Demonic Preteen?

[Penelomeeg]

I had a lovely mystery idea where an investigation of animal attacks. They quickly learn it's only a single farmer's livestock being slaughtered and looking through the woods behind his home they find a summoning circle nearby. Theu discover rumor of other strange events happening all over town and this leads my players to uncover that the attacks are actually the result of low level demons being controlled by a preteen girl who made a deal with a cursed doll she's been carrying and is using them to get petty acts of revenge committed against certain townsfolk.

My question is what are some good motives and acts of revenge a pissed off child with control of hellspawn and and evil doll could/would commit. I have that the farmer is her father and has been cheating on her mother with their maid. But I'd like at least 2 more. Any suggesttions to spice up the adventure would be great also! Thank you!

[Segev]

Her schoolteacher always believes Joey instead of her when Joey and her get into a fight. (Or, at least, that's how this girl perceives it, even if the teacher is actually as impartial as can be.)

Joey is always fighting with her at school.

Louise stole the cute blacksmith's apprentice from her. (Maybe Louise and Jack - the apprentice - really are a couple, maybe they just hung out together, but the girl is a jealous brat.)

The maid stole her daddy from her mom.

Her mother is always complaining about how the miller's wife puts her thumb on the scale. That mean old hag (her mother makes her promise not to tell anybody she called her that) deserves to see what happens to those who cheat her mommy!

[Honest Tiefling]

It's not the maid, he's been cheating on his wife with the local tavern owner. Her husband died oh so tragicially in that accident where the man who didn't normally drink got drunk and drowned. The tavern keeper had a girl with her husband that looks too much like the girl's father. But running a tavern is demanding, so the farm suffers as the man tries to help the poor widow. He given goes as far as to give her little girl gifts.

But there are no gifts for the preteen. There is no help on the farm. Her mother got injured trying to do heavy work, and her father still remains at the tavern. She tried to ask the priest for help, but the priest is the brother of her husband. All she needs to do is pray, and not spread lies about her hard working husband.

The sheep were stolen, the cow is getting older, and the bills are mounting. Still, that little girl gets all of the gifts, all of the attention, all of the dresses. She has one dress she's mended several times, no shoes and no food.

In her heart, she's doing nothing wrong. She won't hurt that girl, she knows better then that. But what she can do is make the town care or at least expose that they're willing to turn a blind eye to others.

[Penelomeeg]

It's not the maid, he's been cheating on his wife with the local tavern owner. Her husband died oh so tragicially in that accident where the man who didn't normally drink got drunk and drowned. The tavern keeper had a girl with her husband that looks too much like the girl's father. But running a tavern is demanding, so the farm suffers as the man tries to help the poor widow. He given goes as far as to give her little girl gifts.

But there are no gifts for the preteen. There is no help on the farm. Her mother got injured trying to do heavy work, and her father still remains at the tavern. She tried to ask the priest for help, but the priest is the brother of her husband. All she needs to do is pray, and not spread lies about her hard working husband.

The sheep were stolen, the cow is getting older, and the bills are mounting. Still, that little girl gets all of the gifts, all of the attention, all of the dresses. She has one dress she's mended several times, no shoes and no food.

In her heart, she's doing nothing wrong. She won't hurt that girl, she knows better then that. But what she can do is make the town care or at least expose that they're willing to turn a blind eye to others.

I am stealing the **** out of this!!!

[Anymage]

Two questions.

First, how much of a jerkbag do you want the girl to be? From an audience perspective there's a difference between excessive punishment against someone who did on some level deserve it, and complete overreaction. The landlord who keeps hiking up rents is a different sort of target than the classmate who the teacher calls on more often.

And second, how much of a crapsack world do you want this to be? I could think of a million ways for townsfolk to be horrible to other townsfolk. If everybody is horrible, though, you give the players little reason to care beyond "demons are bad, I guess we've got to stop them because that's this week's plot".

[Vogie]

Sounds like you can also tap in to the classic Twilight Zone Episode "It's a Good Life" or the character of Jesse Turner from Supernatural episode "I believe Children are our Future", and the various incarnations of Carrie.

Motives - Preteens tend to:

have mood swings and strong emotions
worry about peer pressure
start understanding abstract concepts
have polarized opinions to the extreme - they don't think their day was "fine", it was either "fantastic" or "the worst ever". The backstabbing friend isn't ever "just having a bad day", but is "bad and should die". Either Love school or hate school, and so on.
prefer their social circles to their family
get aggravated about the changes in their body, which can lead to lack of coordination, growth spurts, shape/face changes, and, of course, sexuality.
just have started realizing the enormity of real-world values, and react to it - "You make me to do everything" and "there's too much homework", or "I have to get started learning this now" and "I'm a valuable part of the household".


