Chris keep out! - Looking for ideas to bounce off of players/dms

[Vincent Blackwater]

Up to now the players have traveled to a coastal city of Tehn, on the way there they came across a caravan that was being attacked by gnolls in a forest. They fought off the gnolls and took the merchants wagons and dying merchant with them. They tended to him on the road until he was better. They came across a group traveling past them on the road, they looked like a rough sort but neither side gave the other trouble. Couple days later they came across a burnt up town with it's inhabitants dead and later on a man killed and woman naked and hanging from a tree, dead.

They get to Tehn (the reason they were headed there was so Mike's character could be knighted for something he did for some minor lord) and learn that Mike has to meet this Lord at a festival that's being held outside the city in a couple of days. The merchant they saved paid and thanked the characters and left. A guy approaches them and offers them a lucrative proposition of breaking into a dwarven vault and getting him a strongbox for 14,000 gold! Mike wanted no part of it but the others tried, however they failed and told the man who hired them they couldn't do it, he wasn't impressed.

Day of the festival they went and Mike was knighted and won the jousting competition there, steve tried the archery competition but failed.

This is where it ends, I plan on having the thieves guild try to recruit maciej (who is a thief) to work a job for them. That will be an adventure he does at night when everyone is sleeping as a solo adventure. Oh and they meet Ebar and Vincent (Vincent an assassin character of mine and ebar a dwarven fighter character of Maciej, favorite old characters of ours) who'll end up helping or looking for their help in an attempt to locate the Order of Assassins, but that's sometime later.

Chris is a warlock who has a staff that detects anyone whose used magic in the last 30 minutes. Now a warlock is an unregistered mage, there is a magi organization who marks their members with a magical marking showing that they are registered mages or magi. The ones who refuse to register are called warlocks and are hunted by magi, and vice versa. There is more of a story here but I'm giving you the short version. Anyways at the festival he detects a mage (doesn't know whether he's warlock or magi) but he doesn't check it out. They will later find him dead with a map on him. This map is to find the covenant of the warlocks a half a day out of the city, they don't know this though, they will know it used to be an underground gladiatorial arena which was shut down by the King 110 years ago. In the depths they find out about the warlocks hiding.

This warlock that had this map was killed by a dark elf mage killer, an assassin trained by the Magi to hunt down warlocks. The warlocks they find in the arena ask for their help to kill this mage hunter, whose too dangerous to have around.

After this a refugee in the city spots steve's character, who is a ranger, and reveals himself to be someone from his clan which steve will recognize. He'll tell him how some band of ravagers destroyed their village and they've done it too many other villages. These ravagers are led by a elf with a two bladed sword, I see him to look kinda like the bad guy in Hellboy 2. This elf is looking for some trinket his master wants him to find, and was told a traveling merchant had it, the elf is close behind the merchant carrying it, but destroys every village the merchant passes through in case he sells it. What the trinket is, I'm not 100% sure, who his master is I'm not 100% sure either. The land is full of Lords and powerful men. Think of it as a kind of Song of Ice and Fire with a little more magic and alot more different races.

I also have an adventure planned where they take back this abandoned keep from monsters that keep inhabiting it. Nothing special about it, it holds no real value. I think a lord will approach them and ask them to clear it out and take up residence so they keep the monsters away from his land, in return he'll give them the keep along with a small plot of land, nothing too big of course, but this lord don't have the men to keep coming out there and beating the monsters away.

HOWEVER my actual problem is I want a world event to happen. I want a war to begin, and I was thinking about something. 1. a group of influential and powerful men organized an order to help give them power over the continent behind the scenes, like Illuminati. 2. The order of assassins kill the king and makes it look like Lord #1 did it, however lord #1 was close with the King, but Lord #2 argues that Lord #1 killed him (Lord #1 and #2 have animosity between them already, and war between the two houses seems possible), a war breaks out between the two houses and the continent is divided into war, some Lords offer no help to either side, however Lord #2 needs more help than Lord #1, so the Lord of Tehn is murdered. But this happens sometime when the festival is happening when the characters are away. The lord of Tehn would side with Lord #1, but Varro, Lord of Tehn's right hand adviser wouldn't. So to put Varro in power they would kill The lord of Tehn. The Lord's son is too young to rule and the wife cannot because she is dimwitted.

