Wraith Form
Explorer
Thank you for this, too....I wasn't sure where to find additional Alchemy info. (and, sadly, I'm such a pack-rat, I do have those issues laying around)FCWesel said:
Plot twist for a "heist" - help, please?
- Thread starter Wraith Form
- Start date
Some ideas:
- Let the PC's do their thing, and take the journal after dealing with the relatively minor obstacles you;ve set forth. Only after they get the book back to their employer do they find out that it is either a) a fake laid there by Mr. Thief-who-got-there-before-you-did, b) useless because the formula is there but is also completely wrong (and the employer blames the PCs for getting the wrong book - whether or not they did is up to you), or c) far more than a simple old lady's journal (who knows? Maybe it's cursed and the PC's can't get rid of it even if they want to!).
- Let the PC's do their thing, and take the journal after dealing with the relatively minor obstacles you;ve set forth. Only after they get the book back to their employer do they find out that it is either a) a fake laid there by Mr. Thief-who-got-there-before-you-did, b) useless because the formula is there but is also completely wrong (and the employer blames the PCs for getting the wrong book - whether or not they did is up to you), or c) far more than a simple old lady's journal (who knows? Maybe it's cursed and the PC's can't get rid of it even if they want to!).
Wraith Form
Explorer
Y'know, if the players get that clever, that's fine.IcyCool said:
Byrons_Ghost
First Post
At the risk of oversimplifying:
I'm a big fan of throwing moral quandries at my players- not to revoke their paladin abilities or anything like that, but simply to give them the choice as to how the mood of the campaign will proceed. It seems to me that the biggest twist in this scenario is the knowledge that the book is not a journal, but in fact a cheap healing potion.
This could go into the hands of the Thieves' Guild, or it could go into the hands of the locals who need it. Think of the "Train Robbery" episode in "Firefly". If there's some sort of local plague, that which the daughter might have contracted, then it's up to the players whether or not they do what's right.
I'm a big fan of throwing moral quandries at my players- not to revoke their paladin abilities or anything like that, but simply to give them the choice as to how the mood of the campaign will proceed. It seems to me that the biggest twist in this scenario is the knowledge that the book is not a journal, but in fact a cheap healing potion.
This could go into the hands of the Thieves' Guild, or it could go into the hands of the locals who need it. Think of the "Train Robbery" episode in "Firefly". If there's some sort of local plague, that which the daughter might have contracted, then it's up to the players whether or not they do what's right.
Wraith Form
Explorer
That's assuming a few things:
1) that they players actually piece together the fact that this is a formula for inexpensive healing, by reading the journal. My players are unpredictable enough to either read it cover to cover or throw it in their backpack and bring it home to the guild.
2) The guild will NOT bluff on the blackmail held over the players' heads. Each player drew from a hat a series of "skeletons in closets"--everything from owing huge money to having affairs with prominent nobles in their home city. The players graciously allowed themselves to be put into this position to add story elements for their characters--but the guild will not hesitate to bring these bad things to light in a very public way if the PCs skip town, betray the guild, etc.
...Having said that, I'm pondering your idea, and VERY MUCH appreciate the input.
1) that they players actually piece together the fact that this is a formula for inexpensive healing, by reading the journal. My players are unpredictable enough to either read it cover to cover or throw it in their backpack and bring it home to the guild.
2) The guild will NOT bluff on the blackmail held over the players' heads. Each player drew from a hat a series of "skeletons in closets"--everything from owing huge money to having affairs with prominent nobles in their home city. The players graciously allowed themselves to be put into this position to add story elements for their characters--but the guild will not hesitate to bring these bad things to light in a very public way if the PCs skip town, betray the guild, etc.
...Having said that, I'm pondering your idea, and VERY MUCH appreciate the input.
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hbarsquared
Quantum Chronomancer
grimwell said:
This part is my favorite. Except instead that she wants them to work for her and/or she can help them out of their blackmail (afer doing her a few favors...) At any rate, she's a "good" thieve's guild leader.
Blackwind
Explorer
LOL. The PCs break into the mansion and, aside from a little trouble with the dogs, they encounter no difficulty in stealing the journal. The old woman and her daughter aren't home that night, apparently. (But why? ...) The PCs will not be able to read the journal because it's written in a cipher, and they don't have the secret codeword. They travel back to the city and give the journal to their boss, who gets angry and orders them to do whatever it takes to get the codeword. So, the PCs go back to the mansion and kidnap the lady alchemist's daughter, leaving a ransom note somewhere in the house. She agrees to meet with them, gives them the codeword, and takes her daughter back. If the PCs are resourceful enough to read the journal, they discover that it contains, not a formula for a healing potion, but an elaborate account of how the woman, who, it is revealed in the journal, was once the guild boss' lover, cheated on him for years with another man, the head of a rival crime family, and eventually betrayed the guild boss, telling the other man all of his secrets, which cost the first guild hundreds of thousands of gold pieces over the years. At the very end of the journal, there is a personal message to the PCs boss: "So you see ABC, I didn't leave you because I wanted to be alone and focus on my work... I left you for XYZ (the rival mob boss). There is no potion formula, there is no potion, there is only my revenge." Or something along those lines. Before this, the journal (which is really an extended letter to the PCs boss, given over intentionally by the old lady) could also go into detail about how the boss is evil, treated the woman cruelly, etc, etc... thus putting the PCs in a sort of moral dilemma. Do they go back to the old woman and ask questions? Do they side with her? If so, too bad, because she's really a necromancer and the "daughter" is her apprentice. Do they give their boss the journal? That might put them on the track of the real secret... that their boss was never involved with the lady, it was his twin brother the chaotic evil illusionist.
Forgive me, I just saw The Prestige.
I really like some of the other suggestions, here, especially jollyninja's.
Forgive me, I just saw The Prestige.
I really like some of the other suggestions, here, especially jollyninja's.
Wraith Form
Explorer
Amazing. Until this point in your post, this was almost verbatim what I was thinking of doing.Blackwind said:
However, the guild that I have created in my brain is powerful enough to have a cypher-cracker in their organization. When I compare my thieves' guild to the Mafia (in their heyday), I'm not kidding--my guild has most of the City Watch in their pockets, as well as a majority of the politicians and magistrates. they have agents/spies in all of the towns and villages across the countryside, as well as most of the surrounding nations. In fact, they're looking to expand... (which will lead into the next adventure, Mad God's Key). The key will be in a city in the nation "next door," and the PCs will be investigating a cell of that nation's own thieves' guild.
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