Skeercrow
A rough adventure outline featuring a Scarecrow:
The PC's arrive at the Scarecrow's farmhouse, investigating a some general spookiness occurring over the last few months topped off by a gruesome murder very recently. A hitchhiker is found having been tossed head first into a hay baler with nary a clue as to who could have perpetrated the horrific act.
Research into the farm reveals the family that lived there up to a year ago was rather...disturbed. Many allegations of child abuse and several domestic disturbance calls, all coming to a head when cops arrived on the scene to find the father had killed the family in a particularly brutal manner. Then hung himself in the attic.
Initially the PC's may of course assume they're dealing with a ghost of some sort. But the Scarecrow is nothing of the sort. In fact, though a ghost does haunt the house, it exists in this scenario entirely to distract the PC's from the Scarecrow...until it's too late.
Opening Scene:
The PC's read about the hitchhiker incident in the news paper or over the internet. The story itself makes vague mention of a history of spooky reports concerning the farm over the last year or so. Further investigation into that reveals typical poltergeist-type activity and ghost sightings (stereotypical little girl in a bloody nightgown), interspersed with obviously fabricated reports and a couple attacks by crows. All designed to provide a little preparatory info while muddying it all up with a couple of wholly fictional accounts.
Act I:
Arriving on the scene the PC's are immediately confronted by the owner of the land, who intends to sell the place and has stopped by to check it out again. He's hoping pretty desperately for some way to unload the property, as it's become rather an uncomfortable thing to have in one's name. Especially after the apparent murder of the hitchhiker there recently. The PC's have an opportunity here to capitalize on that, pretending to be interested in purchasing the property for example, and getting relatively free reign to poke about the place.
The PC's should manage very easily to get the owner to show them around the place, in which case the ghost of the little girl take the opportunity to cause a little ruckus. The owner nervously tries to downplay the incident or distract from it but if confronted eventually admits the place has a reputation for being haunted. While he doesn't fully believe in ghosts himself and half-believes there's a reasonable explanation for the weirdness, he'll be quick to hightail it oughta there by then. Following that incident he doesn't expect he'll be able to unload the property today after all. The PC's then are free to poke about at their leisure with no one in their way.
At least one crow will be on hand off and on during this Act, to behave in a peculiar and possibly menacing manner. The Scarecrow is fully aware there are potential victims around and is keeping an eye out for opportunities to be nasty. Until the sun sets he'll remain perched on his stake out in the cornfield, seeming for all the world no more (or less) creepy than your typical scarecrow.
Act II:
Unless the PC's made a point of arriving in the a.m., then the properly prepared GM will surely have featured them arriving just a couple or three hours before sunset. In the process of poking around the sun then begins to set and as soon as the shadows in the old abandoned farmhouse start leaning at odd angles our little red herring ghost girl shows up to behave in a spooky manner.
Here the PC's are given the opportunity to help the poor little girl move on to greener spiritual pastures with a relatively simple act. Perhaps her bones need to be put to rest. Perhaps the rope still hanging in the attic frightens her and should be removed. Maybe the PC's just need to find her dolly. Regardless, it should be relatively easy a task to complete and the girl moves on and all is right with the world.
Except that the Scarecrow made good use of his Sabotage skill specialty and has wrecked their vehicle while they were otherwise occupied. So when they try to leave...well, golly. Someone seems to have slashed their tires, made off with the distributor cap and maybe even spilled cola all over the driver's seat. Since the farm is a relative large one, extending a full mile in any particular direction, hiking out of there is going to be a hassle. On the one hand we have the spooky woods separating the farm from the nearest neighbor. On the other a long stretch of tall corn field between them and the highway. And as for the house itself there's neither electricity nor phone service. And cell phone reception? Why, of course not.
Act III:
Now the fun begins.
First our Scarecrow amuses himself by sending his murder in to swoop in out of the fields in one big, scary mob, darting about everyone's heads and cawing in an especially evil manner. He doesn't have them actually hurt anyone just yet, unless this somehow fails to drive them back into the house (or otherwise corral them up somewhere). Then he can menace them a bit with the murder before having it disperse for no apparent reason a few minutes later.
