Exile Game Studio

[John Aynge]

Gen Con is about a month or so off so it's time to actually write this adventure.

2 Hour game, 6 players, no knowledge of the system necessary.

The Gen Con write up we created back in oh I don't remember reads:

SIX SCIMITARS OF DEATH in SINS GONE BAD! A Ray Harryhausen inspired Sinbad adventure featuring the crew that made the captain a legend

It's open enough that I can make the game about whatever we like.

So, I'll create the entire two hour adventure in this forum, and hopefully get amazing insight from other great GMS that want to take part.

Scene 1 The Sin is gone
The players awake on the boat/ship as it is under attack by Harryhausen style skeletons that have climbed out of the water onto the boat, while this is going on a massive Roc is attacking as well. The characters will be dealing with the Skeletons while the Roc, controlled by some vizier with his face covered, takes off with Sinbad.

This scene we intro the rules, explain combat, give the players a scenic action movie kind of feel while selling the Harryhausen skeletons.

Scene 2, The Blood of Sin is the Key
Players are near enough shore to make it to the beach where they'll see skeletons attacking the beachfolk and the city nearby. As the Vizier is seen flying away the skeletons dissolve into small pieces of bone (same thing happened on the ship when one was defeated). City folk come to the aid of the characters if they are severely wounded, or the players can help a few beachfolk if they have not had their fill of action yet.

Players learn that the vizier is a blight upon the local community, but has never done anything like this before. They are pointed to or actually save a hotty mystic (Carloine Munro from Golden Voyage stylings). She gives them the reveal that Sinbads blood is the last component to this Vizier raising a continent off the coast of this city which will cause this city to be destroyed. Turns out all the crazy stuff that Sinbad has done all these years has made his blood the last component in this mystical brew.

Scene 3 The Cliffs of Insanity (yeah, look it up)
The players see the pinacle of this continent that will be raised out at sea. The top of the highest volcao (spewing smoke) and which we end the scene above on them slowly seeing as the clouds part, is the only portion of the continent that can be accessed. They'll have to climb the sheer cliffs and locate sinbad (some climb checks and teach the team work concept).

At the top they realize that the volcano is ringed with stairs carved into the stone going down, down, and down.

Perception check at some point to see Captain Sinbad is about to be sacrificed. As the vizier begins the cut out the still beating heart of Sinbad countdown as Harryhausen style animated female form (giant like of course) begins to writhe up out of massive pool of water nearby (volcano and water need to be worked out). As her head and chest come out of the water we see a few tentacles as well. From the waist down she's a squid/octapus creature and half way up the torso becomes female.

The fight is on as the characters must save sinbad, and save the world while surviving the attack of this critter.

Vizier gets away or is caught?

End adventure.

That's pretty much what I've got. So, what do you guys think we need to fix?
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[demon_llama]

i like it. love a good Sinbad adventure
i'm by no means a creative expert, but i go enjoy this genre (and Al~Qadim is one of my favorite D&D settings, well written). raised on Harryhausen i was too, so i'll give it a try on the suggestion department.
(and please don't take anything i say personally, or for that matter, seriously )

apology for the long winded answers. tend to talk in paragraph format instead of sentence.

[Nestor]

Damn, DL's got a busy brain. Durn good stuff there.

I'm with him in terms of having expendable henchmen for the PCs to overcome in the first acts. In fact, Viz shouldn't even make an appearance until the climax of the run. Have the Roc be self-guided, so to speak. That way the Viz's plan becomes a reveal once the party encounters the Mystic Hotty.

One concern for me is that of pacing and length. As described, I'm not sure whether you'd be able to stretch the run into a four-hour slot. Dunno what to add, but maybe one more challenge of some sort. Maybe have a maze or other puzzle the heroes have to get past before they can reach the sacrifice area.

That's what I got off the cuff. I'll see if anything else bubbles up once I set the ol' brain to simmer.
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"I've got a degree in kicking arse and I'd have a doctorate in not giving a damn if I'd bothered to attend the ceremony."

[demon_llama]

[John Aynge]

I'll jump more into the adventure a little bit tomorrow, but to answer some of the questions and remark on comments:

I appreciate any and all comments, especially ones that include suggestions.

I love the Sinbad movies, and I have a fondness for Ray Harryhausen. I will eventually do some kind of Mysterious Island module as it is probably my fave Harryhausen movie, but Golden Voyage is really close.


so they are already familiar with each other, and are members of the crew (covered in initial box text?).

