League of Assassins - Concluded.

[Silver Moon]

Other Foreign Guest

Thank you very much Paka. I will be happy to enclude the above post as invited guests - group desingated B12
. It will be fun having a few Satyrs in play.

The next foreign group that I have decided to add, as group designated B13, are Finder's Band, a group of followers of the demigod Finder Wyvernspur. A yet-to-be-determined item that was Finder's will be on the auction block - pehaps a prototype of the Finder's Stone (from the F.R. trilogy of the same name).

These four characters are: Joel - a Cleric/Bard; Lady Jasmine - a Fighter; Paladin Holly Harrowslough; and Le-Sun Chang - Cleric, Spirit Folk Race.

The AD&D specifications for the first three of these members of Finder’s Band can be found in Dragon Magazine Annual #2 by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb; The specification for the god Finder Wyvernspur can be found in Polyhedron Magazine #119 by Erik L. Boyd and Kate Novak. These characters can also be found in the Forgotten Realms novels Finder’s Bane and Tymora’s Luck, by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb. The Le-Sun Chang character was found on the Greyhawk Fan Club internet site.

This quartet has previously met the Silver Moon Adventurers twice, during the "Chinese Take-out" module, which is posted on Story Hour at the following link:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28642&pagenumber=1

They show up in Chapter 28, and will appear again in a yet to be posted chapter near the end of the story.

If you check out the story you will also get a good idea of the personalities of the Silver Moon playing characters, as well as the auction mechanics that I plan to use. They attended a series of auctions in the orient in Chapters 31 to 38, and I plan to run the jewelry auction in Jawltorn along the same lines.

Also note that the Hiroshi character introduced in the above Story Hour will play a key part of the module, as he will be organizing and running the auction for Lord Kindor. (He was an NPC during the above story, but has now become one of my own playing characters.)

 

[Polydamas]

One of the items up for sale is a magical gem. It's powerful, but odd...no detection magic, not even Analyze Dweomer has been able to puzzle out what it is. For a picture, go to

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/museum/Gallery/Dibble/fluoriteBrazilmed.jpg

The only obvious sign of magic is the flickering blue light inside of it.

(I'd recommend trying to find pictures of all the items.)

Baron Te'col, lord of a small domain in the northern taiga is very interested in obtaining in it. He's an old, tired man with a staff of one...an elderly halfing who never smiles.

The good Baron has been marked for death...with the odd specification that he dies only after he gets the gem. The Baron had to put a lot of money down to add that rider to the contract.

Te'col been looking for that damn gem for 150 years now, ever since he grew tired of life. As young wizard hiding his soul to escape death seemed a fine idea but now he only wants to rest. He'll get that gem legitimately if possible but he is quite desperate, and his demonic little familiar (the halfling) is going to make sure the old man is allowed to die. A milennium of servitude and anyone would get a little cranky.

 

[Silver Moon]

League of Assassins

Great story Polydamas! Baron To'Cal and his associate are now part of the module, as guest group B14 (I had forgotten to give the Black Mark Pirates a designation - so they will be B20). The gem will be item C4 (C3 being the Finder's Stone prototype gem).

Thanks also for the picture. Great suggestion on pictures of the other items as well!

Later Edit: I have found a great picture (although it is too big to attach here) that shows what looks very much like your picture, with massive amounts of energy exploding out of it. I plan to use this as a visual in the campaign, of the gem being destroyed and the soul exiting out of it. What I still have to figure out is if this will be done intentionally by the Baron, and exactly what and how. Any suggestions?

The next guests - designated Group B15, will be a pair of aristocrats from Hiroshi's home city of Miyako, in the Heian Empire (ancient Japan). The noble aristocrat will be a man named Fujiwara Michinaga interested in the auction. He will be a low-level human fighter. His will have with him a number of associates, one of whom will be posing as a monk named Sei Shonagon, but Sei will in actuality be a member of the ILA (Assassin group A6).

 

[Silver Moon]

Request for Buildings

Hi Readers, am putting in a request for building plans. While the city of Jawltorn has been mapped (I'll post it as soon as I figure out how to get the scanner I bought to work) I am going to be needing several buildings in the city for this module. I figure that I will need at least three inns, as well as a place to have the auction (Melito will not allow all these strangers to go to Kindor's Castle for security reason - although that is where the Silver Moon playing characters will be staying when they are not guarding the auction items). One of these inns will be the temporary headquarters for the ILA's leaders and their main clients, and it is where the climax battle to the module will take place. If you know of any previously designed structures posted Online that will work for these please post the link here.

I've also come up with another group to add to this auction - Chapters 39 & 40 of the "Chinese Take-out" module featured a rich human named Laughlin who owned a shipping company, and the rich and stuck up half-elf fighter son of another rich businessman (Guest Group B16). The halfelf's name is Travaris Pace. Both of these men are from the Spindrift Island Chain, specifically from Lendore Island (where the module "The Secret of Bone Hill" is set). Pace is seeking an item to be auctioned off, and Laughlin provided him some transportation. Laughlin also wishes to thank the Silver Moon for their rescue the previous year.

