[Plot] Serving Yugoloth Mercs (my players OUT!)
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Shemeska said:
Good story hour!
Sammael said:
Yeah, it's a great game.
I'm not interested in the flavor of sigil so much as the potential problems of letting a bunch of PCs run around buying stuff and getting themselves killed.Or, perhaps, interesting things that can happen to a bunch of PCs running around, buying stuff and getting themselves killed.
-- N
Zad
First Post
The possibilities...my mind is reeling with them
Ok, first some general stuff. I have no idea of the make-up or alignment of the party. But I would be prepared for some real wild behavior depending on those factors. Are they willing to be serving a fiendish entity for a month? Will they be looking for ways to break the contract or fulfill the letter but not the spirit of the contract? Could add up for some interesting stuff.
If you want to keep the party "on the tracks" so to speak, then minimize their reasons to want to break the contract. This is easist to do by making sure their missions are things they might do anyway. Demon sends you to slay the forces of good: problem. Demon sends you to slay rival demons: hey, better deal, hence PC's less inclined to look for loopholes.
Given they're on-the-clock, I'd be ready for some feet-dragging unless they're well movitvated
Mission 1:
1. In the sideline, the merchant could also insist to keep the other side of the sale - i.e. he keeps the money and the drugs.
2. If the party is really scheming, they could recruit the bebbilith/driders into the plot in exchange for their lives/payment.
Mission 2:
Sigil - the number of whacky things that can happen are extreme. You can really give the players a great adventure here, not in terms of combat, but in terms of overloading their senses and really great interactions with the locals. Wizardru will probably have some good suggestions here. As a player I found Sigil to be a really wild experience - just trying to understand the town and touts and local slang was a wild trip. It's also a great chance for skill-based characters to shine. I suggest you really play this one up, and have something accidental happen to them. with so much going on, it's very easy for the group to get sucked into something that wasn't their doing but they're in the middle of regardless.
Endgame:
My guess: the key to this is to get the party obsessed on the mission such that they forget their bigger purpose. The old adage "When you're up to your armpits in alligators, you forget that your original purpose was to drain the swamp." You should get the players to trust the demons by this point, heck even reward them some. Make their servitude comfortable so they aren't inclined to question the motives of their master. Build the complexity of the mission slowly so that they forget that their real purpose is to live to finish the contract.
Ok, first some general stuff. I have no idea of the make-up or alignment of the party. But I would be prepared for some real wild behavior depending on those factors. Are they willing to be serving a fiendish entity for a month? Will they be looking for ways to break the contract or fulfill the letter but not the spirit of the contract? Could add up for some interesting stuff.
If you want to keep the party "on the tracks" so to speak, then minimize their reasons to want to break the contract. This is easist to do by making sure their missions are things they might do anyway. Demon sends you to slay the forces of good: problem. Demon sends you to slay rival demons: hey, better deal, hence PC's less inclined to look for loopholes.
Given they're on-the-clock, I'd be ready for some feet-dragging unless they're well movitvated
Mission 1:
1. In the sideline, the merchant could also insist to keep the other side of the sale - i.e. he keeps the money and the drugs.
2. If the party is really scheming, they could recruit the bebbilith/driders into the plot in exchange for their lives/payment.
Mission 2:
Sigil - the number of whacky things that can happen are extreme. You can really give the players a great adventure here, not in terms of combat, but in terms of overloading their senses and really great interactions with the locals. Wizardru will probably have some good suggestions here. As a player I found Sigil to be a really wild experience - just trying to understand the town and touts and local slang was a wild trip. It's also a great chance for skill-based characters to shine. I suggest you really play this one up, and have something accidental happen to them. with so much going on, it's very easy for the group to get sucked into something that wasn't their doing but they're in the middle of regardless.
