Notes for a New Campaign City, Parsantium

[Gilladian]

Is it possible the Golden Scimitars are trying to put pressure on the Kanduq to pay protection money? They may also be trying to indulge in a bit of blackmail...

If they either had a hostage held to ransom, or they threatened to burn the place, hang around outside and drive off clientele, or otherwise make themselves troublesome, the PCs might be called upon to help out.

Especially if there was a bit of blackmail involved, they might have to make a raid on the Scimitars' hideout...

 

[RichGreen]

Session #18

Monday night's shenanigans, in which I learned that vine horrors are tough opponents:


24th Maius (contd)

The PCs make their way outside where Sreedhar, Gong and Ranjeet are waiting. Sreedhar is keen to examine the carvings inside but is disappointed that the party smashed the four-armed warrior statue. After their patron has had a good look round and sketched some of the carvings, the PCs decide to head towards the cave in the side of the hill. Here, Brave Ella scouts around the entrance but the adventurers still aren’t sure whether to proceed so Sharden performs the Hand of Fate ritual. The ghostly blue hand is clear, pointing into the cave. Ella fashions a crude torch and the PCs head inside the dark tunnel.

Ella, Sharden, Krivinn and Margarita head down into the darkness, past crude ogre graffitti and the dead body of a peasant to reach a large cave with an underground stream flowing through the middle. Margarita lights a sunrod, revealing a human woman asleep on a pile of dirty rags and chained to the floor. Looming out of the darkness at the far side of the cavern comes an ogre and his two pet tigers. The two tigers swim across the water to attack Krivinn and Margarita, followed by the ogre – the PCs take down the first tiger but the second one continues to attack the warlord. The ogre smashes Ella for 25 hp damage but she manages to kill it in retaliation, then kicks its corpse in the head several times for good measure. Margarita uses swiftcurrent to cross the stream and charges the tiger, followed by Krivinn. The party finishes off the beast and rescues Mahadevi, the captured peasant woman. Krivinn breaks the news (not that gently!) that her husband Palash is dead and lays hands on her to heal her wounds. Meanwhile, Ella has finished kicking the ogre’s head and cuts it off. The PCs search the cave and find some treasure including a +2 master’s wand of thunderwave and skin the tigers, somewhat inexpertly.

Outside, the party buries Palash’s body and Krivinn says a few appropriate words. Afterwards, the PCs take another extended rest. They promise Mahadevi they will take her back to her village, Riverbend, about ten miles away through the forest.


25th Maius

The PCs head to the ratha at the top of the hill above the ogre’s cave. Unfortunately, the ceiling inside is unstable and Krivinn is only just able to get out before it collapses on his head!

Next the party heads for the last ratha – this one is overgrown with vines and dedicated to Brihaspati. A few skeletons lie among the twisted vines. Unsurprisingly, the skeletons come to life as the PCs enter. What they didn’t expect were the three vine horrors who appear from behind the garhabgriha to attack the PCs, blinding them with caustic clouds and grabbing them with vicious vines. After a very tough fight the party win the day, with Krivinn delivering the killing blow to the spellfiend.


We're almost done with the forest ruins adventure - just the monkey skill challenge to go (if they don't bottle it)

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Is it possible the Golden Scimitars are trying to put pressure on the Kanduq to pay protection money? They may also be trying to indulge in a bit of blackmail...

If they either had a hostage held to ransom, or they threatened to burn the place, hang around outside and drive off clientele, or otherwise make themselves troublesome, the PCs might be called upon to help out.

Especially if there was a bit of blackmail involved, they might have to make a raid on the Scimitars' hideout...

Thanks for the suggestions!

Protection rackets and blackmail are definite possibilities. I like the blackmail angle - what kind of things could be at the centre of the blackmail threat?

Cheers


Richard

 

[Gilladian]

It could be that one of the Kanduq's shopkeepers has an illicit past, which if revealed would ruin his current life. Perhaps evidence of this has fallen into the hands of the bad guys, and now he's being blackmailed into performing actions that harm the Kanduq.

