Ideas for a quest-giver?

[Namuh]

Hello

I am DM for a group of players who play some people from a small, quite remote village. So far they have opposed the tax collectors trying to collect a very high tax to fund the King's crusade against orcs, allied with some myconid (who also dislike the King, because he expands iron mining into their caves) and hid their fellow villagers in the myconid caves. All of this has been motivated by their loyalty to their home, rather than being given as quests by some rebel leader or such. In effect, they are the rebel leaders.

Trouble is, some of my players want a more traditional "quest-giver". I didn't know this to begin with, as only the more sandbox-oriented player gave much input before i made the scenario. So the question is: how do I introduce a good quest-giver here, and what should it be?

To my players: IF YOU READ THIS, STOP NOW

I have previously given a couple of hooks for other adventures. One of them is about the fabled Spear of Geirmund, supposedly hidden somewhere in the cave complex. One idea I have is to have the spirit of Geirmund be a quest-giver, but I don't know if a long-dead ghost is appropriate for such a contemporary conflict, and im unsure if abandoning the anti-tax plot to make a new, Geirmund-based one is good either.

Ideas, anyone?

[Traab]

Well, you could stick with the rebel against the king story path by having a messenger enter the cave warning about the king sending some troops to squash the rebellion. Then suggest they can handle it a few ways, infiltrate the small army to sabotage it from the inside, ambushes and traps to whittle them down before the final confrontation, or withdraw completely into the caves and get ready for a siege. You could even find a way to push the spear quest line as a way to get a needed power boost to defeat the oncoming army or some such thing.

[XiaoTie]

You could have a refugee from <insert nearest big city here>, who escaped some tax collector himself, stumble upon their hiding place. He would be aware of the situation, and you could give some hooks to the players through him.

OR you could have an orc refugee, who is running away from BOTH sides {as he doesn't want to fight (so orcs chase him), but humans just want to kill him}, and he'd be aware of the situation and he'd have contacts on the orcish side that would be willing to cooperate with their cause for a price, or something

[Namuh]

All of these ideas are quite cool At least one of my players will love the siege thing (he's got all sort of craft and knowledge skills, and wants to invent stuff).

However, it seems that what (at least two of) my players were annoyed with is that they have noone to report back to with "hey, we did the quest, can we have a new one?"

[Traab]

Ok, if you want repeated quests from the same guy, involve the myconid leader. Give them a long series of underground quests related to helping out the tribe. Things like,

"Brave adventurers, X creatures have been tearing through our outlying communities. Can you please go kill them for us?"

"Thank you for saving my people! However, a new threat has erupted. A rival tribe of myconids are pushing against the borders of our land. Either convince them to stop, or force them too please."

"Now that our land is safe, perhaps we can take the time to investigate a mystery. My grandfather once spoke of an ancient set of tunnels he and his exploration party found that were far beyond our borders. They were clearly shaped by some race of beings, but we were unable to figure out by who. They were forced to flee when they were attacked by (Y) who seemed to be acting as guards, which is unusual because they dont normally work together like that. Could you go and investigate?"

Then have them wander through some tunnels, find this obviously worked area and give them say, an underground temple to dungeon crawl through with some big bad creature at its center with a neat item or two in its possession, that sort of thing. You can give it flavor by saying this big bad creature was mind controlling the monsters in the area, forcing them to work together even though normally they are solitary or too vicious or whatever.

[Namuh]

The myconid leader thing sounds like it could work quite well. I could tie it in with the King-plot by making the myconids say that they could take a more active role in the rebellion if only they had Z and got rid of W.

[Kol Korran]

the myconid leader is indeed a good quest giver, but you can have another one- apparently the PCs are not the only rebellious ones. a representative of a (yet) small rebellion movement reaches the PCs, and may send them on other quests, more active against the king's army, or to forge an alliance with the orcs.

in the orcs camps you might have some other quest giver, such as an old hag/witch that has a vision of uniting the clans.

by having a few quest givers you give the party some interesting choices. also, i suggest that each quest or series of quests have some benefit to them, when the big show down with the king's army comes. (if that is what you're aiming it)

hope this helps.

