League of Assassins - Concluded.

[Silver Moon]

Last night was another interesting game, the first of the three Story Hour chapters already posted. The group has wisely decided to NOT invite either the Orc or Egyptian groups to the Bidder’s Dinner, opting to inform them each of the auction rules at a later time Next week’s game should include the follows:.

1. Dinner Prep
This will be done by the players, including a teleport back to the island to pick up the food and waitresses. The party will also need to decide who else they wish to have attend. I am assuming that at a minimum this will include Lord Kindor and Ki-Geloryn.

2. Arrival of the Guests
All groups will arrive in random order. This should provide for some interesting role playing since the Silver Moon Adventurers still have not met eight of these groups yet. The gnome Namfoodle will arrive wearing the real Most Excellent Rock Hammer of Bold Edgar on his belt. Between 2 to 8 assassins will also attempt to sneak in at this time. The Wizardess Muriel from Ravensgate and her familiar will attempt to enter with the Brondani group, as she is now aware of the possible threat against this group.

3. Seating of the Guests
The players will decide on the seating. It will be interesting to see where they put Queen Jennifer, since she has a sword that will detect assassins within 20 feet of her. Two assassins will actually be present at the dinner, one with each of the two oriental groups.

4. Dinner
The only encounter planned is with the group of gnomes. The Sovereign Ruler of Kalephornyah will complain about the food and demand to see the chef. This gnome will be playing a joke, as the Silver Moon’s tavern keeper Jerry who prepared the food is this gnome’s father, and they haven’t seen each other for quite some time.

5. Jail Break
During the dinner Colonel Tenbar (or a Jawlt Army Major if Tenbar is already at the auction house) will arrive. He will inform Kindor that there has been a prisoner escape. Kindor will then inform the leaders of the Silver Moon of this, the information being that the monk Darlene is now gone. She was rescued by three of her accomplices disguised as Silver Moon Adventurers. One of these was a high level male cleric who had been disguised as Vincenzo, who healed the injured Darlene. That was also how they blew their cover, as the Major in charge at the fortress realized that the real Vincenzo was not high enough in level for that particular spell. After a short fight the cleric was apprehended, but the other two and Darlene managed to escaped. His partners had posed as Serita and Vincenzo’s wife Jamie. The Serita was very convincing, having cast druid spells and done two druidic animal transformations.

This encounter should be interesting, as the party should be able to figure out who this cleric is based upon previous modules. He is the former Eldamar Lordholder and a Bishop in the Dunn/Phlooredian Church (the front for Loviatar’s Church). The group also knows that a Serita from an alternate timeline has been living on this world for several years and working with the Church of Loviatar. It will also be interesting to see if any characters decide to leave the dinner to deal with this, since a “powerful fighter” walking out on the dinner could be viewed as the intended ILA target clue (it isn’t, but ILA members watching the building could also reach this same wrong conclusion).

6. Auction rules.
The auctioneer Hiroshi will explain the auction rules. It is now known that auctioneer is one of the ILA targets, however the identity of the auctioneer will not become public knowledge until Hiroshi announces it at this dinner. It is unlikely that either assassin present will attempt a “hit” on him unless something happens that allows them an opportunity to do so without blowing their respective covers.

7. Item Preview.
The party has decided to combine the preview with the dinner rather than having them be separate events. During the preview the gnome Namfoodle will recognize several of the items as being fakes, as many of these he had originally commissioned to be made. He may or may not discreetly communicate this to the Silver Moon Adventurers. The background is that Wister and Namfoodle had been intense rivals, with the initial gathering of the jewelry and gem collection being a competition between the two of them spanning several decades (similar to the Indiana Jones/Beloc rivalry in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”). Not only did they try to get each item first, but they also kept switching each other’s acquired items with replicas. Namfoodle has a clear gemstone with (made by the same wizard who enchanted his replicas) that allows him to view if the item is real or not. He also has a Bag of Holding with additional replicas.

