STORY HOOKS

When bringing Badger Temple into play, the GM may use the following points to enrich the story by introducing artifacts, Villains, discoveries, and rewards.

The Hall of Trials

• Light and Darkness. A single torch shines true, revealing the living frescoes upon the walls – the shadows of four badgers, each bearing a small rattle, slide among the paintings. To continue, the PCs must collect the four rattles. Every time they roll a Check to try, the GM fills 1 section of an 8-section Clock. If the Clock is filled before they succeed, or if they attempt to use violence, a fearsome guardian emerges from the frescoes. What is it? Which of the PCs knows legends about its weak spot?
• Hall of Despair. This empty room seems endless. Every now and then, the pale image of a badger appears, beckoning the heroes to follow them in the darkness. The PCs have to fill a 6-section Clock to keep the spirit in sight and reach the exit. Whenever a PC fails a Check, frustration gets the better of them, causing them to suffer a random status effect among dazed, shaken, slow, and weak.
• The Door. The badger stops next to a great stone door covered in thorny vines, which can be removed either with a Ritual or by suffering a heavy loss of Hit Points. The badger glows with a feeble light, which restores all the PCs’ Mind Points.
• Dark Vines (The Rafflesia Encounter). Sprawling creepers and living vines fill the entire room. At the center, a massive, garish flower tinges the scene with scarlet and purple hues. A glowing bud dangles from one of the vines, right above the jaws of the plant-creature at the heart of the flower: its name is Rafflesia. Its stalk is covered in thorns, and the badger-spirits are trapped in its two creeping tentacles.
  • Properties: It’s Vulnerable to fire damage, Resistant to ice and bolt, and Absorbs light, thanks to the glowing bud, which also hypnotizes its targets, forcing them to attack the main body – those who charge into melee are punished by its thorns.
  • Challenge: If both tentacles are defeated, the twin badger spirits regain their powers and Rafflesia becomes Vulnerable to light damage. How did this creature evolve? How was it created? What is hidden at the center of the room?