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