Time for a bump. So I present to you a sample holiday...
Freedom Day
from "A Taste of Freedom", Futurama (Season 5, Episode 4)
History: "My fellow Earthicans, we enjoy so much freedom, it's almost sickening. We're free to chose which hand our sex-monitoring chip is implanted in. And if we don't want to pay our taxes, why, we're free to spend a week with the Pain Monster." Horology: Freedom is observed on a fictional date that looks suspiciously like July 4. Hullabaloo: "If you wanna do something, you do it, and to splick with the consequences." (Nude hot-tubbing is customary, and there is a parade sponsored by Charleston Chew!)
Some ways to get the heroes involved...
"A fabulous, crabulous day!": The Decapodians choose to invade Earth on Freedom Day to enslave all humanity. Why? "Bah! Your planet doesn't deserve freedom until it learns what it is not to have freedom. It's a lesson, I say!" You have to stop them.
"Kill the traitor!": Someone somehwere does something so vile that the Earthicans simply can't accept it, notwithstanding it being Freedom Day. "Yes, fellow patriots, I ate your flag. And I did it with pride. For to express oneself with doing a thing is the very essence of Freedom Day! Bless this planet and all its wonderful people!" It's up to you to remind the people of Earth the true meaning of Freedom Day. Or help them kill the traitor. Really, I don't care.
Optional Elements:
Epicurean: The holiday involves an unusual feast of some kind. "I wonder what the shroud of Turin tastes like."
Jeopardous: Observation of the holiday sometimes maims or kills celebrants or spectators. "Happy Freedom Day! Ow, I think I broke my wrist."
Profane: The holiday commemorates an evil god or allows celebrants to engage in otherwise forbidden behavior. "If you wanna do something, you do it, and to splick with the consequences."
History: Some 35 years ago, a small Halfling agircultural community near a hill was 'conquered' by a young and overconfident Black Dragon named Hissengard. The Halflings were unarmed and unable to really do much about it, and so reluctantly accepted their new tyrant master. Hissengard kept a close eye on his subordinates and demanded much tribute from his people. He also enforced strict and unfair rules and did all the other things a young, powerful and evil creature would do to his people. Being small and somewhat removed from the regular roads and kingdoms, nobody really heard the news of this dragon plague, as Hissengard forbid anyone from leaving the area.
However, 9 months after the start of his rule, a group of young Halflings secretly started building a raft. They used it to sail downriver when Hissengard slept and searched for a group of heroes to help them. Eventually, they did and under the cover of darkness, the children sailed into town with 3 mighty heroes on their raft. Those heroes vanquished Hissengard and freed the village, and the people gave a great feast in their honor and erected statues of them in the town square.
About one year afterwards all was well again in the village until suddenly a group of youngsters vanished. People searched for them, to no avail. It was not until they came sailing back in two weeks later with a group of picked up travellers that people realised what had happened, and from then on a tradition was born.
Over the years, it grew more elaborate. It was Berend Broeknagel, the community's local livestock farmer, who came up with the idea to make the celebration even more reminiscent of the old days and challenged the "heroes" to battle one of the drakes he kept on his farm. That also stuck, and over the years it became a bit of an honor challenge for the local youth to find the biggest possible 'heroes' that took one the largest of the Drakes. Those heroes that refused, only dared battle something weak (like a Needlefang) or even got mauled in the ring ensured that their retrievers would be the target of jokes and taunts for months to come. Those heroes that dared go into the ring with a Ragedrake on the other hand, would make sure their retrievers got a lot of attention, better jobs and the affection of the local boys and girls.
