Notes for a New Campaign City, Parsantium

[RichGreen]

The Platinum Knights of Bahamut is a fighting order of knights and paladins acting as the "sword and shield" of the Church of Bahamut, sworn to protect his clerics and followers from harm. Throughout the Sunset Lands, the Knights build chapter houses in cities and towns; from these bases, they defend the local inhabitants from orcs, goblins and other warlike humanoids. Many of its members are dragonborn; nearly all are paladins.

A hundred years ago, the organization helped Corandias XVI the Stubborn recapture Parsantium from a hobgoblin "king" in the Great Crusade. Since that time, the Platinum Knights have maintained a chapter house in the Grand Ward in the city's Imperial Quarter and can be counted on to support the Basileus in the event of war.

The order's headquarters is in a floating fortress which hovers several thousand feet above the island of Cervenna in the Corsair's Sea to the south west of Parsantium. The island was given to the Knights by the Batiaran Emperor Josephus 300 years ago for saving Rhodias (the Empire's capital) from a savage orcish attack. No one knows if the fortress is fixed in place; the rumour is that the castle can fly into battle, as Ustraternes, the dragonborn City of Flying Stone once did in ages past, dropping its elite warriors into the action from above.

Grand Master Baragarr, the dragonborn head of the Platinum Knights, has a female adult silver dragon named Kastrandethilian ("Shimmerscales") as his companion and mount. Much of his energy and the Knights' resources are spent on making the Corsairs' Sea safe for merchant traffic by dealing with piracy. Surprisingly, another knightly order are the prime culprits. The Crusading Brothers of the Sword, a fighting order dedicated to Terak which has fallen on hard times in recent years, has taken to attacking Akhrani shipping and sometimes even merchants from Loranto heading from Batiara to Parsantium. The Platinum Knights of Bahamut thus find themselves fighting their erstwhile allies to keep the sea free from pirates.

Any comments or suggestions?

[RichGreen]

Here's what happened in the second session on Monday:

6th Maius (contd)

Ella, El’em and Gong are joined by Krivinn (dragonborn paladin of Bahamut). The four agree to help Riyad with his rat problem for 100gp. The buck-toothed landlord shows the PCs into the private room off the bar where he stores his barrels of Marlin Brew. There is a bad smell in here, coming from one corner. Krivinn smashes open the barrel of beer standing here, flooding the room and washing away a few rats but there are no dead bodies inside. However, Gong is able to determine there’s a trap door beneath the remains of the barrel.

Ella climbs down the rickety spiral staircase leading into the room below; when she spots two rat swarms and a pair of dire rats, she climbs back up sharpish. Krivinn, though, is much braver and rushes downstairs where he is overwhelmed by the rat swarms and ends up unconscious. The others try and help, killing the two dire rats but El’em manages to fall off the staircase into the swarms in the process. Eventually area-effect powers win the day and all the rats are killed. Both Gong and Krivinn were bitten by dire rats; the cleric contracts filth fever. Worn out by the combat, the PCs withdraw to their houseboats to rest after searching the room, finding some rusty knives and cleavers and a silver ring set with a red garnet worth 180 gp


7th Maius

The PCs return to the Black Dolphin’s Wake and head back down the stairs. In the next room, the PCs encounter four large rats with evil-looking human faces. One of these is a spellcaster who fills the room with a vexing cloud which helps conceal the rats from the party. The PCs still manage to kill them all, despite triggering a spear trap and being hit by stinging hexes by the rat-sorcerer. Krivinn puts on the +1 cloak of resistance as the PCs head through a couple of doors into the sewers beyond. There, a big battle ensues with wererats, more rat-things and a large visejaw crocodile which manages to grab Krivinn. After a long, tough fight, the PCs are victorious.

[RichGreen]

I love putting this kind of location in my games! The stuffed beholder is stolen shamelessly from the Old Xoblob Shop from the FR sourcebook Volo's Guide to Waterdeep.

