ZEITGEIST Zeitgeist B-Sides

[d2OKC]

This idea is mostly inspired by this post by gideonpepys.

I'm about to finish with Digging for Lies, and there are a few things I'm planning on having happen as a result of the events surrounding it.

1) As the modules read, Stover Delft becomes Chief Inspector for Flint's branch of the RHC. This is staying. I love Delft, and so do my PCs. It's really good to have one character they can trust completely in a game like this, so I don't want to mess with that dynamic at all.

2) As hinted in the party scene with Nigel Price-Hill, I'm going to promote Gareth Carter, the Yerasol War Veteran, to Assistant Chief Inspector, and his primary goal (though, only Delft will be privy to this outside of the unit) will be to investigate and root out the Ob.

3) Since Unit 42 will be away, and Carlao's group has been dishonored, Delft needs a new unit as a replacement. He'll put Carter and his group in charge of helping him recruit (i.e. the players will create a new unit of maybe level 2 characters) and train.

So, I'm thinking I'll let them use this new unit three times. Once in between Lies and Time, to show what's going on in Flint while they're away. Once in between Time and Cauldron, and then this unit will take the place of the B-Team in Cauldron, ultimately meeting their demise at the hands of Lorcan Kell (which, hopefully, will really get my group motivated to take him out hard).

As a discussion exercise, what do you guys think would be fun things to use this B-Team for? I want to kind of explore some things that are important to this setting that have so far turned out to be rather unimportant to the campaign at large. The dragonborn arsonists escaped during Skyseer so I thought that might be a fun thread to follow. Also, my group is strangely preoccupied with the Ayres, so it would be fun to give them a chance to explore out there some.

I don't know, what do you guys think?

 

[RangerWickett]

I admit, we didn't plan much stuff with The Family for the second and third parts of the campaign, so maybe you could give them some more screen time.

Or you could focus on the local groups like dockers and skyseers, but with smaller scope than the main campaign. Set up some 'face' NPCs who the main party can interact with when the campaign takes a turn for 'revolt against the Ob rulers.'

 

[d2OKC]

The Family is a good idea. My group enjoys meeting with Cippiano, so maybe showing him in a different, more sinister(?) light might be interesting. My group has almost no interaction with the fey at the moment either, and it would be nice to set that up a bit before Asrabey shows himself again...

OK. I think I've got a few ideas. Thanks.

 

[gideonpepys]

I think the odd 'bug-hunt' would be fun. I'm sure the RHC would be called on to head off into the Cloudwood and deal with rampaging nasties of one kind or another. Gives you a chance to throw in the odd one-off adventure (and use some monstrous minis, too, if that appeals).

I sent my group off to deal with an ogre that turned out to be a misidentified troll.

There was a mini adventure I ran to introduce the setting, detailed in a thread that predates my main campaign journal (there's a link to it in the first post). It involved tracking down human traffickers who were kidnapping poor kids to sell to a witchdoctor in the bayou. This degenerate was performing Muti killings - sacrificing innocents to cure paying customers of whatever ails them (usually venereal infections in real life). He was holed up in a multi-level treehouse in the swamp, with a trapdoor down to some hungry crocodiles. There were zombie, too. All very voodoo.

Another idea I had, but never used, was a skill challenge to contain a docker riot.