[potatocubed]

Make the Spear of Geirmund an intelligent magic item devoted to freedom and rebellion. Then when the PCs run out of steam the spear can speak up and suggest new courses of action.

[Aron Times]

1. Watch Code Geass.
2. Have the party casters take Charm and Dominate spells.
3. ???
4. Depose king. And install yourself as the Lord and Master of All.

[Legend]

Maybe it's time a higher-up decided to join/co-opt their rebellion. Maybe an intermediate noble, like a baron, has decided to join this fight against the King and while he can shield the town from the King for a while with his own troops, he needs the party to do more daring adventures to increase his power overall.

Or maybe the baron seeks this opportunity to expand his territory, so he pays off the King for the town's taxes in exchange for adding the town to his barony. The baron commends the party for their stand against the King, vows to protect the city for more reasonable tax rates, and needs the party to do some other things he needs done to increase his power. He's got lots of juicy leads on lost macguffins or new alliances to be brokered but needs the King not to send troops into the area and also needs a party of adventures to assign all these tasks to.

[Namuh]

Maybe it's time a higher-up decided to join/co-opt their rebellion.

I could use the mayor and town council of Vilhelmsby (the nearest large town) for this, or possibly the local count.


Also, a talking spear sounds cool!

[J.Gellert]

If you want to keep it low-magic, go traditional. Add an advisor that suggests plots.

-old sage?
-rebellious baron?
-head of the thieves' guild?
-myconid king?
-orc sympathizer?
-An old mage, who is the father of a baron that the king executed and wants revenge, while also secretly works for the orcs because he thinks the PC's rebellion is doomed to fail but may be a good distraction?

It could even be many such advisors with often conflicting ideas and the PCs have to choose the best course/balance the needs of their allies.

[Zen Master]

Traditional is synonymous with boring. At least, that's what I think.

I suggest they find a box. The box is a riddle, opening it requires say a spellcraft check to open. Inside, they will find a task described - presumably on age-old parchment. In the bottom of the box is a strangely shaped indentation.

Once they finish the task given, they will find a magic item. Lets just assume for a moment that it is a Quaals Feather Token - and that mysteriously, that fits the indentation in the box.

If they fit the item into the box, it closes up and reconfigures, requiring another (harder) spellcraft check to open. And ... so on.

Hrm, well .... anyways that's what I'm thinking =)

[Fiery Diamond]

Traditional is synonymous with boring. At least, that's what I think.

I suggest they find a box. The box is a riddle, opening it requires say a spellcraft check to open. Inside, they will find a task described - presumably on age-old parchment. In the bottom of the box is a strangely shaped indentation.

Once they finish the task given, they will find a magic item. Lets just assume for a moment that it is a Quaals Feather Token - and that mysteriously, that fits the indentation in the box.

If they fit the item into the box, it closes up and reconfigures, requiring another (harder) spellcraft check to open. And ... so on.

Hrm, well .... anyways that's what I'm thinking =)

Okay, this is awesome. Totally stealing that. I was trying to think of some adventure ideas for my new campaign, and this would be awesome.

[Sipex]

If you're still looking for ideas, maybe this isn't the first time someone has stepped up to oppose the king? Maybe 20 years ago another band of rebels stood up and performed well but were ultimately squashed for such and such reason (maybe they were betrayed by an ally who you could then make the BBEG?)

The PCs get a quest to find the old leader of the rebellion (who is most likely locked away or is in hiding) and pick him up. Ta-dah, you now have an experienced 'mentor class' quest giver.

[Tvtyrant]

A group of Chaotic Neutral pan-planar revolutionaries hear of your plight and offer aid against the King's tax collectors but demand that your party join their group in return. If you agree you are given the coordinates to a dungeon that has an object that will help you, like a 1 use Staff of Disintegrate to bring down the walls. Once you have won the war the group demands that you aid them by fulfilling quests to bring down other kingdoms or supply items from dungeons to them.

[Thrawn183]

A talking ferret.

A talking eggplant.

A dragon.

A warforged in need of components to repair itself.

A real adventuring guild.