D&D General Looking for super brief inspiration for tonight's session - PC thieves and swindlers arrive in a new town

[RangerWickett]

The party arrives in a riverside town in tonight's session. They're getting a ride from as river pirate who's also a popular bard, because criminals have street cred.

Their long term goal is to ambush and heist a royal treasure barge coming this way in a few months. They're here to lay the groundwork for that. I've thought to various factions who might help, but what are some interesting inciting incidents to get the party in contact with these people?

The head of the Temple of the river goddess thinks the royal family is tyrannical, but her second in command wants to depose the temple head and take over, so is seeking royal help to do it.

A respected city judge is an uncle of the king who also thinks the royals are abusing their power, but he feels he can't criticize without looking like he's seeking the throne for his family line. Also, a more powerful judge on the city is a Lawful Neutral absolutist, who serves the legal order even if he thinks those in power are unworthy.

There's a bunch of pirates on the river who vandalize the royal docks to make it harder for the river patrol boats to be serviced.

The pirates have ties to a local temple of the goddess of art, since the royal family has put a tax on tavern performances. And the temple also makes counterfeit jewelry, which recently were discovered by the local temple of the god of death, because they used to steal jewelry that people got buried with, but now it's all junk.

There's a radical cult of the healing god who've turned to banditry and cannibalism in the woods.

Alchemists are hoping to steal a magic tablet from any of the temples, so they can do magical experiments.

In three days there is a Halloween esque festival where ghosts will roam and people celebrate in the streets wearing masks.

But like, what should the party run into right as they arrive to link them into any of this?

 

[jayoungr]

Just introduce them to a wealthy mark and watch them fleece him/her?

 

[MarkB]

A pirate captain who's also a bard? Sounds like someone who'd know the lay of the land, and be very happy to talk about it if given a reason to trust his passengers.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

That is a lot, but... to eat an elephant, you need to take a bite at a time.

I'd start with something on the river, like a barge or boat that needs aid. They stop and offer assistance - or don't - only to later find out these were some of the river pirates, and the party had had a chance to stop (or aid) them.

The rest really needs to develop as they get into town I think

 

[R_J_K75]

The Warren Zevon song "Lawyers. Guns and Money" comes to mind for some reason.

Theres a king and a temple with influence, and some form of law (and lawlessness) in the area. I would think the docks are being well guarded if they've been vandalized recently. Think of the mob on the NYC docks during WW2, heavily watched by the gov't but corrupt. If the PCs get off the boat at the docks, someone will probably take notice of them, or vice versa, they may take notice of some prominent figures of the area. If I were DMing this, I wouldn't think much past them disembarking the river boat and see what happens during their first interaction after the gang plank. There're some good random encounter table tables in the 2E Cities of Mystery and City Systems books which could be used to roll up a cool dock scene to start with and see where things go from there.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'd start with something on the river, like a barge or boat that needs aid. They stop and offer assistance - or don't - only to later find out these were some of the river pirates, and the party had had a chance to stop (or aid) them.

I was thinking of something a little similar. What if the party witnesses an emergency that would attract the aid/attention of multiple parties?

Say, for example, they spot a raft or dinghy with 3-4 kids being attacked by a sahuagin or water snake. The party goes in to render aid. At the same time, a pirate boat shows up to help, allowing the party to interact with them as allies. Then, fashionably late after the threat is neutralized, a tiny royal sport boat shows up to render aid. With prompting from the kids that the pirates were helping, the pirates are allowed/encouraged to hastily exit, and the party can socialize with the royals.

Between the social interactions with the pirates, royals, and kids (who can be the offspring of any necessary faction), you should be able to drop a good number of plot hooks and see what sticks.

 

[R_J_K75]

I was thinking of something a little similar. What if the party witnesses an emergency that would attract the aid/attention of multiple parties?

Say, for example, they spot a raft or dinghy with 3-4 kids being attacked by a sahuagin or water snake. The party goes in to render aid. At the same time, a pirate boat shows up to help, allowing the party to interact with them as allies. Then, fashionably late after the threat is neutralized, a tiny royal sport boat shows up to render aid. With prompting from the kids that the pirates were helping, the pirates are allowed/encouraged to hastily exit, and the party can socialize with the royals.

Between the social interactions with the pirates, royals, and kids (who can be the offspring of any necessary faction), you should be able to drop a good number of plot hooks and see what sticks.

Laying out possible options, not possible destinations. A good set of random encounter tables goes a long way I believe. This thread kind if makes me want to come up with a cool fantasy dock encounter.

Are these rowed/sailed or as was said river boat, Im thinking padddle boats, sabotage

 

[RangerWickett]

I had the party encounter some pirates who just wanted to chat, but the party got spooked and ran them off instead of getting to know them and hearing the status of the city.

I added a thing where visitors to the city needed, like, passports, and since they were there illicitly, their pilot took them to a bazaar fish market just outside the city formally. There they got a few counterfeit ones, and met a woman they'd previously seen in their home base city. She offered some hints as to what she was doing here (she's a spy), which got the party intrigued by a few hooks.

Then, lol, they just walked straight to the main temple of the river goddess and just blurted their whole secret plan to the high priestess. Which of they'd guessed wrong would've gotten them strung up. But it worked.

And now I've gotta figure out how to make "arranging a royal marriage in order to turn the Queen's children against each other" into a D&D game.

 

[RangerWickett]

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

 

[haakon1]

Presumably the royals knows this town is a nest of vipers and likely to attack them when they pass through. Depending on the nature of the royals, it may be time to go medieval on this town. Surround it with troops and send in the marines to with NPC adventurers to “clean it out”.

IMC, the PC’s will return from the dungeon to find the village they left a few weeks ago mostly deserted (civilians fled unless “protected”) and their allies who own the village in the tower surrounded by hundreds of hobgoblin mercenaries hired by the ruler. There was a lot of back story and foreshadowing to this - the PC’s know the ruler is “problematic” and sent a letter demanding the PC’s arrest but was blown off by their allies.

They suspect the ruler is allied with the dungeon forces, but so far plan to just go back to the village.

(But sometimes players want trouble!)