The Curio Cabinet

The Curio Cabinet is tucked away down a backstreet a few blocks from the Colossus called Tinker’s Alley, and is an unassuming stone and timber building with a faded sign, hanging half off its hinges. The glass windows are thick with grime and hard to see through. Inside, the shop is one room with exposed ceiling beams supported by a number of pillars. Crammed into this space is a vast, untidy and dust-covered assortment of items from plundered tombs, dungeons and ruins across the world, brought here by adventurers. Dominating the space is a huge, eyeless stuffed beholder which hangs from the ceiling. The other contents are less dramatic but still exotic – erotic drow scupltures, old treasure maps, statuettes of many-headed and –limbed Sahasran gods, canopic jars from Khemit, bronze prayer wheels from a monastery high in the Pillars of Heaven Mountains, lizardfolk tribal boundary marking poles, and so on.

Irene comes across as a sweet, friendly old lady who always offers her visitors a cup of tea, keen to see what they have for sale. However, rudeness or, even worse, mean-spririted remarks will cause her to give the offending PC a sharp slap on the wrist!

Occasionally, PCs will be able to buy magic items here of their level or lower but Irene does not typically deal in weapons or armour. There is a 20% chance Irene might have a specific in stock that a PC is looking for.

Of course, there is more to Irene than meets the eye. The elderly Batiaran woman is actually Naelere, an Elder Bronze Dragon who acts as an unofficial guardian of the city against its enemies both internal and external, rarely intervening directly. As the owner of The Curio Cabinet she comes into frequent contact with adventurers wanting to sell loot whom she is then often able to steer towards somewhere she wants them to go, for example, by offering them an old treasure map for sale at a bargain price.

Any comments?

Cheers


Richard

[Jack7]

Rich, this is a very long thread that so far I have only had time to briefly skim. I read the first page completely and some of the other entries, including the last page.

In my campaign world my players operate out of the City of Constantinople, circa 800 AD.
Your city description, based upon what I have read thus far, greatly resembles Constantinople (down to the wards, or districts, or quarters, which in Constantinople were called Demes, from the same root as demos, or people, as in democracy) in the way it is arranged, basic geographic positioning, naming contrivances, etc.

I mention this since yours is an entirely invented city (we use the real one of that era) and could incorporate, assuming you have not already done so, elements from Constantinople (and there are many fascinating and even secret and not generally well known ones, such as the Cistern system) of any era, creating a sort of super, or idealized, Constantinople. Indeed you could incorporate elements from practically any city in history, of any era, to color your urban domains and it seems your last page description does just that by reminding me of private collector shops in London during the Victorian age.

Anyways I thought you had a good idea for a campaign setting, and especially for an "adventuring base of operations." A good, interesting, consistent, and fascinating base of operations makes the entire difference between an ordinary set of Campaigns, and an ordinary milieu, and a truly terrific and fascinating milieu and campaign background. Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire of that era has been a superb base of operations for my players, indeed it has been the most successful and interesting setting I have ever DMed and I've been playing for over 30 years now. Where the characters live and how they operate (sanctioned by both the Emperor and the Orthodox church) adds elements of realism and interest that could not be achieved by looser, less directly emphatic home associations. In other words the land and city and peoples of the game are in many respects just as engaging as real world peoples (indeed one reason I started using Constantinople was precisely because I wanted to inject elements of historical virtual reality into the game, so that the religious, political, social, cultural, and military backgrounds of the game became as important to the players as the adventures and missions themselves) and are as important to explore in that respect as any mission the players are sent on, or any ruin they infiltrate.

The background you are developing reminds me in many ways of a setting of this type, where background and milieu are integral to the game itself, and in my experience, renders a far more satisfying game to play. My players are as often eager to undertake a spying mission against the Persians, or to fight Viking raiders out of Russia as they are to explore deserted ruins and kill monsters.

You develop opportunities like that (so that every aspect of the world the players explore is interesting) and I think your setting will succeed admirably.

