PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Funny plot hook, can't believe they took it, help me flesh it out



Xapi
2020-06-21, 10:35 AM
So, I had a funny idea for an NPC. He's a city governor, descendant from a line that can be traced back to the elven founder of the city, 300 years ago. The city is a human city, and the elves in this setting are not fond of living amongst humans, so through the years and generations, the "elf" in the "half-elf" description for the line of rulers has been diluting quite a bit.

The Governor obviously knows that he is esentially just a human, and frankly, everyone else does too, but he thinks they don't, and people sort of humor him when he tries to make it look like he has darkvision.

Anyway, as our adventurers come along, outsiders to the city who have proven their capabilities on some sidequests, and AFTER he has given them the Plot Required Gatekeeping Info he was supposed to give out, he clears the room of his guards and asks the PCs to go to the woods to either bring back a suitable elven bride, or alternatively, get the elves to send an emmisary to negotiate an arranged marriage.

I mostly thought of this as a funny moment where the PCs (and players) would kinda make fun of the absurdity of it all and brush it off to continue on their Main Story Arc Quest, but they decided to give this matchmaking bussiness a go.

Now, I have some ideas about what they'll find in the woods, and some different possibilities on how to bring back some sort of success (be it an actual willing bride to be, an invitation to come to the woods and meet some elven women, or an emmisary from the elven to discuss the matters to come to the city, each of this possibilities depending on the PCs doing some stuff for the elves or interacting with them one way or another) but I could use some brainstorming to have a wide variety of solutions available.

Any ideas?

JNAProductions
2020-06-21, 10:38 AM
Can we get more details? Especially on the party, and the elves of your world.

But in general, good on you for working with your players and making sure they have fun! Just from this post, you seem like a cool DM.

Xapi
2020-06-21, 10:59 AM
Can we get more details? Especially on the party, and the elves of your world.

But in general, good on you for working with your players and making sure they have fun! Just from this post, you seem like a cool DM.


The party is a Half orc Fighter with little patience who gets everyone in trouble and acts as a face when he shouldn't, a Dwarven Monk with a lot of patience (specially for the Half Orc), a Human Ranger who is the only one with a backstory about being a former soldier, a Tiefling Warlock, and a Half Elf Bard who is trying to finish up the quests quickly so he can go get drunk at the tavern.

The elves in the world are... actually not very fleshed out. This is a pretty segregated world, (I've made several comments via NPCs about how rare it is to have the PCs together) and all the campaign takes place between the human "kingdom" (loosely held together cities and towns), the Dwarven Mountain Empire, and the lawless mountains in between them.

The woods they are going to go into are basically an elven "enclave" in the woods, although there hasn't been military tensions between these elves and humans since the founding of the city, as the races mostly tolerate each other just fine.

There's an elven based kingdom further south but it hasn't (and probably won't) come up, although there is some migration from the "enclave" into the elven kingdom, specially from young elves who feel an itch to get out of the only woods they've ever known.

Xapi
2020-06-21, 11:05 AM
The party is a Half orc Fighter with little patience who gets everyone in trouble and acts as a face when he shouldn't

Fun story about this, they got word of a quest to bring back orc heads to the local temple, as a band of orcs had been raiding the nearby farmlands and ranchs.

The half orc insisted that he would go talk to the guy at the temple himself, and made a point to ask about wheather or not half-orc heads counted towards the head totals.

Segev
2020-06-21, 11:20 AM
How reclusive are the elves and how dangerous is the forest?

Personally, I’d come up with at least three potential brides.

Probably one who isn’t very important in elfland but fancies humans so far beneath elves that she figures she’ll be royalty there. Beautiful and maybe also a bit of a Mary due in omnicompetence levels of combat and domestic skills. Her arrogance is something she thinks she conceals because humans are too boorish to notice; she is, of course, wrong.

One who is actually important enough that her hand would seal a treaty, but who is a playgirl who can’t find elven men still willing to be used by her, and whose started to think they’re “not manly enough,” so she’ll jump at the chance to marry a human noble. He’d be good for a few-decade fling and there are probably more hunks of beef to sample in humantown.

