Planescape The Planar Trade Consortium as a campaign villain

[Bayushi_seikuro]

It seems this planar consortium would be on par with the East Indian Company from Pirates of the Caribbean/real life. And as far as Esteban and Steve? Why not Stefanie? Why use his name at all as a 'friendly' PC?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Being able to bribe Efreets with rare and exotic good for wishes, which allows them to slowly erode reality itself could be an interesting plot point.

Maybe they're asking for so many wishes so frivolously that existence can't heal what would normally be minor damage from rare wishes.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It seems this planar consortium would be on par with the East Indian Company from Pirates of the Caribbean/real life. And as far as Esteban and Steve? Why not Stefanie? Why use his name at all as a 'friendly' PC?

He could definitely disguise himself as a Stefanie or any other variant of that name, an average Oni is fairly charismatic to pull that off with their shapeshifting ability and Estaban is an exceptional Oni who will "level up" as the campaign advances. I figured that there should be some personal stakes built into this conflict, and manipulating the PCs at the start could be one way to do things.

And that's not counting whatever might be in the PCs background, with doomed home world and the like.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Being able to bribe Efreets with rare and exotic good for wishes, which allows them to slowly erode reality itself could be an interesting plot point.

Maybe they're asking for so many wishes so frivolously that existence can't heal what would normally be minor damage from rare wishes.

I guess that works initially better than the Pursuit of the MacGuffin which will probably come into play later.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I guess that works initially better than the Pursuit of the MacGuffin which will probably come into play later.

Macguffin idea to go with it:

The Efreets realize what's happening and stop selling wishes. The PTC sets out to find a Seal of Solomon type artifact to simply bind them and steal their powers instead.

Maybe the PCs even find a prototype that allows prestidigitation at will by tapping a tiny amount of that power.

 

[Voadam]

Macguffin idea to go with it:

The Efreets realize what's happening and stop selling wishes. The PTC sets out to find a Seal of Solomon type artifact to simply bind them and steal their powers instead.

Maybe the PCs even find a prototype that allows prestidigitation at will by tapping a tiny amount of that power.

Prestidigitation, aka the little wish.

 

[haakon1]

Initially they built their wealth importing anything, they started in Sigil and Sigil doesn't produce much in the way of raw materials as everything needs to be imported from other planes. But after that they've built enough wealth they don't need to be generic importer. Though Sigil relies on imported resources, it has an industrial district the Lower Ward where it makes a lot of things out of all those raw materials. They certainly produce enough knives, forks, swords, clothes and whatever else for everyone in Sigil, those things will probably need to be exported elsewhere. Which is another place where the PTC will be very much involved.

The PTC has grown beyond relying on simple imports of common materials, as they've reached the point where they can start being involved in obtaining rarer materials like adamantine and mithril or more esoteric things like particular magical essences, spirit matter and the Larvae trade (unassigned evil souls of the dead) of the Lower Planes. Any of these could see them getting involved in some very nasty things, if they determine there's wealth to be made.

Real economics in D&D - I love it.