[RichGreen]

Hi Jack7,

Great post! I've just finished reading Judith Herrin's book Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire which is going to help me add a bit more realism to the city. There are other, non-Byzantine elements to Parsantium too but it certainly owes a lot to that city.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers


Richard

[RichGreen]

Here's what happened in last night's game, in which the PCs finished the first adventure. Session xp was 522xp each - enough to level up Ella, El'em and Gong.

7th Maius (contd)
After a short rest, Ella takes the lead and opens the door to the south-east. Inside are four giant rats. She shoots at them while the others move up to support her. Krivinn moves into the doorway and engages the dire rats in melee but when he steps further into the room he’s attacked by the two cavern chokers lurking above the entrance and is grabbed. Gong goes to help and ends up with a rat stuck to his leg and also grabbed by a choker. The hapless Krivinn falls unconscious yet again after being bitten by rats and hit by the choker. Bravely, Ella dives into the room to help, using her split the tree power and El’em casts thunderwave to attack the chokers. Eventually the PCs’ enemies lie dead and Krivinn comes round. Needing to rest but suspicious of Riyad, the PCs leave by the ladder leading up to a manhole and return to their houseboats.


8th Maius
Ashna appears with El’em’s posters. She’s delighted when he gives her 20 silver solidi to put them up around the Old Quarter and promises to post some near the Camel Gate in the Caravans Ward where rich merchants arrive in the city.

Return to the sewers under the Black Dolphin’s Wake. Ella manages to find a secret door which she opens, revealing a room beyond with a sinister looking demonic statue standing on a bloodstained altar. The chamber is occupied by zombies and wererats but these don’t worry our heroine who boldly charges in and shoots at the wererat on the stairs. The wererats shoot back and the zombies close in, reducing her to 4hp. El’em casts flaming sphere, moving it round the room to great effect as the other PCs come in to help. Ella is dominated by the statue and shoots at Gong. She soon snaps out of it, however, and Gong attacks the statue with lance of faith while Krivinn fights the wererats. Once all the monsters are dead, the PCs gang up on the statue, smashing it to smithereens. They don’t like the look of the still-beating human heart and Kali statuette on the altar and throw these into El’em’s flaming sphere to burn.

With the statue destroyed, the PCs head back up to the tavern where Riyad explains that when he bought the Black Dolphin’s Wake he had to get it blessed by three different priests to remove the taint of evil left by the previous owner Mikulas, a cannibalistic murderer. Obviously, Gong points out, a priest of Niu Dahan, would have done a better job! Riyad pays the PCs 100 gp between them for dealing with the rats.

Any comments?


Richard

[RichGreen]

Here are three locations near Flotsam where PCs can sell their ill-gotten gains and also buy new gear. For anything else, a trip to the Mercantile Quarter is in order:

Bilal’s Blades
An arms and armour shop on the north side of the Fish Market. Bilal is a somewhat weasley-looking Akhrani with thinning oiled hair and a scar running down from his cheek to his neck – a souvenir of a nearly fatal fight Bilal was involved in several years ago with a thuggee who tried to rob him as he was walking back to his home after a night gambling at Fahil’s. Bilal sells new and second-hand weapons and armour of various types, with scimitars and kukris a particular speciality. Local enforcers, rogues and thieves make up the majority of his customers. He sometimes has a few masterwork and magic items to sell.
Hook: one of the weapons Bilal has for sale is a strong-willed intelligent blade which has a special purpose to kill the enemies of its creator. This weapon might end up in the hands of a PC.


Harold’s Hole
Located on the south side of the square where the Fish Market is held. A plaque above the door reads “Welcome to Harold’s Hole!”; underneath is a plaque reading “Thieves: I have a loaded crossbow and I know how to use it – Harold.” The shop is crowded with tables and shelves lined with all sorts of adventuring gear. Even more hangs from the ceiling on hooks or dangling from harnesses and straps. Harold, a well-groomed half-orc with very short hair, a young face and a huge girth, runs the place. Nearly everything can be bought here, except for magical items, and is of good quality at standard prices. He pays one fifth listed value for weapons and equipment with no questions asked. He keeps a record of all transactions, including the seller’s name and residence.
Hook: a customer notices that one of the finely tooled leather backpacks for sale is actually a nobleman’s riding pack – belonging to a nobleman that’s been missing for more than a month. Harold is now in trouble with the Watch and he needs help finding the people who sold him the pack.

