PDA

View Full Version : Storyline help



Cowboy_ninja
2007-09-19, 01:30 PM
-to keep is short and sweet my NPC crime boss wants to leave his life of crime unfortunetly its one of those organizations where the only way out "is in a box". he needs to fake his death.

- i figure he uses the PC's because they are the new faces in town that no one knows but i dont exactly want to leave the PCs taking the blame for it and having an entire organization after the PC's.


ideas im playing with in my head:

-a rival crime organization can take the blame?(but how?)

i'll update this later but i gtg.

thanks to everyone in advance for any ideas!

AKA_Bait
2007-09-19, 01:38 PM
Pc's are hired as low level guards for the Crime boss. He gets 'killed' on their watch by a rival gang. This gives their gang a reason not to work with them, although not to hunt them down, and the rival gang a reason to either like or mistrust them depending (the rival knows their gang didn't off the guy and may assume the PC's did it giving them the blame/street cred).

mostlyharmful
2007-09-19, 01:39 PM
A big fire is great for coveringup the evidence, explaining the lack of a body, generally muddying the waters. Make sure they leave as many false clues and unexplained phenomena around as possible to confuse any folow up. frame several different factions and power groups, hopefully by the time the fightings died down no-one will give a monkies anymore. Plus it'd be fun to set up and then deal witht the consequences, with all the insider knowledge the old boss can supply your PCs could set themselves up really well after a criminal civil war in a city.

Oeryn
2007-09-19, 01:39 PM
Sounds like you're on a pretty good track, right now.

Have him contact the PCs, because they're new, and no one knows them, but they're (assuming so, anyway) reasonably competent (maybe they're spending well-earned spoils in one of the taverns he "protects").

Have him stipulate the conditions to them (he has to appear like he's died, and he wants this other "family" to take the fall). Then, let the PCs work it out. If they're anything like mine, they'll come up with more imaginative ideas that you can shake a stick at. Take one of 'em, and run with it.

Sounds like a fun arc. Good luck!

Snapdragon
2007-09-19, 02:32 PM
If the crime boss can't retire alive, the people he's afraid of are his friends. So, start a war with a rival organization, make sure the PCs are hired by your rivals, get "assassinated", and make sure your side loses. The PCs get hired, "win" the war, recieve their share of the spoils and are encouraged to leave. The organization that would chase them has been crushed, so there may be some loners with ill will.

More fun: the rivals aren't fooled, and send the PCs to hunt down the (surmisedly) escaping boss with the promise of his retirement money. Or they are fooled and do it anyway, just to get rid of the PCs.

Suppose the PCs are sent in the wrong direction, there's a plot or 2 down the road they can have. Reunion with old crime boss, recall by winning organization, have fun with it.

BRC
2007-09-19, 02:44 PM
Crime boss leaves, but can't risk the PC's suffering from a sudden attack of memory brought on by too much money. and so he sets it up so that a sypathetic freind in the orginization will ensure the PC's are silenced afterwards.

Telonius
2007-09-19, 02:53 PM
Is Complete Arcane allowed? Hire a Warlock with a Hat of Disguise, and the "Flee the Scene" invocation. Warlock is Disguised as your crime boss. He meets with your PCs and tells you he wants to make a truce with the rival gang. PCs meet the rival gang leader and arrange an exchange of presents. Get a magic item that the Warlock can easily palm, that will create a fireball one round after the holder says the command words, "Thank you, (enemy crime boss's name)." Warlock exchanges the presents, says thanks and Sleight-of-hand drops the item (maybe along with a few scraps of the guy's clothes, to be picked up later) as a free action, then Flees the Scene.

Boom.

Now it looks like the rival crime boss has assassinated your dude. The Warlock gets away safely (or your crime boss is waiting to whack him as he appears in his safe place). Your dude takes the hat of disguise and gets away cleanly. The dude's family blames your PCs for being spies sent by the rival group. The rival group's mad that the PCs' actions made them lose face. Bada-bing, you got yourself two gangs after them.

