My PCs recently discovered that a vampiric member of the Duskwall Council has large groups of the unwilling smuggled into his manor house basement via private docks at night. Distant screams can be heard from deep inside. And barrels are later shipped out.
What do you think is going on in there? And why have it happen at the manner house in Whitecrown rather than in some secret location tucked away in the Nightmarket or Silkshore? Any ideas?
It could be a lightning rod, to draw hunters to a secure location where you’re watching for them, just to see who’s hunting vampires.
It could be that the vampire’s “bride” was a whisper, and when she succumbed to undeath through her various experimentation, the spirits bound or cursed or incapacitated her somehow. She cannot survive a move, but she is finally victorious enough in the internal struggle to drink gallons of blood to reconstitute herself.
It could be a faction thing; the rogues that are supplying the operation have enemies that make it difficult to operate in other territory, and if they try then they face dangers and break treaties.
The unwilling are press-ganged into otherworldly labor. The barrels are whatever goods are produced from or traded for their labors. The manor has to be the place because it is the only place the gateway to the otherworld has been torn open. The screams are distant because they leak from the otherworld through the tear, or because the tear itself screams, not those passing through it.
Another possibility is the vampire is providing a bemused cover for another criminal activity, like a lightning oil refinery. People just assume it’s the vampire misbehaving, and there are some special effects for onlookers and some paid rumor-mongerers, but the inspectors won’t pry into a vampire’s business and therefore miss the refinery.
The vampire has a demon trapped in his basement. This particular demon is a gluttonous beast devouring anything or anyone in reach till it blots up like an overfed mosquito, and after which it pukes sulphuric bile. Those not fed to the beast are forced to shovel up the bile into barrels. The vampire is just doing the dirty work and has no idea who the mysterious client is that is buying bulk quantities of demon bile and what they are doing with it.
‘ITS A TRAP!” Thus the obvious location.
The vampire wants the PCs – Bad. So obviously in the next round of press-ganging, some of the PC’s friends end up in the line.
As to why? Play to find out!
Ideas… A Rave Party, underground pit-fighting, hedonistic sex scene.
I’d suggest that the barrels are full of trapped ghosts that are the inevitable outcome of such a gathering. These attuned storage boxes are shipped to ‘interested parties’ who pay for such things.
Mostly unrelated.
http://imgur.com/gallery/5nF9F