Scalenex
2022-12-13, 07:21 AM
Anyway, I am running a Baldur’s Gate style game for one friend who I playing the PC hero Kormatin and has some PC/NPC hybrid sidekicks. During fight scenes, he controls his sidekicks and during character interactions I control them.
Three out of four of the characters now have a price on their heads set by a group of villains. 2500/3500 gp dead/alive for Kormatin and 500/1000 dead/alive for his sidekicks. The newest character is now jealous and upset that he was left out.
I just thought it would be fun to occasionally throw bounty hunters against the party periodically, but Kormatin’s player thinks it would be funny if the character without a bounty on his head pretends to be a bounty hunter and turns the others in as part of a Trojan Horse maneuver. It’s a good idea, but I need to set some groundwork for this story to work. I want to make it is a satisfying encounter as possible and let the player plan the operation rather than follow railroad tracks. “Here’s what you know, here’s what you don’t know. Now make a plan.”
How did Kormatin and company get a bounty on their heads?
Anyway, Kormatin and company are from the scrappy nation of Fumaya which is being threatened by the larger nation of Swynfaredia.
Swynfaredia is a nation with a sort of hereditary magocracy. The ruling class are all sorcerers and sorceresses, and titles pass to the eldest non-squib heir regardless of whether they eldest is a sorcerer or a sorceress. Magical power does matter for terms of inheritance, only that the noble in question is a sorcerer period. Nobles cannot jump the inheritance order just because they are magically stronger than their older siblings.
If Swynfaredia were a unifed nation, it would flatten Fumaya like an ant, but infighting between Sywnfaredians is giving the Fumayans a fighting chance. Anyway, Swynfaredia is a byzantine nest of vipers always two steps from civil war. The current Queen of Swynfaredia is preparing to invade Fumaya large to give her vassals a common enemy to unite behind, so they can stop trying to assassinate each other (or the Queen).
I detailed many competing Swynfaredian faction, but for simplicity most of these factions have allied with House Gorisonad or House Numaness, the two strongest Swynfaredian noble houses that have feuding over who controls the Crown for centuries. Both Gorisonad and Numaness want the invasion of Fumaya to succeed, but they both are hoping that their faction will get most of the spoils of war and the other faction takes most of the casualties and expense.
Swynfaredia has a long history of using really weak or purely fabricated excuse for a casus bellum against their weaker neighbors. It looks like the Queen is trying to do this while also trying to quietly mobilize her people for people, but unfortunately for her, she telegraphed her moves for all to see.
Kormatin and his allies thought, “Rather than wait for the bad guys to manufacture a provocation for war, lets strike the first blow and earn it. This will throw them off balance.”
Perpendicular to Swynfaredia and Fumaya is a region called the Border Baronies. The Border Baronies is a rough region of rain soaked mountains. In between rocky mountains and icky swamps are tiny proverbial islands of good arable land. Each of their metaphorical islands is ruled by an independent ruler who acts as a big frog in a small pond. They rulers tend to give themselves grandiose titles but outsiders call the Border Barons.
Two of the Border Baronies nearest Fumaya are puppet states of House Gorisonad. Gorisonad set up some favored squibs as rulers here about a century ago. Then about thirty years, they helped their puppet state annex another Border Barony, so they could dump more squibs here. House Numaness thought it was a dumb idea to get involved in Border Baronies politics because the regions is famous for being chaotic and lawless.
Kormatin and his allies through a complicated series of adventures built a war chest and then went on a bunch of diplomatic visits to various Border Barons and Baronesses “hey, these guys are going to annex you one by one if we don’t remove the Swynfaredia puppet state”. They recruited a small army, then did an espionage mission to weaken the Puppet State (and left a false trail of evidence to implicate House Numaness). Then they established coups in both regions and installed pro-Fumaya Barons. They killed about six Gorisonad sorcerers and hundreds of squib soldiers. Most of the others were allowed to leave peacefully as part of a surrender deal. But anyway, it was an embarrassing defeat for House Gorisonad and they are made that Numaness didn’t back them up.
Also, the coup culminated at the end of Autumn just before Winter. Realistically, Swynfaredia cannot move their armies until early Spring at least.
To avenge their besmirched honor, House Gorisonad put a price on Kormatin’s head (and the new heads of the new Border Barons he helped set up). Kormatin’s player figures if he poking Gorisonad with a stick it might provoke them into acting rash and also drive a further wedge between their coalition and the Numaness coalition.
Kormatin is thinking a Trojan Horse scheme with a fake bounty hunter could let them assassinate a VIP Gorisonad target, defraud Gorisonad out of a bunch of gold, or slaughter a bunch of Gorisonad minions. Even if they accomplish one of these things, it would be a great victory for the PCs and leave Gorisonad with a bunch of egg on their face.
