Post by StoryTeller on Apr 10, 2006 21:57:51 GMT
The PC's have been meandering around differant continents, and they wind up at this town. The people of this town are very suppressed, and do not like strangers. It seems as though the strangers they have dealt with in the past are pretty dangerous.
There is however a thriving community in this town...centered around a magic users guild. I admit, a very rare thing indeed.
As the PC's begin to find out things about this town, they find out some of the following things:
1) A powerful MU "owns the town" whether by money or power nobody
knows.
2) The town government is set up similar to a company: mayor at the top, and vice presidents below him each in charge of some community welfare. This group of people votes on decisions concerning law, including trials.
3) There are one or two members from "the guild" on the council.
4) Some others of the council are suspected of being influenced to abstain or cast a certain vote.
5) Every three months people with handicaps, the aged, and the dying are removed from this town.
6) The town is located at the base of a cliff against the sea. The only way to the top is a dangerous road with several hairpin turns.
7) Criminals are put to work mining a roadway through the cliff wall up to the surface above.
8) The rocks from the mining are quarried in blocks and are valued in some lands for building. The rock is very hard, and has a uniform black color.
If the party tries to find out what happens to those who get taken away, they will find they are taken to a dead volcano, with a large valley inside. This valley does not go through seasons, and the trees are fruit trees, which always bear fruit. There is a portal into this valley. The portal of mourning. It opens up every three months on the
soltice dates. Can you guess what time of day? At sunrise. Written on the archway of the portal is the purpose of the portal, valley, and since it is old and worn, when the portal was dicovered thirty years ago there was a loss of translation of the portal of "The Morning."
There is an evening portal too. But that one is the entrance to an old abandoned dwarven kingdom. It opens up every night. Each night, undead skeletons emerge with two tasks. Gather fruit. Look for newcomers, and "welcome" them to shelter. Skeltons will try to capture anyone alive with nets.
Inevitably the PC's will want to go dungeoning and kill off hoards of skeltons, and free lots of supressed people. Insert your own dungeon in this part or use a prefab.
Eventually, they will meet the lich in the dungeon. He will ask several questions about why they killed the skeletons. Now the poor people will starve... and so on and so forth. It will be increasingly aware that the lich is a good lich. The lich became a lich to forever take care of the orchard.
It turns out there is another lich. The Good lich is in fear of the Bad one, who happens to live in the town... heading the MU guild. The guild is a structure in which the Lich collects power, items, spells...it is great if the party has an MU who joined the guild without knowing. The guild is structured like a membership thing. Access to libraries is based on level of membership. Level of membership changes based on donations of magic items, artifacts, spells and of course money. The possibilities branch out from there... But the deal is to free the good lich from the wrath of the bad. They could...
1) Infiltrate the guild to a level at which it will topple.
2) Kill the bad lich.
3) Ignore the Deal.
4) Rally the town.
5) Retrieve the good liches talisman from the bad one's possesion.
Any option is bound to piss someone off. Good or bad lich, or the 40 or so MU's who have invested their life's savings into the guild. But think of all those magic items that must be in there.
Part 1:
Chief honcho feeling old, needs to test suitability of daughter as heir. A crafty sage NPC called to help.
Sage's plan: A honcho's man will pretend to turn traitor and with PC's will kidnap daughter. (Big deal - everyone is cooperating). They will tell daughter she is to write note saying father to come alone with ransom. He will be bumped off by ambush and they will see daughter confirmed as heir but she will take orders from rival evil honcho. They have permission to scare her with anything short of real torture. She passes test if she refuses to write or finds a way to warn, or manages an escape. A largish group is hired as daughter normally well protected and
PC will really be acting as a guard and protect her whatever her choices...Pretty boring easy money for players huh since all set up?
