D&D 5E [OOC] A Light Hearted Princes of Elemental Evil Hack and Slash

[CanadienneBacon]

Copied from the IC re: Maighan and/or Dent joining the Red Larch guild:

I don't have any strong opinions on what the group wants to do with this topic. Wherever you want your standings to be with this faction or others, just let me know. It's not super important, except to give me one of many paths to maybe provide the group with some inquiries.

Hmmm...me, the player, I don't really like the idea of the group being from differing organizations. Cohesiveness and unity make me feel more comfortable, generally. However, maybe here it's ok if Maighan and Dent aren't guild members. Dent would be starting off copper while the rest of the group is already at gold level, which would create a potentially awkward division when it came time to disburse treasure.

Dent does, however, have a silver badge from somewhere. He started play with it. I s'pose we could work on defining his membership in whatever organization it was that gave him the silver badge. I'm hesitant, however, to create busy work for you, [MENTION=552]Creamsteak[/MENTION], unless it really adds something substantive to the game. DMing's enough work as it is. If Dent doesn't join the guild and we don't define (and use) membership in a different organization for him, we could always just leave him as a free-floating mercenary. That kind of feels wrong to me, though, since he's got paladin for his class. I'd like him to belong somewhere, and have tenets of something that he's required to uphold (even if they're evil bureaucratic tenets).

TLDR: What are my options, CS, for orgs to have Dent join? He's been kicked out of his military unit in Mirabar, and has a huge-ass chip on his shoulder. He's neutral evil, and selfish. Got a rec for an org that would work well for him?

 

[Shayuri]

Maighan already belongs to an organization, albeit an extremely loosely-knit one. She'd be willing to enter a pro-tem association with the guild, if that would avoid tensions that would distract from the objective. However, her ultimate loyalty would be elsewhere, if a conflict of interest arose.

 

[Forged Fury]

If it matters, Damien doesn't really have any strong affiliation with the guild, other than giving him a veneer of legitimacy and a structured way of focusing on the evils in the valley... so he can eventually usurp them.

 

[Creamsteak]

I had basically assumed the military faction out of Mirabar was its own thing, and wouldn't also have people being in a sell-sword organization from the reaches south of there along the triboar trail. That said, maybe you do have a silver icon from the guild and it wasn't noticed. I also assumed Maighan was from the druid circle, based on the description. Personally I'm fine with more factions at this point as it gives more potential plot hooks with which to inject some information, but I can go either way.

The Knights of Samular would always take more members, but they are kinda having a rough time of things.

The various cultists would sure like to swing Dent to their side.

The Order of the Gauntlet, Lord's Alliance, Haprers, Zhentarim, and Emerald Enclave all have hooks into the adventure.

I was also intending to have both Waterdeep and Mirabar get more involved as the campaign progresses.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I don't think the Knights of Samular would accept Dent. They're LG and he's, well...not. I'm kinda tempted to have him begin an association with one of the cults, but I don't think that would play well with the rest of the party. We're supposed to be adventuring "for justice" or some such thing, eh? Probably not the best idea for Dent to join up with the foes. The Order of the Gauntlet is a LG org, so nix on joining that. The Lord's Alliance is also LG. Emerald Enclave seems too druidic for Dent.

The Harpers might work. They're chaotic good, but their description on wikia.com says they're interested in balance. Better yet, the Zhentarim might fit the bill. The Zhentarim are enemies of the Harpers, but their alignment matches Dent's, plus their alias is the "Black Company." I like the way "Black Company" sounds a whole lot better than "Zhentarim."

My only other idea is that a private patron from Waterhaven or Mirabar contact Dent via letter or message and hire him to work/investigate on the patron's behalf. Let me know if that appeals, CS, and I'll do up an NPC for you to use as a hook, if you like.

Well, one more idea, I s'pose...Damien and Dent team up For Evil and start plotting to take over the world. I'm down for that, but something tells me FF isn't really ready to actively start hatching his character's plan to take over Dessarin Valley quite yet.

 

[Creamsteak]

So let me just propose that I could totally see some of the cults siding with something along the lines of what Dent wants. And our current group is rather... dynamic in terms of interests.

The Zhentarim also might make sense.

I'm also open to a specific outside agenda you want to propose. A benefactor. An outside source. It could even be involved with other factions.

I"m open to all the possibilities proposed in public or private.

I think all of us in this game are on the mature side of games and can totally deal with some complexity in whatever direction. I also think that after around a year (a little short, but getting closer) we are past the point of learning the basics of the game and can expand a little. Learning mechanics was one of my main goals with this game and I'm at least a little stronger there now.

Our "party" is like... quasi evil-ish. But not stupid-evil. I'm totally still fine with that.

 

[Shayuri]

lol...the quasi evil thing may be a thing... Fortunately Maighan, even being 'good,' has a fairly broad view of the relationship between good and evil. I'll try to keep the conflict on a level where it's interesting and fun.

 

[Steve Gorak]

Well, one more idea, I s'pose...Damien and Dent team up For Evil and start plotting to take over the world. I'm down for that, but something tells me FF isn't really ready to actively start hatching his character's plan to take over Dessarin Valley quite yet.

Thaliss would want to get in on this! He craves power, but isn't evil per se (although in Dnd, it seems that the two tend to be tied together). His noble status could bring legitimacy to the endeavor, and our "official" goals could be to pacify and bring civilization to the valley. Perhaps we'll end up allying ourselves with the elemental cults. I'm game ;-)
Cheers,

SG

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Oh, well that changes things considerably, then. Honestly, that option kind of felt right to me, weird as that may seem. Anyone else think this is a fun idea?

 

[Forged Fury]

Damien, at least, is too megalomaniacal to enter into any kind of witting association. His whole point in this endeavor is to clear out the evil in the valley so he (and by extension, Archandros) can take over. He's more than happy with the current established relationship.

Granted, the whole point of Damien was something of a joke character, which has now gone flat once everyone else decided that evil would be cool.