And the PCs need something keep occupied during the winter.
So to reiterate.
Who is collecting the bounty? Where would the bounty be turned in? What kind of security precautions would the bad guys be taking? How much would the PCs know about the bad guys security as common knowledge? How much more intelligence on the bad guys could they dig up with some investigative leg work.
I think I got the who. Kormatin and his allies are very annoying to House Gorisonad but House Gorisonad as a whole has bigger fish to fry than Kormatin, that’s why they are outsourcing this to bounty hunters.
I figure I would create a new villain, Lord Urian Gorisonad. Most Swynfaredian characters have Welsh names. "Urian" means "born in a city". Most Fumayan characters have Polish names. Every one of my fictional nations is tied to a real world nation for naming conventions. I use Baby Name search engines so much that Google Analytics thinks I’m an expecting father.
In any event, Urian is cunning and powerful but he is not very respectable. Urian is sort of the Left Hand of the leader of House Gorisonad. If Gorisonad needs to deal with criminal or other riffraff, Urian is usually in charge of the operation. If they need someone “interrogated aggressively” or anything that is not strictly legal or respectable, Urian is usually in charge of it. House Gorisonad as a whole has a nice spy network, but Urian probably has a personal spy network above and beyond the house norm.
I figured Urian would be the guy who would be the guy who pays any bounty hunters and “processes” the prisoners. Urian is not going to be actively hunting the PCs specifically, he is directing a lot of spies and minions like a spidery puppet master against all of House Gorisonad’s enemies at once.
So where would the wanted posters tell bounty hunters to drop off their catch to Lord Urian?
What precautions would Urian take meeting bounty hunters?
The PCs are allied to some folk who have spies and informants in Swynfaredia. If it’s common knowledge in Swynfaredia, the PCs can learn it. What is commonly known about Urian Gorisonad? What elsecould the PCs dig up if they did some additional research and legwork? What secrets has Gorisonad kept from everyone?
Right now, House Numaness thinks it would be hilarious if they caught or killed Kormatin and then got Gorisonad to pay them for it. They have joked that they would use the money to throw a festival glorifying House Numaness. Hypothetically, if Kormatin managed to defraud Gorisonad out of a bunch of gold and kill their pet monster Lord Urian, than House Numaness might decide Kormatin should continue to live. They wouldn’t invite Kormatin to dinner or anything but they could “accidentally” let him escape once or twice.
Three out of four of the characters now have a price on their heads set by a group of villains. 2500/3500 gp dead/alive for Kormatin and 500/1000 dead/alive for his sidekicks. The newest character is now jealous and upset that he was left out.
I just thought it would be fun to occasionally throw bounty hunters against the party periodically, but Kormatin’s player thinks it would be funny if the character without a bounty on his head pretends to be a bounty hunter and turns the others in as part of a Trojan Horse maneuver. It’s a good idea, but I need to set some groundwork for this story to work. I want to make it is a satisfying encounter as possible and let the player plan the operation rather than follow railroad tracks. “Here’s what you know, here’s what you don’t know. Now make a plan.”
How did Kormatin and company get a bounty on their heads?
Anyway, Kormatin and company are from the scrappy nation of Fumaya which is being threatened by the larger nation of Swynfaredia.
Swynfaredia is a nation with a sort of hereditary magocracy. The ruling class are all sorcerers and sorceresses, and titles pass to the eldest non-squib heir regardless of whether they eldest is a sorcerer or a sorceress. Magical power does matter for terms of inheritance, only that the noble in question is a sorcerer period. Nobles cannot jump the inheritance order just because they are magically stronger than their older siblings.
If Swynfaredia were a unifed nation, it would flatten Fumaya like an ant, but infighting between Sywnfaredians is giving the Fumayans a fighting chance. Anyway, Swynfaredia is a byzantine nest of vipers always two steps from civil war. The current Queen of Swynfaredia is preparing to invade Fumaya large to give her vassals a common enemy to unite behind, so they can stop trying to assassinate each other (or the Queen).
I detailed many competing Swynfaredian faction, but for simplicity most of these factions have allied with House Gorisonad or House Numaness, the two strongest Swynfaredian noble houses that have feuding over who controls the Crown for centuries. Both Gorisonad and Numaness want the invasion of Fumaya to succeed, but they both are hoping that their faction will get most of the spoils of war and the other faction takes most of the casualties and expense.
Swynfaredia has a long history of using really weak or purely fabricated excuse for a casus bellum against their weaker neighbors. It looks like the Queen is trying to do this while also trying to quietly mobilize her people for people, but unfortunately for her, she telegraphed her moves for all to see.
