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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8339350" data-attributes="member: 6704184">I think that some ideas from tragic romantic fantasy, like Guy Gavriel Kay, can actually be really good S&S adventure hooks. The Sorcerer King lost his favorite child to the people of one PC's homeland, and the Sorcerer King responded by breaking their towers, raping their wealth, burning their libraries, and cursing their land so that only natives could hold the name of the land in their mind, could hear it without immediately forgetting it. These once proud folk are now scattered, though some remain in their homeland, which is now named after their oldest rivals (becoming Lower Corte in the novel Tigana). The people cannot even say their proper names in the presence of others, because they styled themselves using the name of their principality (d'Tigana), and the pain of saying the word and seeing a blank face is enough that most are simply trying to move on and forget. But not the PC and their allies. They seek to end this curse, but it is complicated by the presence of another Sorcerous invader in the region who will sweep in and take the Sorcerer Kings lands if he is killed or his power broken, so they must find a path to break the power of both Sorcerers and free the region, not just their own land. Not because they care about the lives of their neighbors, but because their own home will never be free while either Sorcerer is there. That is from a novel (Tigana) that is very much romantic fantasy based on medieval Italy and it's city states and provinces that often allowed invaders in on the promise that the invaders would destroy their rivals, but it's a story hook that works beautifully in S&S, either as a PC background, a "you're all from here" group background, or even the background of a quest giver, who might in turn try to send the PCs to their death in order to achieve his ends. Hell, the PCs could start out as mercenaries in the employ of one of the Sorcerers, and get dragged into the rebellious plots by circumstance and by reluctant and begrudging empathy and the promise of wealth, and/or by their favorite NPC friend being revealed to be involved and/or getting taken prisoner by one of the Sorcerers.</blockquote>

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