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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Nov 2018

    Default Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    I’m designing a journey through the Abyss for my players, and have laid out the Abyss to be a massive office building. I’ve begun coming up with some optional tasks for players to complete while they look for Shaktari (whom they’re here to kill). This is what I have so far:

    Abyss-ness Time: Players can complete several tasks in the Abyss as they search to find and destroy Shaktari, Queen of the Mariliths. Each completed task will grant one character a demonic boon, given by a powerful Demon Lord or Archdevil (the nine hells and the abyss work in tandem in this setting).

    1. Research and Maldevelopment — The arrival of a group of mortals is very fortunate, as R&D was about to conduct a new study focused on increasing efficacy of torture. Players who take part of the study will submit themselves to various horrors. Roll a d6 or choose from the list below to see what torment the player will have to undergo. These torments will mostly be played out as skill challenges, and will incur damage, levels of exhaustion, lost spell slots, etc.
    1. Ironic Punishments
    2. Wailing and Flailing
    3. Frustrations
    4. Emotional Manipulation
    5. Inescapable Pursuit
    6. Boredom


    2. Corporate Headhunting — Gra’azt asks adventurers to head to Architecture and dispose of Titivilius, who has begun micromanaging the Architects of Torment on 8. The Archdevil has been stifling creativity. Players have options with the architecture department. They *could* simply start a knock down drag out fight, or they could instigate a coup against the meddlesome middle-manager.

    3. Murders and Acquisitions — Sales asks players to help oversee the absorption of the 7th Hell Branch. Hutijin and 2 Pit Fiends will need to be...let go. If players are able to let them down gently enough, this may not need to turn violent. But the fiends will not be happy about their unceremonious firing. A fight may well break out in the conference room.

    4. Killing and Collections — A powerful mortal wizard who made a deal with an Archdevil has reneged on his commitment, becoming a Lich and seeking an eternal life. His soul needs to be reclaimed, but fiends are not able to enter his tower. Players need to collect on this debt.

    5. Mailroom Mishap — something’s gunking up the works in the Mailroom. It’s a real disaster in the tubing, and the last three quasits sent to take care of it are...well, they’re dead. Adventurers can head on down there, as it’s getting hard to run the office without the ready relay of information. This challenge will end in a high speed chase through the tunnels of the mail system as players hunt down a purple worm with a tremendous case of pika. The chase will involve three legs: the hunt, the catch, and the kill.
    1. In the hunt, players will have to follow the sounds of roaring destruction as quickly as they can, and a wrong turn through the treacherous tubes could spell terrible pain, as many of the tubes use vacuums to propel their deliveries at alarming speed. To make matters worse, if adventurers don’t find the worm fast enough, it very well may eat through the tubing supports, sending them plunging into the abyss.
    2. In the catch: players will chase after the worm through a series of tunnels as debris and acid spit attempt to hinder them. In this stage, players can use their dash action to keep up with the worm, but if they fail to dash for two consecutive turns, they will lose the worm. Players can therefore use every other action to try to slow the worm or damage it before stage three.
    3. In the kill, players will finally corner the worm in a steel room, and it’s time to go toe to toe.

    6. Maintenance is Hell (Credit to igordragonian for this one): Heaven recently attempted an assault on certain sections of the abyss, and the ensuing carnage left more than a few errant angels and heroes stranded in various sections of the building. Pest problems like this are best taken care of quickly. Once you get a few heroes in your building, it’s only a matter of time before you find more. Players will have to find and exterminate the following vermin: two adventuring parties and one planetar.

