EN World City Project: NPC Contest #1... Final Results!!!!

Early as Ordered!!

Key Phrase: "Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"
Other Ingredients: Her father's eyes, a new moon, "No rest for the wicked"

NPC: Alandra Guthkin, 21
Others: Belas Guthkin (Brother,21), Roland Guthkin (Father,67)

Alandra Guthkin, Female Human Commoner1 Cleric1 CR 1; Size:M
Type Humanoid; HD (1d4)+(1d8)+2; hp 14; Init -1; Spd Walk 30';
AC 9 (flatfooted 9, touch 9)
SA: Spontaneous casting,Rebuke Undead 6/day; Vision: Normal AL: NE; Sv: Fort
+3, Ref -1, Will +5; Str 9, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 16
Skills and Feats: Alchemy +3, Diplomacy +4, Knowledge (Religion) +3, Listen +7, Profession (Innkeeper) +10, Ride +2, Spellcraft +2, Spot +7; Alertness,Armor Proficiency (Heavy) (1x),Armor Proficiency (Light) (1x),Armor Proficiency (Medium) (1x),Shield Proficiency,Simple Weapon Proficiency,Skill Focus (Profession (Innkeeper))
Deity: Nerull Domains: Death, Evil
Spells PreparedCleric: (3/2+1)
0-Detect Poison, Guidance, Inflict Minor Wounds
1-Bane, Bless, Doom

THE PAST
Alandra and her twin brother Belus grew up in a wealthy household in Mor’s End. Their father, Roland, owned and operated the very successful New Moon Inn. To the outside world Roland was a jovial and kind innkeeper and his children lived a charmed life in the lap of luxury. Though, to his children he was an inpatient slavedriver that belittled their smallest mistakes behind closed doors. He put the two young children in the employ of the inn at an early age. Roland demanded perfection in his inn, as he considered any shortcomings of his inn as a personal reflection on himself.
One afternoon Alandra was serving one of the longtime patrons on the inn, when they commented that she has her father’s eyes. The patron meant the comment as a compliment, but her blood boiled. She could not bare the thought that she was anyhow like her father. She threw a drink on the unsuspecting patron for their hurtful words. For her behavior she was severely punished…
Alandra and Belus have slaved away in the New Moon for over 15 years under the dictatorship of their father. In those years they learned the ins and outs of every job it took in running an in. Roland thought that he was doing his children a favor by showing them what it took to run a successful inn, but instead it sowed years and years of hatred.

RECENTLY
The brother and sister now run the New Moon on a daily basis, but their father takes the Lion’s share of the profits leaving them with very little. Their father’s training was successful though, they one of the finest inns in Mor’s End, but they are not happy. One day seemingly their prayers were answered; Roland feel deathly ill and for months he lingered on the edge of death. Eventually he did recover, much to the disappointment of the children.

CURRENTLY
Alandra hoped and prayed at night that something would change the situation that she was in. Finally someone answered her prayers. It began as dark whispers in the night and it slowly progressed into grand promises of thing to come. Nerull courted Alandra, if she swore to serve him as one of his clerics he would give her the knowledge and power to kill her father, allowing Belus and herself to run the inn. Eventually Alandra gave into the temptation and secretly became a follower of Nerull. Unbeknownst to Alandra though, the dark lord also seduced her brother into his service.
For Nerrull’s twisted entertainment he decided to play a little game with the brother and sister. He inspired both of them to poison their father. He carefully choose the poisons that they both were to use. When the two poisons are used in conjunction with each other they actually promoted the healing of Roland, instead of killing him. Alandra has been poisoning her father’s meals on an daily basis and Belus has been poisoning his father’s drinks. (The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.) Neither has told the other of their dire plans, fearful of the others reaction. Unknowingly of course, that they are actually making their father better.
Roland feels better now than he has in twenty years. He can’t explain it, but it is something that he tells his children on a daily basis. As the saying goes, there is no rest for the wicked, so both children are frantically searching for a new and more powerful poison to kill their father with. They are furious that their efforts have been wasted and dread each day that they must live under their fathers servitude. They are much too fearful of Roland, the man that they have served for all of their lives to openly confront him and kill him.
To the patrons of the inn, Alandra is a charming and witty woman. She is 21 and seemingly at the top of the world. (They do not know that her father keeps nearly all of the profits leaving her and Belas neary broke.) Alandra’s main focus is the daily running of the inn, keeping it up to her fathers standard is a full time job. She is in charge of the kitchen and wait staff, while her brother runs the bar and is in charge of keeping up the supplies.
She wants to kill her father for multiple reasons. Mainly she can no longer live under his thumb. Even though Roland does not run the New Moon on a daily basis, he still rules his children with an iron fist. He is quick to remind him that the New Moon is his inn, not theirs. Their employment there is voluntary, if they do not like it then they cane leave. Secondly she cannot bare to see the fruit of her hard and long labors going to her father when her and her brother barely have enough money to survive on. If they did not love and eat at the inn, they would be destitute. Finally she has grown to be greedy. She has gone without “her fair share” for such a long time she feels that she deserves the inn and all its revenues.