After each homecoming, the children would bring the heroes to a makeshift ring, where they fought the drake of their choice, and if they won, the beast would be slaughtered and prepared for the big feast. If the heroes failed, the feast would be a lot more meager and the heroes would probably not be applauded quite as much. (Nor would they if the feast consisted of a single Needlefang Drake)
Horology: The first signs of Heroes' Homecoming for the community is always the dissapearing of some of the youth somewhere in autumn. When exactly this happens depends on their planning, although they aim to leave on the same day as those kids 35 years ago that helped defeat the dragon. From then on, it's a waiting game. As the goal is to secretly bring the heroes in by night, generally the first sign that Heroes' Homecoming has started in earneast is the sudden arrival of a group of strange people in the middle of the night.From there on, the next afternoon is the challenge, which ends with a feast in the evening. Generally the following morning the heroes are brought back to whereever they were picked up, or are free to leave on their own.
Hullabaloo: The local children always figure out amongst each other who is allowed to take part in Heroes' Homecoming, although the unspoken rule is that nobody is allowed to go twice and generally children around the age of 15 are chosen. These kids secretly build a raft and then leave when it is completed. The parents are unaware of which children are preparing this and will only realise after they've left. Having a child be a part of Heroes' Homecoming is a point of pride for most parents. The children will then roam the river and major roads in the surrounding area, looking for a suitable group of challengers. Depending on their spirits, food supplies and how much they're pushing to bring back the most awesome heroes, they will approach travellers and ask them to "be the hero" and come with them to the village. Once suitable targets are found, they will be brought back on the raft in the middle of the night, where they will receive a place to sleep with the children's parents. The following morning, they will be dressed up in suitable gear if neccesary (the Halflings have some spare armor and weapons for Medium creatures) and then be brought to the arena under loud cheering. The night before, the heroes will have selected the size of Drake they want to enter the arena with, and it will be waiting inside. After the heroes have done battle and came out victorious (or not; there's handlers standing ready to jump in to try and save them if things go wrong) the animal will be dragged off with more cheering, and the heroes will be invited to song and dance while the evening's feast is prepared. Then, a great feast is hosted, with the heroes being first to taste the drake they killed (or jeered at if they didn't kill it) and the entire community joining in afterwards.
When the fires of the feast burn out, it signifies the end of Heroes' Homecoming and the heroes are free to leave and return to their normal lives as travellers. The children who brought them will then live with the honor or shame their heroes brought upon them, at least until the next year when a new group is ready to secretly go out.
Heroes: The easiest way to involve the players is by making them the target of the retrievers. The Halflings will either come up to them and ask them if they want to be heroes (like they aren't already) or, if particularly bold that year, even test them a bit by trying to steal their belongings, taunt them, or otherwise try to piss them off.
The players could also wander into the village at night, looking for a place to sleep, when they are mistaken for the homecoming heroes. When the villagers realise that they aren't together with the kids, they explain that they're worried, as the retrievers have been gone for far too long and something might've happened. This will let the players search for the children, with the holiday starting when they bring them back. The children could for example have had a boating accident, or fallen prey to bandits disguised as travellers.
Optionals:
Anomalistic (it's never certain when the retrievers come back with their heroes)
Epicurean (the feast involves eating a drake, which are not generally considered edible)
Jeopardous (the 'heroes' must do battle with an angry drake)
Epic Dungeon Master
Want to give your players a kingdom of their own? I made a 4e rule system to make it happen!
Hi! This is the first time I'm attempting anything of this sort, so I hope this is a good attempt!
The Time of Atonement
History: The Temple of Yassura is an almost unheard-of religion whose main (and perhaps only) temple is located in the city of Nagarum. The priests that inhabit the temple are a secretive lot, keeping mainly to themselves, to the meditation chambers within the temple, and the prayer-garden within the temple grounds. When interacting with the public, the priests wear veils to hide their faces, so only a few citizens know the identities of any of the priests. The temple does, however, offer healing services (both mundane and magical) for free (or for low costs if the medical procedures are complicated) to those in need. Every day, between the hours of dawn and dusk, the temple accepts petitioners who wish to have their wounds and illnesses tended to.