I try to avoid box text at all costs. It doesn't work really well with my style of GMing, and so I try to find ways around it and still provide the same kind of info. For this one the character sheets will give a brief bio, and mention a few of the other PCs in each characters bio so that they all spider web together a little bit. This will provide me with some interconnectivity between characters and allow them to RP with the other players right off the bat with some established relationships already in play. This track method has worked incredibly well at convention games where the players know the have a limited amount of time.

One of the PCs is the first mate and this is a running joke that will start right off the bat. All of the other character sheets mention that the first mate has never survived an actual fight. They always end up dead. So, when this first mate actually survives they are all confused, because it has never happened before.

The rest of the crew is either slaughtered during the initial battle or some simply flee.

The ship is basically anchored as close as safely possible to the shore. I'm not actually a sailor and won't waste time on researching something like that. Simple enough to say they know how far out safe is and that's where they dropped anchor.

in thoery, a skeleton cannot swim.

LOL. Yeah, but then again a skeleton can't attack a crew either. This made my day. I can see a player bringing that up. I'd say, so animated skeletons, giant Rocs, viziers, your imagination can accept that but skeletons swimming. That's the line huh. Hmmm.

I like the idea of an expendable/defeatable baddie here. Good way to sell a good victory to the characters. In fact I can have this baddie have the hottie mystical chick enslaved or something forcing her to help with the skeletons. Once that guy is dead she'd be more than happy to help the crew. Good call!

Yup, I did know about the sleeping on deck, and I think it's a superb visual. The skeletons slick with water, the click of their bony feet, and the charactes slowly awaking to see themselves surrounded by gleaming steel in undead hands.

Part 2: I see the boat going down and the characters swimming. This will get the hottie mystical chick separated long enough so that when the reunited on the beach she can unleash the reveal about the rising lost land. Plus, if I'm short PCs and the cook/surgeon isn't present she can do some healing.

another expendable henchman here to keep the characters at bay while Viz escapes?
The viz and Roc won't have any problems escaping. They simply fly off to the Cliffs of Insanity towards the end of the battle on the ship.

Lost Land is perfect and I'll replace that with the continent. I was thinking of a Lemuria kind of a deal, but creating a new named version for this.

I love the idea of the new city never quite reaching the surface but being able to be seen. Consider that added. Very nice touch.

@Nestor, I like the idea of the Viz not being seen, but instead I'll have his voice emanate from the giant roc as it gives orders to the henchmen and the enslaved hottie/love interest.

It's not a four hour slot. It's a two hour slot. I've found over the years of doing these two hour games that two big action beats and two down beats works just about perfect. I'm confident with the time, but could go over with an RPing heavy group. I build into these adventures a few short cuts in case a group is RP heavy. Going short is okay as this is followed up directly by another two hour slot of SIX GUNS OF DEATH.

perhaps the Expendable henchman is the one who hands off (the KO'ed) sinbad to Roc'y, but is unable to escape himself. as he tries to climb the Roc, and initially fails, a disembodied voice yells "leave him! bring Sinbad to me at once!" or something like that. characters then get a "feel" for there being a higher power in the mystery, before it unfolds...

Very cool. The Henchmen will throw the hottie into the water with her hands and feet bound so the characters will probably split with at least one going after her and the others trying to stop the baddie. They'll be able to stop the henchmen, but the Roc is able to get up and free. I'll probably describe a character being able to hold on for a few seconds and then suggest they drop off into the water.

Some really fun ideas guys. Thanks. I'll definitely be integrating some of this great material! Thank you!
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[John Aynge]

Part 2 in creating an adventure.

I'll be creating an entire adventure right here so Gamemasters that are curious can see how another Gamemaster creates a scenario, all the while getting insight from all the Gamemasters that chime in and help create this 2 hour Sinbad style adventure. This is a heavily Americanized Hollywood style version of a Sinbad movie featuring his crew.

Original rough draft for Scene 1 The Sin is gone
The players awake on the boat/ship as it is under attack by Harryhausen style skeletons that have climbed out of the water onto the boat, while this is going on a massive Roc is attacking as well. The characters will be dealing with the Skeletons while the Roc, controlled by some vizier with his face covered, takes off with Sinbad.

New material
Then with the help of demon_llama & Nestor we added some great bits. Let me add that everyone is invited to chime in, but I will give these two a quick introduction.

