These are short adventure seeds that are not specific to any
game system. Several of them were published in Shadis #16.

All adventure seeds are copyright 1995 by Brandon Cope

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Damsel in Distress (space)

A Temple in Need (fantasy)

The Reluctant Tutor (space/modern)

If it Looks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck … (fantasy)

An Unwanted Axe (fantasy)


Damsel In Distress

While on a pleasure planet, the party is approached by a woman who claims to be the kidnapped daughter of a noble in the sector. She says an enemy of her father had her captured and then sold into slavery on this planet. She begs for the party's help, and says there will be a great reward for them.

Any characters who check through news databases will discover that a noble's daughter, appearing to perfectly match the woman's description, disappeared several weeks ago, her starship found badly damaged and looted. The noble has posted a 1 million credit reward for her safe return.

Unless the party is filthy rich, the reward should motivate any not swayed by her pleas. However, the woman is not the noble's daughter. She was in his employ as a double for her, and was successful enough to fool her captors. The noble posted the reward since it would have seemed odd for him not to have done so. Getting the woman back to her home planet won't be easy, as the characters will effectively have to steal her, and the noble's enemy will track them down to make sure she is not returned. During this voyage, she will display several skills (combat and spy-related) that don't seem quite appropriate for a noble's daughter.


A Temple in Need

While travelling through the country side, the party is approached by a small group of men in clerical robes. They say that a bandit and his gang are on their way towards their temple, intent on destroying it as revenge against the priests, and they need the party to stop the gang. If the party is successful, the priesthood will heal the characters free of charge at any of their temples at any time.

The bandit had brought his dying brother to the temple, but when it was learned he had received his wounds by a bodyguard after the brother had ambushed and killed a man, the priests refused to help him. When the brother died, the bandit swore vengeance, and rode off to round up his gang.

There is a major restriction on the party for dealing with the gang; they may not injure anyone. The high priest is adamant about this, since their faith would rather see the temple destroyed than blood spilled in its defense. While this may seem difficult, there are many means (intimidation, tricks, magic, etc.) to accomplish this goal.


The Reluctant Tutor

This is an encounter for a male character with an academic (eg., physicist, historian, etc.) background. While at a bar, a waitress shows him a great deal of attention. Finally, she asks if he can come to her apartment later that evening, and is very friendly when asking. A few minutes later, her sister, a nearly identical twin, shows up for work, and does the same thing.

The PC will be in for a big surprise when he arrives at the first woman's apartment; after she leaves him in the living room and says she's going to be back in 'something more comfortable', she returns wearing a sweat suit and carrying several books and notepads. It seems that she recognized the character from work he had published a while back, and wanted him to help tutor her for an upcoming test. She apologizes for any inconvenience it may have caused. If asked about her sister, she says that they are both in the same class, and have a running bet as to who will do better on the test.

This seed is obviously intended to be played for laughs, and is best used during a longer adventure.


If It Looks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck...

The party comes upon a wandering ogre. The ogre sees the party and hails them, asking to travel with them. He claims he is a paladin under a great curse, and it has proven dangerous for him to travel alone so far, since others consider him a normal ogre and attack him on sight.

Appropriate information-type spells cast on the ogre will show him to have 'good' tendancies, that he is not lying and that he is indeed under a curse. He unable to use any special abilities paladins have, but he is sure the curse is responsible. However, there is far more going on here. The ogre is, in fact, an ogre, albeit one cursed with a wicked form of insanity. He firmly believes himself to be a paladin and will act accordingly.

If allowed to remain with the party, he will prove to be a reliable ally.

This seed is more appropriate to thinking parties or RPGs that aren't alignment-driven, as hack-n-slash players will likely try to kill him as soon as they see him ("Ogres are evil, and evil things need to be destroyed."). However, if attacked, he will react more like a human warrior than an ogre. Depending on the power of the average party member, the cursed monster could be more or less powerful. I have run this type of encounter twice, once with a troll and the other time an ogre, and neither time did the party attack.


An Unwanted Axe

The party (or a warrior PC) finds an enchanted axe. After consulting various sages, texts and information spells (or just though simple experimentation), it is determined that the axe is very powerful, and was designed primarily to slay giants (or another powerful type of creature, at the GM's option).

The axe has two major drawbacks. First, it draws giants to it! This manifests itself by creating a subconscious impulse within all giants within twenty miles to begin travelling towards the axe's owner. The other problem is that the axe will remain with the first character who wields it in combat (against any foe) until he dies. No magic, mortal or divine, can alter that. If taken more than a hundred yards from the owner, it will teleport back.

The exact powers of the axe are up to the GM; against non-giants it should be of no more than trifling power, and against giants it won't be quite powerful enough to deal with the large numbers of foes it will eventually attract.