Girik’s Three Gold Coins
Girik is a gnarly old, one-eyed dwarf pawnbroker and fence operating from a small, shabby shop on the south-west corner of the Fish Market square. He wears red and gold silk robes in the Sahasran style and has a very long braided beard. The Three Gold Coins consists of a small office with a desk and table. Girik works behind the desk most days, and customers can lay their wares on the table so he can inspect them. The items he has for sale are displayed in a locked glass case and on shelves around the room.
Girik will lend four-fifths of the value on gems and jewellery; two thirds on other items with the loan running for six months. Interest is 10% per annum and is charged monthly. He also buys jewellery and other valuables (although nothing too esoteric or pricey) from thieves and adventurers. He sells some in his shop but he takes anything worth over 50gp or so to a stall he has in the Mercantile Quarter’s huge market.

Any comments? Any suggestions for a hook for Girik's Three Gold Coins?

Cheers


Richard

*Harold's Hole comes from Bluffside by Thunderhead Games

[Loonook]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

Here are three locations near Flotsam where PCs can sell their ill-gotten gains and also buy new gear. For anything else, a trip to the Mercantile Quarter is in order:

Bilal’s Blades
An arms and armour shop on the north side of the Fish Market. Bilal is a somewhat weasley-looking Akhrani with thinning oiled hair and a scar running down from his cheek to his neck – a souvenir of a nearly fatal fight Bilal was involved in several years ago with a thuggee who tried to rob him as he was walking back to his home after a night gambling at Fahil’s. Bilal sells new and second-hand weapons and armour of various types, with scimitars and kukris a particular speciality. Local enforcers, rogues and thieves make up the majority of his customers. He sometimes has a few masterwork and magic items to sell.
Hook: one of the weapons Bilal has for sale is a strong-willed intelligent blade which has a special purpose to kill the enemies of its creator. This weapon might end up in the hands of a PC.


Harold’s Hole
Located on the south side of the square where the Fish Market is held. A plaque above the door reads “Welcome to Harold’s Hole!”; underneath is a plaque reading “Thieves: I have a loaded crossbow and I know how to use it – Harold.” The shop is crowded with tables and shelves lined with all sorts of adventuring gear. Even more hangs from the ceiling on hooks or dangling from harnesses and straps. Harold, a well-groomed half-orc with very short hair, a young face and a huge girth, runs the place. Nearly everything can be bought here, except for magical items, and is of good quality at standard prices. He pays one fifth listed value for weapons and equipment with no questions asked. He keeps a record of all transactions, including the seller’s name and residence.
Hook: a customer notices that one of the finely tooled leather backpacks for sale is actually a nobleman’s riding pack – belonging to a nobleman that’s been missing for more than a month. Harold is now in trouble with the Watch and he needs help finding the people who sold him the pack.

Girik’s Three Gold Coins
Girik is a gnarly old, one-eyed dwarf pawnbroker and fence operating from a small, shabby shop on the south-west corner of the Fish Market square. He wears red and gold silk robes in the Sahasran style and has a very long braided beard. The Three Gold Coins consists of a small office with a desk and table. Girik works behind the desk most days, and customers can lay their wares on the table so he can inspect them. The items he has for sale are displayed in a locked glass case and on shelves around the room.
Girik will lend four-fifths of the value on gems and jewellery; two thirds on other items with the loan running for six months. Interest is 10% per annum and is charged monthly. He also buys jewellery and other valuables (although nothing too esoteric or pricey) from thieves and adventurers. He sells some in his shop but he takes anything worth over 50gp or so to a stall he has in the Mercantile Quarter’s huge market.

Any comments? Any suggestions for a hook for Girik's Three Gold Coins?

