Composer99
2021-03-25, 11:18 PM
I'm very pleased that a slow-rolling plot in a game is about to come to a head, and excited to see what direction the PCs take things.
Background:
I'm DMing two D&D 5e games, one, a run of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. The other, a custom game in my homebrew setting (I posted a bit about it in the world-building forum (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?614554-Help-me-Name-Deities) a while back).
Several of the players in that latter game came up with backstories that had a mystery about them:
- An adolescent halfling, had her adoptive older brother suddenly vanish;
- An elf conceived under mysterious circumstances (I'm not quite sure about the details, but basically she appeared by magic (https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/02/assertion-twelve)), who was very nearly the victim of a kidnapping... er... elfnapping?
- A little person dragonborn, who served in a mercenary company of dragonborn of similar stature, and who was seeking out the captors of a boon companion of his. (This character has since been retired.)
- Another elf (my son's character), who explained that he was seeking out a foe who had stolen a powerful gem, called the Lightning Ruby, from his homeland. According to my son, the Lightning Ruby is dangerously powerful.
(My wife is also playing, using her adaptation of Alanna of Trebond (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?592681-Character-build-like-Tamora-Piece-s-Alanna), but she didn't have a hook like the above characters did.)
After mulling possible answers to these questions, I have settled on a single antagonist who is responsible.
His Grace, Duke Frøde, Regent of Andell, has a proclivity for collecting rare and exotic things. In his younger days, when he helped his late brother (then King) with diplomatic missions abroad, he would often take the opportunity to hunt local wildlife, even dangerous creatures: lions and tigers, crocodiles and dinosaurs, even a manticore. At home, he has collected the hides of bear, mammoth, yeti, and even a remorhaz from the heart of the Trollclaw Mountains.
For the last twelve years, he has been Regent, ever since the King and Queen perished when their ship was lost at sea. Between royal responsibilities and advancing age, he has turned to having mercenaries do his collecting for him, and of late has been interested in stranger things than hides and heads:
- He arranged to have necromantic-tainted beeswax and wood from the southern Tidemarsh, in a far-away land called Borillia, shipped to Andell (it'll never arrive because the PCs wiped out the mercenaries)
- He wanted to have the little dragonborn to stuff.
- He wanted to collect the elf, because she was such a curiosity. Also, a scholar with whom he has been fast friends for years, and who has great interest in magical and occult knowledge wanted the chance to study her.
- He wanted the Lightning Ruby, because who wouldn't want a doomsday weapon gemstone? (He's also managed to get his hands on an equivalent gem, the Heart of Winter.)
(The halfling's adoptive brother was supposed to keep the Heart of Winter out of dangerous hands. To make good on his failure, he has gone far to the south, where rumour has reached his ear of another gem of similar power, the Black Pearl, in the hopes of keeping it out of the wrong hands. If the PCs follow that hook, they'll be off to an adaptation of The Isle of Dread.)
Setting the Scene:
Duke Frøde is in over his head:
- The Lightning Ruby, the Heart of Winter, and the other gemstones of their ilk, are perilous for mortals to use. Elves, being originally from the Land of Faerie, and dwarves, having been forged by Tharkadd the Forge-Father, can safely handle them, but even they cannot use their power. Humans, orcs, goblins, and other mortals of this world - even the mighty dragons! - cannot even have such things in their possession for long without their minds being eventually overthrown. Experimenting with the gems risks some sort of disaster.
- Andell's founding involved running a white dragon out of the region long ago. One of that dragon's descendants has returned and wants to claim Andell as its own.
- The Duke's trusted aide-de-camp and longtime friend and confidant, Astride, is actually a succubus, unbeknownst to the Duke. (She has never used her charm ability on him, nor has she ever presented herself to him as anything other than a sort of sister-like friend.) She has managed to manoeuvre the Duke into his current collecting spree and his planned gambit to seize the throne and become King, mostly by being supportive and enabling his bad decisions. She intends to seize the gems for her own agenda.
- An undead sorceress wants to steal the gems for her own agenda. She's not so powerful that she can just waltz in and fry everyone, so she's embedded herself in a diplomatic envoy.
- The Duke has decided that being Regent suits him so well, why not be King? By happy circumstance, an opportunity to seize the throne has turned up: Crown Princess Ida has expressed sorcerous powers. (Arcane magic has been forbidden in Andell, punishable by death, ever since the reign of Mad King Alfrik.) The Duke had her detained while he and the Thengg (the Andellan Parliament) discussed what to do about her. Her younger brother, Prince Birger, meanwhile, fled, fearing for his own life. The Thengg resolved to have the Princess put to death, and the Prince's trail has gone beyond Andell's bounds, where he is likely to run into a troll or some other fatal encounter - and if he doesn't, among the search party is a loyalist to the Duke who is ruthless enough to ensure that the Prince has a "tragic demise", if it can be contrived.