Endgame:
My guess: the key to this is to get the party obsessed on the mission such that they forget their bigger purpose. The old adage "When you're up to your armpits in alligators, you forget that your original purpose was to drain the swamp." You should get the players to trust the demons by this point, heck even reward them some. Make their servitude comfortable so they aren't inclined to question the motives of their master. Build the complexity of the mission slowly so that they forget that their real purpose is to live to finish the contract.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Zad said:
The party is:
- LN Wizard 11 -- made the deal to save his life
- LG Paladin4/Monk4/custom PrC 3 -- NOT very happy with this arrangement
- LN Rgr1/Wiz6/EK3 -- Not delighted, but curious
- CG Ranger 11 -- hates the Dark Arts, and has favored enemy (Evil Outsiders) + favored enemy (Undead) -- so basically he hates the guts of everyone with whom he's working
I think the players are interested, but the PCs are not happy at all.
Now, the Wizard spoke a pact in Infernal, which is binding IMC -- Asmodeus himself enforces all such pacts (literally, and with great malice). So, they must abide by the letter, which is to serve this very powerful 'Loth for 28 days. Since he has a pet wizard himself (Valdemar, the russian vampire wizard from Gehenna), he's alert to many potential deceptions.
It's true that "serve for 28 days" is rather loose. Basically, the enforcement mechanism I'm using will be that the Infernal contract forces them to report back to base (in Gehenna), where freekin' big yugoloth then analyzes what they say, and then kills them or not.
Zad said:
Yeah. I don't want to force the Paladin into an "Atonement Moment (tm)". I want all such moments to be optional... until the time comes for the party's Reward.
Zad said:
The interplanar city that I'm using is technically Cynosure, which is ripped from the old Dark Horse comic "Grimjack". It's a place where all the dimensions come into phase in varying districts -- summer camp for the laws of physics. Quoting from the comic: "Guns work some places, spells work other places -- swords work everywhere." In game terms, some places are high-mana (normal), some are low-mana (impeded magic), and some lack mana all together (dead magic). They're going to land in the Pit, an impeded-magic district which is built on the corpse of a sentient demi-plane who committed suicide when he found he was stuck in Cynosure.
Zad said:
Cool. Thanks! I'll try.
The 'Loth can't reward the party, since he can't have them working for him and still doing these missions... he's bound by certain restrictions on his behavior, and those follow to his hirelings. The party are technically prisoners. What he can do is be lenient about letting them "steal" -- not report some of their "take" on a mission.
-- N
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Hey all! The party's killed their first three targets (the Erinyes, the Thaumaturgist, and the Kukri-guy), and their next two targets are coming to find them ... the party's not the only group who can Scry-Buff-Teleport, and they're gonna find that out the hard way.
After that, they're off to their new "home away from home" in Gehenna, and then they're off to Carceri for their first off-world assassination mission.
Anyone got good twists on these obvious missions?
- Deliver a sealed message to an extraplanar city (forged message from a human Earth kingdom... unconvincing if delivered by 'Loths).
- Protect an evil cultist who's traveling from one place to another.
- Steal gold & jewels from a wicked baron who out-smarted the 'loths once.
- Destroy the temple of a rival demon-prince.
- Free a fallen angel from a celestial prison.
-- N
After that, they're off to their new "home away from home" in Gehenna, and then they're off to Carceri for their first off-world assassination mission.
Anyone got good twists on these obvious missions?
- Deliver a sealed message to an extraplanar city (forged message from a human Earth kingdom... unconvincing if delivered by 'Loths).
- Protect an evil cultist who's traveling from one place to another.
- Steal gold & jewels from a wicked baron who out-smarted the 'loths once.
- Destroy the temple of a rival demon-prince.
- Free a fallen angel from a celestial prison.
-- N
1) Deliver a sealed message to an extraplanar city
- Suggestion: Public meeting, public transaction. 'loths were testing the influence of the drow in the extraplanar city and this transaction is bound to draw an ambush or two.
2) protect an evil cultist
- evil cultist decides to attack a temple, since the group has to protect him, they have no choice but to tag alone and make sure he survives the "raid"
3) Steal gold & jewels from a wicked baron who out-smarted the 'loths once
-suggestion: steal a symbolic item from the Baron/noble, item is the symbol of the rightful ruler of the said land. 'lolths were outsmarted once, but they know what to do with vassal state if they get their hands on ruling it.