Every year, sometime during winter, the temple closes its doors for a week. No priest leaves the temple for seven days and all petitioners are refused entry. For those who notice the connection, this period also marks the occurrence of an annual spate of spectacular and gruesome suicides: men sett themselves alight on top of local landmarks, douse themselves in acid in the middle of public squares, drive groups of horses wild and then throw themselves in front of the stampeding horde; these and more have all occurred during this seven-day period. The temple is never closed aside from this seven-day period, and bizarre suicides never occur outside this time-frame.
Horology: The week-long period always occur during the winter months. The exact days seem to change every year, and there is never any announcement from the temple itself.
Hullaballoo: Once a year, during the winter months, several priests of Yassura develop strange marks on their faces. These marks cannot be removed by known magic, and are too structured to be considered natural. The marks always last exactly seven days before fading away. Each year, different priests develop the marks, and which priests develop them follows no conceivable pattern.
The priests believe that the marks are a sign of chastisement from their god Yassura. Thus, these seven days are known as the Time of Atonement. The temple is closed, and the priests spend all their time fasting, meditating and praying, hoping to absolve any sins they may have unknowingly committed during the year.
However, a small, secret, schismatic sect exists within the temple. This sect, calling itself the Hand of Yassura, believes that the chastisement is not a punishment for sins, but a demand for tribute. Thus, priests who are marked and who also belong to the sect prepare themselves for public and violent suicide, always making sure that the method of suicide makes it impossible to trace their identities back to the temple. The rest of the temple, though disturbed by the events, have little knowledge about the Hand, and are reluctant to let people outside the temple come and investigate.
Unbeknown to anyone involved in the religion, Yassura is no god, but a moderately powerful demon prince, who manages somehow to mask his powers and activities. The seven day period represents a time when he gains more direct access to the temple and can claim the souls of those who sacrifice themselves to fuel his own power. The gruesome rite has been going on for years, and Yassura has steadily been growing in power.
Heroes: There are a number of ways the heroes could be involved:
1) Few know that it is the priests who commit these bizarre suicides, but a family member of one of the priests could have suspicions and approach the heroes for help. Alternatively, local law enforcement, or even a priest of the temple of Yassura might enlist the heroes to investigate the suicides, which might be viewed as possible homicide (since they occur at such a regular basis).
2) The heroes could witness one of the priests attempt a suicide, perhaps one that would harm innocent bystanders as well, such as an explosion, or the aforementioned stampede. Heroic types would try and stop put a stop to this.
3) One of the heroes themselves could be inflicted by a mark, if they spent a significant amount of time in the temple, received major magical treatment (healing or any other spells) from the priests, and/or took part in any temple ceremonies. The Hand of Yassura might take this anomalous occurrence to be an omen and send assassins to kill the hero as a special sacrifice.
4) If the suicides are allowed to occur unchecked, Yassura may just receive enough power this time round to manifest an avatar, which the heroes may then have to deal with.
Optional Elements:
Heterodox: The Hand of Yassura has its own, secret beliefs, different from the majority of followers of the Yassura
Jeopardous: Some of the priests feel compelled to kill themselves as part of their “divine duty”.
Clandestine: Few outside the temple have any knowledge of the Time of Atonement. They only see that the temple closes semi-randomly every year. Few make the connection that the yearly suicides have anything to do with the temple.
Profane: The Time of Atonement serves an evil demon, though not even the Hand knows this.
Anomalistic: The Time of Atonement occurs during the winter, but the exact date the marks appear don not follow a discernible pattern.
With less than 40 hours to go, it's time for one more bump. Time to get in those last-minute entries. In the meantime, here's another supplemental entry...
Festivus
For the rest of us!
From "The Strike", Season 9, Episode 10 of Seinfeld
History: Developed by the warlock Frank Costanza, who became deeply disappointed in the commercialism of other Winter Solstice holidays while pummeling another man while trying to obtain a focus for a ritual for his son.
