Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ydirbut 01-16-05, 08:47 PM	So, my party found a letter written in infernal when they cleared out a Nest of ghouls. The Letter told the barghest in charge of the ghouls to start spreading ghoul fever. It was from somebody named Sarbenos. They asked around about sarbenos, then returned to a village that had been slaughtered by the ghouls, where they were attacked by a shadow mastiff. So, I was thinking of having Sarbenos being a pretty sucessfull merchant from Patrahk'n. Of course, the party can't just bust and start bustin heads, they have to have him arrested first. I was thinking of introducing him via a merchant that was traveling near the fort they took from a bandit. I was planning on having the party rogue break in and look around for incriminating evidence. Does anyone have any Idea's, Tips, or Similar things to tell me?
Kolakuba 01-16-05, 09:46 PM	Why did Sarbenos want to have a spread of Ghoul fever? How does the merchant Sarbenos know a (now dead) barghest? Why should he keep incriminating evidence in his home? Where do the shadow mastiffs fit in the picture? Why can't the party just start busting heads? Why is it important to have him arrested first? I think it would be easier to help if we understood how all this is related.
ydirbut 01-16-05, 10:28 PM	Why did Sarbenos want to have a spread of Ghoul fever? How does the merchant Sarbenos know a (now dead) barghest? Sorry i didn't clarify this in my first post, but they are both agents of the order of the emerald claw/ blood of vol. Why should he keep incriminating evidence in his home? An excellent point, but where do you suggest he keep it? Where do the shadow mastiffs fit in the picture? He was sent to investigate the destruction of the ghoul den. Why can't the party just start busting heads? Why is it important to have him arrested first? Because Sarbenos is very well respected within his community, and they would get arrested if they started attacking highly respected and succesful merchant. Plus Sarbenos has guards in his employ. I just had just had an idea, but then i forgot it. AARRGH.
Kolakuba 01-16-05, 10:39 PM	OK, he is a member of The Emerald Claw. Why is the Emerald Claw trying to spread ghoul fever? Is it so that a priest from The Blood of Vol can come in and save all the residents, and tell them that there exists a wonderful state of being where you wont ever have to worry about dying or getting sick again? Even the Emerald Claw has motives for their actions. Why did they kill an entire village? What kind of incriminating evidence are we talking about? Does Sarbenos know of the PCs interference? Sorry for asking so much..... :)
ydirbut 01-16-05, 11:05 PM	OK, he is a member of The Emerald Claw. Why is the Emerald Claw trying to spread ghoul fever? Is it so that a priest from The Blood of Vol can come in and save all the residents, and tell them that there exists a wonderful state of being where you wont ever have to worry about dying or getting sick again? Even the Emerald Claw has motives for their actions. Why did they kill an entire village? An excellent idea. I'm probably going to use that Priest idea. To be honest I hadn't really thought of there motivations before.
BullyBoy 01-17-05, 01:38 AM	So, my party found a letter written in infernal when they cleared out a Nest of ghouls. The Letter told the barghest in charge of the ghouls to start spreading ghoul fever. It was from somebody named Sarbenos. They asked around about sarbenos, then returned to a village that had been slaughtered by the ghouls, where they were attacked by a shadow mastiff. So, I was thinking of having Sarbenos being a pretty sucessfull merchant from Patrahk'n. Of course, the party can't just bust and start bustin heads, they have to have him arrested first. I was thinking of introducing him via a merchant that was traveling near the fort they took from a bandit. I was planning on having the party rogue break in and look around for incriminating evidence. Does anyone have any Idea's, Tips, or Similar things to tell me? Why not have the writer of the letter someone pretty smart... Smart enough to use an psuedonym/alias, just in case his letters are ever found. Sarbenos could be someone that the Big Bad Guy doesn't really like at all, and Sarbenos is some poor chap who is constantly coming to grief because the BBG is using his name hap-hazardly. The party should be able to find out that they are after the wrong person somehow, and then follow the clues to the real BBG. Bull.
ydirbut 01-17-05, 11:40 AM	Why not have the writer of the letter someone pretty smart... Smart enough to use an psuedonym/alias, just in case his letters are ever found. Sarbenos could be someone that the Big Bad Guy doesn't really like at all, and Sarbenos is some poor chap who is constantly coming to grief because the BBG is using his name hap-hazardly. The party should be able to find out that they are after the wrong person somehow, and then follow the clues to the real BBG. An excellent suggestion, how do you propose I introduce the real BBEG.
ydirbut 01-17-05, 07:01 PM	Bump
ydirbut 01-17-05, 10:57 PM	So what i was thinking, was that when the party approaches Sarbenos, he says something like " By the host, not more adventurerer" and explains his predicament. Then, for the real villain, i was thinking the portmaster, close enogh to the merchant to know him, but far enough away that he won't be suspect. Still drawing a blank about how to introduce him though.
