We are back with another installment of Iconic Encounters! This series of posts look into some of the most characteristic encounters in old-school style RPG adventures, and dissect them to figure out how they work, and why they are so cool.
This time we are analyzing that encounter which puts the players in front of an apparent “innocent”, harmless and, sometimes, even apparently helpful creature, who is in reality working towards their demise or worse. Differently from other encounters, this one can be a recurring one, in which they discover the truth of what’s going on slowly over time. This type of encounter has some characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.
- An NPC or creature that appears harmless and even helpful to the PCs.
- The NPC directs them to accomplish tasks that are to their benefit but that have harmful hidden consequences.
- They will slowly find out information that will reveal the true intentions of the NPC.
- In their final confrontation, the NPC or creature is actually stronger thanks to the PCs.
You seem like a nice person…
While exploring a location, the party encounters a creature or NPC they don’t immediately identify as a monster, or who quickly presents themselves as an potential ally, or someone in need of assistance. They can have a humanoid appearance, or simply a non-threatening one, and pose as a victim of sorts.
Being in an often hostile environment (dungeons are rarely safe), meeting an individual that looks innocent and friendly, and that actually tries to befriend them is incredibly attractive for the players. This will give them a bit more confidence, while at the same time bringing then deeper within the web of intrigue of this individual.
How can we help you?
These individuals have a reason to appear innocent and in need of help. They could really use some naive competent adventurers to do some dirty work for them. That’s where the characters come in. They can even offer some reward to push the player-characters into cooperation a little more.
The key here is to persuade the PCs to work with this creature. They are in need, or they can offer something to the characters that they can use. It’s important that this task appears benevolent in some way, or of no big consequences outside the creature’s situation. Not all cards are revealed to the players. This will make them confident again, and make them feel like they have made an ally in this hostile place.
Wait a minute…
However, once they start working for this individual, they will slowly notice small signs there’s something wrong. The things they ask them to retrieve have a strange aura about them. The monsters they ask them to kill swear they are making a great mistake. Or maybe they find some old scriptures talking about a conniving creature that tricks others into doing their dirty work.
The Referee needs to be subtle about these, and increase the signs that something is wrong. They should not realize it immediately (don’t make the individual ask them to kill a baby). Start small, with small images or feelings of discomfort. Then increase with ambiguous evidence. Then put other creatures in their path that openly accuse them of helping the “evil” creature and see how they handle that. They should start questioning their new “friend”, question themselves, or the others. Confusion ensues.
We are responsible for this…
Inevitably, however, they will figure out they have been used, and inadvertently helped an evil creature or villain. And once they return there to confront their former “ally”, the creature will be stronger because of them, and it will reveal its true intentions gladly, possibly laughing at the characters’ naivete. But an offer for them to become their minions is never out of question and is very iconic for these situations.
In this encounter, the situation is completely in favor of the creature who tricked the characters. It’s often a bad idea to simply face this individual in combat immediately, and the Referee should try to make that clear somehow (the individual’s appearance changes, making clear their powers increased).
Player-characters might need to become allies of the creature’s enemies in order to defeat it now (and they might have to make amenda before this can happen). They might need to seek a powerful artifact to face it in its true power. They might need to go back in time to prevent themselves from helping the creature.
This is certainly a more elaborate Iconic Encounter, but that can be used to great effect, and even used to center an adventure around.
Well, that’s it for this Iconic Encounter! I hope you enjoyed it (and check out the other ones we already covered here)!
See you next time!I