When the Gem of Taiga is displayed Baron Te’col will loudly declare that it is not the original and that this entire auction is a sham.

8. Prisoner Questioning
If they had not done so already, following the dinner, I suspect that the party will want to question the Bishop. He will openly declare that they were sent by the High Priestess Pamela (who is also his sister) to prevent the Queen from being assassinated. Pamela feels that only Darlene can accomplish this, which is why it was imperative that she be free to do so.

9. The Full Tankard
The tavern by that name is the location for the remaining ILA target clue from this day. This encounter will be with the Stealth Team. Aradyn, Lono and Mark are already familiar with this tavern, having gone there for Narg’s bachelor party two months earlier. Even when they get the clue it is highly unlikely that they will be able to piece it together until they talk to Melito, however he will instantly understand it.

10. July 11th, 1019
The final ILA clue to the primary target will be given this day, however the players have failed to piece together where this will take place. Unless someone manages to figure it out when reading the “Story Hour” I doubt I will need to run this particular encounter.

No other encounters have been planned for the 11th, and I am open to reader suggestions.

 

[Kyramus]

how's it going?

 

[Silver Moon]

how's it going?

So far, so good. This morning I posted another chapter to the Story Hour from last week's game:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37644

I have one more chapter to post, which will focus on the party meeting Blackdirge's orc chieftan, Hargash the Mighty.

As you can see from the above post, I have a pretty full agenda planned out for next Sunday's game. I have absolutely nothing planned for the following character day (which I doubt we will get to next week, but you never know) so feel free to offer suggestions.

 

[Silver Moon]

Very quiet game tonight, as several players canceled out at the last minute for a totally legit reason (a surprise visit home from an Army buddy who we thought was now in the Middle East and he ships out again for a state-side posting on Wednesday).

The few players present only dealt with Items #1 & 3 on the above list, plus met with a few of the guest groups they had not seen yet. I'll be surprised is it even comes to two Story Hour chapters, which should be up soon, so the absent players can see what went on.

It also appears that the players are not really enjoying the 'mostly defense' nature of this module, so I plan to give them an opportunity in the next game to switch to an 'offense' strategy regarding the ILA, if they are so inclined.

 

[Silver Moon]

Wow, ENWorld is back! Posted all but one chapter from last week, which should be up before the weekend is done.

We spent the past two games going through the above posted list. I plan to start tomorrow night's game with a midnight meeting at the Ancient Keep. Assembled will be the Queen, her five military leaders (who were all at the dinner), and the main Silver Moon Character from each player (Kharole, Lannon, Mojo, Narg, Serita & Timothy).

The meeting will serve as a recap of the what has happened, who the ILA is, who the targets are, and the party's plan to now hunt down the ILA leaders. At this point identified targets are Melito and Hiroshi. Suspected targets are Tenbar and the bard guest Grediwal Llyr. Also known is that an assassin, probably Annie, is out to kill the Queen and blame the ILA. A suspected plot to kill King Matthan will also be brought up, and since he will be present at the meeting, I suspect the party will take advantage of his current paranoia to pump him for information.

Beyond that, I have no plans and intend to keep it that way, letting the players take the game whatever direction they wish. At this point I have set an elaborate stage and introduced a large cast of characters. From here on I plan to just sit back and react, rather than initiate anything for the next day-and-a-half of character time.

 

[Silver Moon]

At this point the group does not seem very interested in taking on the ILA leaders or even preventing guests from getting assassinated. That eliminates about 50% of what I had planned from this point forward, including most of the combat encounters. For targets Hiroshi and Melito they have decided to keep them inside their well guarded building. So I guess I'll have the assassins break into the auction house to try to get these targets. The middle of the night seems to be the least guarded, so I'll try for then.

One other main subplot is the old Silver Moon enemies involved with an assassination attempt on the Queen. I plan to have the King & Queen's carriage get ambushed on the way to the auction, and let the party come to their rescue.