BullyBoy 01-18-05, 02:35 AM	So what i was thinking, was that when the party approaches Sarbenos, he says something like " By the host, not more adventurerer" and explains his predicament. Sounds good. Hopefully the characters will have done a bit of spying on the guy first. If so, you can have them see him doing something that looks sneaky, but is actually innocent (which they will find out, should they actually investigate further). e.g. they see through the window that he is counting a whole lot of gold coins, much more than what he would be able to earn in several months. Unbeknown to the characters, he is counting the earnings from the charity drive that he ran last night, to help orphaned warforged. Then, for the real villain, i was thinking the portmaster, close enogh to the merchant to know him, but far enough away that he won't be suspect. Still drawing a blank about how to introduce him though. Yeah, I don't really know either. Maybe you've got to ask yourself some questions first: Why does the portmaster want to implicate the merchant? Does the merchant know that the portmaster doesn't like him that much? Here's one idea: the merchant is fooling around with the portmaster's wife. The portmaster found out, but wants to keep his marriage (because his wife has rich parents) and get revenge on the merchant. Due to pride, and in order to be able to play innocent, he hasn't revealed that he knows they are having an affair. So he tries to implicate the merchant in anything he can, hoping that adventurers or the like will "take care of him". Maybe the characters can find love letters. Or maybe they spy a figure in the darkness, creeping up to the merchant's window... the portmaster's wife, wanting some more sweet lovin' ;)
Cloud Divider 01-18-05, 10:47 AM	Something another good game system (Heavy Gear) mentioned in their GMing section: The Y^3 ("Y cubed") rule. Ask why three times... Sorry i didn't clarify this in my first post, but they are both agents of the order of the emerald claw/ blood of vol. So the reason he's got agents spreading a ghoul fever is because he's an agent of the Emerald Claw. Presumably the ghoul fever creates ghouls? 1) What purpose does this serve (ie "Why would the Emerald Claw do this?")? Is the Claw looking for shock troops for a upcoming operation? If so, what's the operation? Is the Claw performing "field tests" of a new bioweapon (the fever)? Why are they developing such a weapon? 2) Why was this area chosen for the ghoul fever? Is it remote enough that the victims would be unlikely to receive aid in time? Maybe nobody would notice anything was wrong until it was too late... Did the citizens do something to inspire the ire of the Claw? Maybe a resident is a hero of the Last War that thwarted the Claw (whether he's aware or not)? If so, what did he do? Re: Hiding evidence An excellent point, but where do you suggest he keep it? If he's hiding incriminating evidence in his own residence it must be incredibly important. So it'd be treated as such - it'd probably be in some kind of hidden storage item (a hidden safe in a secret compartment, and likely trapped to destroy the contents on tampering). If it was merely a document, it's likely to have either been encoded or destroyed after he'd read it. Maybe he's saving the documents for some other reason. Maybe he likes to keep memoirs (so he's got a scrapbook of evil deeds somewhere, like Mr. Glass from Unbreakable). Or maybe he's keeping them in hopes of using them against the Claw at a later point (ie turning state's witness). Maybe the incriminating evidence isn't a document...maybe it's a person, or a thing. Maybe he's got a secret room where he keeps the shadow mastiff caged up (or whatever accessories go with having such a beast as a "pet" minion). And whatever that thing is, it's too dangerous to keep it elsewhere (if he hid it out an an abandoned farm on the edge of town, the mastiff could sneak out and kill things while he's not paying attention). So he keeps it close so he can keep an eye on it... That's of course, assuming this mastermind is the fairly clever sort. Because Sarbenos is very well respected within his community, and they would get arrested if they started attacking highly respected and succesful merchant. Plus Sarbenos has guards in his employ. My vote is for keeping Sarbenos as the evil merchant, and not as a false clue... Play him off like Al Capone. Everyone KNOWS (or at least suspects) he's a Bad Dude, but nobody can actually prove it and make it stick. He's got a crack squad of merciless stormtroopers. That's ok - he's a merchant with LOTS of valuable stuff, and needs them to defend his property. He's got a big, forboding mansion, with big spiked fences, and a barred gate. Hey, he's wealthy. They're allowed some eccentricities... The spiked fences and the forboding building facades just help discourage the rabble (most thieves). He worships the Blood of Vol. That's ok too - it's a legitimate religion in the eyes of most people (and as Sharn:COT mentioned, most worshippers don't know about the high-level evil purposes). Creepy, yes. Maybe he's a Karrn, and the Blood of Vol is the religion of his ancestors. Can't deny him his family traditions, can you? Even if it involves blood sacrifice...(ew! creepy!) He's got an Emerald Claw membership paraphrenalia. Hey, at one time, the Emerald Claw were an honor guard in Karrn. Noble folk, really. Maybe his great-great-great grandfather once served. He's got influence in all facets of the city - police, orphanages, schools, the rotary service organizations. Some say it's bribe money. He calls it being "involved in the community." Nevermind that every once in awhile, potentially incriminating evidence (or witnesses) just happen to disappear/get lost/misplaced/etc. And he can turn those factions on the PCs (ie get harassed by corrupt cops/city guards). However, in doing all of the above, he's really going to be careful when he does his Evil Badguy Stuff, because all of that credibility could evaporate quickly. So the PCs can keep foiling his evil operations... But eventually he'll slip and that key piece of irrefutable evidence will turn up (like a visiting representative of the Claw turns out to be a Vampire or some other irrefutably evil thing). Or maybe he'll finally lose his cool after being foiled so many times, and he'll lose his temper and leave himself open (maybe that visiting representative's a vampire assassin that he brought in to take care of the PCs - he really should have known better to not do something quite that blatant, but the PCs have "...foiled me for the last time!").
