SangoProduction
2016-08-22, 12:01 PM
"I heard the blacksmith's son has gone missing."
This was originally just going to be a short little side-quest to end the session on, since the party is exceptionally capable of bypassing content I prepare for the session, so having extra stuff is always a good idea, and to make the world feel like it's got a bit more depth than "evil group do evil thing. Go fight". The group, however, decided that they wanted to end the session after meeting back up and heading off to the area they were suggested to go towards, so it feels a bit like a disservice to not flesh it out a bit more.
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So, details about the mission so far: (I'm horrible with names and don't remember them! If you want to offer names, that's great.)
The blacksmith is an old dwarf, rather sickly in fact. His son is a juvenile (for a Dwarf), and has had a habit to not stay out of town for more than a week at a time. It's been several weeks by now, and his son has not returned yet, thus the rumor.
The son was said to like hanging out in the farms that surround the city. In particular, he favored an Elf's farm roughly a mile north. The blacksmith seems disdainful of the idea of not only messing with farmers, but the idea of Elves as well, which is odd as he lives in an Elven city, but idk his motives. Maybe it's akin to the stereotypical father being protective of their daughter?
If they return the son, the blacksmith will make them sets of light armor (in a setting where effective armor is actually pretty hard to come by). [Don't worry. The martial characters actually have it pretty good in my game.]
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What I had Planned:
The boy was attacked by a group of beasts on his way to/from the farm lands.
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Specific Questions:
1) Why hasn't the blacksmith already asked the guards to find his son? Is he prideful/hopeful, and only asked someone to do it because they are the ones who inquired? I mean, he's offering a decent reward. Not extravagant, but decent. Maybe he did, and the guards didn't care, or simply didn't find anything?
2) How would the group get the clues of where to search? Clearly asking the farmers is one way, but how much exactly would they know? In particular, what of the Elven farming family know of this? (They probably should not know that the son was attacked [if that is indeed what happened], else it would make little sense for no alarm to have been raised, or the blacksmith to not be told.) Should I do some sequence with hunting down tracks? *How* would I do that in a fun way?
This was originally just going to be a short little side-quest to end the session on, since the party is exceptionally capable of bypassing content I prepare for the session, so having extra stuff is always a good idea, and to make the world feel like it's got a bit more depth than "evil group do evil thing. Go fight". The group, however, decided that they wanted to end the session after meeting back up and heading off to the area they were suggested to go towards, so it feels a bit like a disservice to not flesh it out a bit more.
----
So, details about the mission so far: (I'm horrible with names and don't remember them! If you want to offer names, that's great.)
The blacksmith is an old dwarf, rather sickly in fact. His son is a juvenile (for a Dwarf), and has had a habit to not stay out of town for more than a week at a time. It's been several weeks by now, and his son has not returned yet, thus the rumor.
The son was said to like hanging out in the farms that surround the city. In particular, he favored an Elf's farm roughly a mile north. The blacksmith seems disdainful of the idea of not only messing with farmers, but the idea of Elves as well, which is odd as he lives in an Elven city, but idk his motives. Maybe it's akin to the stereotypical father being protective of their daughter?
If they return the son, the blacksmith will make them sets of light armor (in a setting where effective armor is actually pretty hard to come by). [Don't worry. The martial characters actually have it pretty good in my game.]
------
What I had Planned:
The boy was attacked by a group of beasts on his way to/from the farm lands.
------
Specific Questions:
1) Why hasn't the blacksmith already asked the guards to find his son? Is he prideful/hopeful, and only asked someone to do it because they are the ones who inquired? I mean, he's offering a decent reward. Not extravagant, but decent. Maybe he did, and the guards didn't care, or simply didn't find anything?
2) How would the group get the clues of where to search? Clearly asking the farmers is one way, but how much exactly would they know? In particular, what of the Elven farming family know of this? (They probably should not know that the son was attacked [if that is indeed what happened], else it would make little sense for no alarm to have been raised, or the blacksmith to not be told.) Should I do some sequence with hunting down tracks? *How* would I do that in a fun way?