Stone Erodes, Names Remain

There are many ways to start off a campaign (or prose). Here's one of them (note: nsfw art used below the break).

You slump to the ground. Everything aches. You cough and splutter for air and dust spews from your mouth. Your tongue tastes of chalk and there's grit in your eyes.

Looking around you, others are in a similar state to you. Standing above your collapsed forms is an adventurer of higher level, wiping blood off of their weapon of choice. On their belt is a small burlap bag, writing, containing a head-sized object. A vaguely humanoid, headless corpse lies on the floor in the corner, covered in dull green scales.

Congratulations, you have been freed from petrification.

Art by Sergio Diaz

If you want, have the players enter the gorgon's lair beforehand. Each player could enter individually in 1 player one shots, or together as a character/game system playtest. Give them information about the world they started in, have them tell you about the lives they had and the families they knew.

Then turn them to stone and have that life twisted and turned to your choosing. Players remain petrified until an outside source saves them, or until the gorgon becomes hungry and begins to return them to flesh, piece by piece, gnawing on their still-fresh bodies.

Some options to consider:

Time has moved forward significantly. New nations have formed, technology has changed, cultures have moved and shifted. This is a good option for introducing players to a homebrew world without dumping lore on them. The lore they bring to the table is that of the past world; some remains the same, whilst others have changed (again, a good way to introduce homebrew content).

The gorgon still lives and the hunt for her continues. She has been wounded and fled her lair, but she still remains as a future threat. Depending on her motives and importance as a creature in your game, she could be a good mid-term boss, a weakened early boss, or a long lasting nemesis.

Those that reversed the petrification aren't true allies. They've raised the players as additions to their evil schemes, or in an attempt to access information from the past (because speak with dead is so last century). The players are blackmailed or extorted, or deceived into aiding their new 'saviours'.

The reversed petrification isn't permanent. Players must continue to supply ingredients/favours for their saviour to keep themselves from turning to stone once more. Easily tied into the third one. Over time, they can discover the alchemical processes needed to save themselves, or learn magic to make the effect permanent. Punishment for failure comes through slow re-petrification (levels of exhaustion that cannot be removed through rest).

Other NPCs are still petrified. Perhaps gorgon influence has spread farther than expected, or some other apocalyptic event reduced the world to a stony wasteland. Factions free others to steal their resources and skills, or to use as weapons against their enemies. Players have the option to live in a world of statues (not necessarily a world of inanimate ones) or to free people and hope they're thankful.

Art by Hugo Puzzuoli