PC Hooks:
 Rumors of Roland’s miraculous health spread throughout Mor’s End. Roland eats all of his meals in the New Moon and attributes it to it (he is still a shrewd innkeeper and he sees this as a way to bring in more business). A wealthy fishmonger sends the PCs to investigate to see if the rumors are true. His health is failing and he is desperate to try anything. Perhaps the PCs take only his food or his drink and it kills the fishmonger…
 Alandra needs the PCs to retrieve a heart of a beast (CR dependent on the party). She tells them that it is for her father, she has been making an elixir for him that has been helping him retain his youth. When it is actually a component to make one of her poisons more potent.
 One of the cooks accidently use one of Alandra’s poisons as an ingrediant and it kills/sickens 10-20 people in the inn. An interested party sends the PCs to investigate what went wrong at the inn.


Belas Guthkin, Male Human Commoner1 Cleric1 CR 1; Size:M
Type Humanoid; HD (1d4)+(1d8)+2; hp 14; Init +1; Spd Walk 30';
AC 11 (flatfooted 10, touch 11)
SA: Spontaneous casting,Rebuke Undead 5/day; Vision: Normal AL: NE; Sv: Fort
+3, Ref +1, Will +5; Str 14, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 14
Skills and Feats: Alchemy +2, Diplomacy +4, Knowledge (Religion) +2, Listen +5, Profession (Innkeeper) +10, Ride +2, Spellcraft +1, Spot +5; Armor Proficiency (Heavy) (1x),Armor Proficiency (Light) (1x),Armor Proficiency (Medium) (1x),Endurance,Shield Proficiency,Simple Weapon Proficiency,Skill Focus (Profession (Innkeeper))
Possessions:
Deity: Nerull
Domains: Death, Trickery
Cleric: (3/2+1)
0- Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Purify Food and Drink
1- Curse Water, Inflict Light Wounds, Random Action


Roland Guthkin, Male Human Commoner1 Expert3 CR 3; Size:M Type Humanoid; HD (1d4)+(3d6)-4; hp 12; Init +2; Spd Walk 30'; AC 12 (flatfooted 10, touch 12) SA: ; Vision: Normal AL: NE; Sv: Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +6; Str 10, Dex 15, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 16 Skills and Feats: Bluff +5, Diplomacy +7, Gather Information +6, Innuendo +3, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (Local) +9, Listen +8, Profession (Innkeeper) +10, Ride +3, Spot +7; Alertness,Armor Proficiency (Light) (1x),Iron Will,Simple Weapon Proficiency,Skill Focus (Profession (Innkeeper))
 
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Ingredients:

Key Phrase: "Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"
Other Ingredients: Her father's eyes, a new moon, "No rest for the wicked"

NPC: Citrella Farmarch (human Cleric2)

Other important figures:
Ric Farmarch, her father (Expert 3, Aristocrat 1)
Ethen Dunnol, Head of the League of the Future (Expert 1, Sorcerer 3, Aristocrat 1)
Misc League members (appropriate to EL of party, with at least one expert or aristocrat level each)

Citrella was born into a moderately well-to-do merchant family seventeen years ago. She was taught
from an early age that devotion to her family and their political connections was paramount. Tragically,
her mother died when she was very young. The death, though tragic, was an unavoidable accident and
the temples of Mor’s End refused to raise her, saying that common accidents were the will of the
gods. Citrella was angry, but eventually succumbed to her father’s pleas to understand that death is a
natural part of the world and will come to everybody in time. Despite his heartfelt concern, however, she
always had a secret suspicion that her father was keeping something from her.

