League of Assassins - Concluded.

[Polydamas]

The most excellent rock hammer of bold Edgar!

Item C14:

The most excellent rock hammer of bold Edgar!

A gnomish artifact of ancient times, this hammer was forged by the rock gnome Edgar himself, renowned smith who learned his trade apprenticed to the mysterious being known only as "The Adamant". Forged of the meteoric iron of the Frost Giant's Grand Jarls throne (whom Edgar and his lesser companions bested in riddle games) and smelted in sacred fires of the Dragonkin, the rock hammer is the acme of Edgar’s art and a testament to his wit and daring. First given to a simple Gnomish peasant who went on to become empress of the great Elvish island nation and later given to a powerful human nation to seal a defense treaty, the rock hammer grew steadily more and more enchanted, and was wielded in great (and often witty) adventures by heroes throughout the ages as well as used in the forging of great works.

The hammer lost its enchantments, in fact its ability to be enchanted at all when it was used to smash the Anti-light engine of the Death Scion in the Well of worlds, completing the fourteenth and greatest task of deification of the Gnomish adventurer Johnathon Silverhand, as well as completing his revenge against the being who had stolen his knowledge of gem cutting. Since the Hammer has been a symbol of the Gnomish people, and is prized by collectors of all races. It has the most thoroughly documented history of any item in history. No special groups seeks this item; it's just one of the general items to draw the elite collectors.

The hammer is a symbol to the Gnomish people, all right..and a tribute to Edgar "the Bold Liar". Every gnome dreams of a chance to add a little tidbit to the history of the hammer, smuggling forged accounts into the great libraries of the land, perhaps even making new "more authentic" versions of the hammers to put into the public eye...at place like this action.

The hammer is one of the great practical jokes in gnomish history. But it serves another purpose as well, reminding the gnomes not to be swayed by "history" or great tales, and to evaluate an item as it really is. In this case, just a hammer.

Although this one is the original the Edgar made so long ago.

Perhaps!

 

[Silver Moon]

ILA Info & Convention Schedule

Wonderful story Polydamus on the history of the weapon - you are a great writer and I really appreciate your contributions to this module. It also explains why weapon collector Amerikus the Dwarf from Eldamar City is at the auction.

The following is more info on the ILA's Convention:

Simultaneous to the auction activities will be the ILA convention. These conventions are only held once every four to six years, and the last one was held five years ago. It is a source of pride to any Guild of Assassins to be awarded the honor of winning this competition, as it essentially means that they have been proven to be the best assassins in the world (and double their prices as a result).

Unlike past conventions, there is no “Returning Championship Team” this time, as the prior winners have all been slain and had their bodies destroyed since the time of the last convention. While the elimination of that guild was actually the work of a party of adventurers, the Officers of the ILA have let the rumor circulate that the non-payment of ILA dues by that particular guild played a key part in their destruction.

The ILA convention will last for one week, begin on the 9th and ending on the 15th. The 9th will have the opening ceremonies and business meeting. The 10th will have the announcements of the three ‘secondary targets’ (each worth up to 10, 15 and 25 points respectively). The 11th will have the announcement of the one ‘primary target’ (worth up to 50 points). The assassin groups will have until the morning of the 15th to complete their assignments. On the afternoon of the 15th the ILA will have their closing ceremony and awards.

The two meetings on the 9th and 15th will be held in separate undisclosed locations – and even figuring out where from various clues will be part of the challenge to the ILA member groups (and playing characters). All of the members will be well disguised during each of these gatherings to keep their identities secret from everyone except the five ILA Officers. There will be a total of between 30 and 80 members present (10d6+20). These meetings should be very tension-filled situations for any Silver Moon characters who manage to infiltrate them, due to the threat of being exposed.

The announcement of the targets will also be done in a very subtle manner, the specifics of where to find this information will only be revealed at the opening meeting. NOTE: I am open to suggestions from the readers of the thread as to exactly how to communicate this information. It would probably be best if the playing characters are able to find out the names of some but not all of the targets.