Cheers


Richard

*Harold's Hole comes from Bluffside by Thunderhead Games

I wish I could give you rep. for every single post here... good stuff man. But right now you look like you're going to reach Ptolus level of detail in no time at all .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

[arcanaman]

Wow love the constanople idea the byzantines are my favorite culture in history

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Loonook

I wish I could give you rep. for every single post here... good stuff man. But right now you look like you're going to reach Ptolus level of detail in no time at all .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

I'm not sure I'll get anywhere near Ptolus level, but thanks!


Richard

[RichGreen]

Hi,

We played our fourth session on Monday - the first part of the adventure featuring the investigation into the murder of Ashna. Here's what happened:

14th Maius
El’em makes a 5gp donation to Brother Jerome’s chapel of Pelor and mission in the slums. Krivinn and Ella visit the witch Jagadamba and buy potions of healing. Ella pays her 5gp for a consultation in which she learns that the evil statue they smashed represented a daeva called Hidimba.

16th Maius
The PCs chat to Mangesh in the Fat Grouper about his leaky boat but their conversation is interrupted when they spot a fisherman pulling the body of a child out of the water. The fisherman takes the body to the Water Boys houseboat; the PCs follow along and soon find out the dead child is Ashna. Ella examines the corpse – she’s been strangled – the mark of the thuggee! They are allowed to look through Ashna’s meagre belongings which include a charcoal sketch of a pelican and a greenstone carving of a hippo which Krivinn buys from Girish. The party also learns that something was troubling Ashna in the days leading up to her death. Girish offers 300 gp in Water Boys loot if the PCs can track down her killer.

Ella and Krivinn go to see Jagadamba again to ask about the thuggee while El’em and Sorgrim the Stiff track down the building near the Black Dolphin’s Wake which has a painting of a pelican on the wall. For a minute Sorgrim thinks they are being watched but the feeling passes. After they scout around the house, El’em heads back to Flotsam to get the other two while Sorgrim stakes out the building.

As El’em, Krivinn and Ella head through a market to find Sorgrim, the PCs are ambushed by a gang of nine thuggee armed with war picks, daggers and strangle cords. Ella is strangled while El’em casts flaming sphere which he uses to attack the thuggee with the unfortunate side effect of setting fire to some of the tents. Krivinn is in the thick of the action as two other thuggee move in to attack Sorgrim. The halfling manages to leap over their heads but falls victim to their coordinated attacks and goes unconscious. Brave Ella kills the leader with her bow, then heads past the burning tents to try and save the rogue. The two thuggee try to finish Sorgrim off, then run away but the halfling survives. The PCs get rid of the others and make themselves scarce before the City Watch arrive.

The PCs break into the pelican building; Ella sets off the pendulum trap but is able to dive out of the way unharmed. Inside the party finds a cryptic note and signs that prisoners have been kept here. A trapdoor leads down into the Hidden Quarter. El’em casts light on a goblet tied to a piece of cord and the PCs head down the slimy stone steps. At the bottom there are two sets of tracks, heading south and north-east. Led by Ella, the PCs follow the southern tracks made by a group of men and a cart. As the party comes round a corner, they run into two dark creepers and their shadowhunter bat allies. El’em attacks with thunderwave, blinding the monsters, but one of the dark ones kills the unlucky Sorgrim. The PCs slay both bats and one ‘creeper; the second one escapes.

Any comments?


Richard

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Here’s what happened in last night’s game.

16th Maius (contd)
After some discussion, El’em, Ella and Krivinn loot Sorgrim’s body and then return to the surface. At the Fat Grouper, they are reunited with Gong who introduces them to a new acquaintance: a dwarven invoker called Sharden. Talk to Tew Pennyfeather about Ashna and learn about smugglers (“the Gentlemen”) coming in to the Old Docks at night. Tew seems to be holding something back but Gong is able to persuade him to talk: the bugbear pirate Captain Gnash and his ship the Howling Raider were at the docks a few nights ago.

