Monday, September 5, 2011

[OSR Challenge Adventure #3] Desperate Measurements

Desperate Measurements
An adventure idea for the Weird West Roleplaying Game. See the Strange Magic blog for more information on this great game.
This is my attempt to write a mystery scenario. I apologize for not setting up a bunch of red herrings and plot twists, but hopefully it's enough to get started.

Get Ready: Things have settled down in Silver Gulch in the past year or so. But for a struggling undertaker, the good life can be bad for the death business.

Get Set: About a year ago people got so peaceable that the local undertaker was losing a lot of business. Deciding to take matters into his own hands he started setting up accidents, secretly goading men into duels with ugly rumors and occasionally poisoning folks. The undertaker is getting greedy. People start dropping like flies and the Sheriff is starting to smell low down dirty skunk, or some such wild west term.

Go!: Okay, this is where my idea gets sketchy. Sorry. Some clues:
1. The deceased mainly come from rich families who would spend the most on a fancy casket and funeral.
2. Physical evidence at the scene of the crime such as pinewood saw dust, a handkerchief reeking of formaldehyde or a particular brand of cigar butt stamped out.
3. The undertaker is known to be a high stakes gambler. It's rumored he owes some mighty dangerous people a heap of money.
4. The local doctor gets suspicious when he finds out the undertaker is ordering poisonous chemicals through the general store.
5. In his final act before trying to escape town, the undertaker is starting to kill anyone whom he thinks is romantic competition for the attentions of a local schoolmarm. If he realizes his crimes are close to being solved he will kidnap her and hit the trail. While twisting his pencil-thin black mustache.

Notable NPCs: Undertaker, sheriff, doctor, schoolmarm, townsfolk.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Nemo,

    I've put an "I Survived the osr Challenge" image on my blog for you to put up at the end of the Challenge.

    ReplyDelete