101 Complications and Reversals for PotVQ

[krusader74]

101 Complications and Reversals for the Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976)

Well, I've got the first six ideas... Anyone have ideas for the last ninety-five?

1. Level V, room 18 does NOT contain the Dwarf Princess. It contains a strange one-way portal. There is a note in the room left by the Dwarf Princess which says she's going to try and escape through the portal. Unfortunately, the portal sends anyone foolish enough to enter it back in time 200 years to Barovia! It turns out that the Dwarf Princess (real name: Tatyana) went through, fell in love with a noble named Sergei, but was nearly murdered by Sergei's jealous brother Count Strahd von Zarovich. Her ladies in waiting smuggled her out of Barovia back to her home island of Baylor. When Tatyana discovered she had arrived back 200 years before her own birth, she became distraught and succumbed to her injuries. However, when Count Strahd made his blood-pact with Death, he included terms that (like himself) the object of his desire (Tatyana) could not die. Therefore, Tatyana returned to life as the Vampire Queen! As the Vampire Queen, she must kidnap the young version of herself and lock her in the room with the portal, to complete the temporal loop and prevent a time paradox (the Novikov self-consistency principle holds in this world).

2. The Vampire Queen is unmasked as a normal flesh-and-blood crook trying to cover up her kidnapping crimes by using the vampire story, a costume and some cheap parlor tricks. Think Scooby-Doo. If the kidnap victim is noble, then s/he is ransomed back; otherwise, s/he is sold to slavers or used to pay the cannibals who guard the palace (e.g., the ghouls in level III, room 2; and the ogres make them into blood pudding in level V, room 13).

3. A competing team of adventurers plans to kidnap the Dwarf Princess from the Vampire Queen and hold out for the ultimate ransom: The leader wants King Arman to give him the Dwarf Princess in marriage, depose himself, cede all his lands, and grant him a royal title!

4. While it's true that there is a Vampire Queen abducting dwarf children on Baylor island, that's not what really happened here: The Dwarf Princess wasn't kidnapped. She fell in love with a commoner (a farm boy) and ran away with him. They may have already left the island together. An assault on the Palace of the Vampire Queen is a wild goose chase. There will be no sign of the Dwarf Princess there.

5. While it's true that there is a Vampire Queen abducting dwarf children on Baylor island, King Arman doesn't really have a daughter. The whole "kidnapped Princess" story was fabricated to attract gullible and greedy adventurers to clear-out the Palace of the Vampire Queen, something King Arman hasn't been able to do successfully himself. Since they will never find a Dwarf Princess, the adventurers can't possibly collect the reward.

6. If the adventurers succeed, King Arman will grant them titles to unproductive land: un-arable, stoney, no ores, no water wells, uninhabited, and totally useless. This is basically a bait-and-switch scam.

[Finarvyn]

An awesome idea. Now I need to go dust off my copy to refresh my memory about the adventure.

[scottenkainen]

I can't monitor this thread in case there are spoilers, but it seems a brilliant idea and I'd like to see it done for all the classic modules.

~Scott/Bombor

[kenmeister]

I love your #1!

Obviously, I can't reveal my own nefarious plan on the same forum where I am running the game.

[strangebrew]

7. The Madman on Level 1 Room 18 has a hidden 'Wand of Polymorph Man to House Cat' with 5 remaining charges.

[krusader74]

Here's ten more twists:

8. The Dwarf Princess is actually a Dhampir--a half-vampire--the daughter of King Arman and the Vampire Queen. What's really going on here is a child custody dispute after a messy divorce.

9. The elderly King Arman has decided to retire and divide his realm amongst his three daughters: Goneril (eldest), Regan, and Cordelia (youngest). Unhappy about not getting larger shares, Goneril and Regan have conspired to kidnap their younger sister and sell her into slavery. They scapegoat the Vampire Queen, who has had nothing to do with Cordelia's kidnapping. Meanwhile, they have Cordelia confined in a public granary outside the capitol, Ar Toe, waiting until the slavers pass through Baylor island again in 2 weeks. If the adventurers confound Goneril's plot, she might have their eyes plucked out! This idea is a mash-up: King Lear plus Joseph Sold into Slavery (Genesis 37:18-36).

10. Climbing the mountains to get to the Palace of the Vampire Queen is fraught with numerous hazards: fog, falling rocks, avalanches, lightening strikes, cold, and icefall. The thin air poses risks of High Altitude Cerebral Edema and High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. The Sherpas guiding your ascent brush off these risks. But even they refuse to take you the last mile up the mountaintop, because they know the Palace of the Vampire Queen really exists on the Demiplane of Dread! And returning from the top is impossible for the living...

11. King Arman has actually given his daughter to a banker named Durcet as repayment for a debt. King Arman is scapegoating the Vampire Queen. Durcet is also libertine and a priest of the cult of Mammon. He is taking the Dwarf Princess to his estate, Château de Silling, to use for his sadistic enjoyment. Think The 120 Days of Sodom. Can the adventurers unravel the sick truth in time to save the princess from being deflowered by Durcet?

12. The remnants of the Ten Orc Tribes (mentioned in the story Background) have kidnapped the Dwarf Princess out of revenge for their defeat at the hands of King Arman.

13. Though able to defeat the Ten Orc Tribes, King Arman was never able to vanquish the Vampire Queen (real name: Lilitu). Instead, he has made a pact with her--every year his guards kidnap a dozen children and deliver them to her Palace (called Ki-Sikil). This innocent blood buys King Arman an armistice with Lilitu. This year, unable to find the 12th innocent, King Arman was forced to sacrifice his only daughter. Now he is having second thoughts, and has put out the call to adventurers to save her life.

14. The Dwarf Princess is actually a captive in King Arman's dungeon. King Arman is one sick, twisted little man. Without going into the gruesome details, what's really going on is highly reminiscent of the Fritzl case. King Arman is simply scapegoating the Vampire Queen.

15. The Dwarf Princess accidentally fell into an abandoned well. While chasing a stray cat (that escaped from the madman Level I, room 18), she fell through the rotted wood cover of the abandoned water well and miraculously survived a 150' fall! The well is outside the bakehouse in the inner bailey. King Arman just assumed she was kidnapped by minions of the Vampire Queen.

16. The Dwarf Princess's governess (Lucy Westenra) was a vampiric thrall, hypnotized and enslaved by the Vampire Queen. She is responsible for kidnapping the princess. As a reward for her service, the Vampire Queen turned her into a vampire. She is the female vampire now in Level V, room 29 of the Palace of the Vampire Queen.

17. The Dwarf Princess (real name: Sabine) was actually the victim of bride kidnapping. Her kidnapper, Borat, climbed the tower where she slept, stuffed her in the traditional marriage sack, and lowered her down to his getaway carriage. King Arman just assumed she was kidnapped by minions of the Vampire Queen. Borat lives in a cave at the base of the mountain upon which the Palace of the Vampire Queen is built; the vampires avoid it because it is protected by crucifixes, garlic, and a bear.