A third who is possibly the highest-ranking, and is in love with a common elfboy (or maybe a half-elf that the second has been aggressively courting and whom he has been getting increasingly desperate to avoid) who is a politically unsuitable match, but who also is probably too valuable for a “mere governor” unless the party can convince her mother that the “elf and human” city is a worthy alliance.

Maybe a fourth, or a twist in the third, who is either a bastard half-Drow or an adopted Drow. If a twist on the third, her love for the elfboy or half-elfboy was something she thought her unsuitability as a political marriage would permit her to pursue, so finding out that a match with a human Governor is considered just the right priority for one of her...lineage...would be an unpleasant shock.

If she’s not a twist on the third, she might instead be the most eager (but worried) because she didn’t think a Drow (or half-drow) could have a shot at marriage and had resigned herself to spinsterhood.

Xapi
2020-06-21, 11:38 AM
How reclusive are the elves and how dangerous is the forest?
.

No non elves live in the forest, and very few elves live outside of it, but they are not unwilling to talk to or trade with human outsiders. Orcs are more a kill on sight affair.

The forest is historically not risky at all by D&D standarts, but there is a recent upswell in orcish activities all throughout the area and the forest is no exception (wich is probably a secondary plot hook, "take care of these orcs, and we'll allow you to plead your case of a marriage to these potential suitors")

Xapi
2020-06-21, 11:55 AM
A third who is possibly the highest-ranking, and is in love with a common elfboy (or maybe a half-elf that the second has been aggressively courting and whom he has been getting increasingly desperate to avoid) who is a politically unsuitable match, but who also is probably too valuable for a “mere governor” unless the party can convince her mother that the “elf and human” city is a worthy alliance.


I also see this character as thinking "ok, I'll give the human 20/30 years, and then I can go back to my loved one with no one objecting".

jayem
2020-06-22, 01:00 PM
It would be easy for both of them to have mis_identified their "weight".
How that happens is up to you. But some variant on not telling the elf just how many generations, and the governor quite how little land her father owns.

Alternatively they have to really impress, some kind of heraclean task or dowry.

Or they have to romance her on behalf of the governor, either through shapeshift, or like that guy with the nose feeding him his lines.

Which probably depends on how the players look, first task is them meeting someone.
Also it might be worth thinking of how elfin biology works to get kids low and what implications that has in people's motivation and reactions

Darth Credence
2020-06-22, 03:25 PM
What are the relative wealth levels of the town and the elven enclave? If the town is substantially richer, and that matters to the elves, they would be more likely to agree.
Do the elves have a specific characteristic that they prize above others, like maybe intelligence, martial prowess, or oneness with nature? If so, then the players may need to help the governor become good, or fake being good, at that particular thing. If they don't know what the elves prize going in, so they don't know if the governor actually is good at the thing, it could be fun to see how they react when they are asked whether the governor is worthy.
How much info did the governor give on suitability, and how likely are the characters to try and honestly fulfill that? If suitability is undefined, they could basically grab any female elf, and have her not be suitable in whatever way you find most entertaining. If the players know what is suitable but aren't sticklers for honesty, maybe they find a random female elf and coach her up enough to pass. Maybe she's pretty lazy, and would be fine with mooching off a governor for years, and then off her child who would be primed to be the new governor.

Xapi
2020-06-22, 04:55 PM
Regarding the elves, I'm thinking of them as a mostly substenance hippie elf stereotype economy.

Wich would make maybe some elves that are more self indulgent willing to give this idea a try.

Regarding the specifics, the players didnt ask for any, and in my mind there werent, but maybe this could be a teachable moment for them in a low stakes situation...

Brother Oni
2020-06-22, 06:20 PM
I also see this character as thinking "ok, I'll give the human 20/30 years, and then I can go back to my loved one with no one objecting".

Alternately she could arrange for her husband to have an accident and she takes over the city as regent until her son becomes of age.

Would be interesting for the party to hear news of how their matchmaking went a year later, via travelling merchant gossip or they're passing through the region at some point in the future.