unan oranis
First Post
Here's an alternative take for the npc Ninnaran in "keep on the shadowfell", as well as a twist on one of the plot devices I didn't like.
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So the town of winterhaven knows where the local kobold lair is, but has not gone out in a big group and smashed it. I find the reasons given to be quite feeble.
I'd change this so that the towns militia has ceased searching for the kobold lair after one of their scouting parties was found hacked to pieces.
The pc's are asked to go find the kobold lair themselves, but Ninaran (having listened in like the good spy he is supposed to be) will catch up with them just as they are out of earshot of anyone else and hand them a map to the kobold lair.
Ninaran is supposed to want the pc's to fight the kobolds according to the module, hopefully to eliminate the pc's before they discover what is up and I assume just to be a jerk to the kobold allies (why he wants to burn his allies is not really explained).
He should tell the pc's that if all the townsfolk went together in a big army, they would then reclaim the treasure equally... whereas if the heroes go solo, they will get all the money. He can say that nice and sleazy without exposing himself as a villain and mildly corrupt the pc's to boot. Maybe he'll ask for a cut?
Ninaran. I've changed him to a human (he's supposed to be spying in a mostly human town... sending an elf would be pretty silly). Also here is my larger back story for Ninny that helps smooth out some of his motivations:
Ninaran is the spoiled son of a very rich merchant.
His dad isn't very nice either, and when his wives discovered each other they left him.
But Ninarans dad lived in a city ruled by dwarven law, which meant that the sons of each wife stayed with the father.
Ninarans half brother, Dalagar, excelled in the family business while Ninaran languished.
Naturally jerk-dad lavished Dalagar with praise and love, while punishing and neglecting ol' Ninny-pants.
Ninaran rebelled by joining a secret death cult. He thought he was being pretty cool and tough, but he was only being played for the financial support he brought. As his ability to get money from his dad ran out and Kalarels plans became actions, he fell more and more out of favour in the cult. The parties ceased and suddenly everyone on team evil started getting sick of his whining.
So he was more or less booted from the inner circle, then ousted from the goblin ranks and finally even irontooth wouldn't stand to hear him moaning and groaning anymore and had him sent into town to be stationed as a "spy", by himself.
Now Ninnypants mopes around in the bar all day, surly, whiny and blaming everyone but himself. He quickly dropped his desire to make a comeback as a spy. Drunk with ale, misery and a bit of power, his one comfort is that everyone who is pissing him off is going to be devoured alive by zombies in short order.
Yay now we have an npc who's got a reason to act stupid and give some pretty big clues to the pc's. I intend for him to semi-realise his mistake of putting the pc's on the trail, and send a kobold courier with a message telling irontooth to prepare for the heroes invasion.
Of course, this courier will arive at the same time the pc's are leaving irontooths cave, and having neglected to encode his message, Ninaran will implicate himself pretty harshly, as well as reveal the whole evil-door-death-cult-ruins thing in a way I find much more apealing than some villagers having nightmares and reporting them to the pc's.
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[sblock]
So the town of winterhaven knows where the local kobold lair is, but has not gone out in a big group and smashed it. I find the reasons given to be quite feeble.
I'd change this so that the towns militia has ceased searching for the kobold lair after one of their scouting parties was found hacked to pieces.
The pc's are asked to go find the kobold lair themselves, but Ninaran (having listened in like the good spy he is supposed to be) will catch up with them just as they are out of earshot of anyone else and hand them a map to the kobold lair.
Ninaran is supposed to want the pc's to fight the kobolds according to the module, hopefully to eliminate the pc's before they discover what is up and I assume just to be a jerk to the kobold allies (why he wants to burn his allies is not really explained).
He should tell the pc's that if all the townsfolk went together in a big army, they would then reclaim the treasure equally... whereas if the heroes go solo, they will get all the money. He can say that nice and sleazy without exposing himself as a villain and mildly corrupt the pc's to boot. Maybe he'll ask for a cut?
Ninaran. I've changed him to a human (he's supposed to be spying in a mostly human town... sending an elf would be pretty silly). Also here is my larger back story for Ninny that helps smooth out some of his motivations:
Ninaran is the spoiled son of a very rich merchant.
His dad isn't very nice either, and when his wives discovered each other they left him.
But Ninarans dad lived in a city ruled by dwarven law, which meant that the sons of each wife stayed with the father.
Ninarans half brother, Dalagar, excelled in the family business while Ninaran languished.
Naturally jerk-dad lavished Dalagar with praise and love, while punishing and neglecting ol' Ninny-pants.
Ninaran rebelled by joining a secret death cult. He thought he was being pretty cool and tough, but he was only being played for the financial support he brought. As his ability to get money from his dad ran out and Kalarels plans became actions, he fell more and more out of favour in the cult. The parties ceased and suddenly everyone on team evil started getting sick of his whining.
So he was more or less booted from the inner circle, then ousted from the goblin ranks and finally even irontooth wouldn't stand to hear him moaning and groaning anymore and had him sent into town to be stationed as a "spy", by himself.
Now Ninnypants mopes around in the bar all day, surly, whiny and blaming everyone but himself. He quickly dropped his desire to make a comeback as a spy. Drunk with ale, misery and a bit of power, his one comfort is that everyone who is pissing him off is going to be devoured alive by zombies in short order.
Yay now we have an npc who's got a reason to act stupid and give some pretty big clues to the pc's. I intend for him to semi-realise his mistake of putting the pc's on the trail, and send a kobold courier with a message telling irontooth to prepare for the heroes invasion.
Of course, this courier will arive at the same time the pc's are leaving irontooths cave, and having neglected to encode his message, Ninaran will implicate himself pretty harshly, as well as reveal the whole evil-door-death-cult-ruins thing in a way I find much more apealing than some villagers having nightmares and reporting them to the pc's.
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