Dead end as DM

[Dreiko]

My first post here, nice to be in yout community guys.


I have a serious problem with my Eberron campaign's plot.


The facts are that my players, when were on their quest, found additional treasure than
the one they were send for.
The item - let's call it X - was really important to the players' patron and they knew it.
They were disappointed with the reward for their primary goal - although they had come to
an agreement in the first place - and they decided to keep X. One of them, member of a
noble wealthy house - NOT dragonmarked house - decided to give it to his father to watch it.

They send their patron a message letting him know that they have information about X but
they want a huge reward - knowing that he was searching X his whole life.
Now the problem is that I really needed this item to be stolen from their patron - if he had it.
Now that a member of a noble house has it, it can't be tracked there. I would love some ideas
how i can make it happen.

What CAN'T happen:
- Use Locate Object (none has ever touched the item)
- The player's father become a traitor
- Other members of the house know about it (the player was ensured that they were alone)

Players are lvl 4 and they currently are away for some personal seeking that will last at least one week.

So, what can happen in one week and have this item stolen?

 

[DEFCON 1]

My first question to ask is why you need the item stolen? Is it the McGuffin for another plotline you have lined up involving the party? Does X have to be that McGuffin, or can you run the plotline some other way?

Assuming that no, having this X item back out in the world is your only option... here are some ideas:

- Another noble house / group / organization has been keeping tabs on the wealthy father's noble house for some reason (possible espionage /bad blood between them or whatnot). And thus while the PC and father thought they were alone when they made the exchange... there were bugs or arcane eyes or something in the room and this other group did witness what X was and where it was put, and then broke into the father's home and retrieved it. This helps set up a new foil for your campaign of another House that is perhaps running at odds with the party.

- The patron agrees to the party's demands for a large reward for object X and they set up an exchange. During the exchange of object for reward... an enemy of the party attacks them and the object gets lost / stolen during the melee. This is good if you have another enemy that you want to reintroduce into your plotline.

- The object that the party found is not in fact the actual object, but a well-made replica. The actual object is still out there. Perhaps in fact that there are multiple replicas out there. So you can go through the exchange between patron and party as above, only for the patron to get his hands on it and discover that it was a fake. This might be cool if you wanted to put a little tension between patron and party, if the patron thinks the party is trying to scam him (in return for past crap rewards.) If you go the "multiple replicas" route, you also now have an interesting plotline where the party has to find where the actual object X is, and who was it that made the duplicates.

- If you want to go with the "father is a traitor" idea but not actually have the father betray his child... you can do that by having the "father" that took the object for safekeeping to actually be a changeling that is impersonating the father. Perhaps the father has been kidnapped / killed for some reason, and the party doesn't know it? If you really want to screw with your PC's head... perhaps the changeling has been playing the father his entire life (with or without the knowledge of the mother)?

Here's just several ideas for you. I'm sure others can come up with several more. Good gaming!

 

[Dreiko]

As I said it was my first post, so I was not really sure what information I had to give.

The X is not the One Ring, neither a +1 dagger. It's powerful - within some limitation -, it requires knowledge and years of study. It is part of the Draconic Prophecy - in my Campaign that is - so, yes, I really need it in my world. The problem is not that fact that I dont have it. The problem is that I cannot control it right now and possibly for a lot more time, which twists the plot and "ruins" the Draconic Prophecy.

Well, maybe the Dragons had not see that coming when they created the prophecy (!!!) but I would rather this will be repaired - as part of the prophecy always.

The idea with the replica item - although I really like it - can't be used for X unfortunately.

The rest are nice, I still have a 4-5 days to the next session, so I will wait for some more ideas, else I think I will go for a combination of the changeling and the "exchange assault" ideas.

Appreciated, thanks a lot

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Without knowing more details, what would the Father being a traitor entail exactly? Could the patron, instead of agreeing to the pricey demands of the players, approach the father and make some gentleman-like, diplomatic deal? Would a man of a noble house be able to be reasoned with?

How about the patron initially gives into the financial demands of the PCs? He gives them the money they ask for in exchange for the item, but harbors vengeance for the PC's greed and betrayal. If the patron has any access to mid-to high level magic, he can either Major Creation some false gold so it disappears after the exchange, insert some Listening Coin and Spymaster's Coin to track the PC's until they rest for the night and send a team to retrieve the cash or attack for revenge, or set up some good ol' fashioned bandits along the road to jump the PCs as they travel along. Half a dozen level 5 bandits on the road should be enough to incapacitate the party, steal the gold back and their gear, clothes, what have you. Than, naked, unarmed and bruised they wake up on the side of the road the next morning. The patron pulls up in a carriage, having coincedently been traveling along the road the day after the assault, fakes concern and offers to help them get re-established if they're willing to run another quest or two for him.

 

[MarkB]

Can't you simply wait until after they've sold the item to the wealthy patron to have it stolen? It feels like you're trying to force the plot rather than let it be influenced by the PCs' actions.

If you absolutely have to get it stolen, there are some options:

Presumably, this patron isn't too security-conscious if the item was going to be stolen from him, so there are a couple of angles you can play there.

1.) Whoever's after the McGuffin finds - or finds out about - the message the PCs sent to the patron and deduces that they have the object in safe-keeping. Either by spying upon them, deduction, or simply following up every possibility, they learn who is holding the object and steal it, possibly getting the PC's father killed in the process if you're looking for some extra angst factor.

2.) The patron himself realises the PCs are holding out on him, and rather than paying their exorbitant demands hires a group of mercenaries to locate and steal the McGuffin. That goes pretty much the same way as above, except that one or more of the mercenaries was actually the person who was after the item, and instead of returning it to the patron he makes off with it for his own purposes.

Finally: Is there any link (or possibility of a link) between the patron and the PC's father? If it turns out that they're friends and that the father knows of the patron's long search for the item, maybe he just goes ahead and hands it over, disapproving of his son's attempt to wring more money out of his friend. And then, at some later point, it gets stolen from the patron as originally planned.

 

[amerigoV]

Its time to bring on some full frontal Eberron: Sounds like the patron needs to hire House Tharashk to find the PCs and force them to give up the item.

Another option is that finding X now triggers the next step in the Prophecy. There are now other pieces of the board in motion. There may be other forces in play that have no qualms about a scorched earth policy ("when your quarry goes to ground, do not leave them any ground to go to). Start subtle - associates of the party start to go missing. Then circle in closer - other contacts, friends, extended family, and suddenly even the patron has disappeared and is not responding to the extortion (in that case, he/she is on the run for plot purposes). Make the Players very paranoid. If they still hold out - then the other forces slaughter the PC's families and eventually take X.

Your players sound about as bright as Aaron Hernandez - take advantage of it. In the words of the Shadow, "the weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay" (if I read you right, they did not technically break their contract as X is out of scope, but its close enough)

 

[Dreiko]

It is my first long-term Campaign I run as DM. Simple session or 3-4 session do not count. So I tried to run 4-5 stories in the background, since I'm not extraordinair in twist-plot-on-the-fly.

I really wanted to run an open campaign, where the players have the final reason of how the campaign evolves. The fact that I need the item stolen is not because I do not want them to have it. I also do not want them to feel tricked-by-DM so I need a legitimate and reasonable way to have the item back to the world.

Unfotunately the patron has no direct relation to the player's father, and the patron himself trully cares about the PCs. He, however, is a double agent and wants the X for one of his masters, but still he understands the frustration of the players for asking tons of money, and tries to keep both sides happy.

The Patron's master, though, cares a little about him - he is the reason the patron became double agent - and even less for the PCs, and he is actually the one that has the item stolen.

The problem is that the father himself will not get X out of his safe. I need a seasonable way for someone to know X's location, infiltrate and steal it.

Thanks a lot for replies guys

 

[LostSoul]

Here's what I would do (assuming no access to Divination magic):

Have the master tell the patron that he'll get the funds somehow. He needs the patron to set up a meet. The master will tell the patron where he wants the meet to be (though he can't guarantee that it'll take place there). He'll send a courier with the cash when the meet is set up.

Then the master springs an ambush on the PCs. (There is no cash.)

The patron will feel double-crossed (since he is), and the PCs will feel double-crossed (since they are). How will the PCs react to the patron? How will the patron react to his master? That could be interesting, there are lots of different ways it could turn out, most of them based on what the players decide to have their PCs do.

And you get to have a nice set-piece encounter. You can make it an especially challenging one, too, since the NPCs don't want to kill the PCs; they just want to get the goods and get away.

How does the MacGuffin work, anyway? The PCs are probably going to screw it up in some way, unless you don't let their choices make a difference. It seems like player agency in this plot and a pre-determined course of events are in conflict, but they don't have to be. Maybe there's a way to resolve the conflict.

 

[DnD_Dad]

Powerful houses always have servants and some of those servants are usually spies for other houses. Have on gain knowledge and have them relay the message to another house. Then double cross the house through a series of these spies and infiltrators.

 

[N'raac]

The Patron could decide to hire someone to steal the item. He knows who the PC's are and it seems a minimal stretch to suggest someone could figure out who his father is, and that this is a likely storage location for the item. They steal the item, but double cross the patron, and sell it to the other faction (or they are the other faction).

Or the Master hires this group without the patron's knowledge. The item could sit with Dad while you advance one of your other plots - the Patron refuses, or simply takes time to access the funds and other things happen in the interim. People in the area may start to wonder why he's so desperate to raise these funds quickly. What could he want? Say, isn't he obsessed with the McGuffin? Could it be that it has been found?

Or, as someone else pointed out, he pays their price, and the item is stolen from him afterwards. But it seems no more a stretch that someone can learn he has it than that someone can learn the PC's have it.