Before returning to the tunnels in the Hidden Quarter, most of the PCs decide to ask around town and try and find out more about what’s going on. Meanwhile, Krivinn decides to go shopping instead, buying a suit of plate armour from Bilal’s Blades before heading off to the Maker’s Ward to get the silver dragon on his shield altered to look like Bahamut.

Ella goes to the Black Dolphin’s Wake and chats to a drunk fisherman called Arktaros, finding out that a big bearded man wearing a turban had been asking questions about Ashna and that the Dockside Crew, based in the Old Fishery, were the main contacts for the smugglers.

El’em and Sharden go to see Brother Jerome in the slums. The genasi grills the priest about criminal activity in the neighbourhood and is disappointed that he doesn’t seem to know much, ending up getting rude and stroppy with them. However, Sharden does a bit better and learns that Orloch, King of the Slums and gnoll leader of the Mangy Curs, is based next door to Brother Jerome’s chapel and soup kitchen. Gong chats to merchants in the Fish Market. Despite mending their scorched stalls (damaged by El’em’s flaming sphere) at cost, he learns little.

Later that evening, the PCs get back together at the Fat Grouper and compare notes. Ella decides to stay up and keep an eye on the docks. She doesn’t see any suspicious ships but does spot a woodpecker-like bird (a nail stealer) pull a shiny nail out of Mangesh’s houseboat before flying back to its nest in the Fat Grouper’s crows nest.


17th Maius
The PCs return to the pelican house and head back down into the tunnels. Sorgrim’s body is gone so at Krivinn’s urging they head down a side tunnel in pursuit of whoever or whatever dragging his corpse away. When they reach a five-way intersection and lose the trail, the party return to the main tunnel and start following the cart tracks again.

Arrive at a door. After several failed attempts to bash it down and pick the lock, Gong eventually manages to kick it in. Krivinn heads inside and is attacked by a gelatinous cube. The others rush in to help, but El’em’s thunderwave unfortunately pushes the cube on top of Krivinn, engulfing him. Gong gets engulfed too and El’em is paralyzed by the ooze’s pseudopods. Eventually the PCs are able to kill the cube and Ella heads up the ladder and through the trapdoor above. She finds herself in a warehouse and under attack by beggars and lowlife scum. The rest of the party come up the ladder to her aid and defeat the ruffians pretty easily. Eight are killed but two are knocked unconscious for questioning.

Cheers


Richard

[Ebonyr]

I salute your attention to detail!!!

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Ebonyr

I salute your attention to detail!!!

Thanks!

It was a bit of a funny session on Monday night, actually. I'd written up asking around the docks about Ashna's murder as a skill challenge but the PCs all went off in different directions so I ended up running each PC's fact-finding session separately and not bothering with the skill challenge mechanics. To be honest, I think they enjoyed the fight with the gelatinous cube most!

Cheers


Richard

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Here's what happened in last night's game - contains SPOILERS for Sellswords of Punjar:

17th Maius (contd)

The PCs revive and interrogate their two captives, Barius & Theus, slapping them about a bit when they don’t get the answers they’re looking for. Both are beggars and petty thieves working for Orloch Scragmane – the PCs realise they’ve come up inside the gnoll gang boss’ slum tenement. After tying up the pair, Brave Ella climbs the ladder to the loft above where she sees what appears to be a sleeping gnoll protected by three hooded guards. Looking closer, she realises the “guards” are mannequins, there is something wrong with the floor, and that a man in leather armour is hiding up in the rafters. The man, Black Shet, opens fire on Ella who shoots back. The others rush up the ladder to help their elven companion and Shet is soon despatched. With the fighting over, a little girl emerges from under a furry rug in the bed. This is Bhuvi, an orphan who had been told to hide there by Black Shet. The PCs tie her up too and then toss the room, triggering a hail of darts trap on a coffer full of worthless coins, and finding a trapdoor in the floor. They also find a +1 duelist’s dagger (“Felis”) on Shet’s body.