Or one of the shopkeepers is carrying out illegal activities in his shop (selling drugs? running a gambling hall? acting as a message drop for some illegal group?). Again, pick what works best for your storyline. That person is open to pressure from the bad guys.

I can't think of anything else right now!

 

[Jack7]

I like Gill's ideas Rich. Perhaps they could be involved in a number of different criminal activities because criminals, especially organized ones, often are.

For instance any individual, group, or organization that would involve themselves in a protection racket and/or a blackmail scheme would be likely involved in a whole host of criminal activities, anything profitable enough to warrant interest.

A related set of activities might include smuggling, extortion (not just for blackmail in the typical sense, but for favors, influence, etc.), shell companies (merchant activities and shipping companies) and fronting schemes, etc.

Another thing they might be involved in would be allowing or covering for an espionage or spy ring. Something that would be dangerous to the authorities but that an organization like the GS might have ties with. For instance a bazaar would naturally both attract and give cover to (foreign merchants would abound) spies. The GS might have ties with such spies, or even spy groups, maybe even cover them, and then use "fake extortion rackets" so that both groups, the GS, and the spies, tend to benefit in order to finance their operations.

A spy becomes involved with a Khanduq merchant which the GS then says they know about. (They know about it cause they secretly helped plant the initial contacts through a third party or a disguised member of their own party.)

The spy pays money to the merchant to let him operate but the GS then blackmails the merchant threatening to send him up to the authorities. The GS uses the blackmail to recover the money the spy has paid, thus reimbursing the spy while still allowing him to operate, and they blackmail for more than the spy paid in order to cover their own cut of the racket. the merchant is out money for both but is unaware of the relationship between the spy or spies and the GS.

This could lead to a lot of interesting role play opportunities. For instance the merchant or merchants could hire their own "protection" or even spies or undercover operatives to track their enemies and discover what is really going on.

Very nice pics of Istanbul by the way, especially the Hippodrome, the Cistern, and the Blue Mosque.

My own setting is very Constantinople oriented (on our world anyway) and so I liked your photos.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi Gilladian & Jack7 -- thanks for the cool suggestions! I've just started running Wrath of the River King (session write up to follow) so I've got a bit of time to develop a Golden Scimitars adventure for when the PCs return and can incorporate your ideas.

Very nice pics of Istanbul by the way, especially the Hippodrome, the Cistern, and the Blue Mosque.

My own setting is very Constantinople oriented (on our world anyway) and so I liked your photos.

Thanks! Just checked out your setting - very cool stuff.

Totally agree on the Byzantium 1200 website - really useful stuff. I bought a great book done by the people who did the site when I was in Istanbul which I'm going to use to help describe some of the key locations in the Imperial Quarter.

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Session #19 Wrath of the River King Part 1

Here's what happened in Monday night's session when we kicked off Wrath of the River King:

25th Maius contd
The party takes an extended rest after the exhausting battle with the vine horrors. Refreshed, the PCs decide, at last, to brave the Monkey Temple where the little feyshore monkeys gather round the party, climbing all over them. One grabs Sharden’s wand and runs off with it; another snatches Krivinn’s necklace with Bahamut’s symbol (the one he was given by the Water Boys as a reward). Sharden blasts the two culprits with grasping shards but three others jump on his arm and throw off his aim. Krivinn breathes on a group of monkeys, killing four and horrifying Sreedhar who shouts out that the creatures are sacred to Hanuman. The dragonborn decides to try a different tack and heads for the temple door as Sharden runs after the two thieves who have leapt into the trees. Margarita and Brave Ella follow the dwarf.

Krivinn goes inside the temple and addresses Hanuman’s statue, explaining his anger at having his precious necklace stolen. The god doesn’t reply but Krivinn leaves him several offerings nonetheless: Ashna’s greenstone hippo, a silver shuriken and a blessed sling. As he kneels down before the idol he spots a loose flagstone – lifting it up he finds a pair of red leather gloves emblazoned with Hanuman’s face.

