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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zogmo" data-source="post: 3205185" data-attributes="member: 17682">Sorry about the length, I got carried away.This would be great to use to add to the overall story and generate a plot element at any time they are carrying this tube.  This can unfold in many ways.1)They get a new message from the thieves guild master but it's apparently been sent to them by mistake (consider that the guild has multiple tubes to multiple people throughout the guild).The message is addressed to someone they don't know (or do know) saying: "The trap has been set for the fools who are going to get the book of Kadath.  Once they have it in their possession the Green Watcher will deal with them during their journey home."Of course the note can be sent to them either right before or right after they have the book.  Depending on how you want to play it.Personally just to mess with them I would have them notice the new message once they are in the house and sneaking around right before they pick up the book.  And I would have two journals together almost identical to each other so they will pick up both books not knowing which one it's supposed to be.The two journals work like this.  They are both needed because every other letter of each word is split between the journals.  This is a magical journal of course so all she has to do is write in one and the letters will be automatically split up between the two books to make them seeming gibberish.  It can be deciphered but it will take a while to unscramble the letters and both books are needed.  Have one of the PC's figure this out when they investigate the books closer.So, at some point, whatever they may be thinking, once they are on the way home in the woods there will be a stranger who accidentally runs across their camp at night looking for a bit of companionship/food (whatever) and he will be dressed in an over abundance of Green, looking like a bard perhaps.  This is of course not the Green Watcher but an innocent bystander made by you to seem like the guy their watching out for.  You can have him talk briefly to them and then bid his farewells and off he goes into the wood telling them he's on his way to town (whatever the name of the town is where they stole the books.)Having paranoid players is really fun.The next day on the way back to the guild have them discover one of the journals has been stolen somehow. Even if it was locked up really safe. And if they don't think of this themselves remind the PC's that the guild master was looking for only one book, so they can give the remaining book to him and their debt will be paid.   Much later on in the campaign, it will be fun for the PC's to run across the innocent green bard again whenever it's best for you.  They will probably still believe that he is the Green Watcher and that he stole the journal from them. This will be a great opportunity to introduce almost any plot or direction you want the characters to go in. Once they get back to the guild master, before any of the PC's tell him that they have the book, they will clearly see on his desk (in his hands, wherever) the missing book of the two journals, and he's not trying to hide it at all.  He tells them that even though he did get the book he wanted it didn't come from them, they are still in his debt.  If they demand to know how it came into his possession he will smile and simply tell them, "I am master of the thieves guild, I do have my resources."He says he doesn't even believe they took the journey and that they probably were of in a tavern somewhere plotting on how to get out of the business deal they entered into.If they had sent him a message when the job was done about completing their end of the deal, he will deny ever getting it and that they are lying. So, make sure he doesn't respond to any messages once the PC's steal the journals.Of course the PC's have their own story but he will pretend not to believe it, whatever they tell him.The guild master has always intended to not release the PC's from the bargain and keep them in his debt, always having something for them to do to pay back their latest screw-up/double cross/incompetence, whatever he calls it. This is how the mafia usually does it, sort of.  If they try to show him the original note they got by mistake from the tube, he may twitch a bit when they tell him about it since he didn't know it got into their hands.  But alas, the parchment will be blank because of the magically disappearing ink it was written in and any knowledge of the book of Kadath will be denied.  It was only an old womans journal he says.Since the guild master is pleased with himself and sure he's pulled one over on the PC's he will be quite smug, not knowing of the other half of the journal even existing or of it being in the PC's possession.So, if they want to get out of his grasp they can offer the other half of the book that they have, and can tell him how the two work together in order to fulfill their bargain as per the original agreement.  Or they can keep the book, sell it to him later when he finds the one he has is useless or whatever the PC's come up with thats they think is in their best interest.As for the message the PC's got about the "trap being set", it wasn't about them being killed, but they should think something sinister was going to happen to them. It just meant that if they got caught, the guild could totally deny anything the PC's might tell the authorities about the thieves guild being involved since they "obviously" wouldn't have anything to do with non members and for protection from other guilds since the PC's were operating in another guilds territory.  Just like a covert military operation. Plausible deniability.</blockquote>

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