- Over the last few years, the land has been failing. Crops blighted, forests withering, summers becoming shorter and cooler, winters becoming longer and harsher. The Duke has neglected an annual ritual, in which the reigning monarch or an immediate relative (sibling or child) sheds a bit of their own blood in a ceremony at a site called The Silver Tree (a living tree made of silver). Duke Frøde believes it to be mere pageantry, but it is in fact a ritual that has sustained the Tree's magic, which in turn has sustained the milder climate of Andell for centuries. (As a side effect, it has produced the occasional sorcerer among the royal line.) If the magic is not renewed, which after over a decade of neglect might require full-on human sacrifice, it will fail - an event that is a year out, so the PCs don't have to grapple with it.
Enter the PCs:
The elf who is in pursuit of the Lightning Ruby had a contact outside of his land, in the form of a foreign diplomat. That diplomat is representing his land at what was ostensibly the coronation of Princess Ida. Because of their shared interest in the safe retrieval of the Lightning Ruby, the diplomat has agreed to hire the PCs as bodyguards.
They've just arrived in Andell, and they're going to try to find the Lightning Ruby. Having traced the trail to the mercenaries, they know that someone in Andell was after the gems and the PCs/companions. Based on the clues they have, they may well soon know the Duke is responsible.
It's going to be fun seeing what they do. I don't expect them to try to befriend the Duke (but you never know with PCs). Will they save either or both of Ida and Birger? Will they spark an international incident? Will they retrieve the MacGuffins?
The PCs are up against a bit of a clock as far as stopping Ida or Birger from coming to harm, but neither the Duke nor any of the other malevolent forces know of the PCs' agenda, so once the royal heirs are safe, they'll be able to pursue things at a bit more leisure. The Duke's situation will begin to unravel if the Princess isn't killed swiftly (as members of the Thengg begin to reconsider their decision), and especially if it's made public that the Prince is safe, and he'll act out of desperation if he feels too threatened, so they don't have all the time in the world.
For their part, both Astride and the undead sorceress will patiently wait for chaos to break out at the Royal Palace before making their move. The dragon, meanwhile, will swoop in when it thinks the land is ripe for overthrowing.
Beyond that... well, it's up to the PCs decide where to go and what course of action to take.
Background:
I'm DMing two D&D 5e games, one, a run of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. The other, a custom game in my homebrew setting (I posted a bit about it in the world-building forum (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?614554-Help-me-Name-Deities) a while back).
Several of the players in that latter game came up with backstories that had a mystery about them:
- An adolescent halfling, had her adoptive older brother suddenly vanish;
- An elf conceived under mysterious circumstances (I'm not quite sure about the details, but basically she appeared by magic (https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/02/assertion-twelve)), who was very nearly the victim of a kidnapping... er... elfnapping?
- A little person dragonborn, who served in a mercenary company of dragonborn of similar stature, and who was seeking out the captors of a boon companion of his. (This character has since been retired.)
- Another elf (my son's character), who explained that he was seeking out a foe who had stolen a powerful gem, called the Lightning Ruby, from his homeland. According to my son, the Lightning Ruby is dangerously powerful.
(My wife is also playing, using her adaptation of Alanna of Trebond (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?592681-Character-build-like-Tamora-Piece-s-Alanna), but she didn't have a hook like the above characters did.)
After mulling possible answers to these questions, I have settled on a single antagonist who is responsible.
His Grace, Duke Frøde, Regent of Andell, has a proclivity for collecting rare and exotic things. In his younger days, when he helped his late brother (then King) with diplomatic missions abroad, he would often take the opportunity to hunt local wildlife, even dangerous creatures: lions and tigers, crocodiles and dinosaurs, even a manticore. At home, he has collected the hides of bear, mammoth, yeti, and even a remorhaz from the heart of the Trollclaw Mountains.
For the last twelve years, he has been Regent, ever since the King and Queen perished when their ship was lost at sea. Between royal responsibilities and advancing age, he has turned to having mercenaries do his collecting for him, and of late has been interested in stranger things than hides and heads:
- He arranged to have necromantic-tainted beeswax and wood from the southern Tidemarsh, in a far-away land called Borillia, shipped to Andell (it'll never arrive because the PCs wiped out the mercenaries)
- He wanted to have the little dragonborn to stuff.
- He wanted to collect the elf, because she was such a curiosity. Also, a scholar with whom he has been fast friends for years, and who has great interest in magical and occult knowledge wanted the chance to study her.
