SwiggitySwole

As a hardcore roll20 hater, I'm not too happy about this. Hopefully this at least makes R20 better and demiplane won't just be killed off in 6 months.

I recently watched the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode in which they did a parody of "The Island of Dr Moreau" and thought a mad scientist trying to turn people into animals could make for a fun minor character in my campaign. My players are en route to a dungeon and should be there in a few sessions, I'm thinking of making the dungeon the lab of a mad scientist who has gotten locked out of the lower levels due to a containment breach.

The details I have so far is that he is a gnome, currently named Prof. Moreau, who has created mongrelfolk while trying to turn a human into an animal.

The mongrelfolk are safely contained in the lower levels and have started to create their own society, I think the boss of the dungeon should be a Gibbering Mouther called One, as in Attempt One.

I think the Mongrelfolk should worship one as their leader and hate Moreau for keeping them locked in the lab.

What I'm stuck on now is what life is like for the mongrelfolk, what they believe and how they have organised society.

last post linked here: https://lemmy.world/post/15519782

First of all, thanks for all of the advice on the last post. You all definitely got the gears turning for me. I just had the session and wanted to make an update post on how it went.

I started the session off with the players moved into a cell and restrained. the core members of the cult remained behind to deal with the issue while the majority of the cult left to get set up somewhere else. meanwhile Sorcerer arrived at Clerics tavern and told the barkeep, who grabbed some weapons and some roughnecks and headed to the cults hideout with Sorcerer. The cult pumped the party for information, using a zone of truth spell (whole party beat the save DC so the cult got no useful information out of this, except one player let slip the name of Sorcerer). The cult then decided to sacrifice these party members which took some time because its a whole ritual. Just as they finished the Sorcerer showed up, interrupting the sacrificial ceremony. A fight broke out, Druid and Rogue managed to slip their bonds and Cleric was freed by the barkeep who also dropped a bag of weapons so everyone was armed. Temporarily outgunned, the core cult members made an escape, leaving behind a few clues explaining their master plan. the party is now firmly in control of the situation with the villains having to bide their time and regroup while the party looks for a macguffin that should spoil their plans. (now to decide what that macguffin is...)

this isn't going to become a campaign diary or anything, I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for letting me leech your ideas.

The following all happens in a town and the nearby surrounding area.

So my party, hereby referred to as their classes are currently third level and have infiltrated a cults hideout, they went there looking for Rogues friend and snuck in with disguises and managed to bluff their way into where the friend was being held. She was in a holding cell. After some deliberation they devised a plan to cast silent image and sneak her out, they couldn't manage to pick the lock and Cleric smashed the door in, this was heard by nearby cultists and they decided to just make a break for it. The cult massively outnumbered them and the party got surrounded. Sorcerer, who is an Aasimar and can fly at 3rd level, flew past everyone and escaped while the rest of the party surrendered. We ended the session there and Sorcerer told me after the session that they plan to go to Cleric's tavern to get the barkeep and any tough looking patrons to form a quick mob.

The conundrum here is that I can't think of a good reason for these cultists to not just kill the party aside from that's not fun. The cult is aware that one of them escaped is probably going to bring the law down on them, so they'll also want to leave. If I was them (and in a way I am) I'd probably kill the witnesses and bail.

Any advice?

Hey everyone, I'm looking for any tips or advice with running exploration, as a recent example my players recently came across an abandoned ship and decided to climb aboard and look for any treasures that were left behind. They went room to room and I made an effort to describe each room in detail but the whole process felt very drawn out and repetitive. Especially if there's no special encounter in that room.