Meanwhile, the others are chasing the two monkeys. Dashing after them, Sharden blasts the little animals with grasping shards, killing them both. Krivinn’s necklace gets caught on a branch but the invoker’s wand falls out the tree and into the arms of another feyshore monkey who runs off with it! Margarita climbs the tree and manages to retrieve the necklace while Ella and Sharden chase after the wand. Eventually, they catch up with the monkey and Ella is able to coax it down from the treetops. It drops the wand at the PCs’ feet, holding its hands out for food.

Back at the temple, Krivinn carries all the dead monkeys inside but soon brings them back out again when the other monkeys start screeching at him. Instead, he buries the little bodies in the ground. With the burial complete and their items recovered, the PCs beat a hasty retreat from the immediate vicinity and rest for the night.


26th Maius
The PCs divide up the treasure and give Sreedhar his cut – the scholar takes the gold and gems and leaves the party with the magic items they’ve found. Saying farewell to Sreedhar as he returns to Parsantium, the PCs head for the village of Riverbend to take Mahadevi home.

Towards the end of the day, the PCs arrive at the village mill – across the other side of the dam, two beautiful horses drink from the pond watched by an eladrin knight in green armour and his squire. As the party approach, the knight leaps into his saddle and shouts “Which of you dares cross water guarded by the servants of the River King? None shall pass the river without defeating me first.” He rides on to the dam and challenges Krivinn. Sharden casts offer of justice and then the knight charges the dragonborn paladin. The others ignore (or just don’t get) the principles of single combat and get stuck in. Margarita leads the attack, cutting off the Green Knight’s head and is somewhat surprised when it grows back! Sharden then pushes Sir Oberest into the stream with thunder of judgement. Illisfan the squire uses fey step to appear behind Ella and Sharden as the Green Knight uses his entangling blade to restrain Krivinn after fey stepping back on to the dam. Margarita bull rushes the knight into the water for a second time but the squire is able to knock Sharden in too with his bashing shield. Ella shoots Illisfan, killing him, as the Green Knight flees, chased by Krivinn who takes him down. Sir Oberest’s horse runs off but Margarita manages to grab hold of the squire’s so that Ella can leap on its back. The elf ranger rides round on it for a while but the horse is just lulling her into a false sense of security. While the others search the two eladrin’s bodies, the fey horse steps through the mists and then runs off. Margarita takes the squire’s bashing shield which is decorated with a golden bee on a green field.

The PCs carry on into the village, unimpressed by the welcome they’ve received so far from the people of Riverbend. Outside the Golden Knight Tavern, a crowd is gathered. The PCs talk to the men and women, learning that a talking bear and a gang of satyrs are running riot inside the bar. There is also some talk about Hamid the miller murdering his eladrin wife but the party decide to deal with one issue at a time. Krivinn strides inside the tavern and starts trying to reason with the satyrs. He does well initially but ends up antagonizing the fey who attack. The bear’s fierce roar causes Krivinn and Margarita a lot of trouble, making it hard for them to attack the beast in melee. The satyrs taunt the party, whirling around the taproom and jabbing with their spears. It’s a very tough battle which spills outside into the street. Both Krivinn and Margarita end up bloodied but the PCs are eventually able to kill four of the satyrs and to drive off the fifth one and Redcoat the feyborn bear.

Any comments?


Richard

 

[Garthanos]

The Dragonborns actions really made the monkey scene come to life for me... amid the semi standard kill the monkey D&D response

 

[Gilladian]

I really like the fairytale/legendary elements you worked in. I'm running a city campaign right now, and I'm trying to imagine working a "green knight's challenge" in; I can't imagine how I'd do that in an urban setting....

 

[RichGreen]

The Dragonborns actions really made the monkey scene come to life for me... amid the semi standard kill the monkey D&D response

Thanks - it was a lot of fun to play.

Cheers


Richard