Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

[Lightray]

One of the recent adventures I ran involved a large number of demons overruning Los Angeles. The player characters managed to take care of the summoner(s), and therefore sent the demons back to where they came from.

 

But the whole point of the scenario was actually to get to the aftermath. There were demons causing mayhem in LA for almost 24 hours. Mostly, these were brutish thug-type demons, with a few tempter-type demons, and lots of imps.

 

I'm looking for suggestions of what some of those demons may have been up to, that will come back to bite the player characters later. For example:

 

- One or more persons made bargains for infernal power, and will be showing up as new supervillains.

 

- A group of kids listened to some imps, and are well on their way to being disturbingly violent young cultists.

 

- Some demons may have escaped being sent back, by hiding in / possessing a human host, so they're still around.

 

Because of other plotlines in my game, I'm not going to have the impregnated-by-demon-rape plot show up. And my players have a low squick-threshold since we're in a four-color game.

 

So, suggest away! My players think things are "fixed" in LA - how should I show them that's not so?

[DrFaust]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

Some area within the city has been transposed with that from the demon dimension. Aside from the pressing issue of a demon stronghold within the city, how will they rescue any people trapped in the other dimension?

 

Perhaps, a la "Buffy" and "Angel," some demons have decided they like it better in LA and want to make a go of it. Assuming they behave themselves, is it still the PCs' job to beat them up and boot them back home? Put another way, what happens when demons go native?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

The demonic invasion included a bunch of Gremlins, who were busily mucking up machinery all over the city. Aside from classics like faulty elevators suddenly giving way, drawbridges rising or coming down at the worst times, the power grid shutting down etc., the potential from scrambled computers is nearly limitless. Particularly if some gremlins got into the security system of the heroes' base.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

how about something non infernal

 

mundane crime under the cover of the demonic invasion

some opne stole a truck full of guns or drugs from the police while they where occupied.

missing children seperated from there families during the incursion(make it worse have something holding them for some nefarious purpose ).

 

tempter possesed nobody suddenly becomes legendary rockstar/actor due to super persuasion starts buying souls and setting up and earthly criminal empire.

[Hermit]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

One of the recent adventures I ran involved a large number of demons overruning Los Angeles. The player characters managed to take care of the summoner(s), and therefore sent the demons back to where they came from.

 

But the whole point of the scenario was actually to get to the aftermath. There were demons causing mayhem in LA for almost 24 hours. Mostly, these were brutish thug-type demons, with a few tempter-type demons, and lots of imps.

 

I'm looking for suggestions of what some of those demons may have been up to, that will come back to bite the player characters later. For example:

 

- One or more persons made bargains for infernal power, and will be showing up as new supervillains.

 

- A group of kids listened to some imps, and are well on their way to being disturbingly violent young cultists.

 

- Some demons may have escaped being sent back, by hiding in / possessing a human host, so they're still around.

 

Because of other plotlines in my game, I'm not going to have the impregnated-by-demon-rape plot show up. And my players have a low squick-threshold since were in a four-color game.

 

So, suggest away! My players think things are "fixed" in LA - how should I show them that's not so?

 

These are good ideas.

 

A few I can think to add would be:

A once promient politician who had been falling from the public grace makes a comeback. His projects begin to work with unparalled success, his rivals quit abruptly (or vanish), and he seems younger, more vital, and more charismatic. The truth is, of course, he's struck a deal with some demons, perhaps arranging them some protection or even shelter in exchange for their help with his 'vision'. While there is some honest desire to do some good, the demons form of 'help' soon twists even his few noble intentions.

 

Perhaps the demons made a BIG mistake and enter an area with an even more powerful supernatural presence than they. A purifying spirit hailing from pre colonial times awakens to destroy this batch of demons, only to discover a modern world full of 'impurity' (By its ancient standards) which it is determined to cleanse. Anyone who is found tainted by its standards is in serious danger... and as the spirit doesn't really see being human as an excuse for moral weakness... that means everyone.