Nestor is a good friend whom I've shared a lot of time with at the last several Gen Cons, just seeing him puts a smile on my face, and I personally consider him to be one of the most incredibly talented Gamemasters that I've been able to work with. He's a contributor to DANGER MAGNET, he's play tested Secrets of the Surface World, Mysteries of the Hollow Earth, and has given great ideas to the upcoming Revelations of Mars book as well. If that wasn't enough to make him a bad ass creative type to listen to he was also voted, by the players, as the BEST Gamemaster of Gen Con just a few short years ago. Nestor IS Hollow Earth, and I love reading every word he writes. Then there's Demon Llama, who I have not yet had the pleasure to meet face to face, who is by far one of the most prolific writers of HE material out there. He also just wrote this years HE Free Roleplaying Game Day adventure. He's a massive talent. So, yeah, having a stacked deck of bad asses chiming in on this adventure has me thinking “Yeah, we got some swagger in here”.

Now with DL and Nestor's advice we added an “expendable” henchman. This figure will look like he's controlling the attack and is the big bad guy. He also has a bound captive that he's using. She's a mystic who can act as a love interest as well as a tool to separate the party in this first scene for a matter of a few minutes. She's a healer and augments magical abilities (similar to making a sacrifice as detailed in Secrets of the Surface World pg 4. In the end the characters will actually be able to defeat this henchman, and feel as if they have had a major victory (key in any adventure and especially in a convention game), save the mystic (giving them another victory), but they also learn as all seems saved that this is only the tip of the iceberg as the Roc's mouth opens and a garbled human voice issues forth a strange incantation as the ship is rocked by a massive blast. The Roc takes to air with Sinbad in its claws. The ship sinking fast, flames engulfing it, the characters have only one choice. Make for shore.

Now that we have our 2nd draft of scene one I'll begin to add the elements that I need to run it, and then contemplate what it would take to get another Gamemaster to be able to run it to the best advantage and eek out every ounce of cool that the scene contains.

SCENE ONE aka REEL ONE: SIN GONE BAD

Why call it REEL ONE?
I like to think of adventures as movies. To help sell that feel I simply change the word from scene to reel, and I feel it gives it that little bit of movie feel and helps the Gamemaster get into the mind set.

SCENE SYNOPSIS
-Characters awake to find their ship under attack by animated skeletons
-A veiled male appears to be controlling the situation, and has a captive that he seems to be “leeching” power from
-Captain Sinbad is fighting a large Roc on the other side of the ship
-Characters defeat skeletons, defeat veiled male, save the captive
-As characters begin to attempt to help Sinbad a garbled human voice bellows from the Roc and unleashes a ritual that seems to suck all the vitality of the captive, and blasts the ship
-In the chaos the Roc takes to the air and wings away off into the dark distance
-Ship is sinking fast

I believe most Gamemasters can run the scene from a synopsis like this with just a few stats for the npcs, but we will flesh out this first scene even more to make it really pop and usable by any Gamemaster. They synopsis allows the Gamemaster, at a quick glance, to see all the marks to hit to really sell this scene. However, we leave it open enough to interpertation so that each Gamemaster can come at the scene with their own personal style, as well as taking into account that characters often come at a scene from a direction the Gamemaster never sees coming.
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[demon_llama]

you honor me with your introduction, don't know if i really deserve it, but thank you

one quick thing that jumped out at me, the "blast" that sinks the ship.
puffs of magical smoke were common effects in the old sinbad films, but there is always the old "flamethrower" effect. Roc'y could do the dragon breath thing across the deck, setting everything ablaze (and roasting a few Red Shirts as well) and forcing PC's to make a reflexive dexterity check to try and get out of the way. such actions could land them in the water, where it's either sink or swim...

[John Aynge]

Ahhhhhh, I love the breathe thing, and consider that added!
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[K.G. Carlson]

Solid plotting all around, but this is my favorite...

[John Aynge]

Thanks. I find that a decent amount of humor can really help a super actiony game keep things in perspective.

Now, is this the KG from Origins?
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[K.G. Carlson]

[Nestor]

Shucks, you're making me blush.

Ah, you're right, this is a two-hour game; I remember the entry in the GenCon catalog.

In fact, I signed up for the Saturday night session! Now I feel conflicted about contributing to a run I'll be playing in. Maybe I can play a GM PC as a ringer, in case you need someone to provide plot exposition.