Catch:
The man chosen to play traitor really is a traitor in pay of uncle. The opportunity to dispose of daughter and become heir is seized. The traitor will suggest a cave in isolated area (which just happens to be moderately fortifiable - not by design; he just likes the isolation) as place for the hold-out and the father (anxious to be fully informed)
agrees. PCs may have a better idea but unlikely they will be in a place unknown to the traitor or father. Traitor is a coward and won't attempt on the life of the girl himself but will use any excuse to leave PCs with girl. Uncle will bring large force to bear on the PCs to wipe her out. (and them). Traitor to blame the PCs.
The daughter:
Really a good choice. Will not at first agree but will grovel and pretend submission. Will write note but encoded to warn. If no other opportunity has arisen, the traitor will say he will take note. If the players later tell her its a setup (when trouble begins), she will demonstrate fine combat skills.
Baddies:
Whatever number to test your PCs. Will (treacherously) offer free passage if they will hand over girl. (PC's may think the daughter worthless and be tempted to hand her over - mine were! If they do, they will not be allowed to leave alive since they are to be blamed with it. Dead men tell no tales. Fortunately mine remembered orders to protect no matter what and girl will reveal the actual contents of her note when she realises the PC are on her side). The negotiation delay will give some time for setting up defences if it occurs to players to hedge. Too bad if they don't.
If the PCs can hold out 2 days, a concerned father will arrive with relieving force.
Part 2:
[This was an extension as players grumbled about tiny pay (it was supposed to be an easy job) and here the sage helps.] I made an earlier post on the net frp conference on moral dilemmas and here is the detail.
In reward for services, a sage offers this little test to a group of PCs. This is a variation of the famous Prisoner Dilemma based on an essay by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical Themas. This will work best with a group that are really involved with their characters and have played them for some time.
Players given a counter which is red on one side, black on the other. They are to hand it secretly to the sage either red side up or black side up. They will be rewarded according to how all play.
If a PC returns the piece BLACK side up he/she gets:
For every other player turning in a RED side: A Big reward. For every other player turning in a BLACK side: Nothing or very small
If a PC returns the piece RED side up he/she gets:
For every other player turning in a RED side: A moderate reward
For every other player turning in a BLACK side: Only a small reward
It is important the player really understand the reward system before they make the choice. It is also very important that they can't discuss with each other what they will do and the returns are made in secret. When I did it, I had the sage claiming (quite wrongly) he could magically increase basic attributes and the matrix was:
BLACK choice:
For every RED piece: Attribute of choice increased by one unit.
For every BLACK piece: nothing.
RED choice:
For every RED piece: 50s in money
For every BLACK piece: 5s in money
The advantage of offering an attribute change, is that to the players (more than the PCs) it was a very real temptation to offer BLACK. Of course, if they all chose black, nobody would get anything. If only one chose red, that player would be fairly annoyed while the rest get one attribute bumped up. If you were the only player to choose black, then you sit very pretty...the details of this dilemma are well discussed by Hofstadter. He tried it for real money on his friends, here's your chance to do the same. For once, the game is as interesting if the player is trying to choose for a PC or doing it for him/herself.
Of course, all hell breaks loose when the sage reveals he is lying and just gives each a little more than if all had chosen red.....
The GM should decide what reward matrix the game balance can handle and whether the sage is honest, but do recommend the attribute lift as bait.
One obvious device for side-line action is the good old vendetta, or Even Orcs Have Mothers. Sooner or later, (sooner usually) PC's will by their actions have ruined someones plans, killed someone favourite son/uncle/mother/etc and be due for a spot of revenge. This brings that most dangerous of monsters up against the PCs - another thinking human. If the GM looks at the world from the Offended One's point of view, lots of ways for to get even should suggest itself but here are few ideas. Toss them into the game at the same time as other action - the vendetta may become the main gaming focus but it shouldnt start that way.
The hired thugs:
Predictable, common but not a bad opening shot anyway to start the players going. Chances are this will tell the Offended One (OO) that it wasn't luck and these guys are good, while telling the PCs that life isn't that simple.
The Trap:
Can be variation of above but much more creative ways around. How about a desirable NPC that spends some time winning the PC's confidence (helping out on a couple of expeditions say?) before some suitably creative putting the boot in? (from the unsubtle knife in back through poison to "inadvertantly" leaving the wrong door open).
