WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Maybe he finds a market stall that's willing to buy everything he's got at a good price, and gives him Fancy Clothes (tm) made from the wool of the sheep? Gives him a mild (maybe non-numeric) bonus to interaction with genteel folk.
Maybe he finds a market stall that's willing to buy everything he's got at a good price, and gives him Fancy Clothes (tm) made from the wool of the sheep? Gives him a mild (maybe non-numeric) bonus to interaction with genteel folk.
I like this idea, and another way I would suggest it could work if appropriate for your game would be to have some hard-as-nails member of the city guard or provincial military notice and respect the barbarian’s methods of living off the land. Maybe this even ends up with the barbarian offered a gig as a consultant to or squad leader in said standing force, teaching the children of nobility how to eat smoked sheep entrails without complaint while they march through rough country.
Was he doing the harvesting mid combat? Did he have some special training (character background) or proficiency? If not, I'd have rolled that it takes several hours per animal.
Was he doing the harvesting mid combat? Did he have some special training (character background) or proficiency? If not, I'd have rolled that it takes several hours per animal.
Yeah, look up videos on how to skin rabbits or somesuch. This shouldn't be as simple as "I loot the hides", it should at least inconvenience the party.
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Was he doing the harvesting mid combat? Did he have some special training (character background) or proficiency? If not, I'd have rolled that it takes several hours per animal.
This is a good point. He caught me off-guard with it the first time, so I allowed it, but I guess I'm not bound to stick with that ruling. Imposing a timeframe on it (especially once we start marking time seriously during Dragon Heist) could really drive home the point that there are more profitable ways to spend that time.
Maybe he finds a market stall that's willing to buy everything he's got at a good price, and gives him Fancy Clothes (tm) made from the wool of the sheep? Gives him a mild (maybe non-numeric) bonus to interaction with genteel folk.
I like this idea, and another way I would suggest it could work if appropriate for your game would be to have some hard-as-nails member of the city guard or provincial military notice and respect the barbarian’s methods of living off the land. Maybe this even ends up with the barbarian offered a gig as a consultant to or squad leader in said standing force, teaching the children of nobility how to eat smoked sheep entrails without complaint while they march through rough country.
I can probably do this. The players might want day jobs between adventure hooks, just to pay bills and such.
Final pre-curse of strahd game finished, whew. I had an entire timetable for every faction within the castle working independently so this was plate spinny. Everyone's dead! And here's how I killed them all
SPOILERED FOR LONG
Rogue: Day of the wedding, Strahd could not be roused until well past breakfast, miserable and with a severe headache in the damn sunlight (which actually wasn't so bright, it was overcast) Strahd eventually joined the Rogue (who had helped him cover up a murder most foul) in preparing for the day. Rogue discovered well past lunch that more guards were in the castle than there actually should be.... before he could dig too deep (the sun had just passed beyond the mountains at this point, the land falls to dusk and mist), he was summoned to Strahd "urgently", outside of Lord Sergei's room. Strahd welcomed Rogue and presented his wedding gift to Sergei: The traditional knife of an assassin, which Strahd introduced to Sergei's heart and then began to drink wildly. Rogue tried to pull him off but failed, and after he finished drinking he Charmed rogue and with a rush of genuine elation he declared that Tatyana would soon be his in flowery terms straight from a bad and slightly rapey romance novel. Rogue told the guards outside that Sergei had been assassinated, and pointed to the knife! The cursed assassins! Strahd had taken off out the window. The guard he was talking to was suddenly struck dead by a crossbow bolt as traitors rounded the corner and Rogue finally put the pieces together in his head - he took off after Strahd to warn him. Strahd found Tatyana in the garden and broke the news of Sergei's assassination to her, and told her that it was punishment from the gods for Sergei abandoning his life in the priesthood. He charmed her, and laid down with her in the flowers. As the level of "oh no is he really going to describe it" grew on my players faces, just as Strahd had gotten a few good sips of blood and his hand started to move towards the hem of her gown - an arrow struck him in the back. Then another, then another. Tatyana, broken from the charm, yelled out "no my lord! we can't.... I can't... oh gods Sergei is gone?! I can't, this was wrong, what have I done" and she ran away, right up and over the wall and down a 2000 foot drop, screaming the whole way.
more arrows hit Strahd, clutching a piece of fabric torn from her dress in his hands. He screamed her named, ignoring the missiles. The traitor Leo Delinsya, would-be lord of Barovia, presented himself and challenged the rogue to a fair duel. Rogue growled acceptance and charged him, through him, through an illusion. "I've poisoned half the nobles in Barovia and am murdering my liege lord and you think I'd really be so honorable as to grant a trained killer a fair fight? hah!" and had his archers loose onto the rogue. Rogue awakens, barely alive in the dining hall, strahd lying next to him with a thousand yard stare, with a dozen arrows in him. There are a dozen surviving hostages in here (including most of Leo's family, not that he deliberately spared any of them) and the party's bard and warlock. Strahd looks up at him and says "you're going to die here, my friend, I cannot stop that. I can avenge you, and her... I just need... your blood". I look at Rogue player. He just nods, and Strahd drinks deep as everything goes black
Bard: This one is kind of funny, at breakfast she said "so I got drunk last night and had a threesome with 2 nobles, you said I threw up a bunch right?" me: "Yeah". "whats for breakfast?". I describe the grand spread, and the (brand) new cook's speciality: a fried cake with a blueberry sauce, renowned all the way to the coast. She's like "its like blueberry pancakes?" I nod. "I want to eat as many of them as I can." REVERSE TIME OUTSIDE OF THE PLAYER'S PERCEPTIONS. Sunrise, Castle Ravenloft: The cook, a traitor working for Leo Delinsya, mixes the slow acting but quite deadly poison in with the expensive blueberry syrup that he has created. Enough syrup for 2 pancakes per guest, but only half a portion should incapacitate an adult. The bard rolled and *stole other people's breakfasts*. She ate 10 of them. She stole them from the clique of noble girls who tried to extort her (ages 7-11) the previous day, so they didn't get any before it had all been used up. I told her she had a really bad stomach ache at around noon and asked for 10 constitution saving throws. I described her make it to her bed for a quick nap, a pain like nothing she'd ever felt in her stomach, everything going blurry, and that she knew no more (she literally didn't make it past breakfast, but she saved the lives of multiple children out of sheer pettiness, what a hero)
