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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: tetrasodium on March 16, 2012, 05:08:27 AM
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So my players, specifically a fae PC, owe someone a favor. The someone in question happens to be in a low security prison ;)and the poor guy is possibly about to get screwed by a different PC's trouble aspect ;). The nevernever is sure to be quadruple plus ungood on the other side. my first thought while planning was "there's no way they would try to escape him through the nevernever if he winds up in maximum security, who cares what's there" and then I thought about my players & realized how wrong that I probably was on that note. so far the nevernever has been very safe for them, and adding the fear of thenevernever opening to actually unpleasant places beyond just explosive gas, scorching pillars of light, etc appeals to me.
So what would you say is on the neverever side of a maximum security prision? , feel free to let out your inner evil-MWahahaha demon ;)
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Just a few suggestions.
1) A Fae prison
2) an "other type of Nevernever creatures" prison
3) a hell dimension
4) something that feeds off of the emotions that a prison generates.
5) a dark garden of delights - reflecting the unfulfilled desires of those in prison
6) a candy land, but one with dark undertones. Something like Kate Perry's California Gurlss.
7) endless tunnels that circle for miles - a maze that effectively traps them.
8) A creature (Fae? Demon? Other?) who wants to make a deal with any prisoner who tries to escape through the Nevernever. Make the deal and you can travel safely, otherwise you've got problems.
That said, escaping through the Nevernever is still escaping. Unless the person stays in the Nevernever there's going be a lot police looking for him. Checking on his friends and family. Watching them for leads to the escapee.
And if they come to the prison through the nevernever there's the problem of finding it. Places don't have direct correspondences in the Nevernever - which is why you can walk to the UK in a few hours without getting your feet wet. They'll probably have to deal with some creature or spirit to find a to the prison - and even that might not get them to his cell. Imagine wandering the prison - after light's out - trying to find the right cell, trying to travel between cell blocks, trying to avoid the guards.
Richard
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how about a village of human natives of the Never-Never... Think like the patrons out of the Deathgate Series... They could be stealthy survivalists (Aeil) or enslaved to a fei lord... They could hold the source to many differant adventures and are unique and flavorful.
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Another, much worse, prison.
Like a castle made of cages hanging from chains fastened to the top of a vast chamber filled mostly with acid. The walls of the chamber are nearly indestructible, but if broken lead to the innards of a landscape-scaled monster. Said monster is trapped inside a magic circle on a rock floating through what is for lack of a better word outer space.
What's worse is that everything in the cage-castle deserves to be there, and will sabotage anyone who tries to leave without them. And the monster that the prison is inside really should not be allowed to go free, so breaking the circle would be unwise.
If you want to avoid work, the Iron Spires might be useful to you. You can find a writeup on the wiki, which I currently cannot access.
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They find themselves in a beautiful city with crystal spires and streets paved with smooth stones placed so close together that no weed has managed to slip through. The streets go on in every direction, leading through the winding streets of a huge city. There's no one there. No one at all.
The streets manage to wind and turn them around consistently, making it impossible to make their way around or map the place out. Then they start to hear a voice, carried by the wind: "... making people better."
The interior of the buildings are all pristine, but impersonal. No pictures, knick-knacks or anything like that. The voice sounds again "We make people better..."
When night falls, they see people shuffle around; goblins, fetches, elves, trolls and anything else you can imagine. They seem to have come out of nowhere and they walk around aimlessly, holding pleasant but trivial conversations. As dawn comes, the prisoners disappear again.
A prison.
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Davy Jones locker as depicted in Pirates of the Caribbean. It is populated entirely by little crabs and dopplegangers of the characters who are less than sane.
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Richard, Sanc and Harboe, you guys are awesome.
Now I kinda want to incorportate this somehow into my current game just to use one of those.
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Evil/powerful ghosts and their demenses.
or
Perhaps a guardian and the demense it lives in and uses to keep the prisoners or their ghosts from harming others.
Maybe Ghost Rider hangs out waiting to jump on escapees just for kicks.
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A field full of Spirits of Apathy, milling about soundlessly, doing nothing, contributing nothing to the landscape...
Untill you get to the area corresponding to the Execution chamber, where the violent ghosts of executed murderers dwell, unable to free themselves from the endless press of Apathy around them...
At least they can't free themselves until the PC's push they way through the tide of Apathy, leaving a path out and gaining the ghosts' attention...
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Alpha Complex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game))
;D
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First thing that came to me was Hotel California.
