The Hunted Ruins of the Prior Age

Common character themes:

Sword and Sorcery

Main characters are Humans. Monsters are mysterious. Magic is fear, evil, and generally at great cost.

TTRPG Fantasy

Tolkien worlds, with Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and all the fantasy trappings. Dragons are real and some people can cast magic spells.

Renaissance

Adventures abound, but people are usually human, and magic is limited. Monsters are generally animals or the occasional witch.

Ruins:

Castle.
Abandoned city / town / village.
Ancient battleground.

Haunting:

Ghosts and/or poltergeists
Risen dead / skeletons
Unholy creatures from another world

Secrets:

Betrayal from a close ally
A thwarted/paused attempt to summon daemons
An unexpected natural disaster

Recovered Items:

The Ruling Crown
The Chalice of Peace?
The Staff of (undead | weather | ???) control

In character:

You will be playing in a character. The characters will describe the events that happened to make the story.

The focus is to have fun. Sometimes craziness ensues and you may break character (especially laughing). While you should minimize the break, it’s more important to ignore the obvious out of character laughing that can happen.

Yes/And

You should strive to take whatever narrative is presented by the host and other characters and add to it to build the story. Those unexpected curveballs are what makes the exercise fun.

No/But

Lines and Veils are in full effect. If the narrative turns to an area that you can’t just ignore or play through, say something.

If a player says something about “I’d rather not go into detail”, assume that we need to “fade to black”. It still happens, but we should not describe more detail on the action.

If a play says, “I’d rather not talk about that”, or “Let’s talk about something else”. Assume it’s a line and find a different direction to go.

Hard stop:

If anyone says, “Break Break Break”, this is our safe word. Stop and the person who broke tells us if we need to strike a topic from the story or what we need to do to move forward. Can also be used for real life intrusions.

Opening:

Welcome to the Survivor's Tavern podcast where we interview a different group of travelers to tell us stories of their latest adventures.

This episode is titled “The Haunted Ruins of the Prior Age”

Our guests tonight returned from exploring the haunted ruins. They found more than they expected. This is their story.

Introductions

Let’s go around and tell me who you are and something about yourself.

The Trigger

Before we get into the story, let’s go back what drew you to investigate the ruins.

What

What type of ruins are these? What were they when people actually lived there?

History

What were the ruins known for before they fell?
What type of people lived/fought there?
Who was the leader/king of the ruins in the past?

Travel

What was the warning you received on your way to the ruins? (Sign or seer)
You found something (animal or item), what was it?

Stakes

Description.

What was something each of you found notable about the ruins when you first showed up there? What condition were they in?
Did you setup your base camp inside the ruins, outside the ruins, or a distance away?

Haunting

What did you accidentally break?
What was the first haunting event that made this real for you?

Turning Point

Trapped

Soon after you found you couldn’t leave. Could you remind me what was preventing you from leaving?
Did you find anything to help you know what would let you leave?

Challenge

Rest

You needed to take some down time and possibly rest or sleep? Let me know where you decided to rest and what preparations you took.
What was true about the resting spot you wish you’d known before you picked it?

Attack

Tell me about the actual (haunting | attack)?
What did you need to do to survive?
What was lost in the interaction?

Vision

-Members of your group had visions.
What was the vision?
What symbol kept reoccurring through the visions?

Discovery

Finding

What item did you find to lead you to understand what was going on?

Learning

What secret did you uncover about the past of the ruins?
What did you think at that time you needed to do to remove the hauntings?

Resolution

Tell me about the steps leading up to the final confrontation.
What went wrong when trying to finish this?
Who botched the one thing they were supposed to do?
How was the haunting of the ruins resolved?

Exit

What happened when the (curse was lifted | item was restored)?

Aftermath

The return

Did you get anything for your troubles? Recognition? Reward? Or just disbelief?
Did your actions have any affects on the “modern” world near the ruins?

Fallout

What permanent change/loss did each of you suffer? How has this affected your life?
What is the thing that makes you think this isn’t over?

Closing:

This has been the Survivor’s Tavern podcast coming to you from the backroom at the Survivor's Tavern and end at the Crossroads to everywhere. 'Til next time, may all your adventures be worth the trouble.