 

[Silver Moon]

Not a bad game last night, it should probably work out to three Story Hour chapters as follows:

Chapter 52: Cemetery encounter with the stealth team and follow-up at the auction house
Chapter 53: The 3AM break-in at the auction house
Chapter 54: The item hearing.

The middle of those sections was the most exciting. The background, which will not be spelled out in the Story Hour, is as follows:

The ILA leader Sokki sent one of his lieutenants, a duergar rogue/illusionist, to collect the dues from the Assassin team from Thang-Nor. This team protested the fact that the assassination targets had locked themselves in well-guarded buildings. The ILA's sponsor wanted another occupant of the auction house kidnapped, so a deal was struck. Sokki agreed to get this assassin quartet into the building undetected, but beyond that they were on their own. This essentially provided a situation for Sokki, the duergar, and one of the sponsors to perform the kidnapping at minimal risk to themselves.

The details are that the wizard/rogue teleported the seven of them into the corridor between the auction house doors (which Sokki had visited before while invisible). The duergar then opened the inner door and projected the image to the other guards in the room that the door was still shut and guarded while the sponsor dispatched the guard nearest the door. The assassins then entered and dealt with the remaining guards on duty, then proceeded to look for the targets. Sokki and his two now hasted companions quickly entered the room and found their own quarry, then teleported away, leaving the assassins to their own destiny.

I figure two more games to go, the auction next week, and the climax battle against Sokki & the sponsor the following week. It could go a week longer depending on what else the players want to do.

 

[Silver Moon]

With two assassinations completed, it is time for the five ILA leaders to meet and do the initial scorings. Kyramus, please do the scoring for Reader, Sokki and Amar. Blackdirge, please score for Jen Kedar Everhate. The smaller-than-man-sized ILA leader still hasn’t been developed, so if a third reader wants to quickly throw something together (race, class, level, & six basic specs) please do so, then score for him/her.

The first assassination was the 3rd Secondary Target, worth a total of 10 points. Each of the five judges should score from 0.0 up to 2.0 points for this one. The target was Captain Oldsmith of Draconer, and the assassination was detailed in Chapter 50 of the Story Hour. It was accomplised by the Druid Assassins of Gilladin. They had first created a distraction to keep from being heard when they used a combination of druidic spells and magical Tools of the Master to rig the supports on the deck. They then triggered it when Oldsmith was there, and one team member below in the water then threw a net over him while another, transformed into an aquatic animal, pulled him below until he drowned.

Note, two other teams should also be penalized for incorrectly guessing the target, and attempting an assassination on Tenbar instead in Chapter of the Story Hour. Determine how large the penalty should be, ranging from a 0.0 to as low as –2.0.

The second assassination was the 2nd Secondary Target, worth a total of 15 points. Each of the five judges should score from 0.0 to 3.0 points for this one. The target was Hiroshi Mitsubishi, the auctioneer. The assassination was detailed in Chapters 52 & 53 of the Story Hour, and the backstory on it is in the above post here. This one was done by the Thang-Nor team. Please note that they should probably not get full points for requiring assistance to get into the building, as well as the fact that only two of the four members of the assassination team made it out of the building.

Finally, although the Primary Target, worth a total of 50 points, is still alive the team from the Grosset Kingdom should receive at a partial score for an attempt made against him. The three-person team were able to get a group of two dozen human and half-orc ship construction workers drunk, and then managed to convince them that the visiting Brondani family was going to purchase the business from their employer and discharge them. These riled up workers immediatley went to the Sleeping Raven Inn to find these elves. A major fight ensued on the first floor of the tavern, serving as a distraction while the three assassins made their way upstairs to get their quary. They were not successful, and only one member of the assassination team managed to escape.

 

[Silver Moon]

The auction went well, the first two of three chapters for last Sunday's game are now posted, the other should be up by the weekend. The party did their best to minimize the amount of potential trouble, but it was still eventful, with an assassination attempt against the royal family on their way to the auction and the auction itself had a significant incident by Baron Te’Col and his servant.