4) Destroy a temple of a demon-prince
-suggestion: destroy an emerging temple of lolth. keeps the plot threads tied in to the pazuzu lolth conflict.
5) Free a fallen angel from a celestial prison.
-suggestion: steal a famous paladin's sword, tabard, or something intrinsic to the paladin, leave it at the celestial prison.
-grins- have fun.
- Suggestion: Public meeting, public transaction. 'loths were testing the influence of the drow in the extraplanar city and this transaction is bound to draw an ambush or two.
2) protect an evil cultist
- evil cultist decides to attack a temple, since the group has to protect him, they have no choice but to tag alone and make sure he survives the "raid"
3) Steal gold & jewels from a wicked baron who out-smarted the 'loths once
-suggestion: steal a symbolic item from the Baron/noble, item is the symbol of the rightful ruler of the said land. 'lolths were outsmarted once, but they know what to do with vassal state if they get their hands on ruling it.
4) Destroy a temple of a demon-prince
-suggestion: destroy an emerging temple of lolth. keeps the plot threads tied in to the pazuzu lolth conflict.
5) Free a fallen angel from a celestial prison.
-suggestion: steal a famous paladin's sword, tabard, or something intrinsic to the paladin, leave it at the celestial prison.
-grins- have fun.
WizarDru
Adventurer
Sorry, crazy week or so, or I'd have been by sooner.
Anywho, let's start with our 'employer'. An advanced Yugoloth, eh? Well, we know that 'loths generally have little regard for anyone or anything other than themselves, and are as likely as not to honor their agreements. However, if Asomdeus is monitoring the agreement, then theoretically the 'loth MUST honor it, no matter how much he tries to twist it.
The trick here is that 'loths are KNOWN to be liars who don't hold to contracts terribly well, and any creature like a 'loth will be assumed by the party to be preparing to betray them. There's simply no way to suprise them with a betrayl...unless you've exhausted them, they're simply waiting for the moment of his deceit (and may have planned for it, in some way).
This is where you join us in the RBDM club.
First off, let's step back for a second and examine our position. The PCs are locked into a contract to serve Khrel-Hadad for the next X days. In that time, he's using them for his own ends, particularly to interfere in the battle of Lolth versus Pauzuzu.
This takes us to the plane of Caceri, the prison plane.
First: there are two kinds of people on Carceri: those who don't want to be there and......um.....OK, there is only just the one kind. Let's rephrase, shall we? There are only two kinds of prisoners on Carceri: those who can't escape, and those who can't be allowed to escape.
For set pieces, use various parts of the environment to creep the players out. Remember that, with one noticable exception, everyone they meet will be a prisoner or guard (and that the guards really don't want to be there, either). PCs will be much more creeped out by sights of petitioners being tortured than by of evil monsters. For example. you could show some 'eternal torments' in progress, in the vein of Sissyphus or Proteus. Imagine coming across a man who pulls himself out of scalding hot lake, his skin horribly burned, scarred and puckered. Around his neck and ankles are long chains that lead back into the lake. He starts to heal, as the PCs watch, and seems to breathe a sigh of relief (perhaps even talks to the PCs or imparts information). Suddenly, he's yanked back in to the scalding lake, screaming in horror and pain...as he does, every five minutes or so. You get the idea.
Also, use the pure alienness of the place to unnerve the players. Use things like odd images, strange architecture and ambient sounds and atmosphere to enhance the experience. Make sure and emphasize what an unpleasant and unwelcoming place Carceri is. If they have to sleep there, make sure they have bad dreams of being trapped, of suffocating or perhaps something specific to the character. Show them the hopeless nature of those trapped there, and the PCs inability to save the damned (at least, on a macro scale).
These same rules apply to the Abyss, but have the tortures and specific differ. The idea is that the planes are a hostile place in many ways, some not purely physcial. With high level spells, PCs can ignore many of the detrimental effects, but not the emotional and spiritual ones. Remember also that pure gore and shock wear off, so use it sparingly...and also gauge your players' tolerance for such material, as well.
