How should i finish the quest?

[Djibril]

Hi everyone,

I'm running a shortman urban campaign (two members party) where the pcs (a pure neutral grey elf mystic and a neutral evil human arcane trickster) have stumbled upon a plot to overthrow the city council.

In the beginning they were hired to simply find a missing dwarf, only to discover that said dwarf was part of a cabal that pooled resources to buy an artifact, later the pcs were told that said artifact would be a ring of wishes with one charge left.

The pc investigated and discovered that every single member of said cabal had a master with it's own plans for the ring and that the dwarf they were looking for hid the ring in the city's dwarven vault (he told them before an assassin killed him). They managed to sneak into the vault and retrieve a locked box which should contain said ring, but doing so they had to race against one member of the cabal, got discovered and had to flee the dwarven quarter after a big fight. Now they have the box but are wanted by the authorities.

They discovered the box can be opened only using a pan-dimensional key, which can only be summoned by an (at least) 4th lvl wizard and, on their way to the wizarding university to hire one, they got robbed by a goblin and had to quickly follow him through the maze that are the city sewers to get to the tribe's lair.

They fought the tribe, got the ring back and found out they are now wanted in the city for crimes they haven't done, they are being framed from one of the cabal member's master (the mistress of the biggest brothel in town) and they decided to get revenge (also said mistress kidnapped their employer, and they wanted her back as evidence to clear their name).

They managed to raid the brothel and get their employer back, but made such a mess of it that now the evidence against them is piling up.

My whole idea for this adventure was to make them dig for themselves a hole so deep that they would have needed to use the ring to wish nothing ever happened, resetting the status quo, letting them keep their memories (maybe like one remembers a bad dream) and let them keep the xp. Keep in mind they are a looooooooong way from opening the box as they still need to even start looking for a wizard to summon the key, which will need something in return (i'm thinking a wizard heist adventure to steal something from another wizard), only to find that the key has already been summoned decades ago and has never been dismissed (there can only be one key for every lock) and they will need to find it ect ect...

Recently however the players started making actually good plans on how to be proactive, seek the cabal members and their masters (they actually managed to confront two of them already) and clean their reputation, and, tbh, i'd like to run with that.

The problem is that would leave them with a ring of wishes for free, and i don't want that (obviously). So i figured, would it be too much of a cop-out to make it so that someone, somewhere, lost something in the translation and the ring in the box is not actually a ring of wishes, but the ring of your wishes?

Both pcs are dc based, and both lament the lack of something to boost that, so i was thinking the ring they would get once they open the box would be something like "3 times/day, roll a d4 and add to your dc". Is that too much? Keep in mind they are now 4th and will be around 6/7 at the end of the adventure.

What do you guys think?

And these are the pcs icons :smallsmile: (the A.A. in the background is their agency's name "A.A. Investigations" :smallbiggrin: ) the redhead is The Trickster Known As Artemis (real name unknown), the elf is Ashe the Mystic.

https://image.ibb.co/bHkubo/aa.jpg

Thx for reading

[Finback]

I think if the PCs manage to pull their well organised plans off, they deserve the ring, and the wish.

Wish - singular. How they negotiate it is up to them, but perhaps you need to start seeding the campaign with other plot arcs that could wind up requiring the wish MORE. Like another kingdom is declaring war, sensing weakness in their home city - do they use the wish to save the city, or save themselves?


(plot twist the enemy army might have brought a tarrasque to the fight)

[Djibril]

Hi, thx for the reply!

I've been seeding hooks for future adventures for a while now, but they have been too busy with the current adventure to properly investigate anything.

They came upon a rapier marked with the emblem of a famous pirate that always points north, the idea would be a gooniesque adventure once they realize who the pirate was and find the buckler with the map to the treasure.

They also found a 3 page manuscript and part of an altar (1/8), if a non goo lock tries to read them (as the rogue did) the pc needs to make a dc 12 charisma save or commit suicide (the rogue did the save). Once they find a lock to translate it for them, i was thinking about a scavenger hunt around the city for the other 7 parts of the altar to prevent the summoning of some kind of creature.

They also had brushes with the church of Pelor (the bishop of Pelor is actually a pc from another party we are playing on and off) and that will come later when they will be secretly hired to protect the newborn half demon daughter of the curch's Bishop from a cabal of thieflings (they already had an encounter with low level lackeys of said thieflings during the adventure) and from his jealous wife.

[Unoriginal]

One, what does "DC based" mean?

Two: your PCs are schemers who somehow got invovlved conspiracy to take over the city. Having something like "lol the status quo is back" would be incredibly frustrating. I'd say you should have the quest end up with THEM in charge of the city.

