D&D 5E New-ish 5E GM Questions - Possible spoilers.

[ElterAgo]

Ok, so we are running the Storm Lord's Thunder campaign. Possible spoilers.

1) The party has the chunk of Vodindod(sp?) from Triboar. They have decided that instead of selling it, they want it made into items. I said it isn't solid adamantine, it is an alloy (mostly to buy me time). So they are planning to haul it to the Dwarf Citadel to have someone work with it as raw materials. How much would you allow them to make out of it, how much should it cost, and how long would it take? A longsword and a short sword? More? A suit of plate armor? A short sword and suit of chain mail? They have the letter of introduction, so I'm thinking that should keep the costs minimal if they don't take the figurines. So maybe a 1000 gps and a few weeks?

2) The party chose not belong to any of the groups at the beginning of the campaign (some wanted it to be part of the development). The party's arcane trickster want to secretly join all the groups Harpers, Zentarmim, etc... Another thinks he might want to join the Harpers, but wants to learn more about them first. How hard is it to join the various groups? Initiation, buy-in, recommendation, etc... Do they do any sort of divinations to find out if someone is a member of the others? Any easily locatable info on the various orders since I don't know much about them?

 

[Gorg]

For question 2, The option to join the various factions is written right into Lost Mine of Phandelver. They usually get noticed and approached by an NPC and given "the recruiting speech", if a character(s) seem to fit in well with the overall goals/ideology of the faction.

These groups have a ton of lore written about them in past edition products- even some with suppliments written just about them. (Harpers and Cult of the Dragon come to mind, both have 2E splatbooks all about them) The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from 3E is another great place to look. It covers them all, as they are a big part of the "politics of the Realms". If you or someone you know doesn't have that book, I see em on Ebay all the time- along with a LOT of other FR materials. (slightly less, now- as I recently have been finishing up my 3E FR collection, lol)

I really wish WoTC would just go ahead and publish a full campaign setting for the 5E Realms, instead of parcelling out little bits of info scattered throughout all the modules set there...

I'm currently reading through the same adventure. I've been collecting 5E books lately as well- but they are all sitting in a pile of parcels at home, while I'm out on the road... Thus, I can't say what other official books might say.

 

[Quartz]

How hard is it to join the various groups? Initiation, buy-in, recommendation, etc...

Plot hooks! Harper & Zhent agents will be mission givers.

 

[ElterAgo]

Oh yes it will certainly help with plot hooks.

First though, I need to figure out what he needs to do to join the various factions. Any ideas on that?

Anyone have any ideas on what they can get made with the chunk of the Vodinod?

 

[Eltab]

If they need a wagon to move the Vonindod piece, they could get a suit of Adamantium Armor out of it. Point out, though, that it might be more party-friendly to make a few swords / whatever - unless you have only one tank and s/he is a Paladin or Fighter.

If the piece is not that big, then aim the group towards crafting shields or selling / trading the metal chunk for other stuff the party can use. Some of the magic items in the DMG / Xanathar / Tasha require adamantium, so you could give the group one as a 'finder's fee'.

Another alternative: trade the pricey but hard-to-work metal chunk for a matching set of Giant-slayer weapons with art / craftsmanship value even above the magic property.

 

[Quartz]

First though, I need to figure out what he needs to do to join the various factions. Any ideas on that?

They should be adventure sources before the PCs join them - let the PCs prove their worth, as it were.

 

[dave2008]

1) The party has the chunk of Vodindod(sp?) from Triboar. They have decided that instead of selling it, they want it made into items. I said it isn't solid adamantine, it is an alloy (mostly to buy me time). So they are planning to haul it to the Dwarf Citadel to have someone work with it as raw materials. How much would you allow them to make out of it, how much should it cost, and how long would it take? A longsword and a short sword? More? A suit of plate armor? A short sword and suit of chain mail? They have the letter of introduction, so I'm thinking that should keep the costs minimal if they don't take the figurines. So maybe a 1000 gps and a few weeks?

I am not sure about cost as we us a silver standard in our game, but the time is going to be a lot longer. This a metal that is particularly hard to craft. A normal sword in medieval times took about 1-2 months (note it doesn't takes that long to forger the sword, but that is not the only thing the blacksmith is doing). And a suit of armor even longer. Since your talking about a suite of adamantine armor (or the equivalent in weapons) I would say your are talking about 6 months at least. Also, if you go the armor route, you need the PC to be present for frequent fittings and adjustments.

 

[Nefermandias]

Firstly, it's Storm KING'S Thunder.

Now to your first question:
Keep in mind Maegera is necessary to melt the parts of the Vonindod. That alone would force the group to travel to Gauntlgrym and possibly have a confrontation with the drow and have to earn the dwarves trust before using the forge.
Even if they were able to forge the piece into say, a suit of armor, I would have fire giants going after them all the time since they can detect traces of the Vonindod by using the rod.

 

[billd91]

Ok, so we are running the Storm Lord's Thunder campaign. Possible spoilers.

1) The party has the chunk of Vodindod(sp?) from Triboar. They have decided that instead of selling it, they want it made into items. I said it isn't solid adamantine, it is an alloy (mostly to buy me time). So they are planning to haul it to the Dwarf Citadel to have someone work with it as raw materials. How much would you allow them to make out of it, how much should it cost, and how long would it take? A longsword and a short sword? More? A suit of plate armor? A short sword and suit of chain mail? They have the letter of introduction, so I'm thinking that should keep the costs minimal if they don't take the figurines. So maybe a 1000 gps and a few weeks?

Having armor made might not be a bad idea - it's certainly a better idea than making weapons since the benefit of adamantine armor is going to be more useful than adamantine weapons (under normal circumstances). As far as cost, adamantine armor is uncommon, so it's really not expected to be super expensive compared to something more rare on the magic item table. That said, the 1d6 x 100 gp cost associated on the downtime table should be added to the base cost of the armor - otherwise, you'd risk letting adamantine plate armor cost less than normal plate armor.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Ok, so we are running the Storm Lord's Thunder campaign. Possible spoilers.

1) The party has the chunk of Vodindod(sp?) from Triboar. They have decided that instead of selling it, they want it made into items. I said it isn't solid adamantine, it is an alloy (mostly to buy me time). So they are planning to haul it to the Dwarf Citadel to have someone work with it as raw materials. How much would you allow them to make out of it, how much should it cost, and how long would it take? A longsword and a short sword? More? A suit of plate armor? A short sword and suit of chain mail? They have the letter of introduction, so I'm thinking that should keep the costs minimal if they don't take the figurines. So maybe a 1000 gps and a few weeks?

2) The party chose not belong to any of the groups at the beginning of the campaign (some wanted it to be part of the development). The party's arcane trickster want to secretly join all the groups Harpers, Zentarmim, etc... Another thinks he might want to join the Harpers, but wants to learn more about them first. How hard is it to join the various groups? Initiation, buy-in, recommendation, etc... Do they do any sort of divinations to find out if someone is a member of the others? Any easily locatable info on the various orders since I don't know much about them?

For question 1, there's no "right" answer. It's entirely based on how much adamantine weapons/armor you're cool with your party having.

For question 2, I think it's fairly easy to join most of the factions as an initiate, but that doesn't make you a very influential person. For example, you could walk up to a Zhent and say "Hey I heard your into some business and could find my friends and I some work wink wink. Successful persuasion check, Zhent looks your party over, says "Sure. Meet me tomorrow and I'll have a task for you." Give some fairly rudimentary task (deliver a package, threaten someone, etc). If successful, they know they can trust you with basic tasks. Complete a few more and then they may give you some of the more high-level jobs.