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2013-10-24, 05:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
- Location
- Richland, WA
- Gender
NEED HELP: City Subterfuge Encounter
So I'm in need of some assistance in fleshing out this encounter. Here is what I have so far. If it matters its a 3.5 campaign.
Background: This is in an urban campaign (at this point at least) and the group keeps getting attributed with good things that they didn't quite actually do, and they have become pop icons with the poor (there are super massive slums in the city). They are supposed to meet with the City Council (the leaders) because of their rising fame.
I need help with the following:
1) An encounter where an informant tells the group (or a member of them) that they are being used by someone and that someone is promoting them within the city for nefarious means... but I can't figure out why other than as a diversion for something they are doing. I'm not sure how to even approach this social skill encounter.
2) An encounter where one member of the group is wooed by a very powerful local business person who is trying to get the group to run quests for him. He like the group is from the slums and wants to lessen the inequality within the city. He is male, the PC is female but its not a sexual/romantic wooing.
3) An encounter where the group meets the council and most of them think that the group is feigning weakness or lack of power while one thinks that they are actually the lower level (4) that they are. In this encounter I want that to come to light and have the Council agree to keep that information hidden and use the group to keep the slum populous in check by entertaining them.
4) The main background of the session will be that the group gets swept up into an underground war between three business tycoons which had the balance upset by the entrance of a fourth competitor (owned by the business man in 2, who is also orchestrating the war).
4a) An adventure where the group is explained the businesses (they are all legitimate but a byproduct of their alchemy is a drug, which is what the war is really over anyways). How do I get them introduced to this? My initial thoughts were to have the Council in 3 ask them to solve the issue.
4b) A combat based encounter with some of the thugs, what setting could make this memorable rather than just a dark alley?
4c) A puzzle, something the group has to solve so that they enter into a warehouse stocked with piles of the drug, and a dead illithid body (illithids haven't been introduced yet, but they are going to be doing illithid controlling stuff). I'm horrible with puzzles and can't think of anything fitting.
4d) An encounter where the group is caught in the crossfire between two groups of drug runners fighting.
5) Another combat based encounter but this time with agents of the government or government controlled illithids, who are attempting to destroy evidence, these are not the thugs but highly trained people.
6) Another encounter with the Business Man in 2 where he explains that while mapping out transportation routes in the undercity his agents came across a dead illithid and believes that hey are controlling members of the city, but he doesn't know who. I'd like to have some level of fail/success in this but don't know how to implement it.
So yeah I need help, cause I'm suffering from major writer's block when trying to figure this out.Last edited by Tim Proctor; 2013-10-24 at 05:39 PM.
I am what lurks under your bridge, I am the troll...
Not sure about what I said, go back highlight it with your mouse and wham it's magically blue for sarcasm, so like everything on the internet take it with a grain of salt.
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2013-10-24, 07:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2013
- Gender
Re: NEED HELP: City Subterfuge Encounter
Eh, I´ll try:
1. Soo is the promoting or the Information about the promoting the diversion?
If the Informant is presenting false Information, the Encounter should be about the PC finding out about it and ideally manipulating the untrustworthy source back.
If they actually are promoted within an evil organisation that alone should be enough to give your players pause.
2."Hey, I have this highly risky job for you which will net you a lot of money and also help the poor people in the city."
He may also wine and dine her in a fancy restaurant because thats what business-people do in movies, but most players do accept quests for money.
3.Do the PC´s want/profit from the council not knowing their lack of strength? If so tell them (for example by using the informant from 1.) and give them a small chance to bluff the council.
If not (or you really don`t want the council deceived) simple have them find out using spies (or whatever) and gloss over this event or make it a role-playing only encounter.
4.They could be hired by any or all of the major players.
a.To me it would flow best, if they first encountered the drug then a labratory and then had it explained to them (if they haven`t figured it out already)
b. a graveyard (play up the creepiness and make them think undead), the restaurant from 2., a cathedral,a carnival or circus.
c.Illithid+drugs? I´m thinking illusions/hallucinations.For example the illithid could not be dead but dying from overexposure to the drug and his uncontrolled powers plus the dust of the drug forces the players to fight the same monster (the illithid??) over and over again in a slightly "wrong" enviroment until they find the creature and end it`s suffering.