Wait! The Mystic Hottie fits that bill, doesn't she? Now I can melt your brain by having you imagine me wearing a genie outfit.
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"I've got a degree in kicking arse and I'd have a doctorate in not giving a damn if I'd bothered to attend the ceremony."

[demon_llama]

[John Aynge]

Glad to write/speak with you again KG. I helped run the EGS booth with my buddy Nich.

Nestor


More coming soon on the adventure. I have a few other projects that pay $ so they have to come first, but it's like tearing myself away. I'm really digging this adventure and hope to have scene one finished rough draft done today.
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DANGER MAGNET! at WWW.DANGERMAGNET.COM is your source for a FREE Hollow Earth Expedition Electronic Magazine!

[John Aynge]

Nearly complete first rough draft of first scene. Still need to put in stat blocks, and have someone educated do some editing. Format is very close to true EGS format.

Please chime in and suggest tweaks, changes, and point out what I missed, messed up the spelling on, and etc.

Now, who wants to work on Arabian Rituals?

SIX SCIMITARS OF DEATH:
The Blood of Sin
 
Sinbad’s crew find themselves without their captain facing off against a horde of skeletons dragged out of the depths of the netherworld, a fire breathing Roc, and a plot to raise the legendary lost city of Rhausen which will bring about the destruction of a nearby inhabited coastal city.
 
Six Scimitars of Death will use nonstandard Hollow Earth Expedition Characters. Instead of the traditional 1920-1940’s inspired Characters the players will assume the role of Sinbad’s crew. A myriad of different character Archetypes can be used, and you and your Gamemaster should discuss what will be the perfect choice for this adventure and any campaign that may spring from it. We've included a few examples:

First mate: As the captain's right hand man you find yourself trying to keep the crew together and focused on the tasks at hand. Opportunity abounds to prove to the crew why you are the captain's right hand man.
Cook/Surgeon: As the ships cook you've learned the details of each crew members life, and have acted as a morale officer. As the ship's surgeon you're capable of patching up the rest of the crew, and making sure that they live long enough to complete the mission.
Mates: The job of running a large ship is a massive undertaking and requires a diverse group of skills including:
Navigation
Carpentry
Deck Boss (boatswain)
Sailors

Motivations

Several different Motivations may be used in Six Scimitars of Death. Here are a few your players may find useful during Six Scimitars of Death.

Duty: You will strive to keep the crew together, and you will battle till the last breath to free your captain.

Fame: You were never meant to languish as an unsung deck hand. It is your destiny to follow in the Captain's footsteps and be known the world over. Rescuing one of the greatest legends of all time can only cement your own claim to fame.

Greed: You seek the path lined with riches, to sup upon golden plates and to drink from jewel encrusted goblets. Sinbad is a wealth magnet, and you're not willing to give leave that behind.

Six Scimitars of Death is intended as a two hour convention game or one shot for a home game. With little to no tweaking the scenario could easily be used to kick off a long running campaign for any home game. The action best begins after the crew has had a successful journey or adventure, and now find themselves sleeping off a wild night of well earned revelry. If this is to be used as the first adventure in a campaign then the crew is celebrating the fact that they have been hand picked by a well respected captain who will doubtlessly bring them fame and riches.

REEL ONE: Between a Roc and a Rude Awakening
A moist mist clings to the calm water surrounding Sin's Pride, the legendary ship of Sinbad, and slowly ekes forward embracing the ship and its crew. The crew, weary from libation and revelry, sleep listlessly above deck comforted by sounds of lapping waves, a gentle breeze, and the occasional grunt and snore of a crew mate. Hidden within the murky depths of the mist the reanimated skeletal remains of thieves and murderers in life seek to continue their worldly professions as they slink aboard the Sin's Pride seeking to loose the blood of the crew while they lie asleep.

Skeletons (two per Player Character), under the cover of the night shrouded mist, quietly clamber aboard with orders to kill the crew while allowing Jabir Hakim, the henchman ordered to capture Sinbad alive, to located the legendary captain and return him to the mastermind of the operation, Mad Mage Abd-al Hazred.

Discovering Intruders
Roll: Perception

Failure: The character is sound asleep and, and fails to wake up until she is directly awakened (another character awakes them, they are jostled violently, a loud noise occurs (screaming))

1-2 Successes: The character fails to wake up immediately, but begins stirring. Character awakes on the next Turn, and will be at -2 to all Rolls for the remainder of the Scene or until they are dealt damage.

