Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

[arcady]

A mastermind villain kidnaps an ex-PC from the hospital to use for a nefarious occult ritual.

 

Who [in a general sense - kind of lackey] performs the actual kipnapping, and what kinds of clues could they leave behind for the PCs to find.

 

The PCs have between them telepathy, mind control, N-ray vision, the ability to go desolid, and the ability to teleport nearly anywhere.

 

I need them to track the lackeys who did the kidnapping, find out who was behind it, and then go after that person in order to get back the ex-PC.

 

In the process about all I've got is that they need to have a former opponant to stumble across as a red herring - there's a villain there on the scene when they show up at the hospital, but not the right one.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

The kidnapping is performed by seven foot tall owl-demons summoned by the nefarious mastermind. They leave behind a feather and a noxious stench.

[sinanju]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

If they need someone for a nefarious cult ritual, then the obvious choice for lackeys is...cultists. They could appear in full cult regalia if they're feeling feisty, or they could wear normal clothes, or disguise themselves as orderlies/nurses/doctors.

 

If the Mastermind wants to send any pursuers off on a wild goose chase, they could dress as Viper agents (or some your-world equivalent). Or mafia thugs.

 

As for clues: fingerprints, shoeprints, distinctive accents/voices or appearance (gathered via interviews with witnesses or security cameras), license number of vehicle(s) used, etc.

 

INTENTIONAL clues could be any or all of the above (except fingerprints), left behind to send the PCs after some convenient mark while the bad guys laugh.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

how about broken amulets or torn regalia left during a scuffle with the victim.

 

alternativly you could leave a blatanat ritual totem at the site a pentagram scralwed in rams blood but with finger prints or from a rare bred of ram only found in one area or soemthing.

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

I think a diversion should be used.

 

A flunky is hired/summoned to cause trouble.

 

While a second group does the actual kidnapping.

 

This spreads out the team you have (who by their powers are probably capable of tracking down the threat) into two groups, to follow each lead.

 

Later, the two story leads will merge.

 

As a red herring at the actual hospital, they discover an unscupulous intern is harvesting organs from patients, to sell to the wealthy. Seems he has a student loan to payoff.

 

If the villain is an occult villain, he may just raise all the dead in the morgue, or summon a ghost to cause trouble in the hospital. (who wants revenge against a doctor, of course)

[Chuckg]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

Well, they could always dress up in VIPER outfits -- but an alert player might find it peculiar, from the eyewitness reports later on, how the 'VIPER' guys were using ordinary guns, and their knives looked more like sacrificial daggers than a Viper Fang...

[arcady]

Zombie Cultists from Hell have taken Natalia!!!

 

"Zombie Cultists from Hell have taken Natalia!!!"

 

--- That was the line the PC's got over the phone from 'Mrs. Peel', their supervisor with The Foundation at Sebastian Manor.

 

Natalia is the name of an ex-PC who was sent into a coma at the end of the final battle of the last plot arc (she went disabled and the player had a planned replacement PC).

 

 

So the events are:

 

Nergal (a Babylonian sorcerer priest who lives forever by stealing bodies) wants to possess Natalia - somehow he has figured out that the comatose woman being stored in the 'hidden section' of the local asylum is a speedster and would make the perfect new body for him.

 

He brought in some 'nurses' from Canada when the hospital hired a number of foreign nurses through a temp agency and had them set up the strike.

 

These fake nurses (a man and two women) conducted a ritual to bring zombies in from the netherworld, and used them to distract the place while they carted away Natalia. They took her out to the lawn where patients and visitors can stroll about on rare sunny days - now covered in mist and zombies, and gated away.

 

The PCs know this, and they know they left to somewhere on this world. They know the zombies came from another world, but are now still on this one. They have three 'disabled' zombies.

 

In the ritual they found a pentagram and candles all over Natalia's room, and blood - the cultist's own blood spilled to power their magics.

 

Postcognition has allowed them learn everything above, including the identities of the nurses and the fact of Nergal being behind it.

 

The PCs also ran into 'Ms Red Herring,' also known as 'Paisley', a mercenary I used in the first adventure as kidnapper. She's an illusionist with a hyper-sense of fashion (she is actually physically vulnerable to bad taste) who always puts her signature 'paisley' on something about her. She's apparently just working a normal everyday job as a nurse in the asylum, from what the PCs can tell, and they followed her around hard harrassing her for quite some time trying to get more out of her (she's got maxed out mental defenses however, so they can't pluck her mind...).

 

Paisley figures key in their fates, and when I ran the last story arc -a dimension hopping story line running to parralel worlds- she was present on almost every world - in half of them she was on their team, married to one of them, or somehow linked to them.

 

 

 

What they lack, and what I lack, is how to go any further - how to find Nergal, the cultists, the 'Zombies from Hell!!!', and their comatose teamate.

 

I'm at a loss as to where to go from here.

[CorPse]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

I think part of the solution lies in upping the stakes for Nergal. Maybe his ability to inhabit new forms is finally weakening after a hundred thousand lifetimes. He must find someone whose incredible metabolism can balance his own spiritual fatigue.

 

Hey, how about this - maybe Nergal comes to the PCs asking for their help! If you've never pulled a move like this, it will throw your players for a loop. And, between you and me, I'd make Nergal's request totally sincere. It turns the dynamic on its head - but this is exactly the right time in your story arc to do that if you are going to do it.

 

Will the players help Nergal?

Will they be needed for the ritual?

Will Natalia (if I'm spelling her/its name right) agree to the transfer?

Will she and Nergal somehow share her body?

Will their personalties form a synthesis? Or will they struggle against each other forever trapped in the same mind?

... or will an entirely new character be brought to life!

 

Anway,, dat's my take.

 

cP

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: Need clues and style of lackeys for a kidnap plot

 

Lets see...Nergal is also the name of a Babylonian god, identified with the desert, if I remember.

 

The cultists could easily be some of his worshippers. If they are really Canadian, then that must be where Nergal went.

 

Now, to expand upon the ritual a bit, lets say Nergal needs some stuff to do it. He needs "sand" from his homeland, as well as a certain mystical artifact.

 

The artifact was taken from him decades ago by the Nazi's in North Africa, when he fought them. "Liberated" by the Canadian military during the war, it disappeared into one of their many warehouses (think Indiana Jones).

 

Recently, it has been placed upon on a roving tour of all the Canadian major museums, as the artifact is due to return to its identified native country, Iraq. (if under a new government IYC, if not, its just on a random tour).

 

The PCs travel to Canada to investigate, after they learn the same cultists who kidnapped their friend, just stole the artifact.

 

While investigating, they learn from a useful NPC archaeologist/historian type that the artifact was associated with the occult, and said to grant immortality. It was said to need a large a mount of sand for the ritual.

 

Investigating locally, the characters learn that in celebration of their victory, a nearby military base is constructing a children's playground...using sand from Iraq.

 

Naturally, Nergal will show up at some point, and attempt to conduct his ritual. Duing the grand opening of the new playground would probably create the most targets (also a good way to handle your PCS, who seem to have a lot of powers that can ruin a good mystery)

 

Once in his new body, btw, Nergal is all ready to return to Iraq as the long lost daughter of some former politician, enter politics, and take over the country. It seems he is one of those "Iraqi exiles", kept out of power by a brutal dictator.

 

As for the zombie horde, not sure how to do them. If it was me, devious soul that I am, I would make them the reanimated bodies of the Nazi's who took Nergals artifact all those years ago.

 

Or, they could be the undead workers in one of Nergal's sweatshop factories, managed by his cultists to bankroll his political ambitions.