    7. You Don’t Have to be Crazy to Work Here, but it Helps! — Players will be asked to spend a single afternoon with Karen from accounts payable. This is, perhaps, the most grueling task of all

    8. Dead End Job — Sales have been down. Demonic deals aren’t what they once were, but maybe these mortals have some insight into what other beings of limited lifespan even want. Players will be given a client list. They have to cold call these clients and attempt to collect a few souls. Each player must call five mortals and convince them to sell their souls. They will not know this, but in order to convince the mortals, they must first figure out what the mortals want. A little small talk will usually reveal telling information about the mortals that can be used to determine what to offer. If players offer the right thing, they will succeed with the cold call. If not, they must succeed on a DC22 persuasion check in order to close the sale. They can offer the following rewards:
    • Money
    • Power
    • Love or Respect
    • The killing of individuals
    • The resurrection of individuals
    • Fame
    • Magical Items and/or Spells
    • Help Out of a Jam
    • Fiendish Servants



    9. Water Cooler Talk: Management knows that several of the demonic employees on a particular floor are secretly working for another Demon Lord to undermine Management, but they can't find any proof and they can't just kill or torture all the employees to figure out who it is because they want to trace the treason back to the source. The party has to disguise themselves as fellow employees and get the actual ones to talk on their coffee breaks/lunch breaks/etc.
    Problem is, all the demons are chatting about individuals, places, and sports teams that the party has never heard of ("I think the Demonweb Acolytes have a pretty good shot at winning the Pit Tournament this century, don't you think?" "Nah, the Gaping Maw Demon-Gators have this one in the bag. They're on a three-decade win streak." "The Demon-Gators? Nah, man, their kickers and wide carriers are great, but the Acolytes' slicers and left-hand cheaters are much better, and with the tournament being played in the Slime Pits this time...you know?") but should have heard of if they were real employees, and they'll definitely try to engage the party in conversation, so the party will have to blatantly lie and bull*** their way through the conversations long enough to find the traitors.

    10. Inhuman Resources: The demons in charge of placing mortal souls in an appropriate torment are running a bit behind, due to a massive world-spanning catastrophe that recently occurred on an out-of-the-way Material Plane world that led to sudden influx of souls. To help them catch up, the party is tasked with assigning and classifying a bunch of souls according a Hellishly (heh) complex set of rules, which unlike an actual Baatorian policy is self-contradictory and full of loopholes.
    The party will need to assign final damnations to a bunch of souls while following the rules as best they can, and bribe/threaten/coerce any demons who dislike their decisions or threaten to report their bias. Throwing a wrench in the works, several souls are mixed in who shouldn't be in the Abyss at all, and the party has to figure out what to do with them; if the party is largely Good, perhaps several innocent souls are there and they have to prevent the demons from taking them anyway without the higher-ups finding out; if they're largely Evil, perhaps there are some LE souls that would make great bargaining chips with the devils, and multiple demons want to take them, forcing the party to play mediator.

    11. Fiend Folio Portfolio Manager — Unfortunately, sometimes your clients need explanations when their portfolios (we tried calling them port-soul-ios, but the groaning was a hassle) underperform. Players are asked to explain underperformance to a few clients who invest with One Abyss, the corporate office on Abyss Level 1. One such investor is a servant of Orcus, an old Lich named Ivo Shandor, who lives in a multiplanar land called “Titonia” and has a penchant for architecture and unnecessary surgeries. Players will need to access his tower as representatives of One Abyss. They will need to convince Shandor to continue investing with the company. To come back empty handed is unacceptable. If they cannot convince Shandor, they will need to return to the Abyss with the Lich’s phylactery. If Shandor becomes irritated, he will call in his lackeys to kill these interlopers (lackeys include: two helmed horrors, one death knight, and a mage). Convincing the Lich requires more than a simple persuasion check, the party must show him solid *reason* to stay with One Abyss. In order to convince Shandor, the party will be given the following documents:
    1. A chart showing market average returns for souls over the last two years. They are falling, recently, due to the recession.
    2. A tracking of the Lich’s portfolio performance, showing that, while it has sustained recent losses, it has remained consistently ahead of the market. However, the losses are significant, and may upset the Lich, especially if handled indelicately or presented before the market average evidence.