The game ended shortly after the auction concluded. We will start next Sunday’s game with some interchanges with a few guests who haven’t left yet.

The gnome Lord will say his goodbyes, and ask one final time about their knowledge of his long lost father Jeremiah. Serita is starting to feel guilty about keeping this information from him, so it will be interesting to see where this may lead to. If he does find out that they know his Dad, he and his wife plan to dump their annoying son on Grandpa for “a short visit”, which will probably be for several decades.

Also sticking around is Lord Khorram, the King’s loan shark, who wants to find out about future payments. The Queen will offer to give him Matthan’s castle in Pirna in exchange for canceling the debt, and require Lord Khorram to never contact her or the King ever again, either directly or indirectly. Kindor will notify the Lord that his wife has been found guilty of treason and will be executed.

General Teakas has remained to escort the Queen back to the Ancient Keep. Her father, Americus, will talk to her and be excited about his purchase of the Rock Hammer of Bold Edgar. This should be good for some comic relief, as the party believes the one he bought to be a fake.

The Llyr family has not left yet, as their associates “the chameleons” had gone off and investigated the sabotage to the Royals carriage and then checked and found the same on their own carriage. This will give the players an opportunity to possibly spring a trap on that particular group of assassins, otherwise the Llyr’s will just teleport back to Brondani directly from the auction house.

The four guests from Autzvourg have also stayed behind, as the two good-aligned High Priests are now curious about the Gem of Tiaga, and will offer to help the party determine exactly what it is. They will also ask about the attack against the Royals, and if given a detailed description of one Serita caught, will be able to identify her as an assassin wanted for multiple murders in their city.

It is assumed that Melito, Tenbar and young Hiroshi will take up residence in Kulp’s Castle until the ILA convention is over. As they will not be seen leaving the building the Ninja group will assume they are still there and attempt one more assault this evening, and this time will have brought sufficient reinforcements.

The final main part of the module will be the climax battle, when they go to rescue their associate Chevyo who is being held at The Baron’s Arcane Lodge (for which I will be using the diagram of the Lucky Monkey Tavern from Dungeon Magazine #98). Prior to the actual assault the players will be given the opportunity to access two main information sources about this:

1. Baron Donnelly, the owner of the establishment, has been located and returned to the city by Kindor’s mage. He will tell them that he rented the establishment for a four-month period beginning in early May to a gentleman named Southby. The man said he would bring his own servants, and paid Donnelly enough to give his staff paid time off. The man paid for six-months provisions to be stockpiled, so that they would not run out of supplies. Donnelly and his wife then left on a long journey to the continent to the west, where his wife originally came from.
Donnelly will be able to give them a good visual description of the building. A copy of the map will only be provided if initiated by the players, as Donnelly would need to spend hours with a skilled artist (of which the party actually has three) in order to create one.

2. The Monastery of Isaac. Originally founded centuries ago by escaped gladiator slaves from a Romanesque land, this Lawful Neutral is dedicated to physical fitness. The current leader has been a finalist in the athletic competitions of the Lordholding’s annual fair for the past decade. They are also one of the few monasteries in the land that will admit non-human students.

On the morning of the 12th Melito hired the Monastery to conduct ongoing surveillance of the Baron’s Arcane Lodge. This was because they had the necessary skills for the task, since the local thieves guild could not be hired due to their ILA connection. The other reason was because one of the monks currently there is of the minotaur race, a Lawful Neutral individual named Nimon. Nimon does not like the reputation that the less intelligent members of his race have fostered, and certainly is not fond of them causing trouble in his adopted city.

 

[Silver Moon]

A very fun game last night, the party springing the trap on the assassins who were after the Llyr's carriage. That took up most of the game. The battle itself was great fun, with a dual assault by both a ground team (Narg, Mojo and Furynick) and an air team (Blip on her broom, Timothy on his pegasus, and Aradyn + Cassie on her Wyvern).