The Game Master must play 3 NPC’s during the adventure. They do not have to do much, in fact they can die early on if playing them is a distraction, though a single one has to remain to tempt the PC’s. Their fate will seemingly rest solely on the actions of the PC’s… it would seem
as if they are there as a test of responsibility for the party. In fact, in a way, they are. However, Usol is also there to distract and dissuade them.
Usol is the keeper of the well of souls – he is a manifestation of a awakened planet.
Car accident, poisoning, falling object, explosion, london subway, mugging-gone-wrong,
p>This can connect with any initial campaign. The characters the players make can really be anything. They can be as powerful or weak as the players want and GM needs. The GM can adjust the snake-people adversaries as needed on the fly to make it an appropriate challenge.
Really, the characters controlled for this adventure are proxy characters for the player’s real campaign characters. The real characters have been poisoned and are verging on the brink of death. Their spirits are wandering the Houses of the Dead and it is not quite their time. Fortune, their god, or some other power has directed that a light be shown to them and so they are given an opportunity to fine their way home.
The characters have been poisoned and fallen into a deep sleep, into the shadows near death. In this sleep their spirits travel to the lands of the dead.. the Halls of Sleep. It is there, in their dreams, that they must break through the cloudy tendrils of dream which bind them;
they must name the visions before them and dispel the haze of uncertainty with knowledge and clarity. Then, when they are steadfast in their own presence, they must not flinch and walk amongst the dead – going backwards leaving the dream behind to be with the living. The closer they experience death, the easier it will be for them to reclaim their place amongst the living.
You do not feel yourself. You are not yourself, but someone else… and yet here you stand. The city is around you, it it winter, the fog is thick, the noises of cars and their horns blare and buzz. A shiver travels down your spine, as though – in the old addage – someone has walked upon your grave. Its only London though, and though the fog makes it seem like a dream… its just fog.
Ahead you see one of those new fangled food courts – dreadful places where folks congregate in the open surrounded by all manner of
cheap food shops catering to gastrointestinal nightmares. Regardless, its place out of the rain and cold. You go in, and find the only open table, moving through the crowded court and arrive at the same moment a few others do – none of which are accompanied and all of which seem to be looking for the same thing – a brief respite from the cold and damp. Laughing at the timing you all sit down and commiserate with small talk about the weather.
One of you remarks at the lack of such weather the Sumerian Kings must have experienced – noting a paper’s article on the table. After another moment’s lively discussion you all realize that you share a bit of an armchair historians interest in history. One thing leads to another and soon the lot of you are heading to the museum for a lunch-time tour of the Sumerian exhibit.
One of the characters is a fake, a plant by the forces of shadow in order to prevent the other characters from escaping the Houses of the Dead back to the Halls of the Living. This is the only chance for the group to figure out which one it is.
The character transitions between life and death with a clarity and rush of power. Around them they draw energy.
If the character dies, they gain real insight…
Each character should make a fated SANITY check. As their consciousness drifts from one side of life and death to the other, they hear the voice and see the visions of a million lifetimes, a billion people. The solidity they have worked so hard for within the lands of death once again begins to fade from their grasp, pulled apart by the will of others. The strength of their own sanity determines what knowledge they can take back, as they cross the threshold back into the swirls and eddies of life that is their life’s place… they will gain the Mark of the Dead.
| Critical: 4 levels of knowledfe (Lore) and a level of general field (see fortune) | Full: 4 levels of knowledge (Lore) | Major: 3 levels of knowledge (Lore) | Average: 2 levels of knowledge (Lore) | Simple: 1 level of knowledge (Lore) | Fail: 2 checks on a specific type of check (see fortune) |
The rewards will entirely depend on the the death of the character and the insights
they learn from this. This seems to favor weaker characters, as they are more
likely to die. However, those characers who do not die still possess the distinct
advantage of not possessing the Mark of the Dead.
Amenti-Epyp