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The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:31 am
by ProfessorFestus
I need some help. i'm writing a adventure for wpf 4rd edition. its loosly based the hunchback of Notre Dame.

The main bad guy is a hunchback terrorising Altdorf by kidnaping children and eating them.

I would like to place this hunchback gentleman in one of the great cathedral’s bell towers.

What i need help with is your opinions..

Conserning all the priests, knights and all other anti-choas stuff in and around the great cathedral. Is it possible that a mutant can live in the great cathedrals bell tower, climb out every week bringing back an orphan to eat?

Its high fantasy, so i guess. But i want it to be "realistic" xD
What do you think?

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:53 am
by Hyarion
A hunch is easily passable as a natural deformity, so it's a good way to hide a mutation. If you want to step it up a bit, take a page from Total Recall, and have your hunchback be like Cuato with a separate, sentient being growing out of his body.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 5:02 pm
by Dustman
He'd have to be stealthy but it could work.

The witch-hunters will burn him on sight. They have a habit of burning innocent people "just to be sure," so the Empire probably doesn't have a lot of living hunchbacks. Put another way, no clear distinction between ordinary deformities and chaos mutations. The townsfolk would likely stone him or report him to the witch-hunters. Not likely to be sympathetic.

Why not give him a stealth mutation? Something not physical but psychic, that inclines people to look elsewhere. Not perfect camouflage, but, if he sticks to the shadows, would help a lot.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 5:35 pm
by ProfessorFestus
Good ideas. Thanks a lot. He will be very stealthy indeed, fast and athletic, he must be able to climb roofs and bell towers. I like the possibility of the mutant/hunchback having a Voldemort face somewhere. Give home some more personality or personalities.

My first thought was a mutation that only showed at night. Normal during the day and mutant during the night. Such mutations are very rare, what I imagine. The best part would be if he’s day self didn’t know about he’s night self.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:37 pm
by Dustman
I like that!

In line with only showing at night, could also consider the influence of the chaos moon.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:25 am
by Overlord
Going further - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie from 2003. There is this mr Hide scene where he is chased by Allan Quatermain or from Van Hellsing movie almost same scene. But the idea is to have mutant to be a shape shifter - in tome of corruption i guess (WFRP 2 ed.) there was a mutation for that. So idea of normal person whos mutation is getting a little bigger, stronger/maybe more like human - gorilla fusion with separate personality.

You will have mixed two stories as backbone - Hunchback from Notre Dame as setup and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hide as a antagonist

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 1:46 am
by Capitaneus Fractus
His mutation might make him looks like gargoyles, such as a "stone skin".
(that would allow him to hide in the cathedral)

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:45 am
by Visitor Q
ProfessorFestus wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 5:35 pm Good ideas. Thanks a lot. He will be very stealthy indeed, fast and athletic, he must be able to climb roofs and bell towers. I like the possibility of the mutant/hunchback having a Voldemort face somewhere. Give home some more personality or personalities.

My first thought was a mutation that only showed at night. Normal during the day and mutant during the night. Such mutations are very rare, what I imagine. The best part would be if he’s day self didn’t know about he’s night self.
For an extra twist make him the captain of the Templars who has hired the party to catch the monster that has evaded his own men.

That said maybe this is veering more towards a werewolf/wolfman style scenario rather than hunchback.

Also in the hunchback of Notre Dame and very relevant to wfrp Quasimodo was a tragic figure being directed by an archdeadon corrupted by alchemy. Perhaps this could provide a clue as to why he's able to slip past the Cathedral guards.

In fact you could probably take the original Hunchback of Notre Dame and play it deadly straight. Frollo is actually a sorcerer and the crazy twist is that Esmerelda is actually a demon sent by Slaneesh.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:37 am
by Overlord
Visitor Q wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:45 am
Also in the hunchback of Notre Dame and very relevant to wfrp Quasimodo was a tragic figure being directed by an archdeadon corrupted by alchemy. Perhaps this could provide a clue as to why he's able to slip past the Cathedral guards.
Or maybe goes for tragic character who dont even know he is mutant and murderer?

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 10:54 am
by ProfessorFestus
Thanks for your help!

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2021 2:42 pm
by Whymme
For a very different variant, have the mutant not be the murderer. He does believe that he is, though.
It's an involuntary shapeshifter who transforms into a monster every night, or every full moon. And in human form he has no recollection of what he does in his monster form. But he sincerely believes that he is responsible for the children's deaths.
He has a 'protector' in the church, a priest who hides him and who brings him food and such. Of course, that protector is the real murderer. He needs the children for a chaos ritual (as usual in WFRP), and uses the (sightings of) the monster as a scapegoat and as a means to divert attention to his own dastardly deeds.

Having a priest helping him makes it easier for the mutant to hide in the church's bell tower unnoticed.

Re: The hunchback of Altdorf

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:54 am
by Hyarion
Whymme, great stuff.