Storminator
First Post
The group has found 2 key locations in Sharn - a restaurant in the Bazaar that marks the place the Forgotten One was standing when the prison closed on him, and a spire of the Fallen Tower (in Fallen) where their comrades died and were the first souls fed to the alternate afterlife of the Forgotten One.
Today's session has the group trying to make the restaurant a going concern, and building a church in the Fallen.
I ran the two as pseudo skill challenges. We went around the table, asking each player how their PC was contributing, made some checks, and kept going. I jumped in a couple times with ongoing summaries and additional events. Here's the notes.
Restaurant Challenge:
1) Look for employees - Streetwise, success - found some goblin mothers in the clan, some youngsters to run errands, wait tables, etc.
2) File paperwork to make restaurant legal - History, failure - forgot some forms the Boromar thieves guild uses to seize businesses that don't pay protection money (the group already killed some collection agents. . . )
3) Renovate the premises - Athletics, failure - broke some tables and chairs, lost some money
4) Arrange for back entrance for homeless people (see Church challenge) - Stealth, success - developed method for sneaking homeless into the restaurant to add them to the cookpot (free soup Tuesdays! Now with open-face sandwiches!)
5) Get forms corrected - Diplomacy, hard success - erase previous failure, uses diplomacy (the only human in the group) to get forms double checked and corrected.
6) Get a glowing review in the Sharn Inquisitive - paid cash, auto success - Great new Darguun cuisine!
7) Secure some food from livestock vendors in Wroan's Gate - Streetwise, failure - all the rotten beef pawned on the goblins!
8) Pay off Sharn Watch and Daask to a) stop worrying about all the goblins coming up from the lower levels and b) protect the goblins from the halflings - Diplomacy, success
9) Create a spice and produce garden in the Fallen - Nature, success - fresh Droaam herbs!
10) Return to the beef vendor - Diplomacy, success - erase previous failure, get better food (fit for the human crossover clientele), but at higher prices
11) Group check when Boromar clan attacks! - Attack roll, success - two lost surges as the group fights off halfling lackeys.
12) Observe the Bazaar crowds - Insight, success - random crazy people keep ranting in the marketplace about the end of the world and Chthuluesque horrors. . . now one of them gets soapbox to preach from and a sandwichboard to hawk Forgotten Cuisine! Free Soup Tuesday!
13) Join a dining club - Streetwise, success - using the glowing review in the Sharn Inquisitive, draw some of the dining clubs of Sharn to try the Forgotten Cuisine of Darguun!
14) Get the college kids to slum down in the Bazaar - Streetwise, failure - old man is shown up as an obvious poser
15) Get special permits to extend the restaurant into the open air of the streets. Also include delivery service, and order runners to the lower levels - History, success - foiling Boromar plans to seize the restaurant for violations again.
16) Pay off the Sharn watch again. Since the group is paying protection to the Daask and not the Boromars, the Sharn watch is not included - Diplomacy, success
17) Hire human cooks - extended multiple checks from one PC, success - find another restaurant getting seized by the Boromars and hire the entire staff
18) Buy some Dhakaani artifacts for the decor of the restaurant - History, failure - forgeries! There goes the rest of the money!
19) Convince some college students the forgeries are real, and the restaurant is authentic Darguun fare - Bluff, success - with the human cooks, the acceptable food, the open air cafe, the fake Darguun artifacts and the colorful Apocalypse Preacher, the place has kitsch!
Meanwhile, simultaneously,
Church Challenge
1) Consecrate the altar - Religion, failure - something, who knows what, goes horribly wrong.
2) Homeless people keep wandering in to the holy site, drawn by lingering power of a fallen angel - Diplomacy, success - send them to the Bazaar where they are popped in the cookpot!
3) Use the pieces of the statue of the fallen angel and mortar made from the bones of the homeless (did I mention these guys really aren't heroes?!) to make an altar (remember the failure to consecrate the place properly? I'm sure nothing bad will happen here. . . ) - Religion, success - ewwww
4) Expand from the crystal spire into the neighboring buildings - Athletics, failure - break the crystal tower
5) Fix the crystal tower - Dungeoneering, success - more of that previously made bone mortar is now holding up the walls.
