Wide open for suggestions

[ScyldSceafing]

My goodness, but this forum has some great suggestions. So great, in fact, that I'm going to see if I can solicit some.

I'm running a pbem set in Greyhawk. The characters, in brief, are a half-orc bounty hunter (Brb 2/Shaman 1 - using OA class), a human Mnk3, and a human Psi(Psykin)3.

The two humans are escapees from a sort of youth academy / indoctrination station in western Tenh run by agents of Iuz ... they were sent to this pretigious school by their parents just before the Iuzian wave broke on Tenh. The half-orc is, as I mentioned before, a bounty hunter.

Ok, here's the thing. The humans have escaped, using some pilfered Dust of Tracelessness to cover their trail, and not they're in the Phostwood, hungry, barely getting enough food to stay alive. Meanwhile, the half-orc has been led on a merry chase by a dwarf who pilfered something from a prominent family in Greyhawk. Half-orc meets humans, teaches them to fish, learns they're on the lam (hunted by orcs, etc.) and, as the strings come up, friendships are forged and the course of history altered forever, yadda yadda yadda.

So here's my questions. Please note that I am open to any and all suggestions; I have provisional answers, but these are sort of long-term plot points and obviously can change. Reply freely as none of the players read these boards.

1.) What did the dwarf steal? Faarnorl (the half-orc) was offered 1000 gp to return the item, 500 gp for the dwarf alive and 100gp for the dwarf dead.

2.) Who did the dwarf steal it from? Faarnorl was told "a prominent family" by the sherriff who gave him the commission, but that's all. That could have been a lie, of course.

3.) Where is the dwarf headed? He's made a beeline for the northeast so far, using boats on the Nyr Dyv and up to Stoink. Is it the exiled government of Tenh he's working for? The Pale? Some other group?

4.) What long-term repercussions can the humans expect from their breakout? They killed one orc guard in escaping, but otherwise made a fairly clean break of it.

That's it, folks. Have at it. I'm looking forward to brainstorming with y'all.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

1.) What did the dwarf steal? Faarnorl (the half-orc) was offered 1000 gp to return the item, 500 gp for the dwarf alive and 100gp for the dwarf dead.

2.) Who did the dwarf steal it from? Faarnorl was told "a prominent family" by the sherriff who gave him the commission, but that's all. That could have been a lie, of course.

Hmm, how about the dwarf was a clerk for a general that serves Iuz's forces. He was well known to have a photographic memory and was exposed to many short/long term battle plans of the army.

One night he made the mistake of admitting some dis-satisfaction with the forces of Iuz. Considering who he is and what he knows- he was immediately marked for death.

He escaped.

They now want him alive because they want to know if he has given the info to anyone else.

3.) Where is the dwarf headed?

It could be the exiled government, but it could be even he does not know where to turn. No other power is going to trust him, and no where is safe. He is hoping to find some distant cousin he knows who runs a small mine in the north. He hopes he could live their in obscurity.

4.) What long-term repercussions can the humans expect from their breakout?

The people running the school could make up a scandal about them assaulting a young woman and then killing a guard who came to protect her. This tale is told (with victem present and in tears) to not only the other school mates, but to the escapee's families. Their families are disgusted and will even help out to bring them to justice.

SD

 

[ScyldSceafing]

Sagan Darkside wrote: The people running the school could make up a scandal about them assaulting a young woman and then killing a guard who came to protect her. This tale is told (with victem present and in tears) to not only the other school mates, but to the escapee's families. Their families are disgusted and will even help out to bring them to justice.

Oooh, I like that. I'm using that.

The family that would be hearing it is the monk's family, because the psion's family was, errr, dealt with by some of Iuz's flunkies. The monk is female, btw - but she was such a wildling as a kid that they sent her talented self off to this boarding school kinda thing. Since then they've heard basically nothing of her, and the war in Tenh has given them plenty of reason to think her dead or in with a bad crowd. So the idea that she's fallen in with some nasties who are responsible for something awful is not beyond belief, I think.

As for the dwarf, the one clue I gave about him is that he was wearing a tabard decorated with a caduceus: two snakes, entwined around a winged staff, looking at each other above the wings. I'm leaning toward the traditional 'you've been hired by the bad guys' kind of thing here ... maybe the dwarf has stolen back some kind of holy thing and is trying to return it to the court in exile to help with keeping certain areas hallowed ... I dunno. That's why I'm posting here, eh?

Thanks for the post, Sagan.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

1.) What did the dwarf steal? Faarnorl (the half-orc) was offered 1000 gp to return the item, 500 gp for the dwarf alive and 100gp for the dwarf dead.
2.) Who did the dwarf steal it from? Faarnorl was told "a prominent family" by the sherriff who gave him the commission, but that's all. That could have been a lie, of course.
3.) Where is the dwarf headed? He's made a beeline for the northeast so far, using boats on the Nyr Dyv and up to Stoink. Is it the exiled government of Tenh he's working for? The Pale? Some other group?

1. Here's a few options
#1- How about if the dwarf actually stole nothing? The charge of theft is simply a ruse to get some bounty hunters to bring in the dwarf. Perhaps he knows something scandalous about the noble family or he has information about a secret cult of Iuz accompanied with dopplegangers that has established itself within the city of Greyhawk in order to worm its way slowly into power from the inside. The object is simply a random piece of junk and the bounty on it is to help maintain the charade that the dwarf is a thief and to justify his capture.
#2- On the other hand, perhaps the employers are not evil but instead they know the dwarf holds some dark knowledge of releasing some sort of Ulimate Evil into the world, like making Iuz into a Greater Power and allowing him to enslave the world. The employers cannot reveal this secret to anyone nor can they give their identities away, so they come up with the charge of burglary to retrieve the dwarf.
#3- A third twist on this might be that the employers are not good; they are just insane and think they are saving the world but are just being duped by another power with unknown inentions.

2.)- Nobody- see above

3.) If you go with option #1) the employers are evil or selfish, the dwarf could be running to find a proper authority to report all this to if he is responsible. Or if he is a coward, he could just be looking for someplace to be safe and keep a low profile. Option #2- he could be fleeing to Iuz's kingdom to sell his secret or commense with some sort of evil ritual with the cult he belongs to.