Swiggleys
2018-09-22, 07:35 PM
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. Players be warned!
First time poster here, but I've been working on tweaking Dragon Heist into the heist my player's thought they'd be getting and I'd love some feedback on my plan. The way I see it, Dragon Heist currently is a tresure hunt where you chase the McGuffin through a bunch of NPC's own heists, never really pulling off one of your own. My goal here was to try preserve the content that is already there and simply give each Chapter a heist spin since the NPC network is, I think, really strong with all the spying and double-crossing going on.
TLDR: We kick things off with Volo, Floon and Renaer are trying a little espionage of their own but are terrible at it and the Players step in. A truce is being brokered betwen Xanathar/Zehntarim and the Stone of Golorr will be in transit as a result. That's the time to intercept it with a heist-y ambush but things 'blow' out of proportion a bit (beacuse of the Fireball, get it). The Players CAN get their hands on the Stone early though if they're really good heist-ers, you simply replace the Stone with a necessary Vault Key in later Encounters if you want to keep the adventure running longer. And, finally, the hidden door to the Vault is located in the depths of a Villain's Lair of your choice.
Apologies for the length, I wanted to properly detail these tweaks but it shouldn't be rambly :)
THE HOOK:
The Yawning Portal plays out much the same. Volo is in a bit of a state, worried for his friend Floon who was last known to be at the Skewered Dragon WITH Renaer the night before. Volo is worried for his friend's saftey and needs low-level no names to look into it (to avoid attracting suspicion to their plans). There's obviously something he isn't sharing but he is genuinely worried for his friend.
The biggest change to the hook is this: A truce is being brokered between the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim, and the Stone of Golorr is being traded from X to Z to honour that deal. Xanathar wants to have all organised crime under his banner whilst Manshoon wants the stone for his written reasons (unknown to the majority of the Zhentarim). Other parties and factions also know that this deal is going down but no one knows where or when. Whilst the stone is in transit between X and Z, that is the time to strike and intercept it with a heist.
Turns out Floon and Renear FOLLOWED the Zhentarim out of the Skewered Dragon to eavedrop on an X/Z meeting in the Candle Lane Zhent Hideout to try and learn info about the deal. Being terrible heist-ers, they were caught in the act and are held at the Xanathar Sewer Hideout. Nihiloor had interrogated the two briefly with its mind powers. It disserned that they are passionate but ineffective and chastises Grum'shar for wasting its time before peacing out through it's portal. (Nihiloor had already had a brainy breakfast so he wasn't too hungry for Floon or Renaer brain). The party follows your 'breadcrumbs' from the tavern to Candle Lane to the Sewer Hideout and they free Floon and Renear from Grum'shar and, hopefully, don't attack Nihiloor before it leaves (seriously, why would a mind flayer flee from level 1's??).
And so the Volo, Floon, Renear ineffective heist team want the Players to get in on this heist, having proved themselve very cabable. Motive wise, Renaer wants to wipe some of the muck off his last name by returning most of the gold whilst Volo and Floon are in need of a small cut for their own endevours. But, of course, they enlist the party's help because the VFR team is obviously floundering. Trollskull is revealed to be their base of opertation, which they offer to the party as a down payement. The party are offered a cut of the gold too, of course. (I mean, they can always try double-cross Ranaer in the end if they feel like it)
CHAPTER TWO:
The goal here is to learn the when and where the stone is being transported. This is where the Party try to gather information from other factions or even insert themselves into these factions as spies. Could even use the Alley's PI. The point is that this is the sneaky info gathering part of a heist whereby the Party can't let anyone know of their intentions. It can be made as long or as short as you like. By the end of it, the party know the information of the stone's transport: a deadrop to whereever you like carried by whatever Xanathar Guild Member you like. (The ultimate destination is the Gralhund Villa. Urstal will retrieve the deaddrop and take it to the Villa. This is optional info the party can learn through Zhent based networking)
CHAPTER THREE: and CHAPTER FOUR:
The Party plan and set up an interception/ambush to grab the stone whilst it is in transit. How well they plan will dicate how close they will be to the Fireball Encounter. You can either railroad them as to not interfere with the fireball or even give them a chance to get their hands on the stone (which doesn't end things immediately, trust me). As in the book, Urstal still snatches the stone and runs it to the Zhent hideout of Gralhund Villa (the stone's intended reciever after the deaddrop). Urstal had been tailing the Xanathar courier to ensure the stone reached it's deaddrop unmolestered. The fireball came from Fenerus (Alley: Encounter 1: Autum) but he wasn't prepared for someone to act faster than him (didn't notice the tailing Urstal). He pursues Urstal to the Villa in secret.