Wizard: Reading Rahadin's diary and finding out that her mentor since she was 8, Petrina Velikovna the archmage, actually murdered not only her parents but Strahd's parents sent her head spinning. Finding out that Rahadin was in love with her and probably her real father sent her vomiting. She didn't want breakfast, good for her. She dug out her sending stone and called up Petrina and demanded an explanation. Bad for her. Petrina showed up and met her at around noon, dragging her away from Bard (who was getting sick, probably from being an alcoholic glutton) and Warlock (who wanted to go search for secret chambers). She met in Strahd's private study, which she had a key too, as it was safe from scrying and soundproof. After Wizard yelling at her mentor and surrogate mother for the atrocities she'd committed, she shot back a dismissive "you're too young to see the big picture my dear. You sound like Rahadin, speaking of I asked him to join us." Rahadin showed himself. After a good deal more argument and a not so subtle threat from Wizard, Petrina looked at Rahadin and said "I think my brat of a student needs some time to think about who knows best for our people. You want her body, you can have her body." Wizard: "What do you mean", Rahadin giddily claps and cheers in my most creepy rahadin voice. Petrina : "You won't be needing it, he knows what he needs to to raise it, so he's going to borrow it for a while, I owe him a debt. Your soul on the other hand, is coming with me." Petrina pulled Wizard's soul into a rune-etched crystal, and she watched her body collapse - as if she was watching the world from the world's tiniest movie theatre - and Rahadin proceeded to do a strange ritual to make the body rise and follow him. Her body even could apparently talk and answer questions with a simple intelligence. He dragged her to the priest, Lady Iloyna in the company of Petrina, and she saw Rahadin marry her soulless body in a quick private ceremony. She pounded on her cage and Petrina took it back to her tower. Days turned into months, months to years, until finally Petrina (who had periodically talked to the gem in one way conversations) told her her day had arrived and she'd be free. But on that day, instead, Petrina was lured into an anti magic field by her brother, who held her there as she was stoned to death by her own people. The last thing the wizard saw was someone pulling the gem off Petrina's body and smashing it with a rock. (I cleared the squicky parts of this story well ahead of time with the player, they were actually horri-delighted about the entire thing, I was nervous about this one but they were on the edge of their seat)
Warlock: Was with Bard until she left to go die. She went and played cards with the older children and got her clock cleaned. She noticed some weird behavior and went exploring, finding a traitorous wizard and a lost little girl on her adventure. She rescued the girl and killed the wizard, who was raising zombies out of... men? Athletic looking men and women, not clothed but she definitely recognized them as Strahd's soldiers, where are their uniforms? Oh fuck. She got the girl somewhere safe and passed her con saves, though poison conditioned. She had taken to rescuing children, realizing that a bloody coupe was under way, hiding them in her suite - finding the bard's dead body in the bedroom. Fuck! Leo, the traitor, cornered her there, and announced that as a Vistana seer, he'd be delighted to have her as an advisor after this bloody business ends. The castle was all but his by now, and though he had to go deal with Strahd, it'd be over soon. He bade her to go to the dining hall and gestured to the 4 men he had with him. She spat on him, and a crossbow bolt twanged, killing a 7 year old girl dead. "You can come with these 4, 5 if you wanna drag the body, or you can come alone and very bruised. I won't kill a Vistani seer, I don't want to make enemies of your people, but I don't care if any of these survive." Warlock, pointing to one of the crying kids: "Thats your cousin!" Him: "By marriage. Are you coming?" She gritted her teeth and went. Going back to ...
Strahd drank deep from Rogue and stood, Leo was too busy giving his monologue to notice. Strahd reached over and grabbed the neck of the closest soldier and crushed his neck like a piece of stale bread and pulled him to himself to drink with such force that the man's sword flew over and skidded in front of Lord Wachter, who wasted no time in running through the closest guard. The head priestess stood in abject disbelieving horror at what was happening to Strahd and huddled in the corner with Warlock to protect the children. Leo, smelling the sinking ship, said a word of power and stepped through a dimensional door, abandoning his men. Sounds of battle, that were distracting the traitors earlier (handn't they killed all the guards?), silent for minutes now, were suddenly explained by Rahadin bursting in through the door. He made 4 deadly swings with his magical scimitar into one man before he could finish turning around, a macabre pile of meat sloughing to the ground now instead of a man. Behind him, a grand sight, Wizard! Alive and well.... but her eyes dead and lifeless, as she fired firebolt after firebolt into the traitor's men.
After the battle was over and the dead counted, Strahd bade them all to leave his service, granting Lord Wachter dominion of Vallaki and placing responsibility of collecting taxes in his charge. Despite him now being a monster, none of his lords wanted to leave him, and his surviving (because of the party) guards that were still alive in parts of the castle flatly refused, demanding he execute them for treason or keep them in his service. He relented (the party is responsible for this, so now in the future, Ravenloft will also have human guards, Strahd having found a taste for having a reminder of life around) and let them stay in Ravenloft. There were traitors hiding in the secret places of the castle yet to find. The Warlock discovered that Wizard wanted to stay with Rahadin, though she sounded...wrong... she respected her wishes and left to go find her daughter. Her story was played out one on one, cut off from her Task she wasn't truly Vistani anymore, she raised her daughter the werewolf by herself and watched the land fall into despair and darkness as creatures of shadow and evil swarmed across it like maggots on a corpse. She saw the death of the dusk elves' women and girls, the encroaching of foul swamps, failing of harvests, and the start of a diminishment of Barovia's people. She saw a war, led by a saint, on the devil - which ended in even worse failure than it would have because Strahd yet commanded the loyalty of a significant percentage of Barovia's humans (thanks mostly to things Rogue had convinced him of before he died) - he kept the roads safe most of the time, and was a victim of the darkness as much as anyone, so his loyalists say. One day she tried to settle a grudge with Lysaga, a score she wanted to settle on behalf of her daughter (a werewolf largely because of Lysaga, long story). She fought and used a long in the making magical wand of counterspell to negate the witch's magic, but her daughter (a woman now) arrived to help, Lysaga caught her daughter, got her to drop her wand and arcane focus, and disintegrated her. She then killed her daughter.
