The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

I was watching YouTube today and a documentary on the man-eating lions of Tsavo popped up in my feed.

It was pretty fascinating and while I had seen “The Ghost in the Darkness” way back whenever, I had forgotten much of the story.

Still, what I watched today gave me some ideas on how to incorporate the lions into an ongoing campaign.

For my game, I was thinking about a one-shot sequel to my Western.  The characters, having finished their original story arc have moved on with their lives, started businesses or families and are generally enjoying what amounts to an early retirement when a friendly NPC contacts them from the Tsavo River Valley in Kenya.  Two lions have been preying on railroad workers and have managed to evade all attempts to hunt them down.  This ally is requesting help.

It turns out that the cats are under the influence of a native druid who opposes the British presence in the area.  Some of the adventurers must track down the priest and deal with him while the rest of the group hunts the lions.  Once the conflict is resolved, a story is released that glosses over anything even remotely supernatural about the happenings and as far as the world knows, everything happened just as it did in the real world’s history.

But for those of you who are not playing a Western-themed campaign set on Earth, the plot still works with some small tweaks.  Simply transplant the lions to an appropriate region and instead of a railroad, make their hunting area a trade route.  The lions could still be directed (or aided) by a druid who is hostile to civilization moving into the area.