 

[Dagger75]

I have an Assassin Group, unfortuatly I am still using it but here is the low down, they are ruled by a maralith and Elite members become Half-Demons, I just add the template on top of whatever race they are. You don't have to be an assassin to be in the guild. The nasty one is a Half Drow/Half Demon Druid. Was an underdark version of a druid but now lives on the surface. Nothing scares people more than Rover turning into a Drow with Batlike wings and weildling a ebon balck scimitar. Thank this board for the Druid Assassins.

As for Nobles there for the auctions, From Dracanor.

Arsticrat Level 1 Prince Edmin Drake IV. Age 12. Not in line for the throne but still son to the King of Dracanor. His father sent him there to buy the Ring of Fortune. He is at the auction with-

Level 15 Fighter Capt Barigev Oldsmith -Captain of the Castle gaurd, There on the kings behalf for a secret mission, also there to protect the prince. This man was a commoner and rose through the ranks to his positions, is very loyal to the King and his family.

Level 5 Rogue/4 Fighter/4 Dualist Halfling Female. Elinda Shortstrike. The actual bodygaurd of the prince. She is a trained dualist and very deadly with her daggers.

The Ring of Fortune
Game effect, acts a Luckstone and 1/Day allows the wearer to re-roll any one roll as the Luck Domain

History -The band of the Ring is silver entwined in gold. Embedded at equal lengths on the gold band are small emeralds and on the Silver band are small rubies. These gems appear to twinkle at all times.
The ring used to belong to Edmin Drake II (Prince Edmin's Great Uncle) He was thought a scoundral and cheat. He was a notorius gambler but had a great lucky streak. His father sent him far from his kingdom as an ambassidor to a small kingdom and hoped he would learn to be a leader. He soon realized his gift with dealing with people suited him perfectly with being a diplomat. He was assinated during a trade negotion. His body was found in the streets a few days later. No body know who killed him or why. His prized ring was lost thought forever lost until this auction.


Hope that helps

 

[Gilladian]

Silver Moon,
Here's a link to my very simple and underdeveloped campaign site. I'm happy to let you borrow any of the NPCs outlined there, or the maps (possibly the Emerald Dragon Inn would be of particular use). They're fairly crude scans of pencil maps, but usable I think.

Anyway, it is: http://home.hot.rr.com/vishteer

Gilladian

 

[Silver Moon]

Reader Suggestions

Dagger75, The Dracanor group will be designated guest group B17, the Ring of Fortune will be item C5, and the Druid Assassins (love the concept) will be A7. If you can provide me with a few more details (class, level, possessions etc.) about these individuals that would be very helpful (otherwise I'll just improvise).

Gilladin, you have a wealth of wonderful stuff on your web page. Here's what I've come up with:

I will definately use the map (and name) of the Emerald Dragon Inn as one of the buildings. I would also like to use two guest groups from your main continent.

Group B18, from Greenvale, would consist of the human Prince Starbow; Dmitri, the human wizard and Baron of Greenlake; the halfling treasurer Ganellon Tucker; and the elf bard Deniana Songweaver. They will be seeking to purchase item C6, a gem that was once the possession of the residents of the Cloudlands that will somehow also tie into Greenvale history. I would also like some more detail on the assassin that killed the Prince's father, to use as assassin group A8. (Do they have any affiliation with the Society of Black Mages? An assassin/mage group might be interesting.)

Group B19 will be from Greenvale's rival city, the dwarvan land of Harothar. I would like to use Prince Herru IV and at least one of his three main advisors. They will be seeking item C7, an ancient dwarven item yet to be determined that ties into the history of the reclusive dwarven land of Kovuz'd.

As I mentioned to Dagger75 above, any more detail on these characters would be appreciated, otherwise I will improvise. Thanks.

Silver Moon

 

[Silver Moon]

Gems and Jewelry

Following the suggestion of Polydamas, I have found some pics for some of the items in the auction.

The following is the picture of item C1, the Elf Stone of Llyr (detailed description on the "Kingdom of the Elves" thread)

 

[Silver Moon]

Gems and Jewelry

The following is the picture of item C2, the Fire Ring of Gaeldor (detailed description on the "Kingdoms of the Elves" thread.

 

[Silver Moon]

Jewelry and Gems

Dagger75 and Gilladian, Thanks for your help. Pictures of your suggested items are shown later in this thread.

 

[Silver Moon]

More Guests and a Castle

I have decided to add two more guests to the Group B11 from Brondani. Netralitor Engwahilien, and 8th level Elvan Priest of Correllon Larethian will be part of the group. He currently owns the Safety Ring of King Gealdor, and wishes to acquire the Fire Ring of King Gealdor that will be in the auction.