390 years later, clawing their way out of the dirt, buried (conveniently) very close to each other, Warlock's Daughter, Wizard, Rogue, and Bard slowly emerged, coughing dirt. No sense of time or direction, no idea what is going on, they wearily make their way over to a house with lights on...a 3 story house in great condition, with a little girl and littler boy peaking out from around one corner. "You look like you could use a place to rest" says Rosevalda Durst, "Yeah we got extra rooms come inside!" says Thornholdt, as the weary newly raised, naked as jaybirds, filth covered level 3 party drags themselves into Death House
this session went very late but everyone was so fucking pumped when we finished it, I think it was the most successful session I've ever run by a country mile. All my long prep to get times and locations of NPCs really paid off. The moral of the story: When you split the party, the fucking domains of dread happen, don't split the party
I did something way different with this whole pre-dread campaign, the players started their characters as literal children, and we had brief vignettes of their lives together throughout the years. Their first combat was as level 0 commoners, +1 proficiency bonus in 2 weapons, a single cantrip, or an armor proficiency as their only special traits compared to normal people, those 2 zombies were an honest to goodness boss fight, and they (unexpectedly) challenged and (more unexpectedly) killed a Sea hag before hitting level (basically level 1/2). They hit level 1 around the time they were all 18 and their interactions with strahd started when they hit level 3 and got to do a big boy quest to help the crown in Tuefeldorf around 4 years after that. It was kind of an experiment but it was really successful. There was something pretty great in that first session where they were just a bunch of kids trying to beat each other in a race and the elf cheated by using her innate magic on a warm sun filled day in the idyllic, safe village, contrasted against the horrors to come
I've never run a game where the characters were all literally acquaintances since childhood but I am such a fan of it I'm going to try and heavily suggest it going forward, it gives an inbuilt motivation for everyone to have each other's backs, irrespective of alignment (Neutral Good warlock would go to bat for Neutral Evil rogue because they've ALWAYS had each other's backs, etc)
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
How would one find a notorious information broker, famous in the Underground/world/city but never in one place for long?
How would one find a notorious information broker, famous in the Underground/world/city but never in one place for long?
Gotta know a guy, to know a guy. I can't get you a bunch of illegal stuff cause I like know where the black market is and can bring you on down to shop. It's all because I know the right people to contact, people that I am fairly confident can get me to another link in another supply chain. Honestly it all looks far more innocent and less clandestine than most people picture it. It's mostly just talking to people you already know that you know might be deeper than you or have a better more reliable connect for something in particular.
First thought would be to become a customer. If they're an information broker, they must at least have a method of communication with their clients. Maybe they maintain distance through use of dead drops, magical communication, or intermediaries, but they've gotta get paid somehow. Presumably, that's why they’ve allowed themselves to become famous- better for business.
An information broker might want to be selective with their clients, to avoid pissing off anyone too powerful and outside of their influence. So the price in gold, bartered information, or favors would likely scale depending on what or who the information pertains to, and who the client's known enemies were.
If the intention is to sell information to the broker, they could be even more selective, and would likely require some form of evidence to back it up, and/or a quest to demonstrate trustworthiness.
If the goal is to gain access to the information broker in a way the information broker wouldn't like, that would likely require some sort of deception, trailing chains of contacts, subverting intermediaries, tracing physical objects with scrying, general spy stuff.
If you don't want to write all of it out, but still make it sound like it all makes sense...
FTM: follow the money...who would be a customer, how would they purchase info? Who would deliver the info, how would they get paid? How would the broker protect themselves? Look for inspiration to Aqc Inc book's Documancer or Hoardsperson who could look over banking info and weird contracts with a dice roll. Don't dwell on the details, but give them a way to look at files in a cabinet (distract the guild master with some bullshit while someone sneaks in the filing cabinet, for example) and just roll with it. Higher rolls give a more accurate location or additional details to gain advantage on a skill check.
An information broker's not going to have much of a business without ways to connect to sellers and buyers. The most obvious is he's working with a second party, such as a pre-existing crime family/syndicate/partner/supposedly legitimate place of business.
I would say that all the party has to do would be to put the word out among the seedier members of the location they are in, and then the information broker or one of their agents, will find them.
An information broker's not going to have much of a business without ways to connect to sellers and buyers. The most obvious is he's working with a second party, such as a pre-existing crime family/syndicate/partner/supposedly legitimate place of business.
Having something akin to a private detective organization that's ostensibly on the level, but who have contacts with said information broker is a way I've done this in the past
I would say that all the party has to do would be to put the word out among the seedier members of the location they are in, and then the information broker or one of their agents, will find them.
"It was quite hard to hire Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. You had to know the right people. To be more accurate, you had to know the wrong people, and you got to know them by hanging around a certain kind of bar and surviving, which was kind of a first test. The wrong people, of course, would not know Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. But they would know a man. And that man would, in a general sense, express the guarded opinion that he might know how to get in touch with men of a Pin-like or Tulipolitic disposition. He could not exactly recall much more than that at the moment, due to memory loss brought on by lack of money. Once cured, he might indicate in a general kind of way another address where you would meet, in a dark corner, a man who would tell you emphatically that he had never heard of anyone called Tulip or Pin. He would also ask where you would be at, say, nine o'clock tonight.
And then you would meet Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. They would know you had money, they would know you had something on your mind, and, if you had been really stupid, they now knew your address."
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Thanks, ladies and gents. Lots of things to consider for this (summarizing for the benefit of others):
- How the info broker can be reached (A certain process needs to be followed, known to people "in the know"). A certain level of obfuscation is needed for his safety.
- How the info broker gets his money - largely part of the process above, also can depend on the info needed by the party.
- How the info broker protects himself (as his info may be detrimental to other parties) - protection from a sponsoring organization that he can't divulge info, the process giving him time to check out the customers, actual bodyguards, etc.
These can largely be explained by having the info broker have some form of magic, no? Probably be an Arcane Trickster, or a Rogue / Bard / spellcaster hybrid.
Magic user to protect against scrying, Locate Object and other bullshit. You don't need to have a spellcasting NPC for this, but would set them up as a powerful guy who won't be fucked over by any random adventuring PC with a spellbook.
A Mastermind Rogue sounds about right for this kind of NPC, with the right gear to keep him hidden, protected and anonymous. I think it would also be safe to say that there would be a number of people in power who have a vested interest in keeping this Broker safe.
Look at Jarlaxle in the old (I'm not familiar with the new) Forgotten Realms fiction for inspiration, maybe? None of the great Drow houses of Menzoberranzan mess with Jarlaxle because they all need Jarlaxle, and they know that Jarlaxle could ruin them with his secrets if they tried to fuck with him.
A Mastermind Rogue sounds about right for this kind of NPC, with the right gear to keep him hidden, protected and anonymous. I think it would also be safe to say that there would be a number of people in power who have a vested interest in keeping this Broker safe.
Look at Jarlaxle in the old (I'm not familiar with the new) Forgotten Realms fiction for inspiration, maybe? None of the great Drow houses of Menzoberranzan mess with Jarlaxle because they all need Jarlaxle, and they know that Jarlaxle could ruin them with his secrets if they tried to fuck with him.
