This has been going on for the last few days on the HOE list. Since I recieved my inperation from DL for this kind of adventure I thought I would share and see what you think.
Carl
I have had this kind of idea on the back burner for some time, glad to see I am not the only sick one out there. Here are some of the idea's I had to run my party through.
1) Make the people WANT to go. Have scouts from the carnival finding the biggest populations of people and start to raise the fear level. They could drop off a load of prairie ticks in the area near by (just drop them in a jar with either on a cotton ball). Same thing with "hum bugs". Maybe they could infect the local scarecrow to make him the animated real deal.
Whatever it is make sure that what happens is not overly fatal (one or two deaths are ok, but not everyone). The point is to make sure that "during this troubled time" that they are offered a temporary relief. So who would turn down a fair that comes to town and offers free admission to the first X number of people.
You could hook party members in by maybe having them run into the scouts first some place else and wonder what the hell is going on. My posse did so next to a cornfield, when a man runs into them as he burst into the road. He had a metal grill covering his mouth and dropped his satchel as he got up and took off in the direction he was running. Not knowing what was going on the posse let him go... then realized that he was running from a hoard of ticks.
The scout had not known that someone else had worked the area, the ticks in the jars he carried were not all the way knocked out, or maybe they (the ticks) were already there. All the same he had a hoard after
Him (but not before the party looked in the bag to find several empty jars, one bottle of caster oil, some "seeds" of some kind, and one jar that was promptly dropped after a failed guts check). Let them try to connect the dots when they get to a town talking about the current rash of problems they have been having.
2) Hall of Illusion. A Mirror maze can be fun (and very disorienting). Many of the mirrors are two way, that some of the workers hide behind and wait for lone people to come through or someone to wander away from the group. They then move the mirrors so as to block the way out and herd the victim where they want. Some mirrors could have steel backing so that people could not smash there way out. With all the sounds and vapor machines running no one could hear someone scream. Its up to you what you want to have done in the end and if the posse will find where this is going on. If you really want to be a bastard, they could be turning people into clowns, or lobotomized circus workers.
One thing I also had in mine was certain mirror would cast Corporeal Twist on people and turn them into freaks if it could. That was where some of the sideshows came from. They were people from other towns that could no longer function in normal society. Everything from "Gator Boy" to the "man with no bones"
Whatever it is, they are totally dependant on the carnival now to survive, cannot fight back, and are fully aware of who they are and what is going on (but being powerless to do anything about it).
3) Rides. All kinds of spinning rides that goes through houses and covered areas. One out of every 6 cars could be "Diverted" around a corner when they are out of view. You pick where you want them to end up. All the players know is that "Billy was on this ride before them, and after them. Where the hell did he go?"
In mine the F Wheel had a problem of people disappearing off the top. The folks running this had trained a devil bat to "fetch" and were sitting about a mile out. Devil bat would fly off; pick up an individual alone at the top and fly back with him. With all the lights, noise, and the tops of the cars being covered, no one was able to see/hear anything.
4) Freak show has been covered it seems. The fat lady in my game was harrowed. She ate herself to death and was always eating a "big hunk of ham". She had that harrowed breathe attack at 5 so when she needed to she burped out d20s of wind loss. Had some ridicule to so as to mock the party and lure them closer (she was a size 10 in my game... think fat vampire from blade)
5) Food could be laced with a mild hallucinogen, possibly addictive so people crave it more (cotton candy spun with spook juice... hmmmm).
6) The big top. If it is like a circus everyone who has survived the evening thus far is herded into the big top for the last show of the night. Once they sit down they are stuck. The center ring is really a summoning circle opening a link to the hunting grounds. Images of dead loved ones fly around the room saying horrible things. They accuse people of the cause of there death, reveal naughty little secrets of the town?s folk, and torment everyone. By the end of the night, everyone should have had a very "harrowing" experience, followed by the MAIN EVENT.
This is a great part to really screw with the players. After all if enough people believe in something it comes true right. Maybe the scouts were telling stories of an adversary of the party that they killed off some time ago. This could "bring them back" even if they were brain panned. This time they would be an abomination.
This was the most amusing part as my party dropped their jaws seeing the preacher?s long dead brother show up. Seeing as how the preacher had to kill his own brother because he had come back from the dead and was killing people. This really got to them. Then they started to see faces of other people they had fought in the forming mist trying to take form. I had everyone fight someone from there past they thought dead, but made it a little more personal this way.
7) Main event. A greater manitue was summoned in the center circle known as "Grendal" From Beowulf. The real one was killed all those years ago, but the town?s people will not know about that. All they know is that some big nasty is from a book is now tromping around eating people. Following this, the ring master orders to death of the town. Everyone working for him then go to town and to finish off survivors and to "shop"
Honestly I do not see myself running this any time soon but I would like some feedback. If you use any of this please let me know, I love to hear the stories of people who run through my adventures/idea's.
BTW. The idea about animal skeletons disconnecting themselves to get out of there cages. VERY COOL. It would be funny to watch a party find the remains in a cage ("Poor kitty... they must have not been able to feed him and just left him here"), only to have it come to life and attack them. LOL