3-4 Successes: The character awakes and may act that turn, but at a -1 to all Rolls for the remainder of the turn.

5+ Successes: The character is wide awake and may take actions this round as normal.

If all Characters should fail to awake the battle begins as a skeleton skewers a NPC crew member, and the gurgled screams of the victim burst the quiet calm of the sleeping Characters. These Characters suffer the same penalty as if they had rolled 1-2 Successes.
Skeleton
Stat block

Tactics:
The skeletons are focused on their goal of killing the Characters, but show no imagination behind their tactics. The skeletons pair up against a foe and kill her. Once a Character is dead the remaining skeletons will then go to the nearest Character and begin attacking them. The only extra care the skeletons give to the combat is to make sure the crew are cut off from Sinbad's cabin.

Describing for the Senses
A Ray Harryhausen skeleton is a thing of terrorizing beauty. To better help a Gamemaster relate this creature to the Players we provide a few details.

Sight: Bits of seaweed cling to and occasionally fall of the skeletal form as they move in a stuttering fashion, and one or two have sea life (fish, crab, eel) fall out from within their rib cages or skull. Each step, every swing, a turn of their eyeless heads has a premeditated non flowing feel to it. The skeletons move as if an unseen puppet master is carefully orchestrating each pull of their strings.
Smell: The smell of fouled salt water emanates from them making some Characters (those with Body of 1) nauseous.
Feel: Rough splintered hands quickly go for a Characters throat if a skeleton should lose its scimitar. They skeletons feel similar to rough wood.
Sound: Each bony step clicks upon the hardwood of the deck, each movement has a chalkboard scraping sound of bone on bone.

Taste: Any Character unlucky enough to bite a skeleton will taste fouled salt water

Mental: Even death has failed to stop these warriors. What chance does a Character have?

The Roc's Arrival
During the second Combat Turn the crew should find themselves in a fight where they are heavily outnumbered, and then to add to their problems a roc arrives carrying a man and a woman. The roc glides gracefully onto the deck of the ship near Sinbad's cabin as the man tosses the woman from the roc's back to the timbers of the deck below, as he dismounts with a flourish of his robes.

Strange Details
Perception
Failure: The character simply cannot make out any other detail through the haze of combat.
1 to 2 Successes: The character notices that the man is wearing a golden mask that covers his entire head.
3-4 Successes: The woman appears to be manacled at the hands at feet with a chain connecting both manacles.

During the third round of combat the roc takes a position between the masked man and the crew. It's claws splintering the deck with each step it takes. The masked man begins a screaming aloud a ritual while one arm touches the door to Sinbad's cabin, and the other arm firmly and cruelly holding the woman by her long hair, forcing her to her feet by wrenching her hair and head upwards as he completes the ritual.

Strange Details
Perception
Failure: The character simply cannot make out any other detail through the haze of combat.
1 to 3 Successes: The character notices that the wood that makes up Sinbad's cabin rots away to nothing in the blink of an eye.
4+ Successes: The character notices that a strange energy seems to be passing from the woman into the masked man.

Magical Awareness
Sorcery
1 to 3 Successes: The character fails to realize the significance of the situation.
4+ Successes: The character realizes that the masked man is using the woman as a conduit of magical energy, and is siphoning it off her to power his Rituals similar to a sacrifice (see Secrets of the Surface World, p. 4

During the fourth Combat Turn the masked man plunges the woman forward into the cabin before him as mystical energy springs forth from his hand and he enters the cabin. Once the crew have dispatched all but the last few skeletons they'll notice the only surviving members of the crew are the Characters, and the masked man emerges from Sinbad's cabin with a beaten and bloody unconscious Sinbad slung over his shoulder while tugging viciously on the chain that connects the woman's manacles. He slings Sinbad aboard the back of the rack and starts to lash him down as the woman begins struggling with him.

Just as the last skeleton is destroyed the masked man turns to see the crew advancing towards him and steps several feet forward and towards the edge of the ship. He has a wickedly curved dagger bedecked in precious gems and rubies at the throat of the now clearly beautiful woman, digging the point deep enough to draw a tiny trickle of blood. He demands the crew cease their movements or the woman dies. At the very first step, draw of blade, or any action that could even be hinted as aggressive he pushes her overboard and begins slowly stepping back towards the Roc.

Two style points awarded to the first crew member to dive in after the manacled woman.

Jabir Hakim Statblock
Fiery Breathing Roc Statblock

to be continued
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