Following this it's time to let some folk get a glimpse of him moving about. Darting behind the corn rows just out of sight. Dashing through a moonlit patch of ground out of the corner of someone's eye. Maybe jogging around behind the house to slam the back door or rattle a loose window shutter.
Once he's properly announced his intention to make himself a terror to the fools that have stumbled into his killing grounds, the PC's should have decided to either chase him down or hightail it out of there. Hightailing it means hitting the woods or the corn field, either of which will delight our Scarecrow. He'll barely be able to contain himself before sneaking up behind whomever is trailing and taking them by surprise with a called shot to the leg perhaps, then picking the PC's off one by one while hobbled by the injured party.
Should the PC's go after the Scarecrow, all the better. He'll drawn them into the house or the barn, where he can jump someone from above or through a dark doorway, utilizing much the same technique. His Agility and Athletics allowing him to leap out second story windows to evade pursuit, his Fast on your Feet leaving other pursuers in the dust and the occasional hit and run with melee attacks slowly whittling the PC's down.
In the end he'll either have the lot of them carved up and barely able to defend themselves or they will have taken up a defensive position somewhere to force him in after them. At which time the Scarecrow shows up in full view finally, having no other alternative, bloody pitchfork/scythe/slingblade in hand to slice and dice up close and personal.
Wrap Up:
The only readily obvious drawback to this rough outline is that the PC's will likely end up not knowing what the heck they were up against when it's all over. The red herring of the ghost as well as the history of place will likely lead them to believe one of the dead family members has possessed the scarecrow and that they're dealing with a haunting of some kind. Unless the GM figures some way to reveal the nature of Scarecrows during the adventure or makes such knowledge accessible through Lore, this can easily hamper their reaction to the menace. The not so obvious best response being to simply kill the thing rather than try to dicker about with spells and rituals and such.
A rough adventure outline featuring a Scarecrow:
The PC's arrive at the Scarecrow's farmhouse, investigating a some general spookiness occurring over the last few months topped off by a gruesome murder very recently. A hitchhiker is found having been tossed head first into a hay baler with nary a clue as to who could have perpetrated the horrific act.
Research into the farm reveals the family that lived there up to a year ago was rather...disturbed. Many allegations of child abuse and several domestic disturbance calls, all coming to a head when cops arrived on the scene to find the father had killed the family in a particularly brutal manner. Then hung himself in the attic.
Initially the PC's may of course assume they're dealing with a ghost of some sort. But the Scarecrow is nothing of the sort. In fact, though a ghost does haunt the house, it exists in this scenario entirely to distract the PC's from the Scarecrow...until it's too late.
Opening Scene:
The PC's read about the hitchhiker incident in the news paper or over the internet. The story itself makes vague mention of a history of spooky reports concerning the farm over the last year or so. Further investigation into that reveals typical poltergeist-type activity and ghost sightings (stereotypical little girl in a bloody nightgown), interspersed with obviously fabricated reports and a couple attacks by crows. All designed to provide a little preparatory info while muddying it all up with a couple of wholly fictional accounts.
Act I:
Arriving on the scene the PC's are immediately confronted by the owner of the land, who intends to sell the place and has stopped by to check it out again. He's hoping pretty desperately for some way to unload the property, as it's become rather an uncomfortable thing to have in one's name. Especially after the apparent murder of the hitchhiker there recently. The PC's have an opportunity here to capitalize on that, pretending to be interested in purchasing the property for example, and getting relatively free reign to poke about the place.
The PC's should manage very easily to get the owner to show them around the place, in which case the ghost of the little girl take the opportunity to cause a little ruckus. The owner nervously tries to downplay the incident or distract from it but if confronted eventually admits the place has a reputation for being haunted. While he doesn't fully believe in ghosts himself and half-believes there's a reasonable explanation for the weirdness, he'll be quick to hightail it oughta there by then. Following that incident he doesn't expect he'll be able to unload the property today after all. The PC's then are free to poke about at their leisure with no one in their way.