- He wanted the Lightning Ruby, because who wouldn't want a doomsday weapon gemstone? (He's also managed to get his hands on an equivalent gem, the Heart of Winter.)
(The halfling's adoptive brother was supposed to keep the Heart of Winter out of dangerous hands. To make good on his failure, he has gone far to the south, where rumour has reached his ear of another gem of similar power, the Black Pearl, in the hopes of keeping it out of the wrong hands. If the PCs follow that hook, they'll be off to an adaptation of The Isle of Dread.)
Setting the Scene:
Duke Frøde is in over his head:
- The Lightning Ruby, the Heart of Winter, and the other gemstones of their ilk, are perilous for mortals to use. Elves, being originally from the Land of Faerie, and dwarves, having been forged by Tharkadd the Forge-Father, can safely handle them, but even they cannot use their power. Humans, orcs, goblins, and other mortals of this world - even the mighty dragons! - cannot even have such things in their possession for long without their minds being eventually overthrown. Experimenting with the gems risks some sort of disaster.
- Andell's founding involved running a white dragon out of the region long ago. One of that dragon's descendants has returned and wants to claim Andell as its own.
- The Duke's trusted aide-de-camp and longtime friend and confidant, Astride, is actually a succubus, unbeknownst to the Duke. (She has never used her charm ability on him, nor has she ever presented herself to him as anything other than a sort of sister-like friend.) She has managed to manoeuvre the Duke into his current collecting spree and his planned gambit to seize the throne and become King, mostly by being supportive and enabling his bad decisions. She intends to seize the gems for her own agenda.
- An undead sorceress wants to steal the gems for her own agenda. She's not so powerful that she can just waltz in and fry everyone, so she's embedded herself in a diplomatic envoy.
- The Duke has decided that being Regent suits him so well, why not be King? By happy circumstance, an opportunity to seize the throne has turned up: Crown Princess Ida has expressed sorcerous powers. (Arcane magic has been forbidden in Andell, punishable by death, ever since the reign of Mad King Alfrik.) The Duke had her detained while he and the Thengg (the Andellan Parliament) discussed what to do about her. Her younger brother, Prince Birger, meanwhile, fled, fearing for his own life. The Thengg resolved to have the Princess put to death, and the Prince's trail has gone beyond Andell's bounds, where he is likely to run into a troll or some other fatal encounter - and if he doesn't, among the search party is a loyalist to the Duke who is ruthless enough to ensure that the Prince has a "tragic demise", if it can be contrived.
- Over the last few years, the land has been failing. Crops blighted, forests withering, summers becoming shorter and cooler, winters becoming longer and harsher. The Duke has neglected an annual ritual, in which the reigning monarch or an immediate relative (sibling or child) sheds a bit of their own blood in a ceremony at a site called The Silver Tree (a living tree made of silver). Duke Frøde believes it to be mere pageantry, but it is in fact a ritual that has sustained the Tree's magic, which in turn has sustained the milder climate of Andell for centuries. (As a side effect, it has produced the occasional sorcerer among the royal line.) If the magic is not renewed, which after over a decade of neglect might require full-on human sacrifice, it will fail - an event that is a year out, so the PCs don't have to grapple with it.
Enter the PCs:
The elf who is in pursuit of the Lightning Ruby had a contact outside of his land, in the form of a foreign diplomat. That diplomat is representing his land at what was ostensibly the coronation of Princess Ida. Because of their shared interest in the safe retrieval of the Lightning Ruby, the diplomat has agreed to hire the PCs as bodyguards.
They've just arrived in Andell, and they're going to try to find the Lightning Ruby. Having traced the trail to the mercenaries, they know that someone in Andell was after the gems and the PCs/companions. Based on the clues they have, they may well soon know the Duke is responsible.
It's going to be fun seeing what they do. I don't expect them to try to befriend the Duke (but you never know with PCs). Will they save either or both of Ida and Birger? Will they spark an international incident? Will they retrieve the MacGuffins?
The PCs are up against a bit of a clock as far as stopping Ida or Birger from coming to harm, but neither the Duke nor any of the other malevolent forces know of the PCs' agenda, so once the royal heirs are safe, they'll be able to pursue things at a bit more leisure. The Duke's situation will begin to unravel if the Princess isn't killed swiftly (as members of the Thengg begin to reconsider their decision), and especially if it's made public that the Prince is safe, and he'll act out of desperation if he feels too threatened, so they don't have all the time in the world.
For their part, both Astride and the undead sorceress will patiently wait for chaos to break out at the Royal Palace before making their move. The dragon, meanwhile, will swoop in when it thinks the land is ripe for overthrowing.
Beyond that... well, it's up to the PCs decide where to go and what course of action to take.