Jarlaxle is a shitload of fuck in 5e
(In dragon heist the stone of golorr for us is split in 4 parts) Jarlaxle seduced my character and offered his 1/4 of the stone of golorr in exchange for a deal that he gets half the money in the vault of dragons when we find it. Needing that key, I agreed.
My party was ... okay with this, now we had 2 pieces of... druid had found that her piece was missing.
Jarlaxle stole our key and made a deal to get half the money for the key he stole from us
it's not all bad though, his minions are at our service during crucial moments, we're an investment now
A Mastermind Rogue sounds about right for this kind of NPC, with the right gear to keep him hidden, protected and anonymous. I think it would also be safe to say that there would be a number of people in power who have a vested interest in keeping this Broker safe.
Look at Jarlaxle in the old (I'm not familiar with the new) Forgotten Realms fiction for inspiration, maybe? None of the great Drow houses of Menzoberranzan mess with Jarlaxle because they all need Jarlaxle, and they know that Jarlaxle could ruin them with his secrets if they tried to fuck with him.
Jarlaxle is a shitload of fuck in 5e
(In dragon heist the stone of golorr for us is split in 4 parts) Jarlaxle seduced my character and offered his 1/4 of the stone of golorr in exchange for a deal that he gets half the money in the vault of dragons when we find it. Needing that key, I agreed.
My party was ... okay with this, now we had 2 pieces of... druid had found that her piece was missing.
Jarlaxle stole our key and made a deal to get half the money for the key he stole from us
it's not all bad though, his minions are at our service during crucial moments, we're an investment now
Yeah, if I were your party I'd be in a murdering mood. Good job.
In my defense, I'm playing a high charisma fey, and Jarlaxle poked all the arrogance buttons, and the DM knocked the deception roll out of the park
I feel like if the other players had actually been mad at me for acting in character and furthering the story, they wouldn't be the kind of people I'd want to play with
their characters on the other hand were really upset, so much so that they confronted jarlaxle about it
After having their asses absolutely kicked they woke up completely naked in a gutter, to a bucket of filth being thrown on them from a window above them. A street urchin walked up and delivered a note in immaculate handwriting politely offering to return their equipment if they were in a better mood, signed "your new boss"
I didn't want any part of that because my character had seen his submarine and all his secret drow, I snuck around with a mislead after waking up in his bedroom on his ship. Problem is, when you play a deceptive fey, other characters who aren't being metagamed don't believe you when you tell them about the submarine full of dark elves and gnomes. They didn't even believe me that HE was a drow. Granted, I did embellish the number of drow substantially, as well as the size of the submarine, but when I got to the part about seeing a dragon swimming around outside the underwater ship's window they had enough of my story (that happened! while they were getting their asses kick I swam down there and talked to the dragon, he was being rude so I turned him into a turtle with polymorph)
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Under the assumption that my players will probably want to renovate and re-open Trollskull Manor for business, I've decided that the trade guilds are going to insist they only hire union members to staff the place, and actually roleplay out the job interviews with them. There will, of course, be a random chance that one of the applicants hired could be a spy for Xanathar or any of a number of other factions.
I'm currently preparing a set of NPCs for them to interview. For instance, the applicants for chef:
In my defense, I'm playing a high charisma fey, and Jarlaxle poked all the arrogance buttons, and the DM knocked the deception roll out of the park
I feel like if the other players had actually been mad at me for acting in character and furthering the story, they wouldn't be the kind of people I'd want to play with
their characters on the other hand were really upset, so much so that they confronted jarlaxle about it
After having their asses absolutely kicked they woke up completely naked in a gutter, to a bucket of filth being thrown on them from a window above them. A street urchin walked up and delivered a note in immaculate handwriting politely offering to return their equipment if they were in a better mood, signed "your new boss"
I didn't want any part of that because my character had seen his submarine and all his secret drow, I snuck around with a mislead after waking up in his bedroom on his ship. Problem is, when you play a deceptive fey, other characters who aren't being metagamed don't believe you when you tell them about the submarine full of dark elves and gnomes. They didn't even believe me that HE was a drow. Granted, I did embellish the number of drow substantially, as well as the size of the submarine, but when I got to the part about seeing a dragon swimming around outside the underwater ship's window they had enough of my story (that happened! while they were getting their asses kick I swam down there and talked to the dragon, he was being rude so I turned him into a turtle with polymorph)
Yeah, sorry, I misread your post and thought you were DMing and playing as Jarlaxle. I was complimenting you on such a fantastic job creating instant enmity between your NPC and your players.
I opened a Drow Speakeasy in the tunnels under it.
We currently employ:
Spoilers? Better safe than sorry.
The ghost that was haunting it as a bartender.
Yagra as a bouncer.
Random lady who worked for the competitor guy that tried to sabotage our awesome booming business.
And finally Glom, or Goblin Gadot as we call her. A goblin from Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We gave her a Circlet of Human Perfection. So now she's a beauty who hangs out at our bar eating our food and attracting customers.
Trollskull Manor is possibly getting renamed after my character found an old moose head inside and threw it out the window...onto one of the spikes in the fence outside.
Our bard stole the submarine via...excessive use of alchemists fire and the fact that she doesn't actually need to breathe. The dragon has a new toy!
The Waterdeep have i was in with a 4th level wizard (we had dinner 0 undermountain stuff except for a brief trip into Xantar's to do stuff with his goldfish) is on indefinite hold since the DM has moved states and disappeared from email contact (after promising to resume it at some point, pinky swear).
I'm glad he's still kicking around. Does he still roll with that annoying dwarf with the paired spinning flails?
That's about where I bowed of the Salvatore books. Cattie-Brie died, Wulfgar died. Bruenor went out like a boss and Drizzt was left all alone and mopey for a hundred years.
I'm glad he's still kicking around. Does he still roll with that annoying dwarf with the paired spinning flails?
That's about where I bowed of the Salvatore books. Cattie-Brie died, Wulfgar died. Bruenor went out like a boss and Drizzt was left all alone and mopey for a hundred years.
I just finished the book today where Bruenor died and that was a fucking hell of a final fight and a goddamn earned character death
But yes Jarlaxle is currently up to political shenigans:
He's posing as a human merchant from Luskan
Yes for real, that's his alter ego
He runs a traveling carnival called the sea maiden's fair as cover
(by the way I fucking love the art in Dragon Heist)
Jarlaxle's drow own a submarine!
He's working Laerael Silverhand to get Neverwinter out of the Lord's Alliance and seeks the pile of gold in the vault of dragons to grease many palms towards that end
Is that first picture from Dragon Heist? I mean minus the hat that costume is 100% Sean Connery from Zardoz.