The party could either have seen this and give chase to Urstal or Fenerus, piece it together imediately, or take some time to discover the info. But when they reach the Gralhund Villa, the Grahlhund v Zhentarim uprising has just begun. Lady Gralhund had always planned to double-cross the Zhents and has a fake stone in her possesion. Her plan was to switch in the fake stone, unbeknownst by the Zhents, and give the real Stone of Golorr to her secret lover Jarlaxel (Or the Cassalanter's if you want to draw them in). Urtstal uncovers that plan just before the Players arrive (which could be immedately after the Fireball) and kicks off the Zhent revolt.
The Players infiltrate the Villa admist the chaos and now the DM has a few options to them based on how long the Adventure is to run and how the players acted. By the end of the Villa, the players could have the Stone OR Urstal got the Stone out to Manshoon OR Lady Gralhund got the Stone to Jarlaxel OR Fenerus snuck in and got the stone for himelf (or maybe he took the fake). Fenerous taking the stone leads into the Goose Chase of Chapter 4's encouter chain IF you wish to follow that. If any of the Villain's recieve the stone, you've got another heist on your hands of the Villain's Lair OR again trying to intercept a courier. PLUS you've also got a fake stone in play now to have fun with. Personally, I'm going wiht the player's getting the Stone of Golorr at the Villa because I feel like they might be itching to get out of the city sooner rather than later.
There's tonnes of directions to go after the Villa if you want to keep the stone out of the party's hands though. I was drawing inspiration from the Chapter 4 Encounters, like maybe Gralhund is in jail at the Courthouse instead of Fenerus if the party need to find out where she sent it. It's all dependant on how you want it to play out, the point is: the players eventually get the Stone of Golorr (maybe wrestle with the mind of the Aboleth [so cool]) and learn of the Vaults location and of the three Vault Keys to get in. IF the players get hold of the Stone early and you want them to get to any Encouters you had planned, simply substitute the Stone in that Ecnounter with a Vault Key.
CHAPTER FIVE:
Now, here is the big heist. There's been a lot of espionage and mini heisting along the way, but here is the big daddy (at least as big as the Module can provide): The hidden door to the Vault is at the bottom of a Villian's Lair (if it's Jarlaxel, the player's need his submarine specifically to get to the Vault door in the harbour) [ALSO the villain isn't aware of this]. And the three Vault Keys can be anything you like depending on how much time you want the players to spend looking for them and how much you want the Keys to affect the Lair Heist. For example, I really like the idea of the Drunk Elf Key. The player's have to work out how to get this elf through the lair unnoticed or get drunk themselves for the Vault dungeon.
And so, with the help of factions and spies, the Players plan how they're going to get through the Villain's lair. Maybe they're going to send Xanathar into a rage or sneak onboard the Eyecatcher during a parade. It's all up to you and the Players. A neate thing I plan on doing is allowing spies to develop a map of Heist locations so the Players can look over these maps when they plan instead of learning on the fly (witholding some info of course).
I'm planning to keep the Vault itself the same but that could change if I think it will be anti-climatic after the Lair Heist. But the ending will be whatever seems fit for the story. The party would have interacted with or pissed off all kinds of villains, and then there's the Law to consider. Hopefully, though they get away with it in 'Ocean's style'. Honestly might even give them all the gold if they double-cross Ranaer and earn it cause it will mark them for life.
Right now, I'm going with the Xanathar Lair for my Heist because of the chaos and insanity that can go on. Plus, I like the idea that Xanathar had the Stone and the Vault all along but simply enjoyed talking with the Aboleth so much he never asked about the Vault. BUT Jarlaxel will still be working in the shadows (using his Laerel and Zardoz guise) and Manshoon isn't going to be happy about the Stone not making it to him. So who know's who will be the most interesting to break into in the end!
