Looking for ideas

[Kowandz]

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/la-bon-vie/wikis/main-page

If you want to learn about the world and the details, they are in the wiki.  I have to finish putting in the details but we finished the first story a week ago.  The first story was mostly about Gene and Phillipe, not so much about Joscelin and Celeste.  I have a crazy story line about a fairy cat that tricks, marries, impregnates, and then kills noble french girls and is loosely based on Puss in Boots (almost every fairy tale you know comes from France, should make later stories fun).  That story line is meant for Celeste, she is the social beast in the group, so fairies will be fun for her character.  The potential victim is Celeste's cousin.  The other story line I want to be more for Joscelin's character, His dad has three wives and a ton of kids, and I can see where a sorcerer might have ideas for the use of a were-wolverine's child. What kind of ritual might some sorcerer try to use a were creatures child for.  I'm sure the sorcerer believes that were is a condition, not a magic trick of sorts, and is going off that in designing a ritual.  Or he might have gotten a ritual from something else.  I want to understand the crime before I start to make the criminals.

Any ideas on why a sorcerer would kidnap a were-wolverine's child?

[nick012000]

Any ideas on why a sorcerer would kidnap a were-wolverine's child?

Black Magic? Blackmail? To give to a faery in exchange for something? To sell to a vampire as an exotic meal? Being a colossal bitch of an ex-wife, and not wanting her ex-husband to keep the child?

[Kowandz]

Right now I'm tending toward black magic, but still need a goal for the bad guy

[UmbraLux]

What kind of ritual might some sorcerer try to use a were creatures child for.  I'm sure the sorcerer believes that were is a condition, not a magic trick of sorts, and is going off that in designing a ritual.  Or he might have gotten a ritual from something else.  I want to understand the crime before I start to make the criminals.

Any ideas on why a sorcerer would kidnap a were-wolverine's child?

Some possibilities:
 - To create or remove a curse dealing with shapechanging.
 - To gain shapechanging for him/her self.
 - To make a spell targeting any other were more powerful.
 - To use as a rechargeable battery / source of power for many rituals.  (Relying on the were's healing to recover.)
 - To experiment with cures for the were 'condition'.  (Perhaps the sorcerer has an afflicted loved one.)

[Kowandz]

I think I really like the idea that he wants to steal the were power for himself.  Fits in with some other ideas that I have.  How would a ritual work for stealing were powers for oneself.  Ritual will need a decent circle, but nothing too major.  The guy is more of a ritualist then a full wizard.  Stealing power, so everything for the ritual needs to be stolen.  Also gives more hints for PCs to potential find the perp.  He would need the child, vessel of the power he wants.  He would probably need an actual wolverine.  What else would a ritual like this need?

[Tedronai]

Thematically, a ritualist performing such a powerful ritual at a particular astronomical moment (the stars and/or planets being 'just right') would be quite reasonable.  If the PCs succeed in their research, this gives them a pretty good idea of the timeline they're working under.

[Haru]

Stealing the power from a were-something pretty much screams full moon, I think.

Hmm, there was an episode of dr who, where they trapped a werewolf-thingy in a cage made of moonlight that was collected through a telescope and dispersed through a diamond to form the cage. You could do something similar, only collect the moonlight to act as a catalyst for the ritual. Or have mirrors all around to create a circle out of moonlight. The theft of the diamond could be what the PC start investigating. The original diamond was quite large, I think it was part of the British Crown Jewels.

[hitash32]

also if you link the ritual to a location you could have 3 tiers of research success,
tier 1 failure
tier 2 time
tier 3 time+location

but to keep things interesting you could make the requirement for tier 3 very high or have it spit out multiple possible locations and have your players try to deduce the correct one based on what they know about the opponent or the ritual etc.

I've done some things similar to the second suggestion and i have found it to be a very fun and rewarding moment for both players and story teller, the general feedback has been that it really makes you feel like a part of the world.

[Kowandz]

Thank you.  I like the full moon as the timeline for them to succeed.  Good call on the Dr. Who episode, forgot that one.  I think a fairly ornate circle in a place of power, probably on a ley line, the ritual performed at midnight on the full moon.  Inscribed in the circle is a pentacle of moonlight with the light refracted between 5 diamonds.  This leads to a pile of evidence that the PCs can hopefully track down. I'm pretty sure I know where to go with this now, thanks.

[hitash32]

sounds good man, get back to us afterwards and let us know how it went!