    Any other ideas for business-themed Hell?
    Last edited by Glenn_Beckett; 2019-03-10 at 02:52 PM.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Titan in the Playground
     
    igordragonian's Avatar

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    Jul 2014

    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    maybe helping the janitor to get rid of monsters/heroes which making a mess?
    Thanks for the OOTSkage of OOTS art, Lord Raziere.

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  3. - Top - End - #3
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Nov 2018

    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by igordragonian View Post
    maybe helping the janitor to get rid of monsters/heroes which making a mess?
    Thanks! Situation 6 is now just that!

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Elves's Avatar

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    Feb 2019

    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Isn't the Abyss chaotic? This sounds more like Baator, for the devils. It's a cute concept though.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Elves View Post
    Isn't the Abyss chaotic? This sounds more like Baator, for the devils. It's a cute concept though.
    I’m taking liberties. If players attempt to go to a floor that they haven’t been directed to, they’ll get a glimpse of the chaotic stuff, but I defo am not playing the Abyss “by the book,” so to speak.

  6. - Top - End - #6
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    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

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    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn_Beckett View Post
    I’m designing a journey through the Abyss for my players, and have laid out the Abyss to be a massive office building.
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn_Beckett View Post
    I’m taking liberties. If players attempt to go to a floor that they haven’t been directed to, they’ll get a glimpse of the chaotic stuff, but I defo am not playing the Abyss “by the book,” so to speak.
    One way to reconcile the ordered-office-environment-vs.-Abyssal-chaos thematic conflict would be to say that the entire Abyss isn't an office complex, it's only a layer or two under the control of a particularly quirky Demon Lord, who's turned their demesne into a parody of Law in an attempt to see if the superficial layer of reason, bureaucracy, and familiarity makes the resulting chaos and torment more effective at breaking mortals' wills, and perhaps as a way to test out some strategies for subverting the Hells by introducing subtle tinges of Chaos into an overtly Lawful environment.

    Shaktari could have sought sanctuary with whomever the Demon Lord in charge of the layer is, as the very jarring environment would make it very difficult for any demonic enemies to track her down in there; only a particularly twisted and/or foolhardy set of mortals (like the PCs) would have a chance.


    As for some task suggestions:

    9) Water Cooler Talk: Management knows that several of the demonic employees on a particular floor are secretly working for another Demon Lord to undermine Management, but they can't find any proof and they can't just kill or torture all the employees to figure out who it is because they want to trace the treason back to the source. The party has to disguise themselves as fellow employees and get the actual ones to talk on their coffee breaks/lunch breaks/etc.

    Problem is, all the demons are chatting about individuals, places, and sports teams that the party has never heard of ("I think the Demonweb Acolytes have a pretty good shot at winning the Pit Tournament this century, don't you think?" "Nah, the Gaping Maw Demon-Gators have this one in the bag. They're on a three-decade win streak." "The Demon-Gators? Nah, man, their kickers and wide carriers are great, but the Acolytes' slicers and left-hand cheaters are much better, and with the tournament being played in the Slime Pits this time...you know?") but should have heard of if they were real employees, and they'll definitely try to engage the party in conversation, so the party will have to blatantly lie and bull*** their way through the conversations long enough to find the traitors.

    10) Inhuman Resources: The demons in charge of placing mortal souls in an appropriate eternal torment are running a bit behind, due to a massive world-spanning catastrophe that recently occurred on an out-of-the-way Material Plane world that led to sudden influx of souls. To help them catch up, the party is tasked with assigning and classifying a bunch of souls according a Hellishly (heh) complex set of rules, which unlike an actual Baatorian policy is self-contradictory and full of loopholes.