With him is his personal bodyguard, Donald Brondani Smith. Donald appears to be human, but is in reality 1/6 elvan, and is Netralitor's great grandson. Donald has also had previous adventuring experience with two of the others in the group from Brondani. Thirty years earlier he, Andowen Llyr, and Railaina were three members of a quartet who went on a quest to seek information about the missing Stone of Llyr. Donald and Railaina have also had an on-again, off-again relationship during the past three decades.

Both of these characters are described in more detail under the "Kingdoms of the Elves" thread.

I have also found a great castle to steal. Piratecat's "Calphas Comforable Castle", featured on Page 8 of his story hour should work great. The structure is large enough and has several interesting rooms in it to have a lot of fun with.

Later Edit: I've decided to use the above mentioned building as the Silver Moon's headquarters during their stay in the city, especially now that a few readers have suggested some NPC's who will be attempting to break in to steal the auction items.

NOTE: I'm still looking for a good Inn, preferably at least two stories high, to use for the villain's headquarters and climax battle.

 

[Kyramus]

side plots:
1) ILA has been approached by one of the guests to do an actual hit outside of the contests.

2) The thieves guild has been approached to help frame someone else for stealing an item, hence the distrust of the other lords.

3) A Noble Guest is found dead and all the evidence points to a rival Noble who was seen in the company of other drunk nobles. (mystery, could be tied to other suggested side plots)

4) One of the items in question is actually intelligent, and has possessed one of the bidders, problem is there are other bidders that have more money. The possessed will now have to try and get it's "home" back from the richer and winning bidder.

5) one of the items hold significant religious value to a church and their demand that it be donated/returned to the church is non negotiable. the auctioneer would have to make a choice of not giving it to them or putting it up on auction, in which case the religious fanatics will probably make a mess of things when the ILA does it's thing and all hell breaks loose.

6) A bard comes to the games to watch and learn and write down the rules and descriptions of people. the bard is known to the ILA and they have a price on his head because he's described accurately a few of it's higher echelon members.

7) A paladin on a quest is brought to the island to retreive an item from the auction that is small enough to fit into his sword. this gem will enable the sword to become a holy sword and is subject to the paladin's deepest desire and temptation (he could be one of the pcs)

8) A would be lich needs one of the items to sacrifice it to his patron to finish his ritual to become an undead spell caster, problem a dragon that can shape change is out looking for it for the same reason.

9) a gnome illusionist/rogue has been waiting for this auction for a long time. He's been waiting for the old lord to die so that he can sneak in and steal the stuff but the new lord moved in before he could do it. He is going to try to replace the existing items with fake replicas and run away with the real ones.

10) An orc mercenary captain joins the auction by bribing the auctioneer enough money to allow him to mix it up with the nobles. He doesn't intend to actually bid on the expensive stuff he has a set limit to his spending (dm option here). He wants to know the faces of each othe the nobles and leaders. He may pass himself off as some orc noble or emperor. (cosmopolitan bluff and diplomacy) He plans to find the weakest link among the nobles, and send a search party to that noble's lands to see how well it is defended before putting his plan into effect. Knowing what the noble looks like face to face will also help him identify the noble later.

 

[Silver Moon]

Plots and Sub-plots

WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS! Thank you very much Kyramus! Here are my thoughts for each:

1. Good idea. I'll keep this on the back-burner and toss it in several weeks into the module - as by then the actions of the players will surely have caused several interesting consequences to occur - this being one of the.

2. OK, that might work. The local guild would love to discredit the ILA for excluding them, but as I explained to Rin in an earlier post, the local guild must be extremely careful how they handle this as they do not want to be expelled from the ILA and/or become targets themselves.

3. Sounds good, and might make for an interesting "kick-off" if we have this occur the day before or morning of the auction. Since I like "wild-cards" rather than tightly scripted modules, instead of picking which guest to off I'll probably have it be randomly rolled by a player just before it is scheduled to happen. The other pieces will then fall into place as to who is framed and who the assassin might actually be (although it will definitely not be an ILA sanctioned killing).

4. I like this idea too. I think I'll have Lord Guido Francis Rudolpho from group B6 be the one who gets possessed. His Kingdom is based on the Italian Renaissance, and just because he is an aristocrat does not necessarily mean he is rolling in cash.

5. This plot seems to be already covered by the Silvanost/Mengale/Brondani groups all seeking the same elf stone given to the original community by their god. I have no objection to adding yet another item sought by a different group of religious fanatics provided that the subplot is different enough from the other one. Perhaps a rather extreme and absurd religious cult seeking a rather mundane item which to them is seen as a relic?

