Monster of the Week

Blurb:

For seventy years, the old house on Willow Street has stood abandoned—its windows dark, its rooms untouched, and its tragic past slowly fading into local legend. Most people dismiss the stories of ghostly figures, crying children, and lights flickering behind boarded windows… until a late-night party sends a group of teenagers fleeing in terror, and two contractors investigating the property turn up dead under impossible circumstances. The police are at a loss for answers. Can you and your comrades uncover the mystery hidden beneath decades of silence? Some houses are haunted for a reason… and some secrets were never meant to be uncovered.

An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW1 - Murder at 301 Oak St. - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

As mentioned above, I had a great time playing my friend's scenario.  Not only did it inspire me to want to run it, but it also inspired my first adventure idea.  And this is the result.  It served as the initial adventure for the above mentioned campaign and I have also run it at Cons as a standalone game.  I really enjoy the twist.  I think it is fun and awesome if I do say so myself. 

Blurb:

The small college town of Marland, Kansas should be worrying about exams, football, and the latest scandal on Greek Row, not a growing outbreak of a strange illness that leaves its victims pale, exhausted, and slowly wasting away.  Officials insist it’s nothing more than mononucleosis.  The local press agrees. But medical experts can’t explain why the sickness seems to cluster around campus, or why one local child is showing the same symptoms.  Stranger still, another child died months earlier exhibiting identical signs, long before the "outbreak" officially began.  As fear spreads through dorms, classrooms, and quiet streets, can you and your fellow investigators unravel a mystery that stretches far beyond Kansas. Because something hungry has come to Marland... and it has been perfecting its craft for over a century.

An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW2 - The Wicked Witch of West College - WEB

Commentary:

This was the second scenario I ran for the Alpha Omega Investigations campaign.  I really wanted to avoid telling another ghost story and so I started looking for other supernatural creatures to base an adventure on.  I came across the legend of the Shtriga and it grabbed me.  And since I live in Kansas, I couldn't help but make a reference to The Wizard of Oz.  

Though I truly *hate* it when people quote or paraphrase "Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!".

Blurb:

The quiet rural community of Oakdale, Kansas is reeling from a string of tragedies that make no sense: a respected attorney burns down a bank with people trapped inside, a family annihilation ends with an unexpected inheritance, and a deadly armored car disaster leaves bodies, missing cash, and far too many unanswered questions. To the authorities, it’s a horrifying run of bad luck. To the investigators, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Somewhere at the center of it all, something is preternaturally twisting greed, anger, and whispered wishes into bloodshed. The only question is whether you and your comrades can uncover the truth… before whatever was awakened claims the whole town.

An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW3 - The Cursed Blood - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

While this was the third scenario I ran for the Alpha Omega Investigations campaign, it was originally the second adventure I wrote.  I honestly don't remember the inspiration for this scenario, but I still really dig it.  While it was completely unplanned, especially with one of the PCs being a Divine, it really set the direction of the campaign and the Season One (first 6 episodes) arc.

Blurb:

A quiet inheritance dispute in the small town of Nevada, Missouri should have been simple: a valuable stretch of land left to a grieving daughter after her father’s death.  But when the will is suddenly contested by the town’s mayor, old wounds and buried secrets begin to surface. Within days, witnesses turn on each other, trusted officials meet violent ends, and something in the woods answers a call no one should have made. As the body count rises, you and your fellow investigators will uncover a land dispute that has spiraled into something far older and far more dangerous than law or politics... and an unwise bargain made in blood and silence to an ancient power best left forgotten.  

An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW4 - The Hunter Hunted - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

I had fun with this scenario.  I really played around with the title.  It is directly inspired by the old Vampire: The Masquerade supplement The Hunters Hunted.  I named one of the villains DeWitt C. “DC” Hunter and incorporated The Wild Hunt.  It is also an oblique reference to the PCs as hunters of the supernatural (Hah!  Bet you thought I'd use preternatural in that sentence :P).