    The party will need to assign final damnations to a bunch of souls while following the rules as best they can, and bribe/threaten/coerce any demons who dislike their decisions or threaten to report their bias. Throwing a wrench in the works, several souls are mixed in who shouldn't be in the Abyss at all, and the party has to figure out what to do with them; if the party is largely Good, perhaps several innocent souls are there and they have to prevent the demons from taking them anyway without the higher-ups finding out; if they're largely Evil, perhaps there are some LE souls that would make great bargaining chips with the devils, and multiple demons want to take them, forcing the party to play mediator.
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  7. - Top - End - #7
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    One way to reconcile the ordered-office-environment-vs.-Abyssal-chaos thematic conflict would be to say that the entire Abyss isn't an office complex, it's only a layer or two under the control of a particularly quirky Demon Lord, who's turned their demesne into a parody of Law in an attempt to see if the superficial layer of reason, bureaucracy, and familiarity makes the resulting chaos and torment more effective at breaking mortals' wills, and perhaps as a way to test out some strategies for subverting the Hells by introducing subtle tinges of Chaos into an overtly Lawful environment.

    Shaktari could have sought sanctuary with whomever the Demon Lord in charge of the layer is, as the very jarring environment would make it very difficult for any demonic enemies to track her down in there; only a particularly twisted and/or foolhardy set of mortals (like the PCs) would have a chance.


    As for some task suggestions:

    9) Water Cooler Talk: Management knows that several of the demonic employees on a particular floor are secretly working for another Demon Lord to undermine Management, but they can't find any proof and they can't just kill or torture all the employees to figure out who it is because they want to trace the treason back to the source. The party has to disguise themselves as fellow employees and get the actual ones to talk on their coffee breaks/lunch breaks/etc.

    Problem is, all the demons are chatting about individuals, places, and sports teams that the party has never heard of ("I think the Demonweb Acolytes have a pretty good shot at winning the Pit Tournament this century, don't you think?" "Nah, the Gaping Maw Demon-Gators have this one in the bag. They're on a three-decade win streak." "The Demon-Gators? Nah, man, their kickers and wide carriers are great, but the Acolytes' slicers and left-hand cheaters are much better, and with the tournament being played in the Slime Pits this time...you know?") but should have heard of if they were real employees, and they'll definitely try to engage the party in conversation, so the party will have to blatantly lie and bull*** their way through the conversations long enough to find the traitors.

    10) Inhuman Resources: The demons in charge of placing mortal souls in an appropriate eternal torment are running a bit behind, due to a massive world-spanning catastrophe that recently occurred on an out-of-the-way Material Plane world that led to sudden influx of souls. To help them catch up, the party is tasked with assigning and classifying a bunch of souls according a Hellishly (heh) complex set of rules, which unlike an actual Baatorian policy is self-contradictory and full of loopholes.

    The party will need to assign final damnations to a bunch of souls while following the rules as best they can, and bribe/threaten/coerce any demons who dislike their decisions or threaten to report their bias. Throwing a wrench in the works, several souls are mixed in who shouldn't be in the Abyss at all, and the party has to figure out what to do with them; if the party is largely Good, perhaps several innocent souls are there and they have to prevent the demons from taking them anyway without the higher-ups finding out; if they're largely Evil, perhaps there are some LE souls that would make great bargaining chips with the devils, and multiple demons want to take them, forcing the party to play mediator.
    Oh my goddddddd, yes.

    Yeah, I was gonna reconcile the chaos with, if players open a door to the wrong floor or room, they just see, ya know, a horrible flesh maelstrom of flayed sinners or demons gorging themselves on eyes ripped out of screaming heads or whatever. Just mere feet away from the receptionist calmly transferring calls to this or that lord.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    I’ve added some stuff. Any other ideas?

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    igordragonian's Avatar

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    Default Re: Abyssal Corporate Adventure, need Ideas

    Archive Horror!

    It's time to put order in the paper work, but the problem is, that many of the papers have devolped chaotic evil attitude, and some of them able to cast spells.


    Fixing the Heavenly Bathroom problem

    there is a seriouse problem- one of the bathroom doors, lead to a bathroom from Heaven. Angels and demons keep getting out in the wrong dimension, and this lead to embarssing situations
    Thanks for the OOTSkage of OOTS art, Lord Raziere.

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