6. Interesting idea, I'll consider it.

NOTE: Please send any recommendation(s) to me for the specific ILA target(s) as a private e-mail message. I assume that none of my players are reading this thread, but don't want to give away that key plot detail here just in case. (I also don't want to give away that surprise to readers who would prefer not to know in advance, as I will be posting this module as it unfolds as an ongoing Story Hour thread).

7. There are currently no paladins among the playing characters, but this subplot could work for the paladin in guest group B2.

8. Sounds like two more possible guest groups! If anyone would like to come up with a few more details about either or both of these I'm sure I could work it in. I doubt that Hiroshi would have actually invited a known Lich, but I'm sure that the identity of this individual could be somehow disguised. And as an added twist, how about the Lich having been a mage or mage/cleric that lost its humanity after being assassinated by the ILA, and is seeking revenge against them!

9. Actually, I think you filled a nice plot hole with this idea. It was never determined who assembled that gem and jewelry collection to begin with, although all of the items had been out of circulation for quite some time (tentatively 60 years). Lord Kindor has been the Lord for the past 14 years, and his predecessor (Lord Kohlorahdooh) had become Lord 23 years before that through a bloody coup. The lord who died in the coup 37 years earlier (Lord Todd) had ruled for only 6 years, and his father (Lord George) had ruled for 31 years before that. Let's say that George assembled the collection, so the gnome has indeed been waiting for a very long time! Maybe the gnome even worked for George, and had a part in putting the collection together to begin with.

10. I like this idea too, and it sounds like another guest group. If anyone has already put together the specs for an orc military leader and his entourage, please feel free to post them here and we will add them to the guest list as the character described in the post

 

[Kyramus]

Re: Plots and Sub-plots

WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS! Thank you very much Kyramus! Here are my thoughts for each:

2. OK, that might work. The local guild would love to discredit the ILA for excluding them, but as I explained to Rin in an earlier post, the local guild must be extremely careful how they handle this as they do not want to be expelled from the ILA and/or become targets themselves.

4. I like this idea too. I think I'll have Lord Guido Francis Rudolpho from group B6 be the one who gets possessed. His Kingdom is based on the Italian Renaissance, and just because he is an aristocrat does not necessarily mean he is rolling in cash.

8. Sounds like two more possible guest groups! If anyone would like to come up with a few more details about either or both of these I'm sure I could work it in. I doubt that Hiroshi would have actually invited a known Lich, but I'm sure that the identity of this individual could be somehow disguised. And as an added twist, how about the Lich having been a mage or mage/cleric that lost its humanity after being assassinated by the ILA, and is seeking revenge against them!

9. Actually, I think you filled a nice plot hole with this idea. It was never determined who assembled that gem and jewelry collection to begin with, although all of the items had been out of circulation for quite some time (tentatively 60 years). Lord Kindor has been the Lord for the past 14 years, and his predecessor (Lord Kohlorahdooh) had become Lord 23 years before that through a bloody coup. The lord who died in the coup 37 years earlier (Lord Todd) had ruled for only 6 years, and his father (Lord George) had ruled for 31 years before that. Let's say that George assembled the collection, so the gnome has indeed been waiting for a very long time! Maybe the gnome even worked for George, and had a part in putting the collection together to begin with.

10. I like this idea too, and it sounds like another guest group. If anyone has already put together the specs for an orc military leader and his entourage, please feel free to post them here and we will add them to the guest list as the character described in the post

2. yup that's where the players come in. the guild will nudge them into making all sorts of problems for the ILA.

8. he isn't a lich yet, he's trying to be. so he can show up as is or in disguise. same with the dragon. both are vying for the gem to finish their list of things to use to become a lich.

9. that was the idea. the gnome can be old enough to outlast a human but he just got the bad luck of not being in the right place at the right time to collect. so he's been waiting for a long time.

10. addition to posted idea. the Orc might subjugate the area and crown himself a noble of that land, allowing him to meet the requirements of the league of assassins, maybe he's trying to be one of the armies that the league will hire if they go to war.

 

[Silver Moon]

Thanks again Kryamus - I'll add the megalomaniac who wants to be a lich as Guest B21, the dragon as Guest B22, and the orc military leader as Guest B23. If you or any other readers have names and spec's for any or all of these it would be appreciated.

Attached is the picture I found to use for Item C8, the "Blood Stone", which is the gem that the megalomaniac and dragon are both seeking to move on to lichdom!

 

[Silver Moon]

I found a good image for Item C5, the "Ring of Fortune", suggested by Dagger75

 

[Silver Moon]

Attached is the image that I found for item C6, which was originally from Gilladian's Cloudlands.

 

[Silver Moon]

Later Edit: This is item C7, and there is currently no story for it.

 

[Silver Moon]

Attached is a revised picture for item C3, the Finder's Stone Prototype (the old one didn't look that great in the attachment).

 

[Silver Moon]

Auction Items - Stories Needed

Stories needed for the following items: