League of Assassins - Concluded.

[Byrons_Ghost]

Hmm. It may be a bit like handing them the clue, but you could always have someone offer to sell them the information. If they're going door-to-door looking for this guy word is sure to get around. If they're strapped for gold, someone can always offer to exchange the information for a favor, which of course leads to the next adventure. But there's definately something fun about playing a snivelling little street snitch who'll do anything for money (including tipping of the gnome after he shakes down the PCs...)

 

[Silver Moon]

Actually, they've now got access to several potential clues, as at the end of the game night they captured the gnome's apprentice. (I should have that chapter of the Story Hour up by the weekend). Thus far she's been keeping quiet, and an ESP only tipped them off to the name Wobblewick, but if they try again and get his first name of Wister then one of the player's will recognize it.

Alternatively, they could just go to the Sorcerers Guild and ask about Illusionists. He was a member of the guild in this city some 42 to 75 years earlier, so they would have a record of him. The group has discussed going there a few times, but have never followed through. Now that they've captured an illusionist they might actually go there to see if her identity is known by them.

 

[Silver Moon]

Game #8 was interesting. Two of Kyramus's subplots are now on the verge of taking over this module. Most of last night's game centered around the gnome and his apprentice, with the party now knowing who he is and why he is after the items, but still no closer to finding him. I'll post more about what I have planned for next week once I get the next few chapters of Story Hour up, so that readers can offer suggestions as well.

The last part of the game involved the arrival of a dozen Egyptians, many of them powerful priests, accompanying their Pharoah. They are an arrogant group, who only speak their own language and expect to be waited on and pampered until they are given their Sphinx. This group was randomly rolled of the ten groups remaining to arrive, but it worked out well, as it ups the ante for the party to find the stolen Sphinx.

 

[Silver Moon]

The Story Hour chapters pertaining to the gnome's apprentice are now posted. For the next game, when the gnome will "go for broke" in his attempts to recapture the jewelry and gems.

The high level characters have now left to set up an ambush the gnome in the dungeons of the Lordholder’s Castle. Unfortunately for them, the gnome still thinks his apprentice Florine is inside Kulp’s Comfortable Castle (which she is).

The gnome illusionist/rogue Wister and his remaining associate, a 5th level elf druid named Dar, have kept the auction house under surveillance. They are in a room on the top (5th) floor of The Mystical Sword, an inn half a mile east of the auction site, from which they have a good view of the main entrance. The Silver Moon Adventurers have also been invited to dinner by one of the guest groups, and if Wister sees several of them departing, knowing that the others are also still away from the auction site, he will probably decide to make an attempt to get back inside.

The last time, at 4:00AM, the trio invisibly got into the auction house from the roof, using a combination of an invisible rope and Portable Window (which works like a Passwall spell). Wister has the KEY to the magical door of Kulp's Comfortable Castle, which is how he got Florine inside. This time he isn't planning to open the door at all; he will instead use the key to shut down the mystical doorway, and then make off with the Orb. (If he succeeds this will make a major wrinkle in the group's time table, as the doorway has now been up for 4.5 days, which will require an equal amount of time to recharge to open again, assuming they can even find it and Wister.)

 

[Silver Moon]

What an interesting game. The gnome subplot occupied the entire game, with the group just sending off a pair of NPC's to meet a guest group (which was too bad, as they missed a key clue, namely Reader and her Tarot group were present at the same location as gypsy bards). They also decided not to meet another guest group at all.

The gnome made three more attempts to get the Orb of Kulp. On the final attempt he succeeded, although the Silver Moon Adventurers don't know it yet. He and Dar were both captured in their escape, but he had the opportunity to first make the orb invisible and hide it. Dar has also been wearing his half-elf fighter disguise, and hasn't cast any spells yet, so they are unaware that he is a druid. Reader suggestions of spell combinations that he could use to attempt escape would be helpful.

Later Edit: The 3 chapters of the Story Hour for the above game have now been posted.

Next week's game should make for some interesting negotiations, as Wister will try to get between "half" (9 items), and "one-third" (6 items) in return for his cooperation and recharging the Orb. It will take five-days to recharge the item, and the auction is scheduled to take place in five-days, so they will have to reach an agreement on this charcter day. Per the original suggestion, Wister also has fake duplicate copies of all of the items hidden in the city, which Kindor and the party will need in order to have something to present at the previews. That will add to the gnome's position in the negotiations. He also still has the sphinx, hidden in yet a different location.

It should also be interesting next week when the party realizes that 4 of their 5 "stealth team" members are now trapped in Kulp's Castle and not unavailable to infiltrate the ILA! Narg's pregnant wife Vallessa is also in there, which should make for some interesting role playing.

Next week's game will probably also have the beginning of the ILA member sightings.

 

[Silver Moon]

Call for Assassins

I anticipate that during this Sunday night's game the ILA Convention will begin. As of right now I only have two contributions for the five ILA leaders, the human female named Reader suggested by Kyramus and the drow male named Jen Kedar Everhate from Blackdirge's Rogue's Gallery storyline of the the assassin Grummok.

I am hoping that three more readers of this Plots & Places thread could each suggest another character.

I had initially planned on having these five be a male human, a female human, a male drow, a smaller-than-man-sized race of either gender, and a male larger-than-man-sized race. However, that is not set in stone. For that matter, all five don't even have to be assassins (although they should have proficiency with rogue skills) they just need to have assassin followers.

 

[Silver Moon]

OK, I now have an Inn for where the ILA leaders will be staying, and where I anticipate the climax battle will take place. In the current issue of Dungeon Magazine #98, the main module has an excellent inn known as the Lucky Monkey (pages 30-38). I'll change the name to one of the ones in Jawltorn, and occupants to match my module, but the floorplan and map key will work great.

 

[Silver Moon]

Cemetery of Death (or at least fun)

I will be kicking off the ILA Convention, with the opening meeting being held in the Jawltorn Cemetery, at a specific family plot. For this section of the cemetery I will be using one of the Wizards of the Coast map-of-the-week downloads. Specifically, the 3/08 map at the following link:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mw/mw20020725x2001

I hope to make this encounter distinctly different from everthing that has happened up until this point. It is also important to make this a "fun" encounter for the players, as it appears that two of the players are angry about how the previous game turned out, with them now needing to pick different characters for the stealth team

Feel free to offer suggestions either today or tomorrow regarding this scenario. Thanks.

 

[Silver Moon]

The ILA convention has begun. Aradyn, Cassie and Mark have been added to the stealth team, and three new characters have been pulled in to round it out. May be a while until I get the Story Hour posted, but we aren't playing on Easter, so there's time until the next game. Still need suggestions for the remaining three ILA leaders.

 

[Kyramus]

Silver moon, I have been in a process of moving my apt and haven't looked at this thread til tonight.

I'm glad some of my ideas helped you in your game. Hehehe Wister is turning to be a wise ass isn't he?

I will think up a few more ILA leaders. I might even post them tonight.