Using their greed to send them against a strongly defended position with a totally false plan about a supposed way in? (This got my players past thinking of the vendetta as an sideline nuisance. They were mean and cold and looking for blood when they returned).
Or how about when the player are off to visit an unfamiliar culture, making sure they get stunningly wrong information on cultural sensitivities. (I havent play-tested this one, but I imagine could be very good in a light-hearted game)
My favourite is close to above. On an expedition to tribesmen, a functionary they hadn't much noticed offers them an ornate tribe weapon. He/she tells them this is could be the key to getting close to the chief. Tell any barbarian that they can talk to, that they got it by "Melstilatuk" from a barbarian chief. He/she further explains that melstilatuk (use your own languages) is a ceremonial battle and winning against a chief accords them high status. In fact the functionary is the in employ of OO and will quickly vanish. The weapon was obtained from the father of current chief in a particularly cowardly ambush that the tribesmen know about. If the PCs are curious about the word, a non-
tribal linguist can only translate it as "raven work". A tribal linguist if they even bother to find one, would them that melstilatuk is a colloquial abusive term for corpse-robbing - regarded VERY badly by tribesman. The weapon will be instantly recognised by the close tribesmen to the chief and effect of the characters proudly reciting their claim can be imagined.
The Frame up:
Often PCs leave themselves very wide open to being framed and dealt to wrongly by the law. This should make it a good option for the OO. The trick to playing this so your PCs have a chance is to very thoroughly think out how the OO sets it up - exactly who is talked to, bribed, where, who could see it. PC's will have to pursue what really happened and they need good detail. I failed at this on first attempt really but made up for it belately working in a lot of detail.
The lying witness or false complaint. This is the simplist by far if a bit obvious. Remember that if all or part of the PC party are free to investigate then the OO is likely to take measures to protect the implicated. My PCs actually utilised this. They figured the witness would be guarded so looked out for the guards and followed them (and a few false trails as well) to locate the OO.
Doubles. Illusion magic to make the others look like the PC in a witnessed crime? I haven't actually tried it but sounds good.
Here's a complex one that the players may tumble at any stage but will land them in serious trouble if they don't. Baddie in employ of OO poses to players as a rich jeweller from within a city. He meets them at a location outside the city and describes some imaginary double-dealing in the trade. The upshot is that he thinks a rival has wrinkled him out of a distinctive ruby necklace. His mission for the PC is to probe or watch a house in the outskirts to see if any sign. He tells them that the necklace has a vague enchantment (improve looks, raise charisma that kind
of thing) and could be picked up by detect magic abilities. Small reward for successful location. Big reward if they can get it. He tells them he doesn't want them anywhere near his city shop. They pass a message to him via person in local pub in writing. It mustn't mention the goods, just say party of extra people needed if they can't get it, else tell him to come alone to a meeting point if they have managed it all themselves.
The house is the real jeweller's house and the necklace is not heavily protected as the rubies are fake (which the jeweller knows) but the magic isn't (of which he is unaware). The reward should tempt the PCs to go for it. They will then send a note to the appropriate place. Make sure they write down what it says. The note goes of course to the OO who then murders the real jeweller, places the note on his body, then tips off the watch on where to find the PCs. Chances are the PCs have written a highly incriminating note and in addition will be holding property know
to belong to the jeweller.
Final Vendetta notes:
If a prolonged vendetta is plaguing the players then a certain amount of paranoia is liable to set in. You may be accused of inventing ways around their precautions because they tell you them in advance. If you are, I hope they string you. I f otherwise, don't get angry - suggest a play fair system. They write down their precautions when you warn them that you need to know. You write down your attack. At the moment of truth, notes are compared and a very enjoyable game can be held BETWEEN GM and players. This assumes enough maturity on your players that they build protection that they reasonably could manage by their skills and money without going through you. If so have some fun. This play really only applies to the Hired Thug approach - the others shouldnt really be open to abuse.