Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 3980352" data-attributes="member: 1757">This was sort of what I was thinking of, actually.That said, let's start writing something! First off, what is your PC party composition? It would help if you listed classes, races, alignments, allegiances, motivations, that sort of thing. Second, what do your PCs know about Bloodstone so far? Are they aware of the true nature of the Witch-King, getting involved with the locals, unaware of spies in their midsts, and so on? Third, what kind of adventure style do they prefer? Do they want a solemn, heroic, LotR-style confrontation against an unknowable, unassailable evil? A rollicking sword-and-sorcery romp? A Wild West-style face-off against bad guys to save their town? Those are good starting questions. Finally, what edition do you run? This also may have implications for adventure design.As to adventure format: My initial thought was to have the lead-off be the PCs' trip to Heliogabalus to sell off the bloodstones. (I'd get a good city book to use for Heliogabalus, incidentally; Freeport's not a bad choice, though I went with City of Greyhawk, simply because of the river-city aspect and the mayor's association with the thieves' guild.) On that trip, their hoard becomes the target for a raid by Tightpurse, the city's formidable thieves' guild.  The PCs hopefully secure a captive or two from that raid; either they crash into the thieves' lair and demand satisfaction, or they conduct more subtle investigations into the guild's activities. As they do this, they learn of the growing dissent being fostered among the baronies by Dimian Ree and his agents, who are using the guild in part as an intelligence network; whether they learn of the involvement of the Assassins' Guild is a matter for you to decide, based on how quickly you want the adventure to progress. The PCs then must decide whether to act directly against Dimian Ree (a potentially impolitic strategy, since they have no direct evidence and this might only inflame the barons further) or to go after the baronies one by one. The PCs then stage court visits; at some domains, they will be welcomed openly, only to be constantly targeted by assassination attempts. At others, they will be opposed by hostile armies. However, keep in mind that PCs of this level are like the characters in Hero: They can just batter aside ordinary soldiers, leaving their true power for use against the powerful wizards, demons, undead, and assassins awaiting them. The surrounding baronies offer a wealth of options as follows:1) The Scheming Villainess: As an evil wizard and a close ally of the Witch-King, Duchess Sylvia of Ostel is probably the most cartoonishly obvious of the lot. If anything, I might make her motivations *more* subtle than they're written up to be. But the plot of the mini-adventure dealing with her seems pretty obvious.2) The Pretender: The Duchy of Carmathan is ruled by the supposed Helmont the 15th. However, there are rumors that this man is an impostor. A delegation of monks sent from the Monastery of the Yellow Rose to match his identity with their records seems to have vanished. The PCs can rescue them from the trapped, demon-haunted cellars where they are imprisoned!3) The Wormtongue: The Duchy of Polten is ostensibly ruled by the boy-duke Donlevy the Young, but in reality his advisor Zorth pulls the strings. The boy is loved by his people, and an open ouster would be awkward. How do the PCs expose Zorth for who he is and survive the inevitable repercussions?Those are my thoughts. I figure at around three solid combat encounters per mini-adventure, then the trip to the Assassins' Run, you've got a fairly long adventure before you, and one in which the PCs could easily gain a level or two.As to clues to the Grandfather's involvement: I might introduce an early one at Tightpurse, pointing to an alliance with folk up north; perhaps provide a name somewhere in Carmathan or the like. The PCs must trace this contact, which turns out to be a blind drop, and eventually follow a message out of that drop to its source: Right in the PC's home village of Bloodstone! This introduces a chilling element (for maximum effect, make the Grandfather's agent a good friend or ally of the PCs) and takes the adventure from the PCs' home town back into the Galenas to reach the Grandfather's lair.</blockquote>

Verification