Coins for the Ferryman…and More, with Some Luck

This plot hook is specifically for the ink RPG. It can be used for any game, but will likely work best for ink. Let’s get spooky!

You awaken to a dull pain, surrounded by relative strangers, on a glittering black sand beach just beyond the reach of ominous obsidian waves. As you blink the world around you into greater clarity, you catch a glimpse of a translucent figure hovering just above one of the others, shaking its head. It notices you and greets you warmly, if not perhaps a little over-enthusiastically.

“Woah there, pal, take it easy,” they say. “I mean, it’s not easy being recently deceased but take it as easy as you can. You’ve surely got loads of questions, yeah?”

The realization that you’ve died washes over you as the others wake up and are given similar greetings. It’s then you notice, then hastily look away from their shadows.

“Name’s Five,” Five the Spirit says. “I’m what you’d call a Psychopomp. There’s a handful of us down here, all blessed with the task of helping those of you who have freshly shuffled off the mortal coil to find your way to the Beyond.”

After some conversation, bright lights in the distance catch your eye.

“Hoo boy, you’ll want to steer clear of that,” Five explains.

A grand island—or Key as they’re called around these parts—made up entirely of the most bombastic, engaging, and inescapable casinos in all of creation, with one of the few tickets out of the Ink somewhere hidden among its barrage of light and sound. Do you brave the Ink in an effort to resist the casino and pass on? Or will its temptation prove too much?

GM Tips and Tools

This is intended to play out as a Journey of a medium or longer length, but can be shortened depending on all of the usual factors (player availability, frequency of combat/TPKs, etc).

The central themes here are overcoming greed, pride, and envy, culminating in a Greater Fiend battle across a roulette wheel stylized casino Key against the formidable Roulette Spider, a monstrous patchwork of slot machines, craps tables, and more adorned with a colossal roulette wheel on its back.

Introduce elements relevant to the players with each additional Key that play into the overall themes of greed, pride, and envy such as Chill (the feeling of being stuck or frozen by the desire to keep playing), Terror (the crippling fear of insurmountable debt), and Poison (the toxicity in the atmosphere from revelry such as smoking, drinking, and other indulgences).

Battles should incorporate elements of the Roulette Spider into them such as mini-games of chance.

But that’s for another post (when I’ve had a chance to assemble some stat blocks).

Until then, take your chances, beat the odds; good luck and godspeed.