Ralts Bloodthorne
First Post
In a recent campaign, the characters have moved to a big city, managed to sell off thier items and buy an abandoned church. After a lot of fear, they succeeded in clearing out the evil spirits from the church, and have set about restoring it.
The PC's decided it would be easier to have the work crews on the premises, so the first thing they did was have the work crews build themselves work quarters and ship in loads of food/drink. The crews happily attacked the work, with children running about squealing, non-working folk doing such things as stitching curtians and tablecloth, cleaning recovered silverware, and surverying the grounds for the PC's.
Now, here's what I've figured out.
The party has been VERY willing to help out the workers, and I was figuring...
With the amount of money the PC's are pouring into this construction job, about 1/4 of it has already made it's way back into the half-orc/half-ogre quarter. The corrupt Guild/Union bosses of other companies and guilds will have undoubtablely heard about this. They aren't getting a piece of what is turning out to be a sweet pie. (The half-ogre labour boss managed to get the PC's to pay 8x normal work pay, bonuses, and hire what is normally non-labour, meaning they're just racing through thier funds, but the workers are happy)
What I figured is have it start out small. With a few work parties getting rousted by a corrupt local ward-boss and his guards. Hijack a few shipments of stone, stained glass, wood, metal, etc. At first, the PC's will just pay the fines (going for the non-violent range first) then move into courts.
Then it will lead eventually to bloodshed, one way or another. See, the High Duke doesn't really know what is happening, niether does his inner circle. The picture on the streets is a lot different than what the High Duke sees.
The PC's would be able to move into a position of power by getting the disenfranchised commoners and noble families, taking on corrupt position seekers and avoided allowing the organized crime families from getting thier fingers into it.
So, while right now they are exploring the abandoned sewer network, where it connects to thier estate, I have time to plan this.
I figure: A few hijackings, with minor fines (made up, but sounding official) that only run a few hundred.
Some robberies as the local thieves guild tries to move in.
Some of the work crew getting roughed up.
A night-time attack with members of a local construction guild hucking Molotov Cocktails into the temporary workers housing and firing bows into the panicked workers and thier families.
A meeting with the local ward boss and his cronies.
I figure this will stress both the combat and noncombat sides of the game. Making not only diplomacy checks important, but role-playing. Bringing the PC who has petitioned to enter an ancient (25,000+ years old) assassin's guild into the forefront as he helps the party maneuver through politics and cloak and dagger stuff.
Let the PC's take on the street gangs, make alliances with power groups.
See, I promised no "ancient threats" in this game, meaning that no bad guys that have remained hidden for ages, nobody from before the Second Lich King War, and I've got to come up with all kinds of new opponents.
So, I've got a 14th level aristocrat for the District Boss, his troubleshooter, his house mage, then a 8th level aristocrat/8th level Adept for the Dowager Mother in that family.
Three local street gangs, some local areas of interest (including the tavern where the high ranking members of the local mason's guild gets together), a wizard that's been reduced to poverty, lost his spellbooks and familiar, and needs money to not only get his spellbooks back, but investigate his pet theory that the flooding of the city is not a natural thing.
So, the idea is, to juggle five or six plot lines at once:
The fighter deciding he wants to move up in the Church of Set. Get him involved in Church politics.
The Sorcereress getting deeper involved with the Church of Anubis. She's joining the Arm of Set, which does long strike missions, explorations, missionary work, quests, etc. So two party members will be involved with the Egyptian pantheon.
Maybe start rumbling of discontent between churches trying to divide up a shrinking congregation base.
The Barbarian/Rogue who is nervously awaiting the news on whether or not his bloodline and spirit is sufficent enough to join the assassin's guild. The guild is at war with the cargo-handlers of the northside docks.
The Fighter 1/2Elf has determined not to sink into the mire of crime and depravity that so many half-elves do (it's a world thing) and bring his name up to fame, rather than infamy. I'll have him get contacted by a local thieve's guild, and have the guild start to slowly ratchet up the pressure until the blood spills.
The druid has consecrated a sacred grove, and the tremors of that have been felt. Bring in a new cult, The Children of the Rotted Moon, and tie them into why the city has been flooding all these centuries.
The Rogue kind of kicks back and moves with the flow. I gotta kick him in the ass and get him moving. Hmmm... He'll be important for penetration and infiltration later on.
The Urban Ranger is a native to the city, but sadly, grew up 75 miles from the "estate" so he has little knowledge. His knowledge of his own Ward will be helpful in gathering allies later, so I think I'll introduce some childhood rivals/allies who have moved up in the world like he has.
