Dragna's Den: Let's Design a Folk Horror One-Shot (Part II)

Last time on the Dragna’s Den newsletter, we started building What Granny Says, a folk horror one-shot adventure featuring an annis hag, a stolen infant, and far too many Wicker Man references.

Today, we’re going to get a little bit closer to fleshing this adventure out, using our three-act structure template to do so.

But first—let’s talk about memorability.

Part II: The Adventure Cast

What makes an adventure great?

It’s not the plot. It’s not the combat encounters. And it’s not the flavor text.

A great adventure stands on the shoulders of its characters—and, through them, the themes that it evokes.

We’re going to take a quick detour before hitting up the three-act structure and talk about characters. Specifically, we’re going to use the “Faces” and “Themes”/”Threats” concepts found in the Dresden Files Role-Playing Game to build strong, evocative characters with clear motivations, relationships, and roles.

Given that this is a one-shot adventure, we’re going to start by making two Themes and one Threat. A “Theme” is a description of a certain type of narrative that a location tends to support (e.g., “Don’t go down to the docks at night.”). Meanwhile, a “Threat” is a description of a particular entity, be it a creature, a phenomenon, a person, or otherwise, that wants to Make Life Worse for people.

These Themes and Threat will form the structural backbone of our adventure.

Let’s start with a basic Theme: “Granny knows best.” This theme reflects the relationship between Granny, our annis hag, and the child that she’s corrupted using her iron token. Desperate parents may shout, wail, or punish, but Granny’s guiding whispers will always lure a child away from the “proper path.”

Our second Theme is “Outsiders beware.” This theme reflects the town’s hostility and suspicion toward intruders who enter their town.

Finally, we need a Threat: “Birth of a new coven.” Granny wants to create her own hag coven, which is why she needs the kidnapped child—and the PCs’ deaths.

Using these Themes and Threat, we can make Faces for each one.

• The Face of Granny Knows Best is Eli, the half-elf child. Eli’s High Concept is “Bitter Bad Seed.” His Motivation is “Do what Granny says—and hurt my mother’s new husband in the process.” His Relationship is to Granny, who serves as his Authority Figure.
• The Face of Outsiders Beware is Airic, the town’s Wisdom. Airic’s High Concept is “Small-Town False Prophet.” His Motivation is “Help Granny get what she wants—and receive her blessing to revive our crops.” His Relationship is to Granny, who serves as his Benefactor.
• The Face of Birth of a New Coven is Granny herself. Her High Concept is “Mother of Corruption.” Her Motivation is “Birth two daughters and found my new coven.” She has relationships to Eli and Airic, as described above.

We’re ready to start.

Part III: The Adventure Structure

Let’s start with Act One: The Beginning.

We begin with The Fuel, our first dramatic question.

• Our party is a collection of 3-5 fourth-level characters.
• They care about helping those in need. (This is the Adventure Thesis.)
• The adventure will take place in the Barrows, which we’ll expand to describe the entire region around the village. (This is the Adventure Region.)
• This region is interesting because it is exceptionally isolated, and because it produces regular shipments of exceptional-quality honey for sale in nearby settlements. (Yes, we’re going full Wicker Man.)
• The adventure will begin in the village of Oakhill, and specifically at the Village Green, the center of town. (This is the Starting Location.)
• The party is hoping to locate Wisdom Airic, a man who they've been told to contact for assistance in finding “Stefan” and Enid’s daughter. (This is the Starting Goal. Enid, if you’ll recall, is the “damsel” who lured the PCs to Oakhill in the adventure hook.)
• If the party fails to accomplish this, they’ll fail their mission and go unpaid.

Next, the Inciting Incident:

• An antagonist who suddenly causes trouble for the party: An old woman named Selma, who walks up to the party as they make their way toward Wisdom Airic’s cottage, and begins berating them, declaring that Oakhill doesn’t need any more of “their kind” and threatening to whap them with her cane if they protest or fail to leave. (This is the Inciter. She’s angry because “outsiders” brought the “Blight” to the village, and Oakhill doesn’t need or want any more of them making things worse.)
• Selma has come to the Village Green to obtain supplies for her failing bee hives, though she feels that it’s a waste, given how many of her honeybees have been dying to the Blight.
• The scene begins as the PCs approach Airic’s cottage, but are accosted by Selma, who thwacks one of them on the back of the head and spits on the ground as they pass by. (She continues to follow and berate them unless forced not to.)