Horology: Festivus is celebrated on the 23rd day of the last month of the year, which is abotu two days after the Winter Solstice.
Hullabaloo: Festivus is celebrated through three stages. Because Festivus is an obscure holiday and looked upon with suspicion, disdain, and large heaping of sarcasm, it is celebrated privately in homes. Only trusted friends and family are invited to celebrate Festivus: Stage One. The Festivus Feast. First, all the celebrants gather around a table to eat a meal, which must be prepared in some sort of loaf or casserole form, made from unusual ingredients that were never meant to be eaten in a single meal, much less a single dish. This is only meant to prepare the celebrants for the unpleasantness to follow.
Stage Two. The Airing of Grievances. Next, the patriarch of the family tells the assorted people how each of them have disappointed the patriarch in some way. While commonly believed to be a way to encourage people to improve themselves in the coming year, or simply as a means to destroy the ego of any possible challenger in the coming Feats of Strength, in fact, the Airing of Grievances is the process by which a powerful Ritual is cast.
Stage Three. The Feats of Strength. Finally, after a minimum of ten minutes of Airing of Grievances (the minimum casting time for the ritual), the ture purpose of Festivus begins: the Feats of Strength. The patriarch of the household challenges one attendant to a wrestling match. Festivus cannot be declared to have ended until the challenger is pinned. This is a challenge involving contested rolls of Athletics, Acrobatics, Endurance, Insight, and Intimidation. The patriarch decides which Skill he will roll and which Skill the challenger may use to oppose it. The patriarch may not repeat a combo. The match continues until the challenger wins three consecutive checks. Due to the Ritual, the patriarch receives a +6 bonus to all Skill checks for the first round of the match, which is reduced by 1 every other round, until he has a -6 penalty to all checks. If 25 rounds pass without the challenger getting three consecutive successes, then the patriarch is still pinned, but the challenger knows it is not due to any accomplishment on his part.
The secret of Festivus, however, is that the ritual of Feats of Strength actually robs the challenger of some of his life force and gives it to the patriarch. The patriarch gains an extra month of vitality and strength for every round after the fifth that the wrestling match continues. Meanwhile, the challenger loses one month of longevity for each month the patriarch gains, seeming to age unnaturally, through premature baldness, bad eyesight, a struggling libido, etc.
Note that the patriarch can cast the "Feats of Strength" even if he is not a Ritual Caster, such is the power of the magic of Festivus.
Heroes: The heroes can be involved by being invited to a Festivus celebration. Perhaps the patriarch may ask one of the PCs to engage in the Feats of Strength!
The heroes may be asked to stop the Ritual by a son of a Patriarch who has never been able to defeat his father, and will die an early death if the ritual is nto stopped. He has been so humiliated over the years, that he doesn't have enough self-esteem to simply not attend the Festivus celebrations.
Optional Elements Clandestine: The holiday cannot be celebrated openly. Epicurean: The holiday involves an unusual feast of some kind. Impossible: During the holiday, one or more supernatural acts or phenomena are possible without the use of magic or ritual. Ritual: Observation of the holiday involves the casting or interruption of a Ritual.
Several small elven communities in the Dales have celebrated a holiday they have called Gnollhunt for about a century. These villages long before relocated near an entrance to the Underdark and were subject to frequent raids by the drow. The constant threat of violence caused the elves to remain much more vigilant and the majority of the elves began to revere the demi-god Shevarash the Black Archer. Shevarash long ago took an oath to neither smile or laugh until all the drow were exterminated, so the elves in these communities tend to lack the usual elven happy-go-lucky temperament and wear dark hued clothing. The adult residents do not show any sign of frivolity and the only laughter heard is usually a child’s followed by a sharp crack from a switch.