At least one crow will be on hand off and on during this Act, to behave in a peculiar and possibly menacing manner. The Scarecrow is fully aware there are potential victims around and is keeping an eye out for opportunities to be nasty. Until the sun sets he'll remain perched on his stake out in the cornfield, seeming for all the world no more (or less) creepy than your typical scarecrow.
Act II:
Unless the PC's made a point of arriving in the a.m., then the properly prepared GM will surely have featured them arriving just a couple or three hours before sunset. In the process of poking around the sun then begins to set and as soon as the shadows in the old abandoned farmhouse start leaning at odd angles our little red herring ghost girl shows up to behave in a spooky manner.
Here the PC's are given the opportunity to help the poor little girl move on to greener spiritual pastures with a relatively simple act. Perhaps her bones need to be put to rest. Perhaps the rope still hanging in the attic frightens her and should be removed. Maybe the PC's just need to find her dolly. Regardless, it should be relatively easy a task to complete and the girl moves on and all is right with the world.
Except that the Scarecrow made good use of his Sabotage skill specialty and has wrecked their vehicle while they were otherwise occupied. So when they try to leave...well, golly. Someone seems to have slashed their tires, made off with the distributor cap and maybe even spilled cola all over the driver's seat. Since the farm is a relative large one, extending a full mile in any particular direction, hiking out of there is going to be a hassle. On the one hand we have the spooky woods separating the farm from the nearest neighbor. On the other a long stretch of tall corn field between them and the highway. And as for the house itself there's neither electricity nor phone service. And cell phone reception? Why, of course not.
Act III:
Now the fun begins.
First our Scarecrow amuses himself by sending his murder in to swoop in out of the fields in one big, scary mob, darting about everyone's heads and cawing in an especially evil manner. He doesn't have them actually hurt anyone just yet, unless this somehow fails to drive them back into the house (or otherwise corral them up somewhere). Then he can menace them a bit with the murder before having it disperse for no apparent reason a few minutes later.
Following this it's time to let some folk get a glimpse of him moving about. Darting behind the corn rows just out of sight. Dashing through a moonlit patch of ground out of the corner of someone's eye. Maybe jogging around behind the house to slam the back door or rattle a loose window shutter.
Once he's properly announced his intention to make himself a terror to the fools that have stumbled into his killing grounds, the PC's should have decided to either chase him down or hightail it out of there. Hightailing it means hitting the woods or the corn field, either of which will delight our Scarecrow. He'll barely be able to contain himself before sneaking up behind whomever is trailing and taking them by surprise with a called shot to the leg perhaps, then picking the PC's off one by one while hobbled by the injured party.
Should the PC's go after the Scarecrow, all the better. He'll drawn them into the house or the barn, where he can jump someone from above or through a dark doorway, utilizing much the same technique. His Agility and Athletics allowing him to leap out second story windows to evade pursuit, his Fast on your Feet leaving other pursuers in the dust and the occasional hit and run with melee attacks slowly whittling the PC's down.
In the end he'll either have the lot of them carved up and barely able to defend themselves or they will have taken up a defensive position somewhere to force him in after them. At which time the Scarecrow shows up in full view finally, having no other alternative, bloody pitchfork/scythe/slingblade in hand to slice and dice up close and personal.
Wrap Up:
The only readily obvious drawback to this rough outline is that the PC's will likely end up not knowing what the heck they were up against when it's all over. The red herring of the ghost as well as the history of place will likely lead them to believe one of the dead family members has possessed the scarecrow and that they're dealing with a haunting of some kind. Unless the GM figures some way to reveal the nature of Scarecrows during the adventure or makes such knowledge accessible through Lore, this can easily hamper their reaction to the menace. The not so obvious best response being to simply kill the thing rather than try to dicker about with spells and rituals and such.