Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Big J Money" data-source="post: 8171649" data-attributes="member: 70533">Coerced under duress might have been a bit of an exaggerated way for me to put it.  I'll fill in some more color to the shared party backstory and you can decide if it still sounds that way:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Before the campaign, each new PC-to-be lived in their native Realm</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Overlord invaded said Realm and brought ruin to everyone and everything the PC cared about</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mysterious "benefactors" showed up to help the PC and other refugees escape to another Realm through a magical means of travel</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Once the PC arrived in the new Realm, they were taken to refugee processing and given 3 choices to pick from: Become an indentured servant to bring service to the Kumpali's City, become an indentured treasure hunter to bring profit to the Kumpali's City, or be banished from the Endless City back to where they came from.</li> </ul>Answers to Questions1) The purpose of the Covenant Tattoo isn't just to identify the Gari visibly, which grants them access to The Well (remember that it's a secret Realm that is closed to outsiders and even its name is normally unknowable) but it also has deeply magical properties. It monitors whether Gari recite their Covenents daily, it alerts the The Well's authorities when the Gari are present in the Realm, and it allows the Gari to utter the name of The Well, but only while inside its boundaries (The Well is made of a magic so old even before time which normally prevents all living beings from accomplishing this).As far as whether the PCs are keeping the main Covenant or not (profit), one of the restrictions on Gari is that when they visit The Well, they must make plans to conduct business, pay a Patron fee, and record the activites on their Venture ledger in order to enter the city proper. Otherwise they are confined to their takta which is essentially a hovel with dirty cots and (usally) the means to make some gruel and boil water. There is a takta near every Realm portal, sometimes hastily set up. They are a place to rest, heal, and plan, but not much more without spending money.2) The tattoos' magic is strong enough to monitor that Covenants have been recited but not if they've been broken. Suspicious activity and witnesses are the only ways to be alerted about broken Oaths.That's right, points #1 and #3 are exactly why this premise is baked into the campaign and is not optional. If the players don't like these ideas, I simply would not run this campaign until I have a group that is interested.#2, the possibility of breaking the Covenants is definitely a possibility and something I expect. However it won't be easy and would essentially be suicide at lower levels. I haven't yet formulated what the obstacles would be, but like standard OSR stuff it would be something so difficult as to be ostebsibly "impossible", so that the players have an opportunity to come up with a plan that proves me wrong (probably something involving "OP" magic items or artifacts <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=":)" /> )</blockquote>

Verification