You can have the other quests be tied to this one. Ex: the key is in the pirate's treasure, the altar thing must be stopped in order to get one of the kabal's masters to support them, both the Bishop and his wife can help them in one way or another, etc.

[Djibril]

One, what does "DC based" mean?

Two: your PCs are schemers who somehow got invovlved conspiracy to take over the city. Having something like "lol the status quo is back" would be incredibly frustrating. I'd say you should have the quest end up with THEM in charge of the city.

1) DC based means the trickster uses charms and the mystic is of the order of the awakened, they are basically con men using charms and mind tricks to get what they want (or out of sticky situations).

2) The whole adventure is inspired by movies like Lock, stock and two smoking barrels/The Snatch. The real prize it's the fact that they came out of the ordeal alive, with a bit of experience (read character levels, they started at 1st lvl and will end at 6/7th) that should help them reach their future goals. If they get to be rulers of the city right away they would have nothing else to do. (i know, they could play to keep the power over the city, but you can't do that for 14 levels, i'd rather play a little more with the "getting there")

[Unoriginal]

1) DC based means the trickster uses charms and the mystic is of the order of the awakened, they are basically con men using charms and mind tricks to get what they want (or out of sticky situations).

Then they'll get their increase in power as they get levels.



2) The whole adventure is inspired by movies like Lock, stock and two smoking barrels/The Snatch. The real prize it's the fact that they came out of the ordeal alive, with a bit of experience (read character levels, they started at 1st lvl and will end at 6/7th) that should help them reach their future goals. If they get to be rulers of the city right away they would have nothing else to do. (i know, they could play to keep the power over the city, but you can't do that for 14 levels, i'd rather play a little more with the "getting there")

Well, yeah, that sounds like a good way to end the campaign and start with new characters.
.

[Djibril]

Well, yeah, that sounds like a good way to end the campaign and start with new characters.
.

Why? I wouldn't want that.

[Unoriginal]

Why not? It's pretty great to manage to end a campaign and have characters in a position the next PCs can see, and ending with them in control of a city is awesome.

How do you picture the campaign to end, yourself?

[Whyrocknodie]

I'd not change the ring at all for two reasons. Firstly, because it's not that big a deal and it looks like they worked for it...

...but more importantly (to me), because I have a total aversion to altering the facts of the campaign to make it a better fit for whatever reason. Once I'd put in that ring, I'd have to be ok with the possibility of it getting into the hands of the party - no weaselling. I appreciate there are other schools of thought.

[KorvinStarmast]

I think if the PCs manage to pull their well organised plans off, they deserve the ring, and the wish. I agree. One wish will not break the world.

(plot twist the enemy army might have brought a tarrasque to the fight) Tarrasque, the, is not a pet nor a tame war beast. It is a force of nature. :smallcool:

[Sigreid]

End it Holy Grail style. British police show up and arrest everyone concerned.

[Djibril]

Why not? It's pretty great to manage to end a campaign and have characters in a position the next PCs can see, and ending with them in control of a city is awesome.

How do you picture the campaign to end, yourself?

I thought you were saying they would be quitting, sorry, my misunderstanding. They are actually playing to get to 20th, they seem to like the goblin lair enough to claim it for themselves and are starting to think about recruitment for their own guild.

I want to eventually have them make a move toward a seat in the city council, but that is a long way away, and then they'll have to play to keep their power.


I'd not change the ring at all for two reasons. Firstly, because it's not that big a deal and it looks like they worked for it...

...but more importantly (to me), because I have a total aversion to altering the facts of the campaign to make it a better fit for whatever reason. Once I'd put in that ring, I'd have to be ok with the possibility of it getting into the hands of the party - no weaselling. I appreciate there are other schools of thought.

That's the reason for me asking. It wouldn't be really weaseling out as they know the character the ring was bought from, it's an old pc of mine and, even if it's a bit of meta-knowledge, they would expect the ring to be actually a dud in a big con from my old dude.

Anyway i'm leaning towards scrapping the whole switcharoo, the guys are really working hard to get the ring and i trust them enough not to pull any "we want to be lvl 20th" stunts. They're probably going to wish for a load of money anyway, and that would be quite the nest to build a guild upon.


End it Holy Grail style. British police show up and arrest everyone concerned.

I would laugh if that wasn't a real possibility, i mean not "british police" per se, but surely the city guards. :smallamused:

[Finback]

Tarrasque, the, is not a pet nor a tame war beast. It is a force of nature. :smallcool:

Agreed, but if someone were to deliberately awaken it outside the city of their enemies... think of it like the wildebeest stampede in Lion King. Scar gets the ball rolling, in the hope it will take down Simba and Mufasa.