If you want your crime boss to eventually be found out, have either the Warlock get away (Diehard maybe?), or his body be found afterwards.

Mike_Lemmer
2007-09-19, 04:24 PM
Crime boss leaves, but can't risk the PC's suffering from a sudden attack of memory brought on by too much money. and so he sets it up so that a sypathetic freind in the organization will ensure the PC's are silenced afterwards.

Although a decent b*stard idea, I wouldn't recommend it. Silencing the PCs right after they help the crime boss:
1. Rarely works.
2. Will ensure they have a sudden attack of memory, not to mention a personal vendetta against the boss.

I'd suggest blackmail, or go the friendly route: the crime boss offers to help them out whenever possible out of gratitude, but makes veiled threats that "they'll be sorry" if they try to reveal him.

Cowboy_ninja
2007-09-20, 04:48 PM
i was actually going for someting like that movie the prestige. you know where the PC's figure out in the end that the boss faked it from the very beginning.

i have it set up where they meet the boss when the boss is under cover as a shopkeeper of sorts. (its also the intro). boss expresses that he would like to leave but has things holding him back( they dunno he is a crime boss). then when the PC's get nabbed they go "oh crap the nice old shop keeper is a figgin crime boss" crime boss forces them to do something that gets the boss killed. then the PC catch a glimpse of the boss leaving town with a smile.

get it?

im only having trouble with what the PC's do that get the boss killed.:smallwink:

AKA_Bait
2007-09-20, 05:48 PM
How about something as simple as the Boss directs them to attack a rival gang, the guards, whoever is his opposition, in such a way that it leaves his headquarters, and as far as the PC's know, himself, utterly undefended? When the PC's realize this they 'rush' back just in time to see him beheaded or some such thing.

Dementrius
2007-09-20, 07:53 PM
-to keep is short and sweet my NPC crime boss wants to leave his life of crime unfortunetly its one of those organizations where the only way out "is in a box". he needs to fake his death.

- i figure he uses the PC's because they are the new faces in town that no one knows but i dont exactly want to leave the PCs taking the blame for it and having an entire organization after the PC's.


ideas im playing with in my head:

-a rival crime organization can take the blame?(but how?)

i'll update this later but i gtg.

thanks to everyone in advance for any ideas!

The fun thing is that, in D&D, he can leave in a box and just be raised later.

1. He hires a hit man, pretending to be from a rival gang, to kill himself. (Or 'convinces' PCs to do it - "Take this package to XXXX, the famous asassin. I know someone who needs to 'disappear'".)
2. He is slain by the hitman (preferably in a relatively painless way)
3. He leaves instructions to be buried in a specific mausoleum
4. After a week, he is raised by the PCs (or other trustworthy followers) and a body double is placed in the casket.
5. Make a new life with secret treasure cache.

nhbdy
2007-09-20, 08:16 PM
why not make the boss guy a necromancer, but have no-one know he is one (possibly multiclassed?) then he has his undead army invade his castle, headquarters thingy and has one of his undead minions throw him out a window over the sea (makes sense for lack of body and he survives by grabbing the ledge or swimming) and then the PCs might see him leaving town later?
how does that sound?

Cowboy_ninja
2007-09-21, 12:51 AM
The fun thing is that, in D&D, he can leave in a box and just be raised later.

1. He hires a hit man, pretending to be from a rival gang, to kill himself. (Or 'convinces' PCs to do it - "Take this package to XXXX, the famous asassin. I know someone who needs to 'disappear'".)
2. He is slain by the hitman (preferably in a relatively painless way)
3. He leaves instructions to be buried in a specific mausoleum
4. After a week, he is raised by the PCs (or other trustworthy followers) and a body double is placed in the casket.
5. Make a new life with secret treasure cache.

about that. i kinda have it set that if the boss dies his organization is set to rez him (seeing as organization has a lot of assets and connections) an to keep the organization from searching for him im thinking that he has to "die" in a fashion that doesnt leave behind something usable for a rez.

what kinda spells obviously dont leave behind Resurrection material? (the lower lvl the spell the better)