We now move onto The Takeoff, our second dramatic question:

• To overcome Selma, the PCs might attack her (unlikely), try to explain themselves, try to intimidate her, or just ignore her and try to get Airic’s attention by knocking on his door. To discourage them from attacking her (which would jeopardize the entire adventure), let’s make her obviously weak and frail; her walking stick, even at full strength, deals zero damage to the PC it hits. The only wound she’s capable of dealing is to a character’s pride.
• If the PCs successfully explain themselves to or intimidate Selma, they can pump her for information on the “Blight” (a fungal disease that has infected many local flowers and insect species, including the town’s famed honeybees), and the “other outsiders” (a young woman named Stella who came to the town with her young son, Eli, last year, and who recently had twin daughters with a local farmer named Ferghus.)
• If the PCs further investigate the Starting Location, they notice a young child (Eli) watching them from the far side of the Village Green, but he scampers off if they meet his gaze or approach him. (A PC with a passive Perception score of 15 or higher notices that he’s fidgeting with a small, circular metallic object hanging on a cord around his neck.)
• There’s not really any risk of failure here - all the PCs have to do is open the door and they’ll meet Airic. (If the PCs talk with Selma instead of ignoring her, Airic eventually interrupts the conversation by opening his cottage door, claiming he overheard their voices, and greeting Selma while inviting the PCs inside. Selma grunts toward him with clear disrespect, then shuffles away.)

Finally, we arrive at The Threshold, the break into the second act:

• The ultimate cause of the Blight is, of course, Granny. (This is the Primary Antagonist.) But the PCs don’t know that yet, and Airic (who does know) has no intention of revealing it to them.
• The PCs will be able to confront Granny at the Nettletree, which we’ll move to Leamurk, now renamed “The Lea” (pronounced “lee”). The Lea, which is “an open area of grassy or arable land,” is (for the sake of keeping things relatively compressed) now just beyond the edge of the village, rather than being far in the distance. “Granny” is the caretaker for the Nettletree and the adjoining graveyard, and her cottage is nearby. (This is the Climactic Location.)
• While at the Climactic Location, the PCs can outwit Granny and rescue the twins that Eli has stolen for her.

Now, the three-act template tells us that the PCs have to immediately reach the Climactic Location upon reaching Act II. But the template, like all tools, is an aid; we aren’t bound to follow it. And there’s a particular scene that I’ve had on my mind since starting this project (which we’ll get to later) that wouldn’t quite fit with the location-oriented structure of the three-act template.

The Break Into Second symbolizes the moment when the PCs move from the “introduction” into the real “meat” of the adventure—when the stage has been fully set and the clock has officially started ticking. As such, here’s what our Break Into Second will look like instead:

• The PCs speak with Airic, who apologizes for Selma’s rudeness, and invites them inside his home/office to speak.
• He informs them that a man matching the description of “Stefan,” and a young girl matching his daughter’s description, have indeed recently been seen around the village, but that the two appear to be keeping a low profile. Last Airic heard, the two had been seen around Old Bran’s barn. (This, interestingly enough, is the barn of the same farmhouse where Eli, Stella, and Ferghus live.) Airic is glad to provide them directions.
• Airic also suggests investigating Greystone Barrow—a hill on the edge of town—and the graveyard by the Nettletree. Both are places where someone might hide out if they don’t want to be found, he thinks.
• If the PCs don’t find Stefan at the barn, barrow, or graveyard, Airic says, they’ll have a good chance to garner information by attending a feast at his own home that evening, held in celebration of the Day of First Fruits, a local holiday. The village’s elders and civic leaders will be present there—if anyone will have information about the girl’s location, they will.
• If the PCs ask Airic about the Blight, he tells them that it’s a fungal disease that suddenly struck the village’s crops and beasts—especially their honeybees—in recent months, and has been growing worse. He claims not to know what’s causing it. (This is true.) He also claims that he’s confident that, after the Day of First Fruits, the gods will see that the good people of Oakhill have survived this trial, and will surely visit their blessings back upon them. (This is a half-truth, if not a lie—Airic believes that someone will heal the Blight, but that it will be Granny, not the gods.)

As the conversation winds to a close—or if things becomes awkward—Airic excuses himself, claiming that he’s expected to bless a local farmer’s field, in the hopes of staving off the Blight. (This is a lie; he is planning to visit a local farm, but it’s to secretly retrieve and use his own iron token to notify Granny of the PCs’ arrival, not to bless the farm’s crops.)

From here, the PCs have three leads to investigate: Old Bran’s Barn, Greystone Barrow, and the Nettletree Graveyard. That means it’s time for some node-based scenario design, accompanied by judicious use of the three-clue rule.

But unfortunately, that implementation will have to wait until next time, because we’re running out of space in today’s post!

Have no fear—What Granny Says will return and be wrapped up soon :)

Thanks for sticking around, and let me know if you’re enjoying this adventure-building series!

Cheers,
Dragna

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