Or you could have them look for the warehouse using a modified Einsteins Logic Puzzle.[Replace Nationalty with businesses and cigarette,beverage and pet with kinds of trading goods, replace fish with drug].
d.Let them just stumble into it or have all three parties look for the same thing.
5.They have come to close to the truth;they are attacked by the elitepolice while they sleep.Think SWAT: Use alchemy or wizard to emulate the effect of flashbangs and smoke/gas grenades than try to kill them with brute force/ extreme firepower.
6.Using all resources at their disposal the players attempt to purge the illithid threat(if there really is one).They can alway just interogate/ask the coucilmembers.They may have/be able to aquire magic rituals or spells.If they have successfully deceived the council in 3. they should get a bonus. They can use the corpse from 4c. to learn more about illithid physiology and abillities.Maybe they even have a chance to capture it alive.
I hope at least some of this was somewhat helpfull.
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2013-10-24, 09:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
Re: NEED HELP: City Subterfuge Encounter
I don't have any particular ideas for detail on the social bits, but I second the thugs attacking in public. Having a largely social/political campaign suddenly broken by an outright, broad daylight kind of attack could really point out what kind of mess the party has stumbled into.
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2013-10-25, 02:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Unknown
- Gender
Re: NEED HELP: City Subterfuge Encounter
Watch some X-Files episodes. Then have a somewhat odd-looking fellow scurry from an alleyway and say, "Fame can be intoxicating, a smokescreen for the truth. The truth is out there. Watch the skies". He then ducks out and is never seen again, or maybe he is if you need a conspiracy-theory-nut.
EDIT: Have him sent by some sort of secret group who are fighting the Ithillid in secret, sort of a Shadow War fought between Ithillid and Something Else. In secret, the players are being used as cover for the Anti-Ithillids, hoping to catch their ancient foes in an ambush when the monsters try to eat the players one day.
2) An encounter where one member of the group is wooed by a very powerful local business person who is trying to get the group to run quests for him. He like the group is from the slums and wants to lessen the inequality within the city. He is male, the PC is female but its not a sexual/romantic wooing.
3) An encounter where the group meets the council and most of them think that the group is feigning weakness or lack of power while one thinks that they are actually the lower level (4) that they are. In this encounter I want that to come to light and have the Council agree to keep that information hidden and use the group to keep the slum populous in check by entertaining them.
4) The main background of the session will be that the group gets swept up into an underground war between three business tycoons which had the balance upset by the entrance of a fourth competitor (owned by the business man in 2, who is also orchestrating the war).
4a) An adventure where the group is explained the businesses (they are all legitimate but a byproduct of their alchemy is a drug, which is what the war is really over anyways). How do I get them introduced to this? My initial thoughts were to have the Council in 3 ask them to solve the issue.
Then, if the players don't take the hint and investigate on their own, the Council charges them to investigate.
4b) A combat based encounter with some of the thugs, what setting could make this memorable rather than just a dark alley?
4c) A puzzle, something the group has to solve so that they enter into a warehouse stocked with piles of the drug, and a dead illithid body (illithids haven't been introduced yet, but they are going to be doing illithid controlling stuff). I'm horrible with puzzles and can't think of anything fitting.
Otherwise, once they enter, have it be a normal, everyday warehouse. Successful Search, Spot or Knowledge Architecture checks will reveal that the inside is too small for the outside. Further checking of various objects and/or bits of driftwood will reveal a lever that reveals the secret stockpile room and a dead Illithid, probably overdosed on his own stuff.
4d) An encounter where the group is caught in the crossfire between two groups of drug runners fighting.
5) Another combat based encounter but this time with agents of the government or government controlled illithids, who are attempting to destroy evidence, these are not the thugs but highly trained people.