When Citrella announced her vocation to join the temple of Cuthbert, everybody was surprised. Ric
Farmarch, her father, questioned her intently about it, but decided her devotion was sincere. Having a
family member in a prominent temple, he decided, was not the worst thing that could happen to the
Farmarch family business. Citrella’s true motivation, however, was that if she studied long and hard
enough, nobody she loved would ever have to die again (once she learned Raise Dead). Cuthbert
was the only deity that appealed to her bitter and resentful, but still basically good, soul.
Now, Ric Farmarch had always been a student of astronomy, and one evening Citrella received an
urgent message that she should return home from the temple immediately. Fearing something dire, she
rushed home to find her father doing nothing but looking intently into a contraption he explained was a
“telescope.” He explained it’s function, and bade her look through it.

Ric explained what she saw, “That, my daughter, is a previously undiscovered heavenly body! It circles
our own world, like the sun and moon. I discovered this New Moon three nights ago, but waited to
tell you until I was sure. It was never seen before because it is composed of a very dark material,
perhaps akin to obsidian.”

Citrella was impressed, but not duly so. What good was a new moon to the inhabitants of the regular
world?

Just then there was a brisk pounding on the door. Ric looked up in fear, and ushered Citrella into a
closet. “Trust me, love. You cannot help me here.”

Hidden in the enclosure, she heard the door bang open and a strange, low voice began to speak.
“So, Brother Ric, it seems you have found another way to undermine the League. If we had known what
you were doing, we would have stopped you a long time ago, but alas, when our attention is fixed
elsewhere, it seems the Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Her father replied, “I do my work for the good of the League, Brother Ethen. If a new heavenly body is
discovered, we need to know about it and see what it foretells of the future.”

The reply was sharp and bitter, “Such a discovery would throw everything we’ve worked for for the last
five centuries to ruin! Our plans were based off of the most precise astrological observations. A new
moon
cannot exist. We would have known about it. Your lies are intended only to undermine the
order. You are a traitor to the League of the Future, Brother Ric.”

“But my telescope...”

“A demon’s deception.” there was a loud crash, followed by her father’s cry of outrage, “Which will now
trouble us no longer. Your sentence would have been death, Brother Ric, but we have decided to be
lenient. You think you would have learned your lesson after what befell your beloved wife. Must we now
turn to your only daughter?”

“Leave her out of this! My wife knew what she was getting into. Citrella knows nothing.”

“Very well. Your fine for your treachery shall be, then, none other than the eyes that observed this false
abomination.”

There was a struggle, and a scream of utmost pain that made Citrella want to burst out of hiding, but she
knew her death would solve nothing. She stayed where she was, though it pained her.

“With that, ex-brother Ric, we leave you.” The door closed.

Citrella emerged and saw her father Ric lying on the floor, blood pooling around his head. A spell solved
that, but then she saw her father’s eyes[/b], gouged out by the League of the Future, lying on the floor. In
that moment, before Cuthbert himself, she held aloft her holy symbol and swore retribution on the ones
that had brought this upon her family, “From this moment forth, there shall be no rest for the wicked
in Mor’s End. I will hunt down my enemies wherever they might flee, and bring just retribution upon them,
in thy name, oh great Cuthbert.” She also decided, in that moment, that there was no need to involve the
rest of her temple. This was personal, and she could handle it with her own resources.

Citrella took her father’s eyes and preserved them in a jar with a Gentle Repose scroll,
planning on having them restored once her quest was complete.

“Father,” she implored the quietly crying man, “What is the League of the Future and where do I find it?
And what did they do to Mother?”

And, after some convincing, he told her.

THE LEAGUE OF THE FUTURE
The League was founded a thousand years ago by a secretive band of militant astrologers. Their plan
was, and still is, to bring the world under their total domination. Their plan is to get each of their members
into prominent positions in society, and to study astrology to predict the future of their plan and what
moves they should make, and when. They have astrology down to a precision science, but the discovery
of a new moon would throw everything off. Their long-term plans would be ruined. Rather than
accept the new heavenly stage and restart their plans, they chose to disbelieve Ric’s discovery and cast
his from the League.

