Missions in Maitavale

Missions in Maitavale weaves small stories into a massive tapestry.

But before the tapestry, let me show you a thread.

The Spider Queen

An ageing elf has developed a fascination for spiders, taken giant spiders as pets, and even twisted her body partly into the form of a spider.  She looks like H.R. Geiger tried to draw a cute anime girl.

1. Once the PCs enter the roads, they heard a rumour about her pets - giant spiders which hunt together (an unnatural phenomenon).
2. The next time the PCs travel the roads, they find a flock of sheep.  And soon after, the Spider Queen sings an enchanting song to draw them into the forest, where her pet  spiders can eat them.  The PCs may rush into the dark forest, and get caught in webbing with the sheep, or simply flee.
3. The next time they enter the forest, they're ambushed by a nasty trick: 30 giant arachnids, 3 of which are real, and 27 of which are illusions.  An illusion of a gnome sitting on a tree-branch provides a red-herring, and distraction from the real source: the Spider Queen.
4. Soon the Spider Queen begins to kill entire hamlets.  The PCs hear about this when entering town, and then witness the aftermath.

The story doesn't 'rail-road' the characters by demanding they go somewhere.  Each segment of the story will wait until the PCs arrive in an appropriate Region. The players can decide to run into the story head-on, and hunt down the Spider Queen, or simply ignore her.

The Tapestry

The PCs may follow one or two different 'Side Quests' as their 'primary arc', while rumours of upcoming encounters pop into the foreground, then recede.  A political faction emerges during on Side Quest, then a counter-faction comes up during another, then both of them emerge during another Side Quest.

The whole picture will emerge slowly, as the players understand how these segments fit together into a larger tapestry.  But when playing the game, the Judge only needs to focus on the current Segment, then tick it off the big list at the start, before looking at the next.

Format

As always, this book only works when printed at your local, friendly, print-shop.  Reading it on a screen is cursed.