 

Behold the new Reality TV show... Temptation! where millions of Americans tune in to see "what's your price?". The show claims to arrange... anything, in exchange for small favors. Good people are increasingly tempted with what they most want and leave the show not so good anymore. Of course, some would say a TV network executive is a nice fit for a tempter demon anyways. Imagine what happens if a hero's DNPC gets a part on the show?

[Lightray]

Okay, so far I've got:

 

- People accidentally sent to the Infernoes along with some of the demons. (a few of the players in this game were in the campaign with different characters who had to do a Rescue-From-Hell scenario. it was brutal. they'll cringe again.)

 

- Some of the demons left behind "go legit".

 

- Gremlin-demons possessing equipment, along with the possessor-demons who've possessed people. (alas, their team has bases in several other cities, but not LA. which is why I chose it.)

 

- Mundane crime-spree being mis-identified as of demonic origin. That'll be good once they become too used to demonic plotlines. (they know I like plot twists; they always forget to anticipate them, though.)

 

- Demonic Reality TV (sooo obvious, and yet I never thought of that!). I'll probably merge that with politician-with-bargain, because I've already got one big morally gray politician NPC. Faustian Producer would be a good lead-in to realizing what's going on in LA...

 

Great! Keep 'em coming!

 

now that you're doing my work, I can go catch some Zs... bwah-ha-ha!

[freakboy6117]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

Just thought of another one not all the possessed are people

 

Simple stuff like a possessed taxicab and its zombie driver, that kidnaps people or acts as a handy way to get around the city in a hurry.

 

How about a whole apartment building suddenly you have a building where all the people are trapped in demonic passage and infernal geometry that would give M.C. Esher Vertigo. The heroes have to battle through the twisted maze to rescuing trapped tenants from demonic enslavement as they do. Until they reach the heart of the building and destroy the darken entity in its heart (I suggest the furnace).

 

Lost demonic artifacts or demonically possessed mundane artifacts create new villains out of street punks or high school kids or new heroes with a dark taint. Or just comic relief for the players imagine having this in the trophy room.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

Not quite the "purifying spirit" piece above, but what about...

 

 

They come at noon. The sun is dim compared to their radiance. Beings of absolute light with wings of a white so pure that all who see them can but weep.

 

"This was our city, once" they say. Voices like the greatest symphony.

 

"Now it has been... corrupted!" Voices like lightning!

 

"We must cleanse this place." Voices sad, so that souls break upon hearing the words. Sad, but resolute.

 

Their swords burn with fire older than the first stars.

[Richard Logue]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

Reminds me of the brief tv show GvE (Good versus Evil). Perhaps a new group of heroes will emerge. Their goals are in line with hunting down the stray demons and puppets.

 

On the other hand.. the leftover demons are recruited by the government. This would be the Big Brother portion of the government. In this scenario, the bad guys of yesterday's adventure become the legally-offlimits bad guys of tomorrow's adventure.

 

 

RL

[Highwayman]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

They come at noon. The sun is dim compared to their radiance. Beings of absolute light with wings of a white so pure that all who see them can but weep.

 

"This was our city, once" they say. Voices like the greatest symphony.

 

"Now it has been... corrupted!" Voices like lightning!

 

"We must cleanse this place." Voices sad, so that souls break upon hearing the words. Sad, but resolute.

 

Their swords burn with fire older than the first stars.

 

Or, if you want to move things along, just one of them could appear to the PCs. "My brethren grow impatient with this stain. If the minions of the Enemy still walk the Earth seven days hence, there shall be fire."

[Sketchpad]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

Have a Godzilla-sized balrog show up

[Ehreval]

Re: Suggest Mayhem For My Game!

 

The stupider demons aren't a problem here, so we'll dispense with them. Some things that I think the smarter ones might try as they realize that summons rarely last forever.

 

1) They look for things, such as sources of magical power, mystic talismans, heavy weaponry, etc., that might be useful to them when they're back in hell or whatever their home dimension is. They steal or otherwise obtain the items and are holding them when they go home.