Another thing is the head of the Order of assassins is one of the Illuminati and that's why he is able to get the Order to do their bidding without question. I wanted an important assassination to happen in the city to bring intrigue, and I want a war to begin which splits the human colonies. I figure if the King is assassinated that would be a good case for a war to break out, if the king was alive I figured he would try to talk it out or take one side or the other, which could work too I suppose. I would like the assassination in Tehn to have something to do with the upcoming war though.

Have any thoughts? I know this is all jumbled out there, there is alot about the world that isn't here, but I was hoping I could get some idea's. I want it to not just feel like everything is slapped together, I want the events that transpire to feel "real" if you know what I mean.

Thanks for any help you guys have!

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

Depending on the investigative abilites of the party, you could try a change on the 'Princess Bride' option.
Kidnap (maybe with the intent to replace),
The job goes badly (victim is killed),
The characterss are responsible (they interupt the action or implicated in the crime. TREASON!)

To clear their name, they must:
1. Track the real villans.
2. Return the victim or victims seal (or other personal sign of royalty).
3. Undergo agressive tests of loyalty. (shades of 'El Cid')
4. Conspicuously lead the troops against the enemy.

 

[Vincent Blackwater]

My idea was not to have the assassination as an adventure, but as something that happens that helps trigger a bigger event. Eventually why the assassination and who is behind it will come to light.

Any good ideas on having a war come to happen? It's just in the human lands, but I'm looking for some good realistic ideas for a war to come about.

This is an expansion on my first idea: There are two major Houses who have had decades of tension between each other. The bannerman of one house claimed a knight from the bannerman of another house raped his daughter. This House wants justice done, and the other house won't budge making the tension between the houses worse. The victimized house goes to the King where he hears from everyone and claims the daughter lied, the victimized house is furious and rallys his force for a war. *shrugs*

Does that seem ok? What could make it better? This means Illuminati group is unnecessary, but I want to have them involved in inciting this situation. Maybe they could impersonate the knight of the bannerman and actually accost that daughter. Which helps incite the war, the daughter isn't believed because she happens to be really easy and no sign were shown that she was molested (even though she was).

I'm just looking for fresh ideas new or additions to this current one.

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

Np. Keeping the players out of the initial action allows for your plan to unfold without the players mucking things up.

For the plan you have, it works well as a backdrop. Simple, efficent for starting the war, Clear cut.

I don't know what sort of political heirarchy you are using but there are many factions that may be created here.

on the agrieved side:
1. The father and family.
2. Religious fanatics wanting to do the right thing.
3. An interested young noble who has had his future bride dis-honored.
4. Some knight practicing 'love from afar' decides to take revenge. This starts as a raid, if captured The king won't ransom and this creates more support for the girls family, if not caught and continues,this leads to war ...but, the truth of how/why it started might not be known.

for the other:
1. nay sayers. (Think ugly, like the way the you feel loosing the homecoming game on your own field. Soccer-thugs, that sort of thing.)
2. The accused and his vassals/henchmen/hierlings decide to put this behind them...permanantly.
3. The accused feels guilty, wants to turn himself over but isn't allowed. (Enter the illuminatti. For a real twist, maybe the guilty has to be rescued to end the war.)
4. The whole thing was planned to start a war (any reason would have done) but pushing for the other side to strike first. This will generate sympathy with other political entities. If they win they can demand land and consessions from the 'agressors'.

Lots of twists and turns. Most groups I have had in the past would get mighty confused trying to unravel this, especially if you use more than one on each side.

Be careful.

 

[Vincent Blackwater]

This is great, it's hard to come up with things like this by yourself. Your mind is filled with other ideas and whatnot that things tend to get cramped up in it.

I appreciate the help! The great thing about my game is all the twists that come about don't necessarily need to be unraveled/solved. But they could end up popping up in the future as something else.

 

[Herobizkit]

As a DM who also likes to have too much on the go, my only advice is this.

If you have a 'plot', ie you have a way that you want things to work out for the story in your head, make it happen, but keep the PCs out of it. Players tend to want to interfere in 'plots', changing things and/or heading off in completely random direction you can't predict. Let them wander...

... by inventing their own story. For players, you'll want to consider the 'scenario'. Rather than a fully fleshed-out chain of events, give them a situation or setting and let them decide what to do about it.

Plot: The assassination of a king.
Setting: The body of a dead king in his bedchamber.

The former is already decided; the latter makes the players ask questions and try to figure things out on their own. The best part of the latter is that you don't NEED to have it all figured out - the players will often lead YOU along and help you create a story as you go!

 

[Vincent Blackwater]

Good advice, thanks.