Around a century ago a large band of marauding gnolls invaded and ravaged the Dales. The elves were not quite as prepared as they thought to deal with this threat and many elves perished from battle and starvation. Finally one of the best rangers around, Marsas Bluefeather, concocted a plan to combat the gnolls that involved the elves dressing up in gnollskins, laughing like gnolls and eating scavenged food. He had hoped that by mimicking the gnoll culture and learning from it that they would be able to defeat them. Several elders scoffed at the recommendations but changed their minds when Marsas brought them the heads of two gnolls without even a scratch on him. The other elves took his advice to heart and their decisive victory came during the full moon on a crisp autumn night which drove the gnolls from the forest. Unfortunately, Marsas perished during the final battle and is also remembered during this time.
Horology
Gnollhunt is an elven holiday observed over a three night period consisting of The Laughter, The Hunt, and The Feast. The Hunt itself is observed on the night of the second full moon after the autumnal equinox, called the Hunter’s Moon by some, and is sandwiched by The Laughter and The Feast. Since Gnollhunt is dependent on the full moon, it is rarely observed on the same day every year (anomalistic).
Hullabaloo
Gnollhunt is celebrated over three different nights and in several different ways by different villages. In preparation for Gnollhunt, each village searches out a wide clearing in the forest and builds a roaring bonfire for the celebrations. Custom dictates that they never use the same spot (diversified). During the day they fast and wear a single feather dyed blue as a signifier of the holiday and as a reminder of Marsas’ wisdom and heroism. At night they dress up as gnolls, either in the actual dried skins of gnolls or sewn costumes made from other animal skins, all the while still wearing their blue feather. These elves do not openly tell others of their observance so as to not seem as though they worship demonic forces (clandestine).
The first night, The Laughter, is always the favorite of the elves. On this night they are permitted to laugh and dance and make merriment when otherwise they are not allowed to while observing Shevarash’s edicts (profane). They traditionally dance and drink all night around the great bonfire in the clearing. The laughter and revelry can sometimes be heard in nearby human settlements. Villages are all but deserted during this time. The next morning they are back in their villages performing their day to day chores as if nothing happened the night before.
The second night, The Hunt, occurs during the actual full moon. While this night is more somber and serious, the elves still look forward to it just the same. Some of the villagers go on a hunting binge through the forest, collecting small and large game as well as gathering fruits and nuts. Some villages just have a parade back to their village to simulate a hunt but others have been known to capture travelers, such as humans and dwarves, and bind them at the bonfire site until the next night (jeopardous). Many of those caught do not realize that it is elves and not gnolls that have captured them.
The third night of Gnollhunt is The Feast. After fasting for three days, the elves are ravenously hungry and settle in for a huge feast with all of the foodstuffs hunted and scavenged from the night before (epicurean). The elves gorge themselves on whatever is available, which has, in some extreme cases, included the eating of captured travelers. At the end of the night's festivities there is the solemn removal of their costumes. The next day there is no evidence of any holiday; no costumes, no blue feathers, nothing.
Heroes
The heroes are captured by elves wearing gnoll skin costumes. Will they escape? Or will they become dinner?
The heroes happen upon a large gnoll encampment. The gnolls are busy dancing around a bonfire. Do they attack the 'gnolls'? Or quietly slip away to the nearby elven village?
Yeenoghu has endured this practice for too long. The gnoll's deity send agents to end this once and for all. Do they descend upon them in a fury of claw and fang? Or do they sunder the elven villages from within by possessing key figures within the communities?
The heroes happen upon a seemingly abandoned elven village but find it teeming with drow hard at work setting traps throughout the settlement. Do they stop the drow from setting more traps and chase them away? Do they wait for the elves to return?