6) Research Dragon Below cults - Religion, success - gain some insights into the structure of cults and the Three Ring Model
7) Build and expand the areas outside the church proper - Dungeoneering, success - acolyte rooms, stock rooms, etc
8) Set some traps to protect the place - Thievery, failure - only goblins fall for the traps
9) Tuktuk the Trusted! (the wizard with Eye of Vecna in his head. . .) line of children's books are donated to orphanages across Sharn - Religion, success, critical hit! - awww, he's such a cute and loveable goblin!
10) Train the goblin lay people how to operate the church - Religion, failure - At this point there are something like 6 different versions of the Forgotten One's religion. People are losing track of the truth!
11) Circus tricks! - Acrobatics, success - that loveable Tuktuk the Trusted brings in the rubes with wacky antics
12) Secure the church premises - Perception, failure - cultist for the fallen angel sneak in!
13) Fight the cultist! - Attack roll, failure - everyone loses a surge
14) Search for cultists - Insight, success - trying to find out where the crazy homeless people come from leads to an interesting conversation with Faela, priestess of the Silver Flame and the only beacon of civilization in Fallen
15) The restaurant is breaking even, but the growing number of goblins working in the church are a steady drain on the treasury, send the goblins out on "financial jihad" crime spree - Religion, success - a short boost of cash!
16) Appeal to the roots of Dhakaani civilization in the Lower Wards - History, success - brings in some new recruits for the religion, using another angle
17) Find ways to secure the premises again! - Perception, failure - how do these crazy people keep getting in?!
18) Privacy - Dungeoneering, success - interior walls in the crystal tower keep prying eyes out of Grikka business!
19) Time to show those metal heads what's up! - Religion, success - reigniting (from previous sessions) the goblin/warforged race riots in the Cogs, and opening up some more job opportunities for other goblins
20) Create a psychic beacon similar to the fallen angels to attract crazy homeless followers, this time for the Forgotten One! - Arcana, hard, failure - oh there's a psychic beacon alright, just for angel cultists!
21) Security matters - Insight, success - as you can tell, one PC is obsessed with keeping the perimeter. He finally gets it right and blocks off the random entrances to the church
22) Happy meals! Angel dust! Since the pieces of the fallen angel statue are what's drawing the cultists, and now that the draw is turned up to 11, break up the altar and send the pieces all over the city via the delivery service - Streetwise, success - every Boromar protected business in town gets a crazy cultist magnet!
Today's session has the group trying to make the restaurant a going concern, and building a church in the Fallen.
I ran the two as pseudo skill challenges. We went around the table, asking each player how their PC was contributing, made some checks, and kept going. I jumped in a couple times with ongoing summaries and additional events. Here's the notes.
Restaurant Challenge:
1) Look for employees - Streetwise, success - found some goblin mothers in the clan, some youngsters to run errands, wait tables, etc.
2) File paperwork to make restaurant legal - History, failure - forgot some forms the Boromar thieves guild uses to seize businesses that don't pay protection money (the group already killed some collection agents. . . )
3) Renovate the premises - Athletics, failure - broke some tables and chairs, lost some money
4) Arrange for back entrance for homeless people (see Church challenge) - Stealth, success - developed method for sneaking homeless into the restaurant to add them to the cookpot (free soup Tuesdays! Now with open-face sandwiches!)
5) Get forms corrected - Diplomacy, hard success - erase previous failure, uses diplomacy (the only human in the group) to get forms double checked and corrected.
6) Get a glowing review in the Sharn Inquisitive - paid cash, auto success - Great new Darguun cuisine!
7) Secure some food from livestock vendors in Wroan's Gate - Streetwise, failure - all the rotten beef pawned on the goblins!
8) Pay off Sharn Watch and Daask to a) stop worrying about all the goblins coming up from the lower levels and b) protect the goblins from the halflings - Diplomacy, success
9) Create a spice and produce garden in the Fallen - Nature, success - fresh Droaam herbs!
10) Return to the beef vendor - Diplomacy, success - erase previous failure, get better food (fit for the human crossover clientele), but at higher prices
11) Group check when Boromar clan attacks! - Attack roll, success - two lost surges as the group fights off halfling lackeys.
12) Observe the Bazaar crowds - Insight, success - random crazy people keep ranting in the marketplace about the end of the world and Chthuluesque horrors. . . now one of them gets soapbox to preach from and a sandwichboard to hawk Forgotten Cuisine! Free Soup Tuesday!
