Oct 26, 2019 by [ "James R. Miller"
]
Categories:
rpgs
Tags:
5e
dnd
homebrew
lets-write-a_module
This blog post will look at increasing a summary paragraph to a “summary page” We will take our summary paragraph from part 4 and take each sentence and expand that sentence into its own paragraph, with the end goal to have a 5 paragraph summary page.
Here’s the paragraph we’re working with:
A soldier returns to his childhood home from a long campaign waging guerilla warfare to find his beloved fiancee married to the town mayor. The soldier kills the town mayor in a fit of rage and then attempts to flee. Stricken with grief, a devil appears and tempts the soldier into an infernal contract giving the soldier powers and reinforcements to wage his revenge on all members of the town that encouraged or otherwise blessed the marriage. The soldier, using his new-found resources and powers, ambushes and kills those deserving the soldier’s revenge. As the soldier grows more corrupt and confident, he summons a powerful new devil reinforcement but the soldier loses control, and the devil escalates the infernal influence on the town.
And if we break it down into sentences it looks like this:
Now that we have rough ideas of our NPCs, we can start throwing NPC names in if it makes sense. Remember to keep in mind the idea about trying to describe situations and not a fiction plot. Remember, our story has to survive encountering the players!
A soldier returns to his childhood home from a long campaign waging guerilla warfare to find his beloved fiancee married to the town mayor.
Let’s expand that to:
Vyncis returns from his long campaign and travels and walks into the watering hole, where the PCs are present. A hush falls over the room as the Vyncis sees Colandry kiss the town mayor. The treasonous friend makes some comment about “they’re married now Vyncis” as Colandry faints from having seen her love return alive. Vyncis in his rage draws his sword, yells “your life for mine!”, and dispatches the town mayor and then turns to flee. As he flees, he hears Colandry’s scream in terror as she wakes up to see her prior love has murdered her current love. The PCs are urged to bring him back in for trial.
Our second sentence is:
The soldier kills the town mayor in a fit of rage and then attempts to flee.
And it looks like we pretty much took care of it in the earlier expansion.
And the next sentence:
Stricken with grief, a devil appears and tempts the soldier into an infernal contract giving the soldier powers and reinforcements to wage his revenge on all members of the town that encouraged or otherwise blessed the marriage.
Let’s expand that to:
Later that evening, Vyncis, suffering in sadness and rage, swears a curse upon anyone who aided the breaking of his betrothal and the marriage to the town mayor. As the players enter sight of Vyncis, they see an imp materialize in front of Vyncis and hand him a scroll and a quill. Vyncis signs a deal with the devil Asquirion for powers to carry out his curse. However, in the fine print, the contract notes that the extra powers and reinforcements are a rental only, and that Vyncis has to complete his revenge in ten days, otherwise Vyncis loses his soul. Vyncis signs and his body is wracked as horns grow and he changes into a variant tiefling. His eyes glowing red, Vyncis turns and looks at the players and says in infernal, “I’ve danced with Hell, care to dance with me?” Vyncis and the Imp attack but flee instead of fighting to the death.
And the next sentence:
The soldier, using his new-found resources and powers, ambushes and kills those deserving the soldier’s revenge.
Let’s expand that to:
Vyncis surveys his reinforcements: 4 Lemurs, 2 Imps, and a Bearded Devil. The next evening they raid the inn (or bust out of the makeshift jail cell in the inn) to go after the innkeeper, who was instrumental in convincing the mayor to woo Colandry when otherwise he wouldn’t have. He has a chance to kill the innkeeper’s wife Sybeatris but spares her saying she is innocent. He also plans an ambush against Ideth, and finds her note collection, and how she hid all of his letters to Colandry. Vyncis takes these letters and Ideth’s head if he’s able, and drops them off outside Colandry’s house, to show her of the betrayal.
And the final sentence:
As the soldier grows more corrupt and confident, he summons a powerful new devil reinforcement but the soldier loses control, and the devil escalates the infernal influence on the town.
Let’s expand that to:
Vyncis, thinking his revenge is complete, decides to release his reinforcements, when the Imp who originally proposed the deal, Yantanish, points to the fine print, and says that Vyncis has to kill Colandry to complete his revenge. Vyncis refuses. Yantanish compromises saying we’ll consider the deal done if you will summon our master Asquirion to the material plane and we’ll let you keep your soul. Vyncis complies and through a foul ritual summons Asquirion. Asquirion removes Vyncis powers, and then has the devil henchmen bound and gag him as they drop him off in the town. In tears, he informs the town what happened, and that there’s a scary devil in the woods that needs a reckoning.
Vyncis returns from his long campaign and travels and walks into the watering hole, where the PCs are present. A hush falls over the room as the Vyncis sees Colandry kiss the town mayor. The treasonous friend makes some comment about “they’re married now Vyncis” as Colandry faints from having seen her love return alive. Vyncis in his rage draws his sword, yells “your life for mine!”, and dispatches the town mayor and then turns to flee. As he flees, he hears Colandry’s scream in terror as she wakes up to see her prior love has murdered her current love. The PCs are urged to bring him back in for trial.
Later that evening, Vyncis, suffering in sadness and rage, swears a curse upon anyone who aided the breaking of his betrothal and the marriage to the town mayor. As the players enter sight of Vyncis, they see an imp materialize in front of Vyncis and hand him a scroll and a quill. Vyncis signs a deal with the devil Asquirion for powers to carry out his curse. However, in the fine print, the contract notes that the extra powers and reinforcements are a rental only, and that Vyncis has to complete his revenge in ten days, otherwise Vyncis loses his soul. Vyncis signs and his body is wracked as horns grow and he changes into a variant tiefling. His eyes glowing red, Vyncis turns and looks at the players and says in infernal, “I’ve danced with Hell, care to dance with me?” Vyncis and the Imp attack but flee instead of fighting to the death.
Vyncis surveys his reinforcements: 4 Lemurs, 2 Imps, and a Bearded Devil. The next evening they raid the inn (or bust out of the makeshift jail cell in the inn) to go after the innkeeper, who was instrumental in convincing the mayor to woo Colandry when otherwise he wouldn’t have. He has a chance to kill the innkeeper’s wife Sybeatris but spares her saying she is innocent. He also plans an ambush against Ideth, and finds her note collection, and how she hid all of his letters to Colandry. Vyncis takes these letters and Ideth’s head if he’s able, and drops them off outside Colandry’s house, to show her of the betrayal.
Vyncis, thinking his revenge is complete, decides to release his reinforcements, when the Imp who originally proposed the deal, Yantanish, points to the fine print, and says that Vyncis has to kill Colandry to complete his revenge. Vyncis refuses. Yantanish compromises saying we’ll consider the deal done if you will summon our master Asquirion to the material plane and we’ll let you keep your soul. Vyncis complies and through a foul ritual summons Asquirion. Asquirion removes Vyncis powers, and then has the devil henchmen bound and gag him as they drop him off in the town. In tears, he informs the town what happened, and that there’s a scary devil in the woods that needs a reckoning.
The next step I like to do is a simple one; I like to walk away from the material at this point. I want at least a few days for it marinate in my brain so that when I come back and read it again, it’s “fresh” in my mind.
Our next blog post will be a review and edit of our one-page summary to see if there are any glaring issues or things we can fix now, before we go indepth on our NPCs.