 

2) Plan for the day they get banished or unsummoned. Set up gates that will allow them easy access to return to this world, willing pawns, safe houses and the like.

 

3) Contact others in this world who might be convinced/coerced/bribed/tricked into summoning them again.

 

4) LA is already, in real life, a haven for corruption. Tricking folks into permanently damning themselves (which should raise a demon's status in hell) should be child's play.

Here's some examples:

a) The advertising agency that encourages vice by glorifying corruption.

The actor/sports star who's now a powerful and negative role model.

c) Schools that teach children negative values.

d) A corrupted priest teaching things from the pulpit that are *almost* good ideas, but are horribly awry.

e) A charitable foundation turns its work evil, fostering lesser evils amongst its recipients, like encouraging working moms toward prostitution.

 

5) Drive some of the locals insane or toward evil. A wake of terror unleashed by demon-influenced mortals who are now serial killers, perverts or newly-created priests of evil is likely, along with non-aligned mages and psychics. Fakirs, such as pop tarot readers, newspaper-column psychics and other charlatans may discover they suddenly have real powers and may or may not recognize the price involved.

 

6) Taint LA. Create sources of evil that will remain after the demons have gone.

a) Desecrated churches that taint rather than purify the souls of the parishioners.

Cemetaries that turn those buried into living dead. Artifacts that corrupt those who hold/wield them.

c) An unholy power source that empowers those who pass through it or experience it daily (depending on how powerful and transmissible it is) and corrupts them in the process.

d) If your campaign has a magical or spiritual "background energy", have the city's entire aura go evil, making it harder for good energy to do its work and giving evil energy a little boost, possibly discouraging even good thoughts and encouraging evil ones.

 

7) Fight the power! If there are powerful forces for good in the area, the more powerful demons might have tried to take them out, by deactivating or damaging or corrupting good power sources, attacking good-guy psychics, mages and priests, etc.

 

8) Get in contact with indigenous evil and start making deals. Likely targets would include...

a) The shallow, self-indulgent set from Hollywood and the LA clubs.

Organized crime from the mafia down to street gangs.

c) Crack addicts, the deeply impoverished and others who have nothing to lose or who have a serious achilles heel in general.

 

9) Straight Outta Compton -- There's a lot of anger in the hood. This should be easily harnessed by evil for distribution to the downtown and more affluent areas of the city. (And, really, aren't they *all* more affluent?) All it takes are a few whispers in the wrong ears to say that whitey's keeping you down, and why should you mug/murder/sell drugs in your own neighborhood where you're hurting friends and neighbors when you can share your special brand of mayhem with the rich white folks in the burbs?

 

10) Encourage Human Misery -- Let's get some more negative energy flowing in LA in general. Randomly reward those who promote the misery of others: Pimps, drug dealers, bookies and people-smugglers, just to name a few. And remember, the more people are miserable, the more turn away from an "obviously uncaring God" to those powers which *will* make their lives better, materially.

 

11) Hooray for Hollywood! -- Hollywood film stars are already terrible role models, and the mass media already promotes hedonism in all of its glorious forms.

a) A few carefully-whispered words in the right ear, and all of a sudden those pampered actors will have even greater sins forgiven by the studios they make money for,

b)the casting couch will return in full force, and

c) heroes of the next wave of films will have such glamorous traits as controlled drug abuse, underage love interests and understandable killing rages.

 

12) A New Religion For Our Times -- LA, in real life, is already primed for this one, and indeed, new age religion is already a big thing in some segments of LA society, and has been for ages. What we *really* need is Dianetics taken to the next level: Part of being "cleared" now involves complete amorality. And, really, let's worship those things that matter, like money and status and power and good looks. Those are the *real* virtues we should be pursuing. Evil isn't hurting others; It's being poor, not having any style and affronting people with natural ugliness. And, as we all know, "A life without pleasure is a life not worth living."

 

-- Ehreval