Blurb:

In a cozy Midwestern neighborhood where holiday lights are practically a competitive sport, one man’s over-the-top Christmas display becomes the unexpected centerpiece of seasonal mischief when a group of middle school pranksters decides it’s perfect for viral fame. But after the decorations are repeatedly trashed, the rest of the neighborhood pulls their displays down—threatening to dim Christmas across the whole town. Then the troublemakers start vanishing one by one, and suddenly the town has a much bigger problem than broken inflatables and stolen ornaments. Whispers of chains dragging through snow, distant bells in the night, and something hunched moving just beyond the glow of porchlights turn the season colder with every passing day. Now it’s up to you and your comrades to uncover the truth, bring the neighborhood back together, and restore the true spirit of Christmas… before it disappears altogether.

 An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW5 - The Other Spirit of Christmas - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

As the Alpha Omega Investigations was progressing, we were approaching Christmas.  I thought this would be a fun time to do a bit of a cheesy. Hallmark Channel-esque adventure.  And what better monster to use than Krampus!  This was a hoot to write and run.  The look on the players' faces when they discovered the only way to defeat this horrible creature was utterly priceless.  

CONTENT WARNING AND TONE:

This is supposed to be a cheesy feel-good Hallmark Christmas TV Movie-esque adventure.  With that in mind, downplay the violence to children.  Any actual assault on the children should be handled off screen and the results minimized.

Blurb:

In a cozy Midwestern neighborhood where holiday lights are practically a competitive sport, one man’s over-the-top Christmas display becomes the unexpected centerpiece of seasonal mischief when a group of middle school pranksters decides it’s perfect for viral fame. But after the decorations are repeatedly trashed, the rest of the neighborhood pulls their displays down—threatening to dim Christmas across the whole town. Then the troublemakers start vanishing one by one, and suddenly the town has a much bigger problem than broken inflatables and stolen ornaments. Whispers of chains dragging through snow, distant bells in the night, and something hunched moving just beyond the glow of porchlights turn the season colder with every passing day. Now it’s up to you and your comrades to uncover the truth, bring the neighborhood back together, and restore the true spirit of Christmas… before it disappears altogether.

 An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW5 - The Other Spirit of Christmas - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

As the Alpha Omega Investigations was progressing, we were approaching Christmas.  I thought this would be a fun time to do a bit of a cheesy. Hallmark Channel-esque adventure.  And what better monster to use than Krampus!  This was a hoot to write and run.  The look on the players' faces when they discovered the only way to defeat this horrible creature was utterly priceless.  

CONTENT WARNING AND TONE:

This is supposed to be a cheesy feel-good adventure.  With that in mind, downplay the violence to children.  Any actual assault on the children should be minimized and handled off screen.

Blurb:

Along the aging riverfront of Kansas City, KS. abandoned factories, forgotten storm drains, and decades of urban decay have become just another part of the landscape.  Most people near Kaw Point Park know better than to wander too close after dark—especially when whispers persist of strange noises echoing up from the sewers and something preternaturally large moving in the shadows.  Few take those stories seriously... until a young couple vanishes without a trace, followed by scattered evidence of a violent struggle and no believable suspects. The police suspect robbery.  The families suspect a cover-up.  Now you and your comrades must descend into the forgotten places beneath the city, uncover the truth behind the disappearances, and face a hunger that has been growing in the dark for far too long.

An Adventure for 4-5 Players.  Beginners welcome!

Links:

• MMTW7 - The Past Never Stays Buried - WEB.pdf

Commentary:

This was the first case at the start of Season 2 for the Alpha Omega Investigations campaign.  This actual mystery was originally called "Down in a Hole" and it was interwoven with last season's cliff hanger - what happened after one of the PCs went to Hell... on purpose!  As such the sewer beast mystery was meant to be light weight so we could bounce back forth between Hell and KCK.  It should be mentioned that the PC did in fact escape Hell and return to their comrades. 

I had a convention coming up and I had run some of the above adventures at that con in previous years and I was looking for another MotW scenario to run.  I came across this one.  I renamed it and removed the few references to the PC in Hell and et voilà - this adventure was born.