Ella climbs down through the trapdoor into the cave below, followed by the others. The slave pens in here hold four prisoners: Gong’s master Wang Jin We, and a noblewoman, Lady Patricia, and her handmaidens. Three hobgoblin slavers appear and attack the PCs as Sharden leaps onto the hanging cage above the river. The giant gorilla starts hauling on the windlass, pulling the cage towards him. Sharden tries to cast a spell and loses his grip on the cage, falling into the river. Meanwhile, one of the hobgoblins releases the gorilla who climbs on top of the slave pens and attacks Krivinn who is already in combat with a gorilla. El’em rescues Sharden from the river while the others kill the gorilla and hobgoblins – Ella chases one out of the room and shoots him down. With their enemies dead, the PCs get Wang and the three women out of the cages. Lady Patricia is very grateful at being rescued but is a bit taken aback by the unsympathetic PCs’ unwillingness to take her home. After some discussion, they leave all four prisoners where they are and head through the archway to the north.

Not-so-brave Ella checks out the room straight ahead – a temple with a desiccated human corpse and a portal painted on the wall - but decides it’s too creepy. Instead, Krivinn and Gong go inside and loot the body, taking three scrolls, silver bracers and a fancy clay pipe. Heading west up the stairs, the PCs are nervous about the raised portcullis they can see so Ella stacks the hobgoblin corpses underneath it. However, when El’em and Sharden approach the double doors, the hobgoblins in the room beyond still manage to drop the portcullis between the pair and the rest of the party. The doors open and Orliss the Goat, dragonborn warlord, four hobgoblins and six goblins attack the PCs. Krivinn and Ella lift up the portcullis as El’em casts flaming sphere and Sharden goes unconscious under attack from Orliss. Gong is able to revive the dwarf and the PCs defeat their enemies, although one particularly annoying goblin keeps hitting Krivinn with his bow before he’s brought down. Search the bodies and find a secret panel in the west wall.

------------------------------------------

I need to work out what happens at the slave market downriver where the PCs are likely to confront Orloch Scragmane. Any suggestions on who might be attending the underground slave market? I'm looking for a mixture of evil races and NPCs including kuo-toa, a derro necromancer and others.

Cheers


Richard

[Jack7]

Any comments?

Rich, I haven't had a lot of time to comment to many things lately due to my work schedule and other matters. But I like your city design and I like the way your adventures play out in it. As a matter of fact it sounds like something I'd enjoy playing myself because of the diverse plot elements.

And I like the persistent criminal elements and influences that seem to shadow and foreshadow the background.

I need to work out what happens at the slave market downriver where the PCs are likely to confront Orloch Scragmane. Any suggestions on who might be attending the underground slave market? I'm looking for a mixture of evil races and NPCs including kuo-toa, a derro necromancer and others.

Well, I'd have to know exactly what you're shooting for in relation to the larger plot/adventure elements, but I can tell you a little bit about what real slave markets and human trafficking networks are like. They are filled with children, easy to control, manipulate and abuse, women, often starved, beaten and used as primary or secondary sex slaves, and therefore also easy to control, orphans and unprotected people, and people taken in fights or conquest.

Therefore you'd want slaves and victims who are easy to prey upon and control and who would make weak defense against their captors, but also you want people who are very much like "human fences, " that is they fence in people or other creatures in the same way a normal fence might fence in stolen guns. And one thing fences are usually pretty good at is associating themselves with interesting trafficking, and other types of networks, not to mention individual criminals (though they probably don't often overtly run in the same social circles, for obvious security and legal reasons.)

That being the case then you might include some fences, or their agents, who are hanging about the periphery looking for deals. But slave-traders and the fences supplying or operating with them are also going to know secrets. They will be looting and pimping their prospects, meaning they will often discover things "in background."

So if you have plot elements that need to show up, or items that need to appear, tied to the plot, but with no obvious means of exposure you might think about the rings that would operate in such markets, how they tie together, and how to exploit them usefully for purposes of your game. And information is often the most important tool and asset a fence can possess, both to protect himself from the authorizes, and to protect himself from other criminals. So information rings will thrive as well.

