Internal Memo to Specific Propcos
Sorry this got so wordy and unweildy. I was going to try to pick out just the basics, but Gerard Mk2 suggested to go ahead and lay all of it out. Below are ideas and notes about some thoughts I had around the Lost Minosan City of Solos, using the small amount of info that Gerard had available to give me. Some are pretty detailed, some are very vague. Basically a bunch of "what if" that was generated off some things that came up in a scene Dinah ran for me. Hopefully it's been broken down enough that you can see where my head is at on the ideas as well as where I have, well, issues that might cause problems.
Concerns: If what I have here- or something at all like what I have sounds acceptable, I can't run it all, and since I've only run one set of scenes before, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that you won't want to leave something that could be a major undertaking in the sole hands of someone so completely inexperienced and prone to stage-fright. What I can do without problem is write up a bunch of ideas and descriptions, and maybe try my hand again at running one of the smaller scenes? Or maybe if you don't want or don't think anyone else will want to run so much based on someone else's ideas, maybe you have suggestions on how to get help, or turn this into digestible bits ... maybe something along the lines of GMing with training wheels? I'm pretty much in the position of - I just want there to be more Minos activity, and I had a couple of ideas to bounce around. I'm willing to work on stuff, but I'm not sure how or what because my skills are limited.
Another concern I have is the difficulty there seems to have been lately in getting others involved in Minos plots. If it's just the four of us involved, I'm not sure how well it will work.
A Question to start - The Charter & Compass: I know that these are used to chart courses through shadow. I am making an assumption that this means they may also be able to point to places in and around Minos. If that assumption is wrong, it won't completely wipe out most of my ideas straight away, but might reduce the parts that would make it so extremely personal to Molly.
Proposal: Spots of tarnish and mildew are found on Molly's mother's Compass and Charter. No matter what she does to clean and polish, they won't go away. Molly becomes convinced (logically or not) that these are a signs and directions from the spirit of her mother. (This "mild haunting" needn't go anywhere further, it's just a bit of fun to get Molly obsessed.)
When those spots are calculated through, they point to an area inland of the Minosian mainland, accessible by the river Sigyia. There may be coded notes and further maps rolled up in with the inherited charts, and these may hint at the source of the large amount of treasure that was recently found in the wreckage of the Intransigent and at another Captain or ship trying to jump the claim.
Prodded on by what Molly believes to be the ghost of her mother, she attempts to put together an expedition to go up the inhospitable river, brave the zombies of the mainland, and try to figure out why her mother died and why she "sent" Molly there.
General feel: Lost City Exploration, Ghost stories, Hauntings, Lovecraftian Madness, Asylum horror, Slow AND Fast zombies
What may result: is a trip up the river, fighting ship-unfriendly shallows and zombiefish, finding the mostly-sunken (and quite disturbing) wreckage of the claim-jumper, Continuing on to find the loading docks to the legendary mines of Solos and, once past all the zombies and possibly a source of those zombies, finding that the actual lost city isn't quite as empty as one might think.
What Might be Found : Travel up the Sigyia may include shallows that snag ship hulls, zombiefish and other various standard river perils twisted just a shade from the usual.
A mostly-sunken wreckage can be found on the way, the claim-jumping ship from Temerity's notes. Found here could be remains of hastily-removed treasure, signs of battle: lightning scorch-marks, holes from ballista-shot, etc. as well as some more disturbing signs.
Past the ship will be the loading docks for a major mining and logging operation, abandoned for centuries.
Within the mines will be zombies, since this is the Minos Mainland. Potentially maybe there's a zombie source of some sort down there. I also had a vague idea about a black-road related “Black Vein” running through the mine (starting with occluded crystal formations, and getting stronger the deeper it goes?), but I haven't thought that through much yet.
Once through the mines they will emerge come out through a grand entrance, the city-entrance to the mining system, and into the abandoned city of Solos, which turns out not to be entirely abandoned. At first it seems zombie infested as well, but things are not as they seem.
The small amount of people left alive in Solos have been dealing with the zombies since the mainland became “uninhabitable”. They believe that they are all that's left un-undead in Minos, and have descended into feralism and paranoid madness.
So, that's pretty much what I have and don't know what to do with. I might not be sure what I am asking of you guys, but maybe there's something in this that can be used? I don't know, but I thought cast it out and see if any of it floated or sunk.