Yes it was
Unused art that didn't make it
Jarlaxle has apparently seen the movie Zardoz because Sean Connery from Zardoz is the basis for the appearance of his persona - Zardoz Zord
The best part of Jarlaxle's performance is that even though the sea maiden's fair is just a cover, it's the best fucking traveling carnival in Faerun, because Jarlaxle never half-asses anything
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Jarlaxle is maybe the element of the whole intrigue I'm most looking forward to wielding as a DM, and most afraid that I'll fuck him up and the whole thing will fall flat.
I'm using the Alexandrian Remix that somebody posted here a few pages back, so the intrigue surrounding the vault is...considerably more complex than the published adventure. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to loop in the Unseen faction from Unseen Waterdeep, but all signs point to "probably".
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Speaking of Dragon Heist factions, I think I'm going to try and run with themes for the various factions to help me think of/remember character voices.
Xanathar Guild - Letterkenny characters. Wayne as Xanathar, lieutenants are Squirrely Dan, Glenn the preacher, and the hockey players.
Zhentarim - Big Lebowski characters (the nihilists for rank and file thugs, main characters for lieutenants)
Jarlaxle's crew - Pirates of the Caribbean. Jarlaxle is Jack when he's Zord, Norrington when he's Jarlaxle.
Gralhunds - Russians, similar to the voice Justin is using for his Firbolg character on The Adventure Zone. I might even rewrite them to be Firbolgs or something similar, as you can only meet so many human nobles before they run together.
Cassalanters - I'm going to do my best to play these as just very normal, relatable people, to hopefully smuggle the twist past my players for a while.
Jarlaxle is maybe the element of the whole intrigue I'm most looking forward to wielding as a DM, and most afraid that I'll fuck him up and the whole thing will fall flat.
I'm using the Alexandrian Remix that somebody posted here a few pages back, so the intrigue surrounding the vault is...considerably more complex than the published adventure. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to loop in the Unseen faction from Unseen Waterdeep, but all signs point to "probably".
That was me that posted the remix! Glad you are enjoying it. My party just got to the part of chapter two where you do faction quests. They haven't quite decided what to do with trollskull Manor yet either. I may need to come up with some bigger incentive then a place to live.
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Jarlaxle is maybe the element of the whole intrigue I'm most looking forward to wielding as a DM, and most afraid that I'll fuck him up and the whole thing will fall flat.
I'm using the Alexandrian Remix that somebody posted here a few pages back, so the intrigue surrounding the vault is...considerably more complex than the published adventure. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to loop in the Unseen faction from Unseen Waterdeep, but all signs point to "probably".
That was me that posted the remix! Glad you are enjoying it. My party just got to the part of chapter two where you do faction quests. They haven't quite decided what to do with trollskull Manor yet either. I may need to come up with some bigger incentive then a place to live.
I'm not entirely sure how I want to handle the faction quest stuff. I think Session 2 this weekend will get them from meeting Volo all the way to signing the deed for Trollskull Manor. I'm envisioning the Session 3 being entirely dedicated to non-combat encounters and decisions -- renovating and staffing the mansion, dealing with securing a loan to finance said renovations, meeting the neighbors, etc. The encounter for pacifying the poltergeist doesn't interest me, I'm going to have him be a very half-hearted haunting who really is just glad to have people around again. He's going to scrawl, "GET OUT" on the wall, then after a short pause he'll add, "????" to the end, or maybe "DON'T" to the beginning.
The adventure-as-published suggests that the cost of staffing the manor is 50 gp per week, and 10 gp per week for other guild expenses. I think I'll give them the opportunity to adjust the staffing costs up or down depending on which applicant they hire for each position. Guy Fieri is more expensive than the creepy butcher goblin (his name is Goop, he speaks in third-person and rarely blinks) for example. Probably 3 applicants per position, ranging from "Cheap -> Average -> Expensive", with the sum of the average applicants adding up to 50 gp. That incentivizes them to consider hiring some of the more...colorful options, instead of just hiring Guy McHuman for everything. That also tells me what kind of joint they're wanting to run. If they lean into hiring the shady NPCs, then their clientele will probably be shady as well. If they hire fancy lads for everything, then Trollskull Manor may become a bit more of an upscale diner. Either way, it lets the players decide what sort of background characters they're interested in interacting with, which makes my job easier.
That should also allow us some time to spend on leveling up, since level 3 is a big decision point for most classes and people may want to discuss their options.
For faction quests, I'm tempted to contact each player individually via e-mail after session 3 and say, "On (insert date), your character is approached privately by a representative of (insert faction) with a proposition." and then handling each faction quest as a very simplified choose-your-own-adventure, with a single ability/skill check at the end to determine how well it goes. That way, I can avoid bogging down the actual session with single-player quests, as well as allow the players to keep their faction affiliations secret from the rest of the party if they want.
Then, Session 4 starts with the fireball outside the manor, and the shit truly hits the fan.
Each of my players characters were approached in there rooms in the yawning portal in the middle of the night, but all my players were present. We ended the session as they woke up. Of my 5 players only one didn't receive an invitation, but only the zhentarim and Harpers are secretive. I think my players may split into 3 groups. The Zhentarim and Harper player will each go see their contact alone, while the other 3 will probably travel together. My first time splitting the party.
Chris Perkins' xanathar was aware he was a character in a game, the main character in said game, and he had not entirely up to date DM notes as well as the character sheets of every PC. In-game this was just another aspect of his insanity, but it was delightful
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Yeah, look up videos on how to skin rabbits or somesuch. This shouldn't be as simple as "I loot the hides", it should at least inconvenience the party.
This is a good point. He caught me off-guard with it the first time, so I allowed it, but I guess I'm not bound to stick with that ruling. Imposing a timeframe on it (especially once we start marking time seriously during Dragon Heist) could really drive home the point that there are more profitable ways to spend that time.
I can probably do this. The players might want day jobs between adventure hooks, just to pay bills and such.