So, yeah, that's my plan. Post-Villa is the most up-in-the-air as, for me, it's all about how long the adventure is currently running and if my players are going to get sick of running around after this stone. I've tried to retain as much of the Module as I can when making these changes. Honestly, I don't think it's too much of a overhaul since most of the chapters (Except for 4) are the same gist, just different motives and set up. Do you guys think this will play out well or am I setting myself up to get screwed over by the genuis of the party? We're about to have our Session Zero so everything is pretty flexible right now. :)
First time poster here, but I've been working on tweaking Dragon Heist into the heist my player's thought they'd be getting and I'd love some feedback on my plan. The way I see it, Dragon Heist currently is a tresure hunt where you chase the McGuffin through a bunch of NPC's own heists, never really pulling off one of your own. My goal here was to try preserve the content that is already there and simply give each Chapter a heist spin since the NPC network is, I think, really strong with all the spying and double-crossing going on.
TLDR: We kick things off with Volo, Floon and Renaer are trying a little espionage of their own but are terrible at it and the Players step in. A truce is being brokered betwen Xanathar/Zehntarim and the Stone of Golorr will be in transit as a result. That's the time to intercept it with a heist-y ambush but things 'blow' out of proportion a bit (beacuse of the Fireball, get it). The Players CAN get their hands on the Stone early though if they're really good heist-ers, you simply replace the Stone with a necessary Vault Key in later Encounters if you want to keep the adventure running longer. And, finally, the hidden door to the Vault is located in the depths of a Villain's Lair of your choice.
Apologies for the length, I wanted to properly detail these tweaks but it shouldn't be rambly :)
THE HOOK:
The Yawning Portal plays out much the same. Volo is in a bit of a state, worried for his friend Floon who was last known to be at the Skewered Dragon WITH Renaer the night before. Volo is worried for his friend's saftey and needs low-level no names to look into it (to avoid attracting suspicion to their plans). There's obviously something he isn't sharing but he is genuinely worried for his friend.
The biggest change to the hook is this: A truce is being brokered between the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim, and the Stone of Golorr is being traded from X to Z to honour that deal. Xanathar wants to have all organised crime under his banner whilst Manshoon wants the stone for his written reasons (unknown to the majority of the Zhentarim). Other parties and factions also know that this deal is going down but no one knows where or when. Whilst the stone is in transit between X and Z, that is the time to strike and intercept it with a heist.
Turns out Floon and Renear FOLLOWED the Zhentarim out of the Skewered Dragon to eavedrop on an X/Z meeting in the Candle Lane Zhent Hideout to try and learn info about the deal. Being terrible heist-ers, they were caught in the act and are held at the Xanathar Sewer Hideout. Nihiloor had interrogated the two briefly with its mind powers. It disserned that they are passionate but ineffective and chastises Grum'shar for wasting its time before peacing out through it's portal. (Nihiloor had already had a brainy breakfast so he wasn't too hungry for Floon or Renaer brain). The party follows your 'breadcrumbs' from the tavern to Candle Lane to the Sewer Hideout and they free Floon and Renear from Grum'shar and, hopefully, don't attack Nihiloor before it leaves (seriously, why would a mind flayer flee from level 1's??).
And so the Volo, Floon, Renear ineffective heist team want the Players to get in on this heist, having proved themselve very cabable. Motive wise, Renaer wants to wipe some of the muck off his last name by returning most of the gold whilst Volo and Floon are in need of a small cut for their own endevours. But, of course, they enlist the party's help because the VFR team is obviously floundering. Trollskull is revealed to be their base of opertation, which they offer to the party as a down payement. The party are offered a cut of the gold too, of course. (I mean, they can always try double-cross Ranaer in the end if they feel like it)
CHAPTER TWO:
The goal here is to learn the when and where the stone is being transported. This is where the Party try to gather information from other factions or even insert themselves into these factions as spies. Could even use the Alley's PI. The point is that this is the sneaky info gathering part of a heist whereby the Party can't let anyone know of their intentions. It can be made as long or as short as you like. By the end of it, the party know the information of the stone's transport: a deadrop to whereever you like carried by whatever Xanathar Guild Member you like. (The ultimate destination is the Gralhund Villa. Urstal will retrieve the deaddrop and take it to the Villa. This is optional info the party can learn through Zhent based networking)
CHAPTER THREE: and CHAPTER FOUR:
The Party plan and set up an interception/ambush to grab the stone whilst it is in transit. How well they plan will dicate how close they will be to the Fireball Encounter. You can either railroad them as to not interfere with the fireball or even give them a chance to get their hands on the stone (which doesn't end things immediately, trust me). As in the book, Urstal still snatches the stone and runs it to the Zhent hideout of Gralhund Villa (the stone's intended reciever after the deaddrop). Urstal had been tailing the Xanathar courier to ensure the stone reached it's deaddrop unmolestered. The fireball came from Fenerus (Alley: Encounter 1: Autum) but he wasn't prepared for someone to act faster than him (didn't notice the tailing Urstal). He pursues Urstal to the Villa in secret.