And so, after losing half our fleet during the New Moon Massacre, our courageous ancestors faced the Certanian Pirates and the Mitronian Fleet under the blessed light of the full moon that shined like a pearl, taking them off guard in the Zaratan Archipelagos. It was a fierce battle between proud warriors, but in the end the Portites finally won peace for the Western Sea and the Dawn Coast. This is why each year we celebrate the Pearly Moon Victory with a grand festival dedicated our remarkable ancestors. –Porpagandus the bard, wooing Portos’s impressionable youth before convincing them to buy him some mead
History: Each year the city-state of Portos celebrates the victory that made it the only naval power on the Western Sea, controlling most of the commerce of the Dawn Coast. This was the final battle of the Third Pirate War with the Portites’s eternal rivals, the ruthless sailors of the city-state of Mitron and the Pirates of Certan and their Sea Witches. The Third Pirate war lasted twenty years and was won three hundred and sixty-three years ago. The festival is officially a celebration of those who fought and died in the name of freedom and Portos.
The festival: Each year, on the day of the winter solstice, the Elder Astronomer of Portos’s Astronomical and Marine Academy presents next year’s calendar and the dates of the Pearly Moon Festival in a pompous ceremony. Following the folklore surrounding the decisive victory, the commemoration begins the day of the ninth new moon of the year and ends fifteen to seventeen days later, during the night of the next full moon.
The city-state starts buzzing with activity and excitement a week before the ninth new moon. Citizens begin preparations for the festival that will attract merchants and pilgrims from the entire Dawn Coast and beyond. Fishermen get busy fishing and smoking various fish and shellfish that will feed the celebrants. Merchants set up stands all along the beaches, ready to sell food, alcohol and various trinkets to the crowd. Portites gather great piles of wood all over the beaches of Portos. These will become bonfires that will be light when the sun sets on the day of the ninth new moon and will burn until sunrise. Last year a record two hundred and third-four bonfires were light. A special crowd of people also make an appearance. Gamblers. Rich or poor, they congregate during the festival. It is the only time of the year gambling is legal in the city-state and surrounding territories. The Portos Council sell permits to set up gambling “establishments” on the beaches. This is allowed to remember the chance the ancestors took when attacking the Mitronians and Certanians. It is also very lucrative for the authorities and those who bought the expensive permits.
Right before dusk, citizens and outsiders gather on the beaches. The Speaker of the Portos Council makes a speech about the courage of the elders, the Peace of Portos, wishes for a prosperous harvest, calm seas and a great festival for all. Once the sun sets, the first bonfire is light by the Lunara Virgin (a selected woman from the Sisterhood of Selene), after she recites the Litany of Remembrance for the soul of those who died on the New Moon Massacre. Once the first bonfire is light, the Lunara Virgin scream “let the festival begin” and celebrants start drinking, singing, dancing, opening and eating oysters, and jump naked in the sea for the traditional Midnight Swim. Each year a few people drown by accident.
The Pearly Moon Festival is world renowned for its fresh oysters and clear wheat alcohol that goes by the name of Moonshine. Any pearl discovered in an oyster during the night of the new moon is considered to be a good luck charm and can fetch a hefty sum. Last year a rare Blue Moon Pearl was sold for one hundred thousand gold pieces. This sort of money draws many crooks, so the Portos Council pays a few jewellers who will distinguish real pearls from the fakes. People just need to go see them before buying a pearl.
After the orgiastic first night, celebrations are rather tame by comparison. Festivities last all day and all night for fifteen to seventeen days. People drink, eat, dance, gamble, play games, swim, and commerce until the last day of the festival. People gather on the beaches once again just before dusk on the day of the full moon. Once the sun sets the same Lunara (not a virgin anymore, as tradition demands) recites the Prayer of the Courageous in honour of the ancestors who won peace and prosperity for the Western Seas and the Dawn Coast. After the prayer people go home in silence, the Pearly Moon Festival is over until next year.
Dark of the moon: Most historians and astronomers agree that the New Moon Massacre didn’t happen during a new moon. Journals written at the times describe the sky of that night as very cloudy, which might explain why some people thought it happened on a new moon. It is also accepted that it happened much earlier in the year, when there were still ice floating in the sea. Opinions diverge why the dates changed and why it was associated with the moon like this. There is however a consensus that this happened around thirty years after the Pearly Moon Victory. Historians agree that the battle was won during a full moon, but probably a month after what is now called the New Moon Massacre.