SPOILERED FOR LONG
more arrows hit Strahd, clutching a piece of fabric torn from her dress in his hands. He screamed her named, ignoring the missiles. The traitor Leo Delinsya, would-be lord of Barovia, presented himself and challenged the rogue to a fair duel. Rogue growled acceptance and charged him, through him, through an illusion. "I've poisoned half the nobles in Barovia and am murdering my liege lord and you think I'd really be so honorable as to grant a trained killer a fair fight? hah!" and had his archers loose onto the rogue. Rogue awakens, barely alive in the dining hall, strahd lying next to him with a thousand yard stare, with a dozen arrows in him. There are a dozen surviving hostages in here (including most of Leo's family, not that he deliberately spared any of them) and the party's bard and warlock. Strahd looks up at him and says "you're going to die here, my friend, I cannot stop that. I can avenge you, and her... I just need... your blood". I look at Rogue player. He just nods, and Strahd drinks deep as everything goes black
Bard: This one is kind of funny, at breakfast she said "so I got drunk last night and had a threesome with 2 nobles, you said I threw up a bunch right?" me: "Yeah". "whats for breakfast?". I describe the grand spread, and the (brand) new cook's speciality: a fried cake with a blueberry sauce, renowned all the way to the coast. She's like "its like blueberry pancakes?" I nod. "I want to eat as many of them as I can." REVERSE TIME OUTSIDE OF THE PLAYER'S PERCEPTIONS. Sunrise, Castle Ravenloft: The cook, a traitor working for Leo Delinsya, mixes the slow acting but quite deadly poison in with the expensive blueberry syrup that he has created. Enough syrup for 2 pancakes per guest, but only half a portion should incapacitate an adult. The bard rolled and *stole other people's breakfasts*. She ate 10 of them. She stole them from the clique of noble girls who tried to extort her (ages 7-11) the previous day, so they didn't get any before it had all been used up. I told her she had a really bad stomach ache at around noon and asked for 10 constitution saving throws. I described her make it to her bed for a quick nap, a pain like nothing she'd ever felt in her stomach, everything going blurry, and that she knew no more (she literally didn't make it past breakfast, but she saved the lives of multiple children out of sheer pettiness, what a hero)
Wizard: Reading Rahadin's diary and finding out that her mentor since she was 8, Petrina Velikovna the archmage, actually murdered not only her parents but Strahd's parents sent her head spinning. Finding out that Rahadin was in love with her and probably her real father sent her vomiting. She didn't want breakfast, good for her. She dug out her sending stone and called up Petrina and demanded an explanation. Bad for her. Petrina showed up and met her at around noon, dragging her away from Bard (who was getting sick, probably from being an alcoholic glutton) and Warlock (who wanted to go search for secret chambers). She met in Strahd's private study, which she had a key too, as it was safe from scrying and soundproof. After Wizard yelling at her mentor and surrogate mother for the atrocities she'd committed, she shot back a dismissive "you're too young to see the big picture my dear. You sound like Rahadin, speaking of I asked him to join us." Rahadin showed himself. After a good deal more argument and a not so subtle threat from Wizard, Petrina looked at Rahadin and said "I think my brat of a student needs some time to think about who knows best for our people. You want her body, you can have her body." Wizard: "What do you mean", Rahadin giddily claps and cheers in my most creepy rahadin voice. Petrina : "You won't be needing it, he knows what he needs to to raise it, so he's going to borrow it for a while, I owe him a debt. Your soul on the other hand, is coming with me." Petrina pulled Wizard's soul into a rune-etched crystal, and she watched her body collapse - as if she was watching the world from the world's tiniest movie theatre - and Rahadin proceeded to do a strange ritual to make the body rise and follow him. Her body even could apparently talk and answer questions with a simple intelligence. He dragged her to the priest, Lady Iloyna in the company of Petrina, and she saw Rahadin marry her soulless body in a quick private ceremony. She pounded on her cage and Petrina took it back to her tower. Days turned into months, months to years, until finally Petrina (who had periodically talked to the gem in one way conversations) told her her day had arrived and she'd be free. But on that day, instead, Petrina was lured into an anti magic field by her brother, who held her there as she was stoned to death by her own people. The last thing the wizard saw was someone pulling the gem off Petrina's body and smashing it with a rock. (I cleared the squicky parts of this story well ahead of time with the player, they were actually horri-delighted about the entire thing, I was nervous about this one but they were on the edge of their seat)
Warlock: Was with Bard until she left to go die. She went and played cards with the older children and got her clock cleaned. She noticed some weird behavior and went exploring, finding a traitorous wizard and a lost little girl on her adventure. She rescued the girl and killed the wizard, who was raising zombies out of... men? Athletic looking men and women, not clothed but she definitely recognized them as Strahd's soldiers, where are their uniforms? Oh fuck. She got the girl somewhere safe and passed her con saves, though poison conditioned. She had taken to rescuing children, realizing that a bloody coupe was under way, hiding them in her suite - finding the bard's dead body in the bedroom. Fuck! Leo, the traitor, cornered her there, and announced that as a Vistana seer, he'd be delighted to have her as an advisor after this bloody business ends. The castle was all but his by now, and though he had to go deal with Strahd, it'd be over soon. He bade her to go to the dining hall and gestured to the 4 men he had with him. She spat on him, and a crossbow bolt twanged, killing a 7 year old girl dead. "You can come with these 4, 5 if you wanna drag the body, or you can come alone and very bruised. I won't kill a Vistani seer, I don't want to make enemies of your people, but I don't care if any of these survive." Warlock, pointing to one of the crying kids: "Thats your cousin!" Him: "By marriage. Are you coming?" She gritted her teeth and went. Going back to ...
Strahd drank deep from Rogue and stood, Leo was too busy giving his monologue to notice. Strahd reached over and grabbed the neck of the closest soldier and crushed his neck like a piece of stale bread and pulled him to himself to drink with such force that the man's sword flew over and skidded in front of Lord Wachter, who wasted no time in running through the closest guard. The head priestess stood in abject disbelieving horror at what was happening to Strahd and huddled in the corner with Warlock to protect the children. Leo, smelling the sinking ship, said a word of power and stepped through a dimensional door, abandoning his men. Sounds of battle, that were distracting the traitors earlier (handn't they killed all the guards?), silent for minutes now, were suddenly explained by Rahadin bursting in through the door. He made 4 deadly swings with his magical scimitar into one man before he could finish turning around, a macabre pile of meat sloughing to the ground now instead of a man. Behind him, a grand sight, Wizard! Alive and well.... but her eyes dead and lifeless, as she fired firebolt after firebolt into the traitor's men.