But after thinking it through I imagined a powerful Wyldfae that grants prisoners their freedom in exchange for favors or other unsettling things.
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Obligation Generator: when random prisoners break on through to the Nevernever, there are Fae lurking nearby, offering help in exchange for a "little" favor. Some select candidates may even be lured or sprung by the Fae.
Vengeful Warlock: vengeance-minded warlock motivated to build a fastness here in the Nevernever to keep tabs on a mortal prisoner he felt was a flight risk and/or a recruitment candidate for another supernatural faction.
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So what would you say is on the neverever side of a maximum security prision? , feel free to let out your inner evil-MWahahaha demon ;)
It's a bright and sunny glade filled with yellow daffodils and wine-red petunias. A brook spills quietly down a hill into a large still pond half covered by pink water lilies. A beautiful woman clothed in flowering vines sits on a small islet with her feet in the pond brushing her hair, her back turned towards you. As you get closer, she peeks over her shoulder dark blue eyes gleaming wetly. She shyly beckons and timidly stretches out her hand.
She turns towards you smiling as you step into the pond and reach for her hand. A predator's sharp teeth glint as she laughs, sinks her clawed nails into your hand, and drags you under...
Hey, even undine have to eat!
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I say it really depends on the prison. What country is it in? What's the prison's history, politically, militaristically, in terms of escapes, executions, life sentences, parolees? What type of prisoners does it mostly consist of?
When the guy gets transferred to high security, I think some thought should be given to who was there last. What ridiculously messed up ghost makes its demense on the other side of that cell? Others made points about Fae Lords who have set up a crazy prison maze to force people to make deals with them, and that's pretty rad, but I don't really like no-win situations, so I wouldn't use that in my own game.
On the other hand, maybe the trip into the Nevernever isn't so much about scaring the crap out of the players and convincing them to turn back or die trying, and maybe it's more about starting a new mystery, or giving clues to an existing one. What if on the other side of the gate there's a winding maze of tunnels... with a giant gaping hole busted through from one end to the other, cutting a swath of wreckage and leading to the outside, which introduces the players to a graveyard of guards that were slaughtered when whatever left last that way got out? A skeleton guard attacks the PC raving about the Ravager That Was vowing that they won't let another beast like that escape to cause more destruction in their lord's domain.
If the players want to escape through the Nevernever, I think it's important to let them make a real go of it, even if that go consists of running and never looking back. I know I'd be upset if I got railroaded by my GM to "accept a fate worse than death thus derailing your character, or go back and sit on your hands and think of a better way". You might as well have told me "no."
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You might consider populating it with something like ghosts chained to monsters. Obviously representing the prisoners and their darker natures.
There would be at least two states:
The first might be something like the prisoners who wanted to overcome their darkness. Their ghost would be locked in combat with the monster, maybe forever Inferno style or until one wins. Presumably if the ghost won it could disappear and if the monster won it would just roam around indulging in whatever it represented.
The second group would be those who were in harmony with their darker natures. They would essentially act like the unchained monster.
You might want to throw in something like an arena/battle pit that can't be escaped as long as the chains are connected. If you do it this way then you would also have the option of having a ghost/monster pair that has been battling other monsters and ghosts for however long the prison has been in operation. Could be a good battle for the PCs.
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Depends on what you want. Do you want them to be able to go through te NeverNever? Then don't put an even-more-maximum-security-prison there. Make it a place of dispair. Hate-feading fay spring to mind. Some sort of grey wasteland is appropriate as well. Lots of good ideas have been posted.
If you want to show them that the NN is not always an option go for the prison. Make them glad they escaped back into a normal prison when they leave the NN.
In my opinion it really depends on what you want out of the story.
My own cool idea ;) let all max-security prisons in the world have the same portion of the NeverNever as neighbor. You can get from the prison into the NN but when you exit you are in an other prison somewhere else entirely. One or more demons may have taken up residence allowing you to deal with them for your freedom.
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Another way of looking at it:
What things are on the other side?
Entering the Nevernever by the third machine in the laundry room might take to a difference spot than crossing in the kitchen. A cell where that prison poet spend 40 years might open to a different spot than the one where a rapist serves out his time. The exercise yard, the dining area, the cell block that riots every 4 - 6 years, the main guard station - each of them might open up to different areas.
There's inspiration for that in Changes where they are taking way after way - walking seven steps here, going to that spot of the pyramid there, etc.
Which means they could find a Way that leads the crew breaking out the guy to the laundry room and then have to find the guy and return with him to the laundry room - or face exploring another Way.
Richard