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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 1191209" data-attributes="member: 704">Alright.  Your not giving us professional rat bastards some of the "Critical, Need to Know" information, so my advice at this point is limited as a result.As I understand the situation, you have a character who is playing at a "Right Angle" to what you are prepared to do.  He is not directly opposing the current plotline, but he is not helping it along either.  You would like to regain control of the situation.First, I must congratulate your player though.  He has taken a pretty effective approach to playing the game.  Most players are content to just sit back and take the plot as its handed to them.  Initiative like that must be rewarded.One of your posts mentioned that you just arent able to create plausible challenges for this player.  You have also stated that you want the Theives guild to land hard on him for pissing in their pool.  What I suggest is throwing together an adventure that exploits this characters tendencies.Your theif has proven himself to be very proficient.  I am fairly sure that he has become known to various fences.  Assuming the theives guild is on to him is a given.  But rather then send out a hit squad, I think that the guild would have a better plan.Were this my game, the theives guild would approach your player and hire him to perform a job.  Assuming the rest of the party is morally flexible enough to aid in this, it is a simple adventure hook.  The guild will want the theif to set up a big score for them.  How about knocking off someting on the order of one of the following targets?1)  The royal treasury or mint (steal money.  Lots of it).2)  The kingdoms high church (religious icon of great importance / little power)3)  The royal dungeons (prison break).4)  The royal harem (kidnapping)5)  The royal crypt (grave robbing)6)  A powerful wizards lab (theft of a magic item).Any one of these targets would plausibly have a number of traps and guards for protection.  I would use very strong re-enforced doors with traps that lock people in (easier to kill when they cannot flee), borrowing a great deal of material from the traps section of Traps and Treachery, and otherwise making the challenge worth while.But wait, theres more!  Just because the guild has hired your player does not meant they want him to succeed.  Or even to survive the attempt.  Here are a couple of ways the guild can screw your theif and still come out ahead.1)  The royal treasury or mint:The guild arranges to have the royal guards come down on the theif once he is inside.  As the players fight their way out, the guild will have a group of their men in guard uniforms make off with the gold.  Player is locked up or killed, guild gets assload of money.2)  The kingdoms high church (religious icon of great importance / little power).The guild wants the players to bring them the item.  They just do not tell the player about the curse that will befall him for defiling the gods altar.  Guild gets to sell the religious item, the player gets the curse.3)  The royal dungeons (prison break).The guild has the players break out a prisoner who was going to compromise the guild.  Upon getting him out, they kill the prisoner, and pin the murder on the PC's.4)  The royal harem (kidnapping)The guild really wants to assasinate the heir to the throne.  A more competent assassin breaks in and kills the prince while the PC's make off with the woman.  The woman will tell the authorities that the PC's abucted her and murdered the Prince.  Guild gets someone they want killed, and do not have to worry about the kingdom coming down directly on them for it.5)  The royal crypt (grave robbing)This can work out pretty much the same way as the church robbing.  The guild gets the goods, and the PC's get the curse.  In this case, the curse could very well be the angry spirits of kings past that rise up to hunt down the players.6)  The wizards lab (theft of a magic item).There is no reason for the guild to be particularly honest about the wizard that the players are going to rob.  The wizard is simply bizzarly powerful.  I am thinking about 8 levels beyond the players level range.  The players get to spring all the traps and injure the wizard a bit.  The guild does mop up.A few rewards like that for your theif player will likely be the end of him.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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