After the battle was over and the dead counted, Strahd bade them all to leave his service, granting Lord Wachter dominion of Vallaki and placing responsibility of collecting taxes in his charge. Despite him now being a monster, none of his lords wanted to leave him, and his surviving (because of the party) guards that were still alive in parts of the castle flatly refused, demanding he execute them for treason or keep them in his service. He relented (the party is responsible for this, so now in the future, Ravenloft will also have human guards, Strahd having found a taste for having a reminder of life around) and let them stay in Ravenloft. There were traitors hiding in the secret places of the castle yet to find. The Warlock discovered that Wizard wanted to stay with Rahadin, though she sounded...wrong... she respected her wishes and left to go find her daughter. Her story was played out one on one, cut off from her Task she wasn't truly Vistani anymore, she raised her daughter the werewolf by herself and watched the land fall into despair and darkness as creatures of shadow and evil swarmed across it like maggots on a corpse. She saw the death of the dusk elves' women and girls, the encroaching of foul swamps, failing of harvests, and the start of a diminishment of Barovia's people. She saw a war, led by a saint, on the devil - which ended in even worse failure than it would have because Strahd yet commanded the loyalty of a significant percentage of Barovia's humans (thanks mostly to things Rogue had convinced him of before he died) - he kept the roads safe most of the time, and was a victim of the darkness as much as anyone, so his loyalists say. One day she tried to settle a grudge with Lysaga, a score she wanted to settle on behalf of her daughter (a werewolf largely because of Lysaga, long story). She fought and used a long in the making magical wand of counterspell to negate the witch's magic, but her daughter (a woman now) arrived to help, Lysaga caught her daughter, got her to drop her wand and arcane focus, and disintegrated her. She then killed her daughter.
390 years later, clawing their way out of the dirt, buried (conveniently) very close to each other, Warlock's Daughter, Wizard, Rogue, and Bard slowly emerged, coughing dirt. No sense of time or direction, no idea what is going on, they wearily make their way over to a house with lights on...a 3 story house in great condition, with a little girl and littler boy peaking out from around one corner. "You look like you could use a place to rest" says Rosevalda Durst, "Yeah we got extra rooms come inside!" says Thornholdt, as the weary newly raised, naked as jaybirds, filth covered level 3 party drags themselves into Death House
this session went very late but everyone was so fucking pumped when we finished it, I think it was the most successful session I've ever run by a country mile. All my long prep to get times and locations of NPCs really paid off. The moral of the story: When you split the party, the fucking domains of dread happen, don't split the party
I did something way different with this whole pre-dread campaign, the players started their characters as literal children, and we had brief vignettes of their lives together throughout the years. Their first combat was as level 0 commoners, +1 proficiency bonus in 2 weapons, a single cantrip, or an armor proficiency as their only special traits compared to normal people, those 2 zombies were an honest to goodness boss fight, and they (unexpectedly) challenged and (more unexpectedly) killed a Sea hag before hitting level (basically level 1/2). They hit level 1 around the time they were all 18 and their interactions with strahd started when they hit level 3 and got to do a big boy quest to help the crown in Tuefeldorf around 4 years after that. It was kind of an experiment but it was really successful. There was something pretty great in that first session where they were just a bunch of kids trying to beat each other in a race and the elf cheated by using her innate magic on a warm sun filled day in the idyllic, safe village, contrasted against the horrors to come
I've never run a game where the characters were all literally acquaintances since childhood but I am such a fan of it I'm going to try and heavily suggest it going forward, it gives an inbuilt motivation for everyone to have each other's backs, irrespective of alignment (Neutral Good warlock would go to bat for Neutral Evil rogue because they've ALWAYS had each other's backs, etc)
Pose as a potential information source looking to sell out?
Gotta know a guy, to know a guy. I can't get you a bunch of illegal stuff cause I like know where the black market is and can bring you on down to shop. It's all because I know the right people to contact, people that I am fairly confident can get me to another link in another supply chain. Honestly it all looks far more innocent and less clandestine than most people picture it. It's mostly just talking to people you already know that you know might be deeper than you or have a better more reliable connect for something in particular.
An information broker might want to be selective with their clients, to avoid pissing off anyone too powerful and outside of their influence. So the price in gold, bartered information, or favors would likely scale depending on what or who the information pertains to, and who the client's known enemies were.
If the intention is to sell information to the broker, they could be even more selective, and would likely require some form of evidence to back it up, and/or a quest to demonstrate trustworthiness.
If the goal is to gain access to the information broker in a way the information broker wouldn't like, that would likely require some sort of deception, trailing chains of contacts, subverting intermediaries, tracing physical objects with scrying, general spy stuff.
FTM: follow the money...who would be a customer, how would they purchase info? Who would deliver the info, how would they get paid? How would the broker protect themselves? Look for inspiration to Aqc Inc book's Documancer or Hoardsperson who could look over banking info and weird contracts with a dice roll. Don't dwell on the details, but give them a way to look at files in a cabinet (distract the guild master with some bullshit while someone sneaks in the filing cabinet, for example) and just roll with it. Higher rolls give a more accurate location or additional details to gain advantage on a skill check.
Having something akin to a private detective organization that's ostensibly on the level, but who have contacts with said information broker is a way I've done this in the past
"It was quite hard to hire Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. You had to know the right people. To be more accurate, you had to know the wrong people, and you got to know them by hanging around a certain kind of bar and surviving, which was kind of a first test. The wrong people, of course, would not know Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. But they would know a man. And that man would, in a general sense, express the guarded opinion that he might know how to get in touch with men of a Pin-like or Tulipolitic disposition. He could not exactly recall much more than that at the moment, due to memory loss brought on by lack of money. Once cured, he might indicate in a general kind of way another address where you would meet, in a dark corner, a man who would tell you emphatically that he had never heard of anyone called Tulip or Pin. He would also ask where you would be at, say, nine o'clock tonight.
And then you would meet Mr Tulip and Mr Pin. They would know you had money, they would know you had something on your mind, and, if you had been really stupid, they now knew your address."
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
- How the info broker can be reached (A certain process needs to be followed, known to people "in the know"). A certain level of obfuscation is needed for his safety.
- How the info broker gets his money - largely part of the process above, also can depend on the info needed by the party.
- How the info broker protects himself (as his info may be detrimental to other parties) - protection from a sponsoring organization that he can't divulge info, the process giving him time to check out the customers, actual bodyguards, etc.
These can largely be explained by having the info broker have some form of magic, no? Probably be an Arcane Trickster, or a Rogue / Bard / spellcaster hybrid.
Look at Jarlaxle in the old (I'm not familiar with the new) Forgotten Realms fiction for inspiration, maybe? None of the great Drow houses of Menzoberranzan mess with Jarlaxle because they all need Jarlaxle, and they know that Jarlaxle could ruin them with his secrets if they tried to fuck with him.
Jarlaxle is a shitload of fuck in 5e
(In dragon heist the stone of golorr for us is split in 4 parts) Jarlaxle seduced my character and offered his 1/4 of the stone of golorr in exchange for a deal that he gets half the money in the vault of dragons when we find it. Needing that key, I agreed.