Kormatin and his allies thought, “Rather than wait for the bad guys to manufacture a provocation for war, lets strike the first blow and earn it. This will throw them off balance.”
Perpendicular to Swynfaredia and Fumaya is a region called the Border Baronies. The Border Baronies is a rough region of rain soaked mountains. In between rocky mountains and icky swamps are tiny proverbial islands of good arable land. Each of their metaphorical islands is ruled by an independent ruler who acts as a big frog in a small pond. They rulers tend to give themselves grandiose titles but outsiders call the Border Barons.
Two of the Border Baronies nearest Fumaya are puppet states of House Gorisonad. Gorisonad set up some favored squibs as rulers here about a century ago. Then about thirty years, they helped their puppet state annex another Border Barony, so they could dump more squibs here. House Numaness thought it was a dumb idea to get involved in Border Baronies politics because the regions is famous for being chaotic and lawless.
Kormatin and his allies through a complicated series of adventures built a war chest and then went on a bunch of diplomatic visits to various Border Barons and Baronesses “hey, these guys are going to annex you one by one if we don’t remove the Swynfaredia puppet state”. They recruited a small army, then did an espionage mission to weaken the Puppet State (and left a false trail of evidence to implicate House Numaness). Then they established coups in both regions and installed pro-Fumaya Barons. They killed about six Gorisonad sorcerers and hundreds of squib soldiers. Most of the others were allowed to leave peacefully as part of a surrender deal. But anyway, it was an embarrassing defeat for House Gorisonad and they are made that Numaness didn’t back them up.
Also, the coup culminated at the end of Autumn just before Winter. Realistically, Swynfaredia cannot move their armies until early Spring at least.
To avenge their besmirched honor, House Gorisonad put a price on Kormatin’s head (and the new heads of the new Border Barons he helped set up). Kormatin’s player figures if he poking Gorisonad with a stick it might provoke them into acting rash and also drive a further wedge between their coalition and the Numaness coalition.
Kormatin is thinking a Trojan Horse scheme with a fake bounty hunter could let them assassinate a VIP Gorisonad target, defraud Gorisonad out of a bunch of gold, or slaughter a bunch of Gorisonad minions. Even if they accomplish one of these things, it would be a great victory for the PCs and leave Gorisonad with a bunch of egg on their face.
And the PCs need something keep occupied during the winter.
So to reiterate.
Who is collecting the bounty? Where would the bounty be turned in? What kind of security precautions would the bad guys be taking? How much would the PCs know about the bad guys security as common knowledge? How much more intelligence on the bad guys could they dig up with some investigative leg work.
I think I got the who. Kormatin and his allies are very annoying to House Gorisonad but House Gorisonad as a whole has bigger fish to fry than Kormatin, that’s why they are outsourcing this to bounty hunters.
I figure I would create a new villain, Lord Urian Gorisonad. Most Swynfaredian characters have Welsh names. "Urian" means "born in a city". Most Fumayan characters have Polish names. Every one of my fictional nations is tied to a real world nation for naming conventions. I use Baby Name search engines so much that Google Analytics thinks I’m an expecting father.
In any event, Urian is cunning and powerful but he is not very respectable. Urian is sort of the Left Hand of the leader of House Gorisonad. If Gorisonad needs to deal with criminal or other riffraff, Urian is usually in charge of the operation. If they need someone “interrogated aggressively” or anything that is not strictly legal or respectable, Urian is usually in charge of it. House Gorisonad as a whole has a nice spy network, but Urian probably has a personal spy network above and beyond the house norm.
I figured Urian would be the guy who would be the guy who pays any bounty hunters and “processes” the prisoners. Urian is not going to be actively hunting the PCs specifically, he is directing a lot of spies and minions like a spidery puppet master against all of House Gorisonad’s enemies at once.
So where would the wanted posters tell bounty hunters to drop off their catch to Lord Urian?
What precautions would Urian take meeting bounty hunters?
The PCs are allied to some folk who have spies and informants in Swynfaredia. If it’s common knowledge in Swynfaredia, the PCs can learn it. What is commonly known about Urian Gorisonad? What elsecould the PCs dig up if they did some additional research and legwork? What secrets has Gorisonad kept from everyone?
Right now, House Numaness thinks it would be hilarious if they caught or killed Kormatin and then got Gorisonad to pay them for it. They have joked that they would use the money to throw a festival glorifying House Numaness. Hypothetically, if Kormatin managed to defraud Gorisonad out of a bunch of gold and kill their pet monster Lord Urian, than House Numaness might decide Kormatin should continue to live. They wouldn’t invite Kormatin to dinner or anything but they could “accidentally” let him escape once or twice.