Supernatural acts such a mind could likely conceive of:

Cause emotion waves
Dominate peers
Wound, maim, or kill at the smallest slight
Banish or otherwise exile members of their family
Telekinetically sabotage people without similar clumsiness to theirs
Alter the bodies of themselves or others
Make desired members fall "in love" with them, then react when they realize the love isn't "real"
Dominate or charm teachers and other adults, often to the detriment of their jobs and functions in society

[Penelomeeg]

Two questions.

First, how much of a jerkbag do you want the girl to be? From an audience perspective there's a difference between excessive punishment against someone who did on some level deserve it, and complete overreaction. The landlord who keeps hiking up rents is a different sort of target than the classmate who the teacher calls on more often.

And second, how much of a crapsack world do you want this to be? I could think of a million ways for townsfolk to be horrible to other townsfolk. If everybody is horrible, though, you give the players little reason to care beyond "demons are bad, I guess we've got to stop them because that's this week's plot".

I definitely want the girl to be sympathetic. And I want the situation to be something that sort of "hits home" and where someone can look at it and say "I understand why she did it and honestly question who is right and wrong in the situation.

So a frankenstein of ideas I've gotten between here and reddit I've come up with the following:

The girl is a half orc whose father is a former adventurer and mother is an orc cheiftan's daughter that her father "swept off her feet and brought peace between his village and the local orc tribe that passes by every year through their marriage." Her father used his adventuring money to retire with his orc wife in his home town and start a farm together and his brother (who was also in his adventuring party) ends up as the mayor. It's a happy ending story post low level adventure epilogue in plain view.

Except as the years go by he grows bored. He isn't satisfied as a simple life as a farmer, and then as the years go by he's faced with the reality of his orc wife aging so much faster than him. Now in her early thirties (probably late middle age approaching seniority for an orc) she's no longer the beautiful tribal princess she was fifteen years ago. Plus the whispers of the villagers behind his back about his half blood daughter (who also happens to present natural arcane talent to make supersticious folk even more wary) make him bitter and resentful towards his own family. He has an affair with the adventurous local tavern keep (who is married to his cousin and childhood friend) who listens to him relive his glory days without bothering him about how much money he's wasting on things they don't need like his wofe does and treats him like a local hero (as he feels he should be) instead.

The tavern keeper eventually complains how boring and unnatractive she finds her husband. He relates perfectly and they start to hatch a plot. He and his brother disguise themselves as bandits and somehow manage to lure both his wife and her husband out in the middle of the night.

The tavern keepers husband doesn't male it out alive, but his wofe with her orcish stregnth does but is permanently injured and scarred as a result. Rumors start that she and the tavern keepers husband were having an affair and that SHE is the one who killed him secretly. The mayor is obviously covering up for his savage orcish sister in law.

The tavern keeper and the farmer continue the affair and become more bold and open due to the townsfolk all despising his wife now and almost seeming to approve of his actions. He pretends to simoly be caring for his "poor deceased cousin's" widow and young child while everyone knows what's really going on and sneers at the misfortune of his wife and child back home. He spoils the tavern keep and a young boy who looks startlingly like him while his daughter and wife struggle at home to keep up with the farm work that pays for his other family as ue wastes away his adventuring funds he'd saved up.

All while the tavern keepers oldest child (born to her husband before her affair) bullies abd terrorizes the half orc girl with her friends. Insisting her mother is a murderer and taunting that her father will be HER new father someday and leave them behind. Occasionally becoming physically violent. All because she thinks this womans mother slept with her father and then murdered him just like the rest of the town.

The little orc girl is isolated and alone. Bullied and neglected by her father and watches her crippled mother go through the same thing while trying to keep their farm afloat to feed her. Her mothers2 tribe passes through one year and a relative gives her a pretty doll they found among some treasure. She loves the doll and talks to it as if it were real. Little does everyone know it talks back when no one is around.

It tells her she's the prettiest girl in the world even if she does have pink skin and tusks. That it knows her mother is the nicest mother in the whole world and could never do those awful things people say. Finally its says its her friend and it will always love her like no one else ever has. Then the doll starts telling her other things. That daddy doesn't love her and mommy as much as his other family, about what he and the mayor did, that it's their fault mommy has so many scars and it hurts her to do work. It tells her about the new silk blouses and cand carved toys the tavern keep s son has, while all she has is patch dresses and her doll. They deserve to pay, all of them. It's their fault she and mommy are so sad, so now uts their turn.

All the little girl has to do is let her doll friend help.u

[redwizard007]

Wow! This reads like an episode of Supernatural.

[afroakuma]

Do you remember when you broke Mommy's cup and she took yours away so you would know how it feels?

"Yeah-huh!"

So if someone does something bad, they should have to know how it feels!

"I guess that makes sense"

And Joey made you cry, didn't he?

"He did! He's just a... a mean poop-face!"

So now Joey needs to cry.

I can make him cry.

I can make everyone cry.