13) Join a dining club - Streetwise, success - using the glowing review in the Sharn Inquisitive, draw some of the dining clubs of Sharn to try the Forgotten Cuisine of Darguun!
14) Get the college kids to slum down in the Bazaar - Streetwise, failure - old man is shown up as an obvious poser
15) Get special permits to extend the restaurant into the open air of the streets. Also include delivery service, and order runners to the lower levels - History, success - foiling Boromar plans to seize the restaurant for violations again.
16) Pay off the Sharn watch again. Since the group is paying protection to the Daask and not the Boromars, the Sharn watch is not included - Diplomacy, success
17) Hire human cooks - extended multiple checks from one PC, success - find another restaurant getting seized by the Boromars and hire the entire staff
18) Buy some Dhakaani artifacts for the decor of the restaurant - History, failure - forgeries! There goes the rest of the money!
19) Convince some college students the forgeries are real, and the restaurant is authentic Darguun fare - Bluff, success - with the human cooks, the acceptable food, the open air cafe, the fake Darguun artifacts and the colorful Apocalypse Preacher, the place has kitsch!
Meanwhile, simultaneously,
Church Challenge
1) Consecrate the altar - Religion, failure - something, who knows what, goes horribly wrong.
2) Homeless people keep wandering in to the holy site, drawn by lingering power of a fallen angel - Diplomacy, success - send them to the Bazaar where they are popped in the cookpot!
3) Use the pieces of the statue of the fallen angel and mortar made from the bones of the homeless (did I mention these guys really aren't heroes?!) to make an altar (remember the failure to consecrate the place properly? I'm sure nothing bad will happen here. . . ) - Religion, success - ewwww
4) Expand from the crystal spire into the neighboring buildings - Athletics, failure - break the crystal tower
5) Fix the crystal tower - Dungeoneering, success - more of that previously made bone mortar is now holding up the walls.
6) Research Dragon Below cults - Religion, success - gain some insights into the structure of cults and the Three Ring Model
7) Build and expand the areas outside the church proper - Dungeoneering, success - acolyte rooms, stock rooms, etc
8) Set some traps to protect the place - Thievery, failure - only goblins fall for the traps
9) Tuktuk the Trusted! (the wizard with Eye of Vecna in his head. . .) line of children's books are donated to orphanages across Sharn - Religion, success, critical hit! - awww, he's such a cute and loveable goblin!
10) Train the goblin lay people how to operate the church - Religion, failure - At this point there are something like 6 different versions of the Forgotten One's religion. People are losing track of the truth!
11) Circus tricks! - Acrobatics, success - that loveable Tuktuk the Trusted brings in the rubes with wacky antics
12) Secure the church premises - Perception, failure - cultist for the fallen angel sneak in!
13) Fight the cultist! - Attack roll, failure - everyone loses a surge
14) Search for cultists - Insight, success - trying to find out where the crazy homeless people come from leads to an interesting conversation with Faela, priestess of the Silver Flame and the only beacon of civilization in Fallen
15) The restaurant is breaking even, but the growing number of goblins working in the church are a steady drain on the treasury, send the goblins out on "financial jihad" crime spree - Religion, success - a short boost of cash!
16) Appeal to the roots of Dhakaani civilization in the Lower Wards - History, success - brings in some new recruits for the religion, using another angle
17) Find ways to secure the premises again! - Perception, failure - how do these crazy people keep getting in?!
18) Privacy - Dungeoneering, success - interior walls in the crystal tower keep prying eyes out of Grikka business!
19) Time to show those metal heads what's up! - Religion, success - reigniting (from previous sessions) the goblin/warforged race riots in the Cogs, and opening up some more job opportunities for other goblins
20) Create a psychic beacon similar to the fallen angels to attract crazy homeless followers, this time for the Forgotten One! - Arcana, hard, failure - oh there's a psychic beacon alright, just for angel cultists!
21) Security matters - Insight, success - as you can tell, one PC is obsessed with keeping the perimeter. He finally gets it right and blocks off the random entrances to the church
22) Happy meals! Angel dust! Since the pieces of the fallen angel statue are what's drawing the cultists, and now that the draw is turned up to 11, break up the altar and send the pieces all over the city via the delivery service - Streetwise, success - every Boromar protected business in town gets a crazy cultist magnet!
