Creative help needed: The King of Beggars

[Jon_Dahl]

I'd like to make an adventure starting with the following setup:

Royalties of a small kingdom are concerned... Rumors are flying around that the fabled King of Beggars is approaching their lands. No one really knows who is and what does he want.

So I got an unhealthy fixation to make an long adventure that begins like this, but I'm unable to think of anything really epic... Something interesting, new and fresh. Before you reprimand me of lack imagination, I can tell you that I suffer from a minor creative burn-out (ok, maybe a big one!).

My PCs are 7th to 9th level. The campaign world is Greyhawk.

 

[Stormonu]

It turns out that the King of Beggars is an ancient Suel lich who managed to survive the Rain of Colorless Fire, but his own lands and holding were reduced to ruin in the process. In the time since then, the Suel lich has wandered the world, stealing treasures and pursuing artifacts and returning them to a secret vault deep in the wastes of the Sea of Dust.

The King's most recent plots bring him to the stomping grounds of the adventures. There, hidden in an ancient Baklunish stronghold in the nearby hills lies one of the many artifacts that the King desires to return the glory of the Sueloise Empire - or at least a fascimile of it, with him as the head.

The King has sent forth his servants - raiding parties of humanoids and Flan brigands, led by members of the Scarlett Brotherhood who see the King as a rightful heir to the return of the Suloise empire.

The King of Beggar's approach then is preceded with the sacking and looting of several small nearby towns. Treasure is absconded with, and slaves are taken. Rumors fly of spies everywhere, eyes of the King looking for weaknesses before his raiders strike.

For this arm of the King's plot, the powerful Scarlet Brotherhood monk, Hand of Beggars Ka-Nish'ka has been placed in charge of the local bandits and humanoids. Based out of the Baklunish ruins, Ka rules those beneath him with an iron grip. He has discovered a chamber within the ruins that hint at a vault containing the powerful artifact his master desires, but his work crews have been unable to find the hidden vault.

According to what Ka has learned, there is a compass-like device that was placed into the Baklunish fortress that would reveal the location of the vault. Through his spies, Ka has learned that centuries after the fortress fell, the device was taken by a local druidic sect as some sort of religious icon. Unfortunately, in a skirmish with nearby lizard men tribes, the artifact was lost in a peat bog near the coastal waters.

Ka has sent out his Flan raiders to steal supplies from neighboring towns (including capturing slave work crews to dig out the fortress) and prevent any sort of organized resistance from forming to push him out of the area.

In the meantime, he has sent his humanoid followers into the peat bog to hunt for the missing artifact (they don't complain about the nasty conditions as much as the Flan raiders do). Unfortunately, the lizard men tribes there have been hampering the search for the item, but Ka is unwilling to give up.

------

The characters could be easily involved by being asked to hunt down these beggar-bandits, whose latest raid decimated a nearby thorp. A single escapee relates that most of the small town of 40 were taken as prisoners to an unknown end.

If the characters ride to the thorp, they find a few of the bandits still remaining, looting and torching the remains. These bandits, or the somewhat-obvious trail can lead the characters back to a nearby cave that an arm of the bandit legion is using between raids. In this cave, not only is there ample treasure, but coded messages from Ka on the next strike and maps of the area showing several nearby towns as targets - including the PCs own. There are also hints that a much larger army is the area.

Returning back to their town, they will discover beggar-spies have already infiltrated the town when they attempt to silence the characters. Assuming the characters defeat their assailants, they discover on one careless attacker a map back to the beggar-spy's hideout. Tracking that back, they discover a few beggar-bandit scouts, who attempt to escape upon being assailed.

After the defeat of the beggar-bandits, the characters find information about a local traitor who has been working with the beggars. In return for sparing his life, he offers to disguise the characters as bandits and integrate back into the larger arm and discover the location and purpose of the larger army. Unfortunately, the ruse is only likely to work if the traitor accompanies the characters to vouch and cover for any mistakes they make.