My party was ... okay with this, now we had 2 pieces of... druid had found that her piece was missing.
Jarlaxle stole our key and made a deal to get half the money for the key he stole from us
it's not all bad though, his minions are at our service during crucial moments, we're an investment now
Yeah, if I were your party I'd be in a murdering mood. Good job.
I feel like if the other players had actually been mad at me for acting in character and furthering the story, they wouldn't be the kind of people I'd want to play with
their characters on the other hand were really upset, so much so that they confronted jarlaxle about it
After having their asses absolutely kicked they woke up completely naked in a gutter, to a bucket of filth being thrown on them from a window above them. A street urchin walked up and delivered a note in immaculate handwriting politely offering to return their equipment if they were in a better mood, signed "your new boss"
I didn't want any part of that because my character had seen his submarine and all his secret drow, I snuck around with a mislead after waking up in his bedroom on his ship. Problem is, when you play a deceptive fey, other characters who aren't being metagamed don't believe you when you tell them about the submarine full of dark elves and gnomes. They didn't even believe me that HE was a drow. Granted, I did embellish the number of drow substantially, as well as the size of the submarine, but when I got to the part about seeing a dragon swimming around outside the underwater ship's window they had enough of my story (that happened! while they were getting their asses kick I swam down there and talked to the dragon, he was being rude so I turned him into a turtle with polymorph)
I'm currently preparing a set of NPCs for them to interview. For instance, the applicants for chef:
Yeah, sorry, I misread your post and thought you were DMing and playing as Jarlaxle. I was complimenting you on such a fantastic job creating instant enmity between your NPC and your players.
So... I meant good job to your DM, I guess.
I opened a Drow Speakeasy in the tunnels under it.
We currently employ:
Spoilers? Better safe than sorry.
Yagra as a bouncer.
Random lady who worked for the competitor guy that tried to sabotage our awesome booming business.
And finally Glom, or Goblin Gadot as we call her. A goblin from Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We gave her a Circlet of Human Perfection. So now she's a beauty who hangs out at our bar eating our food and attracting customers.
Our bard stole the submarine via...excessive use of alchemists fire and the fact that she doesn't actually need to breathe. The dragon has a new toy!
Pretty annoyed, i really liked that character.
I feel like the statblock, though already bloated, should have a D100 random wand table because he seems to actually have infinite of them
That's about where I bowed of the Salvatore books. Cattie-Brie died, Wulfgar died. Bruenor went out like a boss and Drizzt was left all alone and mopey for a hundred years.
I just finished the book today where Bruenor died and that was a fucking hell of a final fight and a goddamn earned character death
But yes Jarlaxle is currently up to political shenigans:
Yes for real, that's his alter ego
He runs a traveling carnival called the sea maiden's fair as cover
(by the way I fucking love the art in Dragon Heist)
Jarlaxle's drow own a submarine!
He's working Laerael Silverhand to get Neverwinter out of the Lord's Alliance and seeks the pile of gold in the vault of dragons to grease many palms towards that end
Comics, Games, Booze
Yes it was
Jarlaxle has apparently seen the movie Zardoz because Sean Connery from Zardoz is the basis for the appearance of his persona - Zardoz Zord
The best part of Jarlaxle's performance is that even though the sea maiden's fair is just a cover, it's the best fucking traveling carnival in Faerun, because Jarlaxle never half-asses anything
I'm using the Alexandrian Remix that somebody posted here a few pages back, so the intrigue surrounding the vault is...considerably more complex than the published adventure. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to loop in the Unseen faction from Unseen Waterdeep, but all signs point to "probably".
Xanathar Guild - Letterkenny characters. Wayne as Xanathar, lieutenants are Squirrely Dan, Glenn the preacher, and the hockey players.
Zhentarim - Big Lebowski characters (the nihilists for rank and file thugs, main characters for lieutenants)
Jarlaxle's crew - Pirates of the Caribbean. Jarlaxle is Jack when he's Zord, Norrington when he's Jarlaxle.
Gralhunds - Russians, similar to the voice Justin is using for his Firbolg character on The Adventure Zone. I might even rewrite them to be Firbolgs or something similar, as you can only meet so many human nobles before they run together.
Cassalanters - I'm going to do my best to play these as just very normal, relatable people, to hopefully smuggle the twist past my players for a while.
That was me that posted the remix! Glad you are enjoying it. My party just got to the part of chapter two where you do faction quests. They haven't quite decided what to do with trollskull Manor yet either. I may need to come up with some bigger incentive then a place to live.
PSN:Furlion
I'm not entirely sure how I want to handle the faction quest stuff. I think Session 2 this weekend will get them from meeting Volo all the way to signing the deed for Trollskull Manor. I'm envisioning the Session 3 being entirely dedicated to non-combat encounters and decisions -- renovating and staffing the mansion, dealing with securing a loan to finance said renovations, meeting the neighbors, etc. The encounter for pacifying the poltergeist doesn't interest me, I'm going to have him be a very half-hearted haunting who really is just glad to have people around again. He's going to scrawl, "GET OUT" on the wall, then after a short pause he'll add, "????" to the end, or maybe "DON'T" to the beginning.
The adventure-as-published suggests that the cost of staffing the manor is 50 gp per week, and 10 gp per week for other guild expenses. I think I'll give them the opportunity to adjust the staffing costs up or down depending on which applicant they hire for each position. Guy Fieri is more expensive than the creepy butcher goblin (his name is Goop, he speaks in third-person and rarely blinks) for example. Probably 3 applicants per position, ranging from "Cheap -> Average -> Expensive", with the sum of the average applicants adding up to 50 gp. That incentivizes them to consider hiring some of the more...colorful options, instead of just hiring Guy McHuman for everything. That also tells me what kind of joint they're wanting to run. If they lean into hiring the shady NPCs, then their clientele will probably be shady as well. If they hire fancy lads for everything, then Trollskull Manor may become a bit more of an upscale diner. Either way, it lets the players decide what sort of background characters they're interested in interacting with, which makes my job easier.
That should also allow us some time to spend on leveling up, since level 3 is a big decision point for most classes and people may want to discuss their options.
For faction quests, I'm tempted to contact each player individually via e-mail after session 3 and say, "On (insert date), your character is approached privately by a representative of (insert faction) with a proposition." and then handling each faction quest as a very simplified choose-your-own-adventure, with a single ability/skill check at the end to determine how well it goes. That way, I can avoid bogging down the actual session with single-player quests, as well as allow the players to keep their faction affiliations secret from the rest of the party if they want.
Then, Session 4 starts with the fireball outside the manor, and the shit truly hits the fan.
PSN:Furlion