The ILA’s scoring for the assassinations will be as follows: Each of the five ILA Officers will cast a vote worth up to 20% of the value of each target; for example, each judge could award from 0 to 10 points to the assassin group that eliminates the primary target. The number of points would depend upon the opinion of the judges as to the creativity and skill level involved. Points could also be divided upon multiple teams if they each had part in the assassination, even if a group’s own attempt was unsuccessful.

NOTE: I am planning to let contributors to this Plots & Places thread develop each of the ILA Officers, and cast their votes following their reading of the description of each assassination in the Story Hour thread. Each of these five contributors will be asked to put together the NPC specifications for the ILA Officer character that they are representing, as those characters probably all will be used in the climax battle against the Silver Moon.

 

[Silver Moon]

More Bad Guys

And now a word from our sponsor. As with many conventions, the ILA challenge convention will have its own official sponsor. This is an organized group of non-assassins who have hired various assassin groups during the past several decades. Many of the contracts that they have taken out were unsuccessful, and they were recently lobbied by the ILA to hire only league-sponsored groups in the future. This challenge convention will be observed by this group as a form of audition, and they have also designated one of the secondary targets.

None of this group will be invited guests at the auction. This group will be staying at the same inn as the five leaders of the ILA (one of whom may be an invited auction guest – although it has not been decided yet which one). For security purposes they have actually rented the entire inn where they are staying and have dismissed all employees of the inn except for its owner and his family (who they plan to kill at the end of their stay).

NOTE: I still do not have a floor plan for this particular inn, which is where the module’s climax battle will take place. It needs to be fairly large; at least two stories tall, with some good sized rooms on an upper floor, as several members of the sponsor group are larger than man-sized. If anyone can think of an inn that they have used in the past please let me know the original source, as I may have a copy (I have an almost complete collection of Dungeon Magazine as well as most of the TSR modules published between 1982 and 1992).

 

[Silver Moon]

The Castle

The Castle

Regarding buildings. I spoke with Piratecat last weekend at ENWorld Boston Gameday V, and he has given me permission to use his Calphas’ Comfortable Castle floor plan. As Calphas is not worshipped in this campaign I have renamed it Kulp’s Comfortable Castle. I have decided to keep the floor plan as written and also keep it similar to how the Defenders use it. So, rather than being in a fixed location in Jawltorn, it will be a portable structure. It will be accessed via a magic orb, the Orb of Kulp (which Kindor also found in the collection) that upon the command world “A cat that good.” will transform into the magical doorway to the castle, the orb becoming the doorknob.

Immediately following its activation the door the knob will be grasped and a password stated, which will be required for the door to open. At this point the mage will also have the opportunity to also place a spell on the orb that will activate if anyone tries to either open it without first stating the password or pick the key hole (The currently is no key to this lock, the only one ever made being retained by the item’s original creator, Kulp the Magnificent).

The castle itself will operate similar to the spell Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, except it will have a much longer duration, up to one-day per level of the person re-enchanting the Orb after each usage. One catch to this benefit is that the re-enchanting will take an equal amount of time to recharge the orb was used for. This will allow the Silver Moon to bring it on future missions, but still limit its usage to only once per mission, as they will have no mages in their group high enough level to recharge it themselves.

For the duration of the module this magical doorway will be erected in the building where the auction will take place. This building will be a large stone and oak structure that was formally used as a warehouse. It is located in a part of the city, where an entire city block that contained several warehouses that Kindor has now razed for the land to build the hospital on. The only buildings retained were this well constructed warehouse in the southeastern corner of this block and its adjacent barn in the southwestern corn, as these buildings were in good physical condition. He plans to use the warehouse building as a carriage house for Medical Wagons (ambulances).

This warehouse building is 80x120 feet, with the majority of it being a single 80x100 room with a high ceiling. All of the spacious windows in this room are high above, starting ten feet above the floor, to allow a great deal of light inside while still allowing privacy inside. Four barn-type double doors are along the longer south side of the building, with driveways out to the main street. There are also barn-type doors on the western wall, with fencing outside that lead directly to the barn. The eastern wall of the building has the front door followed by two stories of rooms running 80x20 feet and a staircase leading up to the second floor hallway. It is on this second floor that the doorway to Kulp’s Comfortable Castle will be situated.