The party could either have seen this and give chase to Urstal or Fenerus, piece it together imediately, or take some time to discover the info. But when they reach the Gralhund Villa, the Grahlhund v Zhentarim uprising has just begun. Lady Gralhund had always planned to double-cross the Zhents and has a fake stone in her possesion. Her plan was to switch in the fake stone, unbeknownst by the Zhents, and give the real Stone of Golorr to her secret lover Jarlaxel (Or the Cassalanter's if you want to draw them in). Urtstal uncovers that plan just before the Players arrive (which could be immedately after the Fireball) and kicks off the Zhent revolt.
The Players infiltrate the Villa admist the chaos and now the DM has a few options to them based on how long the Adventure is to run and how the players acted. By the end of the Villa, the players could have the Stone OR Urstal got the Stone out to Manshoon OR Lady Gralhund got the Stone to Jarlaxel OR Fenerus snuck in and got the stone for himelf (or maybe he took the fake). Fenerous taking the stone leads into the Goose Chase of Chapter 4's encouter chain IF you wish to follow that. If any of the Villain's recieve the stone, you've got another heist on your hands of the Villain's Lair OR again trying to intercept a courier. PLUS you've also got a fake stone in play now to have fun with. Personally, I'm going wiht the player's getting the Stone of Golorr at the Villa because I feel like they might be itching to get out of the city sooner rather than later.
There's tonnes of directions to go after the Villa if you want to keep the stone out of the party's hands though. I was drawing inspiration from the Chapter 4 Encounters, like maybe Gralhund is in jail at the Courthouse instead of Fenerus if the party need to find out where she sent it. It's all dependant on how you want it to play out, the point is: the players eventually get the Stone of Golorr (maybe wrestle with the mind of the Aboleth [so cool]) and learn of the Vaults location and of the three Vault Keys to get in. IF the players get hold of the Stone early and you want them to get to any Encouters you had planned, simply substitute the Stone in that Ecnounter with a Vault Key.
CHAPTER FIVE:
Now, here is the big heist. There's been a lot of espionage and mini heisting along the way, but here is the big daddy (at least as big as the Module can provide): The hidden door to the Vault is at the bottom of a Villian's Lair (if it's Jarlaxel, the player's need his submarine specifically to get to the Vault door in the harbour) [ALSO the villain isn't aware of this]. And the three Vault Keys can be anything you like depending on how much time you want the players to spend looking for them and how much you want the Keys to affect the Lair Heist. For example, I really like the idea of the Drunk Elf Key. The player's have to work out how to get this elf through the lair unnoticed or get drunk themselves for the Vault dungeon.
And so, with the help of factions and spies, the Players plan how they're going to get through the Villain's lair. Maybe they're going to send Xanathar into a rage or sneak onboard the Eyecatcher during a parade. It's all up to you and the Players. A neate thing I plan on doing is allowing spies to develop a map of Heist locations so the Players can look over these maps when they plan instead of learning on the fly (witholding some info of course).
I'm planning to keep the Vault itself the same but that could change if I think it will be anti-climatic after the Lair Heist. But the ending will be whatever seems fit for the story. The party would have interacted with or pissed off all kinds of villains, and then there's the Law to consider. Hopefully, though they get away with it in 'Ocean's style'. Honestly might even give them all the gold if they double-cross Ranaer and earn it cause it will mark them for life.
Right now, I'm going with the Xanathar Lair for my Heist because of the chaos and insanity that can go on. Plus, I like the idea that Xanathar had the Stone and the Vault all along but simply enjoyed talking with the Aboleth so much he never asked about the Vault. BUT Jarlaxel will still be working in the shadows (using his Laerel and Zardoz guise) and Manshoon isn't going to be happy about the Stone not making it to him. So who know's who will be the most interesting to break into in the end!
So, yeah, that's my plan. Post-Villa is the most up-in-the-air as, for me, it's all about how long the adventure is currently running and if my players are going to get sick of running around after this stone. I've tried to retain as much of the Module as I can when making these changes. Honestly, I don't think it's too much of a overhaul since most of the chapters (Except for 4) are the same gist, just different motives and set up. Do you guys think this will play out well or am I setting myself up to get screwed over by the genuis of the party? We're about to have our Session Zero so everything is pretty flexible right now. :)