The League of the future is comprised only of well-to-do, reasonably prominent members of society.
They are led by Ethen Dunnol, a man who has made his personal fortune in the local pottery business.
Ric’s wife was a member of the League, but attempted a risky plan involving gaining the trust of the local
royalty. When it became clear that she was very close to compromising League secrecy, she ran into a
“convenient accident,” but she did truly know all along the risk she was taking.

Ric developed the telescope with the goal of more accurately measuring the movements of the heavenly
bodies. The discovery of a New Moon alarmed and excited him so much that he reported his
finding to the League without thinking through the results of his unexpected announcement.

HOOKS
1) The most obvious hook is to have Citrella attempt to hire the party to help her with her dirty work. She
will allow the PCs to talk to her father, if they like. Her plan is to take out the League one member at a
time, starting with Ethen Dunnol. Only use this hook if the PCs are not against a bit of righteous murder.

2) Ethen Dunnol, fearing some sort of attack, might hire the PCs as guards. Imagine their surprise when
the assassin turns out to be a good cleric!

3) The PCs have heard of a strange series of murders in Mor’s End, all among the wealthy class. There
was no theft or clues of any kind at any of the crime scenes. The local authorities hire the PCs to look
into it.

~STAT BLOCKS~

Citrella Farmarch, Female Human Clr2 of Cuthbert: Medium Humanoid ; HD 2d8 (Cleric); hp 16;
Init +1; Spd 20; AC 16; Atk +1 base melee, +2 base ranged; +1 (1d8, Mace, heavy); AL CG; SV Fort +3,
Ref +1, Will +8; STR 11, DEX 13, CON 11, INT 10, WIS 17, CHA 15.
Skills: Concentration +1, Heal +4, Knowledge (religion) +1, Spellcraft 1.
Feats: Iron Will, Toughness.
Spells Per Day (4/3/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0)
Possessions:
Weapons:
Mace, heavy.
Armor: Chain shirt.
Shields: Shield, small, steel.
Magic: Potion: Cure Light Wounds (1); Potion: Cure Light Wounds (1); Scroll: Gentle Repose (3);
Scroll: Gentle Repose (3); Potion: Aid

Ethen Dunnol, Male Human Ari1/Exp1/Sor3: Medium Humanoid ; HD 1d8+1 (Aristocrat), 1d6+1
(Expert), 3d4+3 (Sorcerer); hp 24; Init +3; Spd 30; AC 10; Atk +3 base melee, +0 base ranged; +4
(1d4+2, Dagger, Masterwork); AL LE; SV Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +9; STR 14, DEX 9, CON 12, INT 16,
WIS 11, CHA 19.
Skills: Alchemy +4.5, Bluff +7, Concentration +3, Diplomacy +7, Gather Information +7, Innuendo
+2, Intimidate +6, Jump +12, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (The Planes) +11, Listen +2,
Profession (Astrologer) +10, Scry +6, Sense Motive +2, Spellcraft +6, Spot +2.
Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus: Profession (Astrologer).
Spells Known (Sor 6/6): 0 -- Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Read Magic;
1st -- Charm Person, Expeditious Retreat, Magic Missile.
Possessions:
Weapons: Dagger, Masterwork.
Armor: Padded, Masterwork.
Magic: Wondrous: Cloak of resistance (+2); Wondrous: Brooch of shielding; Wondrous: Boots of
striding and springing (used with Expeditious retreat if battle going poorly).
 




Sorry about the delay folks... work and a gaming session got in the way of my NPC Contest duties. Results should be up soon.

--sam
 


Round 2 Results!!!

Sorry about the long delay folks... Here are the results for Round 2...

Felix advances by default with a strong submission... It had a score of 17.5

Mark the Hammer beats MerakSpielman by 2.5 points with a score of 15.5.

Great job everyone. Merak, don't forget there are several more contests left... so feel free to sign up for any of them.

Felix and Mark, after you ping this board today, I'll post the ingredients for the final round of this contest. :)

--sam
 



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