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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whisper72" data-source="post: 5475181" data-attributes="member: 17339">The idea sounds fine, but I would scatter multiple hooks / reasons to stay in the city.Maybe there are also a few NPC caravan guards, and maybe one gets killed during the attack with the bandits. The guard asks te PC's to convey some last message to his wife / child who lives at freeport. Once there, they find that he leaves a destitute family behind. Maybe some of the PC's feel obligated to 'adopt' them, and help them out. This way they also have someone who is a local, who can give info as to gossip, what's there to do etc.During the travels, the merchant may be muttering to himself. You somehow pick something up about some local thieves' guild or some nasty gang to whom the merchant owes money. Once inside the gates, the caravan is accosted by unsavory types, who remind the merchant 'not to forget his debts'. It is up to the PC's to follow this up or not.Looting the defeated bandits, you not only find normal treasure (coins, stuff etc.), but also a small diary / couple sheets of paper on what appears to be the leader of the brigands. They may mention a relation with a gang in freeport (maybe even the same that is plaguing the merchant?) and some clues as to the hideout / headquarters of the bandits, or maybe the contact / fence for the bandits. Another clue / hook to follow up.If you want to tie into the whole coup thing, maybe the diary contains some words on how they have been contacted (together with other gangs) to create a diversion / commotion during a specific day; the day of the coup. There is talk of payments and contacts. This provides a name of an unsavory person on one side of the political divide to follow up on. The practice of using nasty characers may provide some influence on choosing sides, or at least shows that the side who orchestrated the coup are not squeaky clean.Inside the town, besides noticing the nervousness, maybe there is also talk of repressive measures from the current government, showing they themselves are also not very nice...In short, liberally sprinkle the field with hooks for the PC's to follow up, and so make sure they have enough reason to stick about and provide ample anvenues for further investigation...</blockquote>

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