HYPERBOREA » Ideas for a homebrew adventure (strange artifacts)

pauloralves · 3/21/2018 12:13 pm

Hello Hyperboreas! I'm preparing my first adventure of AS&SH, and in need of some advice, tips and ideas.
The premisse revolves around a heist in a villa, owned by a hyperborean sage (sorcerer), and it should have a museum and a set of strange and ancient items that the sage collects and auctions them. I was thinking that it would be a great opportunity to reinforce the themes of the game, as well as a way to teach players about the history and weirdness of the setting. So, I'm looking for ideas of strange artifacts and itens that could convey that idea. They can contain curses and traps as well, obviously. One of the ideas that I created already was, considering that the sage is away, it could use a strange bulbous tube that contain a clone of himself to hop back at his home, to continue his arcane and eldritch studies when their other body is wasting time in the boring trip!
This is my first post on the foruns, so if I made some assumption wrongly, it was not by intent! All the best

mabon5127 · 3/21/2018 2:16 pm

Others will have great ideas but this guy has a ton of what you are looking for. You will have to look around a bit but its worth it!

http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/

Handy Haversack · 3/21/2018 2:43 pm

Do you have the second edition? I would read fairly carefully through the magic item section, where many items were added that have more flavor, or are more setting specific, than maybe in the first edition. I think there's material there that can inspire you to design some artifactual things.

pauloralves · 3/21/2018 2:55 pm

Thanks for the reply! I will make sure to look the link to mine some ideas, thanks. Regarding the second edition, yes I have it, and had read the magic itens section. Some of them is right at the alley, but I'm also looking artifacts of the non magic variety. As a example, one thing that I will probably use, is the headpiece of a old viking drakkar, one of the lost Erik the Red ships that arrived in Hyperborea in ancient times. The players probably would never know it, but the metal piece has a inscription in old Norse referring to some icelandic town in Old Earth. Things like that. I'm still not well versed in Hyperborean "history", so thought I could use some help.

mabon5127 · 3/21/2018 3:43 pm

Not sure why I assumed magic. That's a great idea to have a museum of ancient things!

Mystery items like non functioning Atlantean devices.

Begging bowls of ancient Priests of Mu.

Combs of an Ancient Lemurian coutesan.

Pieces of Slade's cup (See Swampgate)

The brain of an uplifted vhuurmis king in a Mi-go brain box.

A toenail clipping of Xathoqqua

And so on....

rhialto · 3/21/2018 4:14 pm

Second recommendation for the Swords & Stitchery blog: very inventive stuff, and very Hyperborean in tone.

I like to play up the Atlantean, Mu, Lemurian, Cthonic, insanely otherwordly items: the need not be "magic", and could just be high-tech (as some of the items in the book are) or mundane but weird.

Radium rifles and pistols or battle-harnesses from Old Mars (Barsoom)
Venusian psi-helmets
Coprolite of a Hound of Tindalos

pauloralves · 3/21/2018 4:18 pm

Great ideas! I'm sure to write them down. The mi-go box is a must now. Regarding the pieces of Slade's cup/mug, it actually make me had a idea. I intent to get most of the currently available print modules through the recent kickstarter, so if I can put some "foreshadowing" for them via objects and books or the like, it can seam/mix nicely to form a loose campaign. What would be appropriate to have for those modules? If I remember correctly, the "ghost ship" one has some plot involving a green rock of some kind.

rhialto · 3/22/2018 3:57 am

Yes, there are "magic" green gems which power/fuel an item in the module. You should have them be in a lead-lined box of some sort if you want to foreshadow, otherwise there will be an attendant sickness if exposed to the green gems...which may or may not be related to the Green Death.

gizmomathboy · 3/22/2018 8:20 am

Speaking of green diamonds, you could have something from my idea of Warp Riders. Like a piece of their warp bikes (maybe a saddle bag they use to contain the various diamonds that power them), or a piece of their apparel, or even a deactivated (or even active!) "axe".

pauloralves · 3/22/2018 9:13 am

rhialto wrote:
Yes, there are "magic" green gems which power/fuel an item in the module. You should have them be in a lead-lined box of some sort if you want to foreshadow, otherwise there will be an attendant sickness if exposed to the green gems...which may or may not be related to the Green Death.