The Silver Moon will have a week to get the warehouse building cleaned up and furnished for the auction. He will allow them to borrow any furnishings they wish from his castle, but will not allow anybody except them to enter his castle to get this furniture. This is for two reasons. First, Melito does not want any members of the ILA to infiltrate Kindor’s home. Second, as an added security precaution Colonel Tenbar of the Jawlt Army has managed to sneak most of his forces into the city, and they are now secretly marshalling behind the walled in grounds of the Lordholder’s castle.

 

[Silver Moon]

One More NPC

I have added two more NPC's to the storyline, the details of which can be found on the "Kingdoms of the Elves" thread. These are a 9th level Sorceror from the city of Ravensgate named Muriel and her raven companion. The two are masters of disquise, and will be present to protect a friend of theirs, Grediwal Lyrr of Brondani. Muriel is not an invited guest, and will try to stay in the background. She should make for an intersting character into this mix.

 

[Silver Moon]

Input needed for the following:

Histories still needed for the following items:

C: Item Names and Histories:
Item C11 (large uncut diamond)
Item C12 (jeweled egg with ship)

Also:

D: Other
Floor Plan of a two-or-higher-story inn for the climax battle

 

[Silver Moon]

Blackdirge has volunteered his Orc Chieftan Hargash to fill the role suggested for group B23. I'll be using the Level 6 version of him, and for an illustration will show the players the cover of Dragon Magazine #275. Details on this character are found at the following link:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29357

Another reader sent me an e-mail suggesting that Item C9 be the Puzzle Box of Abu Bin Sala, with further details as to what the box is. He also added a character, who will be Guest B25, a gnome bard/expert puzzlemaster named Delparsithonin "Del" Boddyknickers, who will be seeking this item.

He also suggested a few more plot twists, which I will keep between the two of us for now.

 

[Silver Moon]

Next Group

Going along with the prior suggestion of Set worshipppers wanting item C9, and the suggestion of religious fanatics who won't take no for an answer, I happened to come across a collection of six Egyptian miniatures yesterday, so will use them. All six are priest types, each carrying a sceptre, rod or giant key. Any other Suggested details for this bunch would be welcome. This will be Guest Group B26.

My nine-year old also came across a Hercules plastic figure that she wants me to use. It is plastic, and about 3" high, which would work out to around 15' in 25mm scale. It is a three-headed humanoid warrior with snake/cobra heads. I figure I'll let this Set worshippers summon this guy.

 

[Silver Moon]

Item C13

My 9-year-old has come up with the story for item C13. It is "Mary Lavender's Dress". It is from a place known as Eggshell Island, which is a Dinotopia-type setting. The Lavender Family were one of the ruling human families on the island. The dress was made by a wizard for a noble woman named Mary.

All of the gold on the dress are actually gold-plated dinosaur bones of various dinosaur species. The gems are magically enhanced to interact with the bones. What this allows the wearer to do is actually polymorph into the desired dinosaur.

There are three drawbacks to this item:

1. One must be trained in the use of the dress by a Wizard from Eggshell Island in order for it to work.

2. The size of the dinosaur (i.e. - dinosaur age) is dependent upon how long the dress has been worn. A new wearer would only be able to morph into a baby (man-sized) dino. Only after extended periods of wearing the dress (taking it off for bathing and sleeping) would the size of the morphs increase.

3. The first time a new morph is tried out the person is initially lost in the dinosaur's thoughts and instincts rather than their own (OK, she got that one from the Animorphs series).

 

[Silver Moon]

With almost two weeks until game two new guest groups and new items can still be added! During the next game, however, I will have to give the PC's all of the items. I will probably be able to still add new guests for the first three or four games. Feel free to offer any nobles, aristocrats, or any other wealthy NPC's from your own campaign.

Also, please feel free to offer suggestions for any of the things on the list two posts above.