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Message: <blockquote data-quote="darkbard" data-source="post: 7057898" data-attributes="member: 1282">[MENTION=6874615]Rolenet[/MENTION], thank you for your detailed and useful response! Lots of good ideas there....Some additional information from my designs: I have scripted the three "pitches" these groups will make to the PCs, which may give a little clearer notion of how I see things. What I'm specifically interested in is what comes next after these pitches! I'm looking to provide the players with a limited "sandbox" style game, wherein their own character concerns run against scenarios I throw in their path and they're thus faced with tough decisions. In this way, I hope to avoid any sort of railroading. Plus, I have no overarching campaign narrative (yet?)! I hope one develops through play.In any event, here are the three pitches as currently scripted (these are heavily plagiarized from the D&D Next adventure "Murder in Baldur's Gate" and altered to my purposes):(1) Templar: The Templar who approached you in the Arena stands at a window, looking back out across the city. A meek lad of about ten serves him from the edges of the room.“Look at Tyr,” he says. “See how it crowds itself and teems unchecked? Those ghettoes of the Warrens and Brickyard are breeding grounds for a criminal cabal of wizards called the Veiled Alliance. The Templars and the Crimson Legion mercenary company are charged with defending Tyr. Right now, the Veiled Alliance, not some foreign enemy, is the city’s greatest threat. It threatens much of the city, as today’s murder of one of our Councilmembers reveals.“The Veiled Alliance has us encircled from within. Its agents and rot are worming into every nook of Tyr. These monsters find victims wherever the forces of law are not. They grow bolder daily. They infest our politics and businesses.“Rikus was Tyr’s greatest citizen. Yet a Veiled Alliance assassin attacked him in broad daylight. I will crush them for it. I need people such as you to help me. I can offer coin, of course, but I also offer positions of rank within the Templars and the honor the order’s tabard affords. What say you?”(2) Noblewoman: A human female wearing a diaphanous gold khaleeji dress has long black hair, graying at the temples. “Welcome!” she says. “I am sure Murter showed you a pleasant time thus far. Would you care for a beverage?“I am Shoshana Beryl, member of the Tyr Council and Advisor to King Tithian, as well as matriarch of a family with longstanding and broad interests in Tyr’s political and economic affairs.“I will be forward with you,” Beryl continues. “Our city rots at its core. Even after the removal of the Tyrant, we spiral in mayhem and chaos. Who would dare strike at such a venerated hero as Rikus but those who swear fealty to dark, evil forces? Many have come to our city seeking refuge, and we have graciously opened our doors. But they have brought with them a rotten seed—defiling powers and foul demons which they worship. I intend to sweep this filth from our city and restore Tyr to its proper place of esteem.“The people of whom I speak are in league with a cabal of wizards and defilers known as the Veiled Alliance! Their cancerous fingers reach from the gutters all the way to our most vaunted institutions, including the Templars, and now the King’s Council. They corrupt our lands, manipulate our markets and shipping, and have powerful cronies in the merchant houses and even the Crimson Legion.“To root them out, I must know who they are. I need someone who can trace the Alliance’s network and identify its leaders. Will you aid me?”(3) Veiled Alliance member: “Thank you for coming,” she says in a soft, accented voice, as she sits cross-legged on a pillow next to the old man. “I wasn’t sure you would, but we had great hope.”The woman introduces herself as Anaxana. She introduces the man as “Musayed.” He says little but watches, scowls, or nods sagely when appropriate and refills tea cups as needed.Convey the following:    Anaxana works with the Veiled Alliance. They have been declared a criminal organization because they practice arcane magic, but the truth is that its members practice preserving magic only.    The Veiled Alliance is the people’s only protector from defiler arcanists.    Some among Kalak’s former Templars and defilers continue to practice their foul arts and hope to use their power to bring about Kalak’s return. These loyalists belong to an organization called “The True,” and they are responsible for the assassination of Rikus today.If a hero asks Anaxana about her connection to the Veiled Alliance, read:“The nobles and the Templars blame the Veiled Alliance for everything that goes wrong, and yet they sit on their hands in chairs of gold. You’ve seen the rest of the city. No law’s out here to protect innocent preservers but for the Veiled Alliance. Will you help us in these aims?” If the heroes press her on exactly what the Veiled Alliance does, she admits that the group protects preservers and their auxiliaries, opposes defilers, and seeks to undermine the Sorcerer-Kings.As to the summoning of the demon in the initial encounter, (1) according to 4E DS cosmology, the Abyss resides at the lowest depths of the Elemental Chaos, so it's not entirely out of place; (2) I want to highlight just how foul defiling magic can be; (3) the Druid is a Sentinel with a Living Zephyr elemental companion, so I don't want to blur the lines between elementals too much in the first scene; and (4) I kinda just want to use a demon. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Thanks again for your response!</blockquote>

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