Finally, don't forget that the authorities might well place, depending on how your city operates, both informants and undercover operatives in such places to both track criminal activity, like let's say, coin clipping, and to observe trouble-making elements to see if they pose a threat of insurrection, or if any foreign spies are operating in such markets. Historically speaking both general markets and caravan centers, and slave-markets are excellent places for espionage rings to thrive, also for obvious reasons. Many slaves are foreigners, and their dealers and agents naturally congregate in such places, meaning other foreigners can operate there with relative ease and lack of suspicion.

Anywho, good luck.
I like the atmosphere of your adventure(s).

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Jack7

Well, I'd have to know exactly what you're shooting for in relation to the larger plot/adventure elements, but I can tell you a little bit about what real slave markets and human trafficking networks are like.

Thanks for the kind words and for all these suggestions - really good stuff.

For this bit of the adventure I'm going to use a map from the 3.x FR adventure book Mysteries of the Moonsea which has a Slave Auction map on p.138 that I think will work well for my purposes. It shows a small underground complex, including Delivery Entrance, Processing Room, Holding Cells, Staging Room and Amphitheatre. In my campaign, the delivery entrance will be a dock from the underground river from Orloch's slum tenement HQ (see Sellswords of Punjar) and I'm anticipating a nice big fight in the amphitheatre. Who knows what the players will do though? They might decide to infiltrate the crowd or charge in and attack everyone! I think some of your suggestions about fences, undercover cops etc could fit in here really well.

I've also been thinking about an encounter while the PCs are in their boats heading here but there's a real shortage of low-level aquatic monsters in the 4e MM. I've already used one visejaw crocodile so I'd rather not have another one and I'm leaning towards a young black dragon (4th level). I'm picturing the river bringing the PCs into a vast underground cave, spooky and hung with stalactites which serves as the dragon's lair. Maybe Orloch's slavers pay a tribute to get past? Anyway, the PCs end up having a hopefully memorable dragon fight here before they can get to the dock at the other side and confront the slavers.

Thoughts?

Cheers


Richard

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

I'm leaning towards a young black dragon (4th level)

I do really like the idea of introducing a dragon this early. I didn't run Forge of Fury but thought it was cool how there was a black dragon in a 3rd level adventure. And in my adventure, they'll be in boats which is always entertaining!


Richard

[Jack7]

It shows a small underground complex, including Delivery Entrance, Processing Room, Holding Cells, Staging Room and Amphitheatre. In my campaign, the delivery entrance will be a dock from the underground river from Orloch's slum tenement HQ (see Sellswords of Punjar) and I'm anticipating a nice big fight in the amphitheatre.

I just really like the idea of a fight in an amphitheatre. And/or a running one through a slave market, narrow areas, etc. then bursting into an amphitheatre.

Also imagine such a fight going on while undercover operatives, fences, and others with vested interests are milling through the place.

I've also been thinking about an encounter while the PCs are in their boats heading here but there's a real shortage of low-level aquatic monsters in the 4e MM.

Maybe use men (NPCs) in another boat who are adversaries (boat fights are dangerous, especially in small craft) and once that fight is underway have both parties ambushed by a single, higher-level aquatic monster. Then both groups have to decide if immediate survival issues don't really make them more cooperative. At least for the moment.

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Jack7

I just really like the idea of a fight in an amphitheatre. And/or a running one through a slave market, narrow areas, etc. then bursting into an amphitheatre.

Also imagine such a fight going on while undercover operatives, fences, and others with vested interests are milling through the place.

I'm going to make the amphitheatre bigger than it is on the map for just this reason. Some of the dodgy characters at the market will attack the PCs, others will only interfere if attacked themselves. I'm hoping for a nice, chaotic scene here.

Originally Posted by Jack7

Maybe use men (NPCs) in another boat who are adversaries (boat fights are dangerous, especially in small craft) and once that fight is underway have both parties ambushed by a single, higher-level aquatic monster. Then both groups have to decide if immediate survival issues don't really make them more cooperative. At least for the moment.

Good idea, maybe some gnolls belonging to the Mangy Curs.


Richard