1. The Wasting Disease Lights: There's a panic in the city. Corpses are rising up from their watery graves and walking about the city. These zombies are harmless -- they just walk about in a sleepwalker's trance -- but they are rather disturbing. Rumor has it the cause is the Waterfall Horror. Camera: A merchant approaches the party. He want to hire them to find his brother who's been seen walking the city streets. He wants his brother found and cured of the walking disease (as it is called) and he's willing to pay them very well for their efforts. Action: The zombies are victims of the Curse of the King of the Beggars. The King's Curse (as his subjects call it) is the result of a magical poison that drops the victim into a death trance. The victim gets buried (dropped in the water), and in three days time rises again, bloated with the water and half-eaten by the camivorous fish in the lake. 2. "Big Eye!" Lights: The "streets" of Causoban are always crowded. Tight bridges and walkways mean everyone is shoulder to shoulder lest they get pushed off into the swift riverway. As the party is trying to move along, one of them bumps into an old beggar woman. She spits on the offending party and looks at him with a pus-filled, bloated, cataract-clouded eye. "I give you big eye!" she says. "Big eye!" Then, she shuffles herself off into the crowd and disappears. Camera The offender starts to experience really bad luck. Everything seems to go wrong. Everyone around the offender seems to give him a suspicious glance and it's like an aura of doom has befallen the poor offender. Of course, if he seeks out mystical assistance. anyone will tell him that he's just fine and look at him like he's a kook. Action: There is no curse. The old woman is just plain nuts and thinks she is a witch. Of course, don't tell the party this. Every time you have to make a roll for the offender, make it a secret roll and shake your head sadly if he fails. If he succeeds, whistle, wipe your brow and say "You made that one by the skin of your teeth!" Make all the NPC's appear to be suspicious: it's just his imagination working overtime. And when he goes to get "the curse" lifted, of course the mage is going to look at him like he's crazy: He's obviously not cursed! 3. "A Friend In Need..." Lights: The party is in the Crossed Swords Tavern when they see a fight break out between one of Gurtog Greytooth's crew and a small man. The crew member is a huge Ork who is smashing the little man into a mess of blood and broken bones. Camera: One of the party members recognizes the little man from their past. If there isn't an existing reasonable connection, make one up. The little man looks up from his beating and sees the party member and recognition flashes in his bruised eyes. Action: The party has a choice. They can come to the aid of the little man, thus winning the animosity of Gurtog Greytooth's crew, or they can watch as someone they know gets pummeled to death. 4. "Watch your hands, buddy." Lights: The party is in the Crossed Swords Tavern when they encounter a lovely young lady named Jaqlyn. She flirts with each of them, sits in their laps, runs her fingers through their hair and makes a general nusiance of herself. Camera: The next night, Jaqlyn shows up again in the tavern, but this time, she treats the party as if she doesn't know them. When they try to re-establish the flirtations that went on the night before, she puts them down with the skill of a sword master. Action: Jaqlyn isn't schizophrenic; she has a twin sister, Charlyn. Jaqlyn is a thief and Charlyn is a sword master. Jaglyn loves setting her sister up in uncomfortable situations, and once the sword master has figured it all out, she'll apologize and offer to buy the party a round of drinks. The sisters will make valuable allies, for both are highly skilled and have many contacts in the city. 5. "The Magic Egg" Lights This one's to be used when you've got a thief in the party who likes taking things without letting the others know what he took. The next time your thief goes pilfering through pockts, slip a beautiful porcelain egg into his palm. It's expensive and obviously magical (glowing with an unearthly light). Cameras The night after the pilfering has taken place, one of the other party members gets a visit from a strange demon. It pops out of nowhere, completely taking the PC off guard. It's huge and ugly and mean. It shouts in a shrill voice: "Give me the magic egg!" and proceeds to pound the poor PC into the ground, all the while shouting "Give me the magic egg!" This happens to each of the PCs one by one. There's nothing they can do to the creature, it seems invulnaable to any attack they try to muster and only strikes them when they are alone. Action: The creature is actually a horror bound to the egg. When the egg was stolen, it creates rhe creature who proceeds to smash the thief's closest friends. Only when the thief returns the egg to the rightful owner will the creature's attacks come to a stop. 6. "Let the Waters Flow." Lights: When the PCs are out on the town, they bump into a running figure. He's completely out of breath and bleeding profusely from a head wound and a wound in the chest. He's sweating and coughing a painful hacking cough and he takes one look at the PC and whispers: "Let the waters flow," just before he dies in the PC's arms. Camera: As the days pass, the PC's will notice dark garbed individuals following them wherever they go. If they try to approach the dark garbed fellows, they dissppear into the crowded streets. Then, one night, one of the PC's wakes up with an assassin on his chest, holding down his arms ready to slit his throat. Action: The man that ran into the PCs was a merchnt who happened to overhear the plans of the City Executioner. He plans to overthrow the Masters of the City and rule it for himself. Of course, the party now becomes liabilities and must be eliminated. More on the Assassin's pht can be found below. 7. "An Offer You Can't Refuse." Lights: The party gets involved in a bar fight and gets arrested. Now they have a choice: Serve as Thoren Tugel's bodyguards or get sold off as slaves in the next auction. The choice should be easy. Camera: The party shows up to a magnificent party to serve as bodyguards for Tugel. There is no security other than them. The City Executioner is their boss, but he gets called away on another task and leaves the party in charge. Action It's all a set-up. The party is going to get framed for the assassination of Tuigel. The Assassin's Guild has managed to break into the room and plant all the incriminating evidence they need. If the party doesn't catch on, they'll be slaves for sure. 8. "Two Graves" Lights: Jaqlyn (see "Watch Your Hands, Buddy" above) is going to do something rather reckless. She's going to break in to the Temple of Vestrial and steal whatever she can get her hands on. Of course, she reveals to her closest confidant that the real reason she's breaking in is for revenge. A long time ago, her brother was killed by a questor of Vestrial, and she recently saw the man again (he has a black glass eye that she recognized). She makes the party promise that they won't tell her sister about her plans. Whether they do or not is up to them, but Charlyn will not be happy about it. Camera: The party breaks in to the Temple of Vestrial with ease. It's much too easy. Of course, they'll soon realize that the Temple is really empty, the whole building is a front for the real Temple located across town (in the ruins of the theater). Action: However, the questors have set up many traps for those who decide to break in to the tower to keep them from revealing the truth. There are also magical alarms to let the questors know when someone has broken in. Give the party about an hour to get out of the place before the questors arrive. More Causoban Causoban: Part 2: Section 1: Places To Go, People To See Causoban: Part 2: Section 2: Lights, Camera, Action! Causoban: Part 2: Section 3: The Lesser of Two Evils Back to Shadis #25 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com