What historians do not know is that twenty-five years after the decisive victory in the Zaratan Archipelagos, the Sea Witches of the Certanian Pirates tried to get their revenge on Portos. They had gathered on beaches right outside the city-state, where the festival is now held, on the ninth new moon of the year. In the darkness they were trying to invoke Dagon, the demon lord to whom they had sold their souls to get revenge. The Witches were now madder than before, tentacles protruding from their bodies or just looking like fish. Fortunately, a group of adventurers got a hold of their plot and warned the Portos Council just in time. Aided by the Sisterhood of Selene, the authorities massacred the witches on the beach and stopped their doomsday ritual.
Diviners and demonologists agreed that the Witches could only summon their master on the ninth moon of the year and needed a large body of water to do so. After much deliberation, the Council agreed that they needed to watch the beaches every year during the ninth new moon of each year. The Council didn’t want to alert the population, fearing they might panic, so it decided to change the dates of the Portos Massacre Commemoration and the Pearly Moon Victory and have them happen on the beaches instead of the port, renaming the Portos Massacre Commemoration to the New Moon Massacre. This way it could build bonfires on the beaches to light the darkness and keep an eye out for the Witches. Over times even the members of the Council and the Sisterhood forgot the origin of the celebration that grew in popularity and that was eventually named the Pearly Moon Festival.
Adventure hooks:
-Please protect my pearl. The rarest of Pearls has been found, a Red Moon Pearl. Its owner has a buyer who is willing to pay two hundred thousand gold pieces for it. The pearl needs protection because it is the crucial element of a dangerous necromantic ritual.
-You were chosen to honour the Lunara Virgin! But first you will need to win the swimming competition held during the Midnight Swim. This means that not only will you have to out swim other contenders, survive the hundreds of drunken celebrants who are having a naked dip in the sea, but you will also have to bring back a Snippy Snapper Crab that dwells at the bottom of the sea shore. Good luck, sharks are nervous this time of year!
-The Certanian Sea Witches are back now that everyone forgot about them. They will hold their summoning ritual right in front of the oblivious crowd who is used to strange drunken dance and singing. Sea creatures will start getting out of the sea and attack the celebrants. It will be up to the PCs to kill these creatures and locate the Witches to stop them before Dagon is summoned.
-The PCs are having a great time drinking Moonshine and eating oysters. That is until they open an oyster and find not a pearl but a silver key with the word Ravenheart engrave on it. Is this key linked to the infamous Ravenheart, the admiral ship of the Mitronian fleet that sunk in the Zaratan Archipelagos all those years ago, that all the bards are singing about?
-Hoss Egas, one of the Crime Lords of Hedonia, as announced he will come to Portos and establish one of his infamous gambling hall were participants can win mountains of gold, if they are willing to use their organs as wagers in a game of roulette. Word on the street is Hoss Egas accepted to come to the festival because he was compensated with five hundred years of extra life spend by the Nine Hell’s Ambassador to Portos. Who is the Ambassador trying to lure to this morbid gambling hall? The Council asks the PCs to investigate. Elements:
-Anomalistic: Never on the same date. The joy of the moon cycle. -Epicurean: The New Moon feast where people eat oysters, drink Moonshine and enjoy skinny dipping without waiting half an hour before going in the water! Mummy would be mad. -Jeopardous: People can drown when they go for the traditional swim. -Profane: People can gamble. -Repurposed: This was originally a way to hunt witches.
Resident Socialist and Undying Troublemaker Martyr of Section 1, 2 and 4 Original Troll of the House of Trolls
Freedom Day
From "The Strike", Season 9, Episode 10 of Seinfeld
