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View Full Version : Gm in need of help with a plot line.



Togath
2012-09-08, 01:22 AM
if your in my Rokugan pbp campaign, please do not read further, as this has spoilers for the current encounter.
also, so you don't accidentally scroll over and see anything, here's part of the lumberjack song sung by Bobb the orc as filler;
"A'm a lumbajack an' A'm ok, I sleep all night and 'ork all day."
"I cut down trees, I eat ma lunch, I go ta tha lavatory, on wendsdays I go shopping an' 'ave buttered scones an' tea."


The problem I've encountered is this; the party, after having encountered a priest being attacked in an alley by three orcs in black, horned masks(a symbol of a weak, and poorly funded, thieve's guild in the city the campaign is taking place in currently) the trio of orcs attempted to flee, however the party managed to catch two, which was the start of the plot deviating from the original, afterwards, when they brought the two orcs tot he shrine of the priest that was in the alley they came across a murder scene, seemingly of the third orc(it was actually an old corpse from a graveyard, that had been burned by a combination of strikes from the desert wind swordsage maneuver school, and the elemental attack of a group of sulis and had the orc's mask placed beside it, along with his macuahuitl)
The scene was currently being investigated by two town guards(both orcs, one of them the real leader, the other, a guard who isn't allied with a thieve's guild, and both are actual members of the guard, one of them just happens to be corrupt, and have an int of 7, compared to his two lackey's 5) and the temporary high priestess/high shrine maiden, Katsura(level 8 warblade, level 4 adept). The problem arose when one of the pc's, who has scent and managed to get very good rolls with perception compared to the orc's rolls at disguise and bluff, and the orc's attempt to resist intimidate, managed to both recognize the guard, due to having memorized his scent, and the scent of the barrel of pickles he fell into, and also due to him wearing a poorly made fake mustache(other his real mustache) and a hat as a disguise, and managed to frighten him(by threatening to kill him, or at least beat him near death and heal him up enough to interrogate a few times) into explaining that "Suka"(who he says is one of the four leader's of a much more powerful, and very well supplied thieve's guild in the city) hired his boss to get a messege across to this shrine, and the town guards "ta stay away from Tanuki street"(where 6 children have been abducted from an orphanage, part of a long string of disappearances that has been going on for 6 months now, and until now had only taken adults with rather plain jobs, who usually just blended into the background)
This caused the party to think that both thieve's guilds are at war, that the entire guard is corrupt, or likely so, and tha tthe silver fox thieve's guild(the well supplied one) has it's base there...none of which are true. Now the pc's are offering the orc thief a chance to either surrender(he's frightened of what Suka[actually Katsura the shrine maiden, the name change is because the orc's boss, and the orc himself have very strong accents, and the name's become a bit mangled]) will do to him if he gets caught, and the players have offered him that they could take down "Suka"(CR 12, and the pcs are level 1)and her guild as a way to get him to come peacefully.


and now I'm stuck, what would be a good way to have the orc respond?
semi important information; the campaign is an altered version of the shackled city adventure path, though almost everything has changed other then the maps, and the vague aspects of various buildings and businesses around cauldron(now Ohnabe), the campaign is also set in Rokugan, in mantis territory, just north of Inazumi/The City of Lightning.
The main thread is here, in case anyone wants to take a look to get a better idea of what the campaign has been like so far. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253903)

hymer
2012-09-08, 05:43 AM
What would you prefer the PCs do? Have the information they gain nudge them in the right direction.

If you want them to shy away from the Suka thing (as would seem prudent), it might be appropriate to have the captive describe something suitably spectacular that Suka once did, as he refuses to believe they can take it down. But also try to hint at somewhere they can go. Players usually try to cooperate with their GM, but they may not know where your plot leads yet.

Toofey
2012-09-08, 07:54 AM
I haven't read your thing, but I think the best help I could give would actually to describe my method for overcoming blocks in ongoing plots.

Make a list of all the factions/players (in the theater sense) that are having an impact on the story and what they want.

Go have a beer/chocolate milk/ play some videogames, whatever, don't think about it for at least an hour. Do something else.

Go back and look over the list, and think about how those desires will resolve in light of one another, with a willingness to abandon all of your previous plans almost always if I let the story tell me what to do next here, it may change direction but it typically works really well.

hymer
2012-09-08, 07:57 AM
He's using a plot from a series of published adventures. So unless he wants to make his own material, he needs to get the PCs back on the written track.

Togath
2012-09-08, 01:48 PM
I have changed the plot somewhat, but aye, I would prefer to be able to use parts of the original material.
Part of the reason I changed it was because I converted it to both Rokugan and pathfinder, instead of it's original early 3.5 greyhawk.
Also, the original plan I had been going for was to try to get the pcs to look into the string of kidnappings that have happened over the past six months(either going to the orphanage, or investigating the "black-oni" thieves guild[which was the one attacking the priest in the alley])
I had also been pondering if I could use the "the orc is afraid of Suka because he saw her do something powerful", but wasn't 100% sure, as he's explained that he's never met her, and that his boss(who is actually a reasonably weak enemy that the pcs could fight) interacted with her, and sent the message down to some of the lowest rank members in the guild.
Though I could have him come up with some rumor he heard about her, to get the pcs to take a break from trying to hunt her down.

hymer
2012-09-08, 03:04 PM
Well, if you want them to go after the orc's immediate boss, have the orc point them there. He could either be mistaken (and think the boss and Suka are closer than they are), lie (to get the PCs off his back and give them something concrete to go after), or tell them that the boss would know more.
Then maybe while they're going after that you can drop a hint or two that gaining at least half a dozen levels would be sensible before heading for that particular encounter.

Mikeavelli
2012-09-09, 01:20 AM
He's using a plot from a series of published adventures. So unless he wants to make his own material, he needs to get the PCs back on the written track.

Tracks? Where this train is going, we won't need tracks. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLyqZ-5Cs6o)

Back to the topic, change the adventure to accommodate the unexpected actions of the PCs.

You can drop hints that Suka is too powerful, or you can just change things, have Suka much less powerful than the published material suggests, and allow them to go after her at a much lower level than they should be able to.