Loading ...The appeal of Who Knows What
I watch Lost. From what I can tell, one of the appeals of the first season was the disconnect between characters. Their lack of communication drove the plot and drove the viewers crazy in the process.
I’ve come to a point in my book where I know what the catalyst is, and I know what the result is, I just don’t know how it gets from point A to point B. What’s the missing part?
Who knows what.
The Setup:
Ziggy is working as a stable boy for an Inn in a small, walled town (Devitt). The Innkeeper (Clayton) and his wife (Katherine) act as surrogate human parents for Ziggy as he acclimates to living with humans.
A powerful wizard (Leopoldo) rides into town and Ziggy, having never seen a wizard, follows him around, earning a stern reprimand from Clayton who fear overzealous retribution from the wizard. Ziggy opens one of the Wizard’s saddle pouches and finds a powerful amulet that he accidentally activates, raising an army of undead from the cemetery south of town. The way the amulet works, if the user is not powerful enough, the zombies attack the user, otherwise they become willing servants. Since Ziggy isn’t a wizard, the zombies stumble forth through the town, making a beeline for him. Since it’s mid-afternoon, the townsfolk react as you’d expect, immediately rushing to attack the zombies (who would have otherwise left them alone).
The Result:
Ziggy flees the town to the north (towards the capital city of Willis, which can handle this threat), knowing that the zombies will follow him. Ziggy feels deep shame, essentially running away. He never travels to Devitt again, and avoids all contact with the town.
The difficult part is figuring out what happens between those two bits of story.
In Between:
- The Wizard sees Ziggy, realizes he was the one who activated the amulet. Demeans him, gives exposition on how the amulet works and that the zombies are after Ziggy. Says He is responsible for the carnage that ensues, and he’ll deal with him later.
- After Ziggy flees, the wizard is killed by angry mob who thinks he was controlling the zombies, not trying to stop them.
- Clayton may or may not be killed in battle
Questions:
- Does Clayton know Ziggy betrayed his request?
- Does Ziggy think Clayton knew Ziggy betrayed his request?
- Does Katherine know Ziggy betrayed his request?
- Does Katherine blame Ziggy for Clayton’s death?
- Does Katherine (or Clayton) know Ziggy survived the battle? Do they know he ran to Willis? Do they care?
How do I tie this up in a way that leaves Ziggy in Willis?
One Possibility-
Clayton and Katherine find out, hears the wizard warn ziggy, gives ziggy the “I warned you” look. Katherine is angry and heartbroken when Ziggy leaves, but does not chase him down and ask him to return. She blames him for Clayton’s death. Ziggy knows both knew, and saw Clayton die. Ziggy cannot face Katherine, and hence stays away.
I think it’d be funny if nobody figures out it was Ziggy for sure, but Ziggy. Townsfolk blame the wizard, wizard blames curious townsfolk rummaging in his saddlebags, nobody can find Ziggy, so they think maybe it was Ziggy, but he’s not there, so no one can be 100% sure. It could get funny when the angry mob comes after the wizard…
I agree with McNinja… the more blame can be placed on the mage, the better. There should be a trail of subtle clues that lead to Ziggy, but don’t make it too obvious. Also, it would be interesting if Katherine was one step ahead of or behind the PCs in realizing what really happened. She could turn out to be a boon or an antagonist to the party, depending on how you want to play it.
The final icing on the cake is when Clayton accidently (or purposefully) gets re-animated. I leave it to the DM to fully breathe life into this depending on how s/he wants to play it.
Sorry… I’m assuming this is for a campaign. I suppose it could be for a story you are writing, too…
Hah! I should have read the intro. a little closer… the part where you say “I’ve come to a point in my book where I know what the catalyst is…”
So, just replace PCs with reader, and I think you are still good…
I still think it would be fun and *EVIL* to re-animate Clayton.
Ziggy and Clayton rush to the city alarm, see the zombie attack.
Clayton tells Ziggy to go get the wizard.
Ziggy wakes the wizard, wizard figures out it’s Ziggy’s fault, tell him “this is on your head” before rushing out of the Inn and towards the battle.
Katherine (who followed ziggy when he entered) asks him what he means, but ziggy doesn’t answer.
Ziggy catches up to wizard, says that if he can’t stop the zombies, ziggy must take the amulet to willis; the guard there will be able to destroy the zombies.
wizard jumps up on wagon and begins casting attempt.
Zombies surge towards ziggy and the wizard, Ziggy see’s clayton die, the line breaks, zombies surge towards ziggy.
Zombies jostle wagon, interrupt wizard
Wizard tells ziggy to run.
Ziggy runs to amulet, grabs it, and takes the wizard’s horse, then heads to willis.
Townsfolk see the wizard unharmed by zombies, think he’s behind it, lynch him.
Wizard dead, Clayton dead, Zombies killed by guard, katherine blames ziggy… that ties up nicely the only unknown is whether or not clayton knew ziggy killed him