I ran this recently for a first time rpg player.
The clues are laid on pretty thick, so it would work well for kids too. But makes it uber-easy for adults so I changed a few bits.
I figured most players are going to Lansing Manor or the Cemetery pretty quick, given events at the start- which would give them the potion & make any wandering around in the woods moot (wasting some best parts).
My fix was to make the Dryads potion in Lansing Manor smashed & broken. Remove the hokey "explanation diary entry" & simply have a few passionately sketched line drawings of an elfin creature in the woods in his study & corpse. Kind of manic/frustrated ones as if he couldn't quite capture what he wanted- Close Encounters style. That leads the party to look for Merrit & her grove (I made it a Nereid & pond for the "water is a gateway to the otherworld vibe) & THERE they can get the potion.
There other option is to reverse engineer it from the smashed remnants & nuns help or their own damn plan.
It was fun- Got suspected of witchcraft by the townsfolk for poking around the kidnap house. So the stressed out Warder (who kinda knows they aren't witches but needed the help) ends up giving them the old "well, solve it or the town will be all for hanging you". Which is naff at the start of an adventure as a hook, but I'm ok with as they got themselves into the mess by poking around the house too much & then the subsequent confrontation didn't go their way.
They lost a handsome hireling to Dryad (Nereid) lusty, lonely ways. Promised him to her for just a day (he was more than willing!) but with the way fey time works...
They thought the re-created bedroom underground was creepy & were slightly disappointed when the closet didn't open up into the childs bedroom. Which is actually a cool idea & shows they were very much on board with the classic fairytale vibe by that stage (magic closet and Narnia & all that). Next time I run it I might use that, or have the closet be an Ultan's Door type portal or some such.
Fairy tale elements in this one can be tweaked to vary between borderline hokey/silly (as written) but if you tweak a few, drop a couple, add one or two of your own & filter it through the usual player paranoia it can veer into lotfp witch horror meets dark fairytale Bowie in Labyrinth territory easily enough. Because fuck their monster, if someone is stealing children in my dark fairytale, it's the Goblin King!
The clues are laid on pretty thick, so it would work well for kids too. But makes it uber-easy for adults so I changed a few bits.
I figured most players are going to Lansing Manor or the Cemetery pretty quick, given events at the start- which would give them the potion & make any wandering around in the woods moot (wasting some best parts).
My fix was to make the Dryads potion in Lansing Manor smashed & broken. Remove the hokey "explanation diary entry" & simply have a few passionately sketched line drawings of an elfin creature in the woods in his study & corpse. Kind of manic/frustrated ones as if he couldn't quite capture what he wanted- Close Encounters style. That leads the party to look for Merrit & her grove (I made it a Nereid & pond for the "water is a gateway to the otherworld vibe) & THERE they can get the potion.
There other option is to reverse engineer it from the smashed remnants & nuns help or their own damn plan.
It was fun- Got suspected of witchcraft by the townsfolk for poking around the kidnap house. So the stressed out Warder (who kinda knows they aren't witches but needed the help) ends up giving them the old "well, solve it or the town will be all for hanging you". Which is naff at the start of an adventure as a hook, but I'm ok with as they got themselves into the mess by poking around the house too much & then the subsequent confrontation didn't go their way.
They lost a handsome hireling to Dryad (Nereid) lusty, lonely ways. Promised him to her for just a day (he was more than willing!) but with the way fey time works...
They thought the re-created bedroom underground was creepy & were slightly disappointed when the closet didn't open up into the childs bedroom. Which is actually a cool idea & shows they were very much on board with the classic fairytale vibe by that stage (magic closet and Narnia & all that). Next time I run it I might use that, or have the closet be an Ultan's Door type portal or some such.
Fairy tale elements in this one can be tweaked to vary between borderline hokey/silly (as written) but if you tweak a few, drop a couple, add one or two of your own & filter it through the usual player paranoia it can veer into lotfp witch horror meets dark fairytale Bowie in Labyrinth territory easily enough. Because fuck their monster, if someone is stealing children in my dark fairytale, it's the Goblin King!