Now, the PC's have hired the only construction crew they could deal with if they didn't want to pay tens of thousands in gold just to get the crews on the grounds. They bribed a judge or two, and some officials, got thier liscenses, and moved in half orcs/half ogres to do the work.Background said:
The PC's decided it would be easier to have the work crews on the premises, so the first thing they did was have the work crews build themselves work quarters and ship in loads of food/drink. The crews happily attacked the work, with children running about squealing, non-working folk doing such things as stitching curtians and tablecloth, cleaning recovered silverware, and surverying the grounds for the PC's.
Now, here's what I've figured out.
The party has been VERY willing to help out the workers, and I was figuring...
With the amount of money the PC's are pouring into this construction job, about 1/4 of it has already made it's way back into the half-orc/half-ogre quarter. The corrupt Guild/Union bosses of other companies and guilds will have undoubtablely heard about this. They aren't getting a piece of what is turning out to be a sweet pie. (The half-ogre labour boss managed to get the PC's to pay 8x normal work pay, bonuses, and hire what is normally non-labour, meaning they're just racing through thier funds, but the workers are happy)
What I figured is have it start out small. With a few work parties getting rousted by a corrupt local ward-boss and his guards. Hijack a few shipments of stone, stained glass, wood, metal, etc. At first, the PC's will just pay the fines (going for the non-violent range first) then move into courts.
Then it will lead eventually to bloodshed, one way or another. See, the High Duke doesn't really know what is happening, niether does his inner circle. The picture on the streets is a lot different than what the High Duke sees.
The PC's would be able to move into a position of power by getting the disenfranchised commoners and noble families, taking on corrupt position seekers and avoided allowing the organized crime families from getting thier fingers into it.
So, while right now they are exploring the abandoned sewer network, where it connects to thier estate, I have time to plan this.
I figure: A few hijackings, with minor fines (made up, but sounding official) that only run a few hundred.
Some robberies as the local thieves guild tries to move in.
Some of the work crew getting roughed up.
A night-time attack with members of a local construction guild hucking Molotov Cocktails into the temporary workers housing and firing bows into the panicked workers and thier families.
A meeting with the local ward boss and his cronies.
I figure this will stress both the combat and noncombat sides of the game. Making not only diplomacy checks important, but role-playing. Bringing the PC who has petitioned to enter an ancient (25,000+ years old) assassin's guild into the forefront as he helps the party maneuver through politics and cloak and dagger stuff.
Let the PC's take on the street gangs, make alliances with power groups.
See, I promised no "ancient threats" in this game, meaning that no bad guys that have remained hidden for ages, nobody from before the Second Lich King War, and I've got to come up with all kinds of new opponents.
So, I've got a 14th level aristocrat for the District Boss, his troubleshooter, his house mage, then a 8th level aristocrat/8th level Adept for the Dowager Mother in that family.
Three local street gangs, some local areas of interest (including the tavern where the high ranking members of the local mason's guild gets together), a wizard that's been reduced to poverty, lost his spellbooks and familiar, and needs money to not only get his spellbooks back, but investigate his pet theory that the flooding of the city is not a natural thing.
So, the idea is, to juggle five or six plot lines at once:
The fighter deciding he wants to move up in the Church of Set. Get him involved in Church politics.
The Sorcereress getting deeper involved with the Church of Anubis. She's joining the Arm of Set, which does long strike missions, explorations, missionary work, quests, etc. So two party members will be involved with the Egyptian pantheon.
Maybe start rumbling of discontent between churches trying to divide up a shrinking congregation base.
The Barbarian/Rogue who is nervously awaiting the news on whether or not his bloodline and spirit is sufficent enough to join the assassin's guild. The guild is at war with the cargo-handlers of the northside docks.
The Fighter 1/2Elf has determined not to sink into the mire of crime and depravity that so many half-elves do (it's a world thing) and bring his name up to fame, rather than infamy. I'll have him get contacted by a local thieve's guild, and have the guild start to slowly ratchet up the pressure until the blood spills.
The druid has consecrated a sacred grove, and the tremors of that have been felt. Bring in a new cult, The Children of the Rotted Moon, and tie them into why the city has been flooding all these centuries.
The Rogue kind of kicks back and moves with the flow. I gotta kick him in the ass and get him moving. Hmmm... He'll be important for penetration and infiltration later on.
The Urban Ranger is a native to the city, but sadly, grew up 75 miles from the "estate" so he has little knowledge. His knowledge of his own Ward will be helpful in gathering allies later, so I think I'll introduce some childhood rivals/allies who have moved up in the world like he has.