I think I get what you are trying to say here, very interesting... sure to put it in some "safe box" or the like.

Warp Bikes?! Tell me more, intriguing concept.

Blackadder23 · 3/22/2018 10:34 am

I don't believe there is any connection between green diamonds and the Green Death (unless the referee decides there is, of course), The Green Death was supposedly caused by dust falling from the tail of a comet. Or at least that's what they say.

Speaking of comets, the map from Beneath the Comet would be a possibility. It just looks like a blank parchment without the light of one particular comet. For added pizzazz, it might include a note along the lines of "modern parchment inexplicably discovered in the center of an eight million year old geode".

gizmomathboy · 3/22/2018 4:02 pm

pauloralves wrote:
rhialto wrote:
Yes, there are "magic" green gems which power/fuel an item in the module. You should have them be in a lead-lined box of some sort if you want to foreshadow, otherwise there will be an attendant sickness if exposed to the green gems...which may or may not be related to the Green Death.
I think I get what you are trying to say here, very interesting... sure to put it in some "safe box" or the like.

Warp Bikes?! Tell me more, intriguing concept.

Checkout this thread

http://hyperborea.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=484

Josh · 3/23/2018 4:00 pm

You could have a Hyperborean version of Tillinghast's Ultra-Violet device in Lovecraft's From Beyond. If the players turn it on, their characters can see inhabitants of new dimensions, and these inhabitants can now see them.

This is a great way to trigger an instant fight, surrounded by enemies, with surprise! It has the added benefit of being a good reason why an NPC has gone missing.

Ghul · 3/24/2018 7:37 am

Josh wrote:
You could have a Hyperborean version of Tillinghast's Ultra-Violet device in Lovecraft's From Beyond. If the players turn it on, their characters can see inhabitants of new dimensions, and these inhabitants can now see them.

This is a great way to trigger an instant fight, surrounded by enemies, with surprise! It has the added benefit of being a good reason why an NPC has gone missing.

This is a brilliant idea! Write this module, Josh!

Chainsaw · 3/24/2018 7:51 am

Ghul wrote:
Josh wrote:
You could have a Hyperborean version of Tillinghast's Ultra-Violet device in Lovecraft's From Beyond. If the players turn it on, their characters can see inhabitants of new dimensions, and these inhabitants can now see them.

This is a great way to trigger an instant fight, surrounded by enemies, with surprise! It has the added benefit of being a good reason why an NPC has gone missing.
This is a brilliant idea! Write this module, Josh!

Agreed! So much potential for puzzles and traps around such a device... perhaps, The Eyes of the Otherworld?

Josh · 3/27/2018 4:41 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
Ghul wrote:
This is a brilliant idea! Write this module, Josh!
Agreed! So much potential for puzzles and traps around such a device... perhaps, The Eyes of the Otherworld?

It's tempting, but my mind is currently swimming with sunken cyclopean ruins of oceanic crypt cities.

That does remind me, pauloralves could have pale gold artifacts or summoning stones on display. These things could point players to a certain sleepy seaside town living under an ominous shadow, or even over to Dagon Bay!

I'm of like-mind with Blackadder, I enjoy setting up links to other adventures in my own games, and for this, a museum presents too good an opportunity.

Some other ideas off the top of my head:

Interesting meteorite fragments could lead to a future encounter at a crater site with a Colour out of Space, conveniently provided with stats in the rulebook.

For a little bit of Clark Ashton Smith: displayed, tattered pages believed to be from the fabled Book of Eibon could render a trail to the Caverns of Thracia — or any other possible resting place of this forbidden tome. This might lead the player characters into conflict or pursuit by Inquisitors of Yoon'Deh, who are snooping around looking to destroy these blasphemous codex fragments.

pauloralves · 3/27/2018 7:28 pm

Great Josh, for some days I was unable to see this thread, but your ideas were very interesting. Now I have to have an "ultra-violet device" thing in this homebrew! (and a surprise fight my players gonna hate me for years to come). The process is still slow, but I am assembling the adventure following the great ideas that you all had given. All the best!