If the characters go along with this plan, they are led to a stronghold the bandits have hastily constructed to act as a raiding platform for the nearby area. Penetrating into its depths, they have the chance to discover the bandits association to the humanoid patrols in the nearby bogs (the humanoids have sent messengers to the bandits demanding assistance in dealing with the lizard men). They also gain the chance to take out the Flan commander and thereby temporarily disrupt the bandit army.

Unfortunately for the characters, taking out the Flan commander alerts the army to the presence of the group and the only viable way out of the complex is through the tunnel system that deposits the characters in the peat bog. Not far from tunnel's exit is the closest humanoid camp, and from it the characters can learn where the humanoids are concentrating their search.

Investigating, the characters discover a fortified lizard man warren, at the heart of which is the compass-like artifact. The characters can fight their way to it or attempt to negotiate with the lizard men for the item - who believe that it leads to a great evil, and will only relinquish it willingly to those whom prove they intent to destroy the evil, and can beat their T-rex mascot.

Having acquired the compass-like artifact, the characters can use it to locate the ancient Baklunish fortress, and Ka's forces working tirelessly to find the ancient vault. It might be possible to negotiate with Ka to give him the compass in return for leaving the area once the artifact has been recovered, but it is more likely Ka will simply prefer to take the item and return with the characters and the local inhabitants as slave and servants for his new master.

 

[Rechan]

My instinct here is to go with something a little more mundane and yet uncomfortable.

The King of Beggars is the general of a social movement. A charismatic Gandhi/Mother Theresa type who advocates for the lowest classes, the homeless, the poor, and so on. He might have saintly power - the ability to feed all those starving poor, etc. He challenges the existing class system and economic disparity inherent in feudalism. Perhaps he even advocates communism. It's very radical compared to ye olde feudalistic setup, but very popular with the serfs and peasants and, of course, the beggars.

The problem is that his movements in the past have led to bloody rebellion and revolution. The French Revolution with redbull. With it not only comes governmet instability but economic collapse, or other terrible tragedies due to the mob rule.

The King of Beggars is hard to get to because he's surrounded by homeless fanatically loyal to him, and only diehrd monarchist loyalists would mount up opposition because they are sympathetic to his cause. He might also have supernatural protecton (demonic agents or the church of an evil deity who thrive on the chaos and turmoil left in his wake). Agents of the KoB might spoil crops or seed anti-Nobility civil unrest before he shows up, so the political climate is ripe for harvest.

The PCs might first be asked to investigate him. And to do so they go to where he has been. Whe they get back, they might wind up in the middle of a riot over food. They might find out about agents working on behalf of the KoB - perhaps pushing the Nobility or Royalty into retaliatory action, playing into the KoB's rhetoric. They could be tasked to take him out directly, or try to discredit him, or to remove his supernatural backing. Perhaps his powers are related to an item they could steal, proving him a fraud. Perhaps he is not human, something else behind a mask and they reveal him. Perhaps he's a cleric of an Evil chaotic deity and they reveal his church affiliations. Or perhaps they are tasked to assassinate him.

Part of the fun of this is that your players might initially be sympathetic or approve of the KoB's efforts. Maybe they get uncofortbale if the King bribes/orders them to stop him. Make the KoB out to be a good guy... until they learn about the previous consequences of his actions in other places. Even if they know the score, it should be uncomfortable going against him as he's surrounded by people worth pitying - when the players move to oppose him, emphasize all the sick and lame who would be so Heartbroken. And so angry that the KoB is taking advantage of the meek, giving them false hope.

 

[Thanael]

The City of Greyhawk actually has a Beggar's Union which is also detailed in the first of the Gord the Rogue novels by Gygax.

Erik Mona wrote an article on the guild in Dragon 301 though it now features a new beggarmaster:

Greyhawk’s Beggar’s Union
By Erik Mona
Details the beggar’s union of Greyhawk City, its history, current circumstances, its services and leader Beggarmaster Gaspar.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

I've been thinking about this a lot (too much) and I've got something along the lines of Rechan and Stormonu.

KoB is a Duergar 9th-level Psion (Egoist) of Chaotic Neutral alignment.
He was originally a partner of an evil Duergar telepath on an isolated tropical island in Azure Sea. They had long ago studied the mystery of a lost library of Zuoken and finally after years of research they found it from that island. They took it over and subjugated the cannibal tribes under their heel.

However duergar Egoist's studies at the library tickled his imagination and he became fascinated in an ancient philosophy which incorporates absolute pacifism with an immaterial style of life.

One day he escaped the island riding a giant owl and came to the continent of Flanaess, after which he and the giant owl went separate ways. He wandered the lands and helped the poor, preaching his way of nonviolence to everyone. He uses illusions to cover his identity, appearing as a dwarf, halfling, gnome or a short human woman.

Now a triad of powerful nobles have gotten upset with the fact that this mysterious character has appeared to potentially challenge their authority and has put a bounty on his capture. However due to ultimatum from the Marchioness of Sterich, they are not allowed to offer the bounty for his head. No martyrs allowed... So: "To be captured alive".

Now PCs come into play.
First they have to find out where the KoB is.
Next, there is a rival group of adventurers hunting KoB. A famed group from another kingdom.
Also there's a bountyhunter after KoB, whom has been hired by the duergar telepath (ex-partner KoB).
If and when this bountyhunter strikes, it is revealed that the giant owl is a prisoner of his associates.
After players figure out where the imprisoned giant owl is, they have to fight (or use a bit of creativity) to free her.
Giant owl is obviously pissed off and promises to take the players to KoB's ex-partner's island. However he can't carry them all, so they need to rent a ship.
Island has plenty of exotic monsters, such as cannibal halflings (my players are not too familiar with Dark Sun) and tyrannosauruses.
After defeating the high-level psion and taking over the library of Alex... Zuoken, the players can return back home pockets full of gold and magic.

But the hook is that KoB is actually creating a lot of mess with his way. He doesn't defend himself in any way and offers no resistance. He doesn't defend the people around him and doesn't concern himself with their fate. He simply wants to make them to understand how important pacifism is and nothing can stop him. He feels that all reasoning which goes against his frantic mission is simply "bad karma". During the courses of his missions, several innocent are harmed because the bountyhunter tortures people to find him and the rival adventuring group doesn't care if people get hurt as long they get KoB and "bring him to justice" (for what?).

Also it would be interesting to see how the debates about pacifism go with PCs, since they fight almost in daily basis.

 

[Celebrim]

My instinct here is to go with something a little more mundane and yet uncomfortable.

The King of Beggars is the general of a social movement. A charismatic Gandhi/Mother Theresa type who advocates for the lowest classes, the homeless, the poor, and so on. He might have saintly power - the ability to feed all those starving poor, etc. He challenges the existing class system and economic disparity inherent in feudalism. Perhaps he even advocates communism. It's very radical compared to ye olde feudalistic setup, but very popular with the serfs and peasants and, of course, the beggars.

The problem is that his movements in the past have led to bloody rebellion and revolution. The French Revolution with redbull. With it not only comes governmet instability but economic collapse, or other terrible tragedies due to the mob rule.

The King of Beggars is hard to get to because he's surrounded by homeless fanatically loyal to him, and only diehrd monarchist loyalists would mount up opposition because they are sympathetic to his cause. He might also have supernatural protecton (demonic agents or the church of an evil deity who thrive on the chaos and turmoil left in his wake). Agents of the KoB might spoil crops or seed anti-Nobility civil unrest before he shows up, so the political climate is ripe for harvest.

Hmmm... it sounds like The King of Beggars might actually be an incarnation of Breasdfea or Kliugbul in disguise. See link in my signature.

That at least would solve the Epic problem.