Cynosure/Sigil: (Loved Grimjack, btw). Play on PCs perceptions, here. One of the thing that makes Sigil so effective as a setting is that, since deific intervention is blocked, celestials and infernals have to share the same space, glaring at each other over veiled threats. The unusual is usual in Sigil, a veritable 'Casablanca' on the D&D world. Sigil is a crazy place, with it's own odd rules that don't make sense qute often. One could easily argue that Cynosure was the inspiration for Sigil, although I'm sure Cynosure is probably inspired by Zelazny or someone else.
Make Cynosure a mixed-up place, where the impossible seems ordinary to the residents, and things don't make sense. The PCs should feel, after a fashion, that they're walking through a mental asylum part of the time. Doors appear and disappear. Buildings move. Gateways drop people and things from out of nowhere. The beings who maintain the city are inscruitable and unapproachable. The Lady of Pain IS the city, in some ways, and I'd recommend something similar for Cynosure, even if it isn't as personified as the Lady. Focus the group on being out of water and being looked on as clueless newbs or rubes by beings far less powerful than they are. Consider that a street urchin in Sigil knows more than the PCs, and that a tout (guide) in Sigil is a must for non-residents (and some residents, too).
Now, as for rewards....as I said before, the PCs are just waiting for the betrayl. The only thing they don't know about is the when and where. Trip them up, and do something they're not expecting.
Have their supposedly final mission to be to inconvience, trick or somehow muck about in the affairs of one of his betters. Suppose that K-H decides that his time to become something more has come, but he needs to make a vacancy above him? He sends the PCs to procure an item from his leige-lord, a BEARNOLOTH. Let them succeed in the mission, but be discovered in the process, and have to run for their lives. Make it a panicked, tense "he's coming! RUN! What do we do now? " sort of situation. Don't trap the PCs, though, or force their hands to defend themselves (i.e. don't back the paladin into a corner, where he feels he has to make a stand).
Now, have them return to ol' Khel-Hadrad with the item, and then have the Bearnoloth show up and crush him. How does it play out? That's up to you. Could be that they fight each other to a near stand-still...and one falls. The PCs now have to finish off the victor, if they hope to survive and escape. Could be that one has an ace up his sleeve, and destroys the other. What he does in his victory is up to you.
Take away some of their moral certitude, even in their victory. Lie down with dogs, and get up with fleas. Zad is very correct, though, in that you should not punish the paladin or force some sort of atonement moment on him to survive or win. Sacrifice, perhaps, but not that. Give them a chance to be noble, if possible. Even better, give the paladin a chance to scold the wizard with a "I told you so" moment.
You could even use this as a way to extend some of their planes-hopping.
Give me some time, I'll think of more.
Anywho, let's start with our 'employer'. An advanced Yugoloth, eh? Well, we know that 'loths generally have little regard for anyone or anything other than themselves, and are as likely as not to honor their agreements. However, if Asomdeus is monitoring the agreement, then theoretically the 'loth MUST honor it, no matter how much he tries to twist it.
The trick here is that 'loths are KNOWN to be liars who don't hold to contracts terribly well, and any creature like a 'loth will be assumed by the party to be preparing to betray them. There's simply no way to suprise them with a betrayl...unless you've exhausted them, they're simply waiting for the moment of his deceit (and may have planned for it, in some way).
This is where you join us in the RBDM club.
First off, let's step back for a second and examine our position. The PCs are locked into a contract to serve Khrel-Hadad for the next X days. In that time, he's using them for his own ends, particularly to interfere in the battle of Lolth versus Pauzuzu.
This takes us to the plane of Caceri, the prison plane.
First: there are two kinds of people on Carceri: those who don't want to be there and......um.....OK, there is only just the one kind. Let's rephrase, shall we? There are only two kinds of prisoners on Carceri: those who can't escape, and those who can't be allowed to escape.
For set pieces, use various parts of the environment to creep the players out. Remember that, with one noticable exception, everyone they meet will be a prisoner or guard (and that the guards really don't want to be there, either). PCs will be much more creeped out by sights of petitioners being tortured than by of evil monsters. For example. you could show some 'eternal torments' in progress, in the vein of Sissyphus or Proteus. Imagine coming across a man who pulls himself out of scalding hot lake, his skin horribly burned, scarred and puckered. Around his neck and ankles are long chains that lead back into the lake. He starts to heal, as the PCs watch, and seems to breathe a sigh of relief (perhaps even talks to the PCs or imparts information). Suddenly, he's yanked back in to the scalding lake, screaming in horror and pain...as he does, every five minutes or so. You get the idea.
Also, use the pure alienness of the place to unnerve the players. Use things like odd images, strange architecture and ambient sounds and atmosphere to enhance the experience. Make sure and emphasize what an unpleasant and unwelcoming place Carceri is. If they have to sleep there, make sure they have bad dreams of being trapped, of suffocating or perhaps something specific to the character. Show them the hopeless nature of those trapped there, and the PCs inability to save the damned (at least, on a macro scale).
These same rules apply to the Abyss, but have the tortures and specific differ. The idea is that the planes are a hostile place in many ways, some not purely physcial. With high level spells, PCs can ignore many of the detrimental effects, but not the emotional and spiritual ones. Remember also that pure gore and shock wear off, so use it sparingly...and also gauge your players' tolerance for such material, as well.
Cynosure/Sigil: (Loved Grimjack, btw). Play on PCs perceptions, here. One of the thing that makes Sigil so effective as a setting is that, since deific intervention is blocked, celestials and infernals have to share the same space, glaring at each other over veiled threats. The unusual is usual in Sigil, a veritable 'Casablanca' on the D&D world. Sigil is a crazy place, with it's own odd rules that don't make sense qute often. One could easily argue that Cynosure was the inspiration for Sigil, although I'm sure Cynosure is probably inspired by Zelazny or someone else.
Make Cynosure a mixed-up place, where the impossible seems ordinary to the residents, and things don't make sense. The PCs should feel, after a fashion, that they're walking through a mental asylum part of the time. Doors appear and disappear. Buildings move. Gateways drop people and things from out of nowhere. The beings who maintain the city are inscruitable and unapproachable. The Lady of Pain IS the city, in some ways, and I'd recommend something similar for Cynosure, even if it isn't as personified as the Lady. Focus the group on being out of water and being looked on as clueless newbs or rubes by beings far less powerful than they are. Consider that a street urchin in Sigil knows more than the PCs, and that a tout (guide) in Sigil is a must for non-residents (and some residents, too).
Now, as for rewards....as I said before, the PCs are just waiting for the betrayl. The only thing they don't know about is the when and where. Trip them up, and do something they're not expecting.
Have their supposedly final mission to be to inconvience, trick or somehow muck about in the affairs of one of his betters. Suppose that K-H decides that his time to become something more has come, but he needs to make a vacancy above him? He sends the PCs to procure an item from his leige-lord, a BEARNOLOTH. Let them succeed in the mission, but be discovered in the process, and have to run for their lives. Make it a panicked, tense "he's coming! RUN! What do we do now? " sort of situation. Don't trap the PCs, though, or force their hands to defend themselves (i.e. don't back the paladin into a corner, where he feels he has to make a stand).
Now, have them return to ol' Khel-Hadrad with the item, and then have the Bearnoloth show up and crush him. How does it play out? That's up to you. Could be that they fight each other to a near stand-still...and one falls. The PCs now have to finish off the victor, if they hope to survive and escape. Could be that one has an ace up his sleeve, and destroys the other. What he does in his victory is up to you.
Take away some of their moral certitude, even in their victory. Lie down with dogs, and get up with fleas. Zad is very correct, though, in that you should not punish the paladin or force some sort of atonement moment on him to survive or win. Sacrifice, perhaps, but not that. Give them a chance to be noble, if possible. Even better, give the paladin a chance to scold the wizard with a "I told you so" moment.
You could even use this as a way to extend some of their planes-hopping.
Give me some time, I'll think of more.