6) Another encounter with the Business Man in 2 where he explains that while mapping out transportation routes in the undercity his agents came across a dead illithid and believes that hey are controlling members of the city, but he doesn't know who. I'd like to have some level of fail/success in this but don't know how to implement it.
The Ithillid has several things on his person, including a contact list. Its blood has destroyed all but one name, written in an alien tongue. Some Knowledge/Decipher checks later, and the party knows that the Ithillid was seeking out a minor Ward Boss (political officer meant to make sure the slums vote "correctly") or something similar, essentially a corrupt politician.
Whether he was working with the Ithillid or about to be contacted by them, is up to you.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Wing it with the social bits. Never let a single roll completely convince anyone of anything. A roll just means the player gained some small advantage in negotiations, or "won" on a single point. Use many rolls to sway conversation, and demand that players actually say what their characters say.
It sounds like the drug war between feuding businesses needs to be tied into the Council a little bit (some are corrupt and bought by the drug lords, or they are the drug lords). And it also appears to me that this city is a series of secret shadow wars on top of each other. Inter-Councilmen assassination attempts on top of a drug war raging in the city, mixed with an even deadlier more secret shadow war fought between Ithillids hoping to overthrow the city and rule it themselves and an order of some sort opposed to those goals.
This sounds rad!
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2013-10-25, 10:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
- Location
- Richland, WA
- Gender
Re: NEED HELP: City Subterfuge Encounter
Thank you all for the input, I really appreciate it.
So with #1
1) An encounter where an informant tells the group (or a member of them) that they are being used by someone and that someone is promoting them within the city for nefarious means... but I can't figure out why other than as a diversion for something they are doing. I'm not sure how to even approach this social skill encounter.
The informant will be telling the truth and is legitimately trying to help them out. I'm thinking that he is from a secret-government organization named 'Black Cell' that was created years ago to protect the city at all costs from all foes foreign and domestic (just like off Swordfish), and they think the group is being used by the Illithids as a diversion. However, I don't want him to tell the group about the Illithids or anything, so what type of cryptic stuff would be good to throw in?
2) An encounter where one member of the group is wooed by a very powerful local business person who is trying to get the group to run quests for him. He like the group is from the slums and wants to lessen the inequality within the city. He is male, the PC is female but its not a sexual/romantic wooing.
3) An encounter where the group meets the council and most of them think that the group is feigning weakness or lack of power while one thinks that they are actually the lower level (4) that they are. In this encounter I want that to come to light and have the Council agree to keep that information hidden and use the group to keep the slum populous in check by entertaining them.
I think that I'll just have one of them the showman type challenge their power, have the wizard say he calculated it and its high, etc. and then have them explain that they want to group's help with their war on drugs and destroying the cartels and making public statements about why drugs are bad. This will introduce 4 fairly easily with a easy transition. What do people think?
As far as introducing the drugs, those have been introduced a couple sessions ago and I have two players whose character's are users/addicts. While one of them is extremely against the drug because she's trying to liberate the slums in a libertarian anarchist way. Also the conspiracy nut things the council created the drugs to keep the slums in check and pacified.
4b) A combat based encounter with some of the thugs, what setting could make this memorable rather than just a dark alley?
4c) A puzzle, something the group has to solve so that they enter into a warehouse stocked with piles of the drug, and a dead illithid body (illithids haven't been introduced yet, but they are going to be doing illithid controlling stuff). I'm horrible with puzzles and can't think of anything fitting.
4d) An encounter where the group is caught in the crossfire between two groups of drug runners fighting.
5) Another combat based encounter but this time with agents of the government or government controlled illithids, who are attempting to destroy evidence, these are not the thugs but highly trained people.
6) Another encounter with the Business Man in 2 where he explains that while mapping out transportation routes in the undercity his agents came across a dead illithid and believes that hey are controlling members of the city, but he doesn't know who. I'd like to have some level of fail/success in this but don't know how to implement it.
I'd love more help, you guys are smarter than I am so I really appreciate it.I am what lurks under your bridge, I am the troll...
Not sure about what I said, go back highlight it with your mouse and wham it's magically blue for sarcasm, so like everything on the internet take it with a grain of salt.