ydirbut 01-18-05, 06:49 PM	Sounds good. Hopefully the characters will have done a bit of spying on the guy first. If so, you can have them see him doing something that looks sneaky, but is actually innocent (which they will find out, should they actually investigate further). e.g. they see through the window that he is counting a whole lot of gold coins, much more than what he would be able to earn in several months. Unbeknown to the characters, he is counting the earnings from the charity drive that he ran last night, to help orphaned warforged. An excellent suggestion. Maybe raising money to establish a house Jorasco Enclave?. Yeah, I don't really know either. Maybe you've got to ask yourself some questions first: Why does the portmaster want to implicate the merchant? Does the merchant know that the portmaster doesn't like him that much? Here's one idea: the merchant is fooling around with the portmaster's wife. The portmaster found out, but wants to keep his marriage (because his wife has rich parents) and get revenge on the merchant. Due to pride, and in order to be able to play innocent, he hasn't revealed that he knows they are having an affair. So he tries to implicate the merchant in anything he can, hoping that adventurers or the like will "take care of him". Maybe the characters can find love letters. Or maybe they spy a figure in the darkness, creeping up to the merchant's window... the portmaster's wife, wanting some more sweet lovin' I was thinking that he didn't have anything against The merchant Personally. He was just using it so that if anybody intercepted and translated a letter. Plus, the merchant is probably a Karrnathi. So the reason he's got agents spreading a ghoul fever is because he's an agent of the Emerald Claw. Presumably the ghoul fever creates ghouls? 1) What purpose does this serve (ie "Why would the Emerald Claw do this?")? Is the Claw looking for shock troops for a upcoming operation? If so, what's the operation? Is the Claw performing "field tests" of a new bioweapon (the fever)? Why are they developing such a weapon? 2) Why was this area chosen for the ghoul fever? Is it remote enough that the victims would be unlikely to receive aid in time? Maybe nobody would notice anything was wrong until it was too late... Did the citizens do something to inspire the ire of the Claw? Maybe a resident is a hero of the Last War that thwarted the Claw (whether he's aware or not)? If so, what did he do? I think i'm going to go with the Clerics show up and save the day idea. With one twist, the clerics are neutral and have no idea what's going on. If he's hiding incriminating evidence in his own residence it must be incredibly important. So it'd be treated as such - it'd probably be in some kind of hidden storage item (a hidden safe in a secret compartment, and likely trapped to destroy the contents on tampering). If it was merely a document, it's likely to have either been encoded or destroyed after he'd read it. Maybe he's saving the documents for some other reason. Maybe he likes to keep memoirs (so he's got a scrapbook of evil deeds somewhere, like Mr. Glass from Unbreakable). Or maybe he's keeping them in hopes of using them against the Claw at a later point (ie turning state's witness). Maybe the incriminating evidence isn't a document...maybe it's a person, or a thing. Maybe he's got a secret room where he keeps the shadow mastiff caged up (or whatever accessories go with having such a beast as a "pet" minion). And whatever that thing is, it's too dangerous to keep it elsewhere (if he hid it out an an abandoned farm on the edge of town, the mastiff could sneak out and kill things while he's not paying attention). So he keeps it close so he can keep an eye on it... That's of course, assuming this mastermind is the fairly clever sort. I think i'm going to go with the merchant being framed route. My vote is for keeping Sarbenos as the evil merchant, and not as a false clue... Play him off like Al Capone. Everyone KNOWS (or at least suspects) he's a Bad Dude, but nobody can actually prove it and make it stick. He's got a crack squad of merciless stormtroopers. That's ok - he's a merchant with LOTS of valuable stuff, and needs them to defend his property. He's got a big, forboding mansion, with big spiked fences, and a barred gate. Hey, he's wealthy. They're allowed some eccentricities... The spiked fences and the forboding building facades just help discourage the rabble (most thieves). He worships the Blood of Vol. That's ok too - it's a legitimate religion in the eyes of most people (and as Sharn:COT mentioned, most worshippers don't know about the high-level evil purposes). Creepy, yes. Maybe he's a Karrn, and the Blood of Vol is the religion of his ancestors. Can't deny him his family traditions, can you? Even if it involves blood sacrifice...(ew! creepy!) He's got an Emerald Claw membership paraphrenalia. Hey, at one time, the Emerald Claw were an honor guard in Karrn. Noble folk, really. Maybe his great-great-great grandfather once served. He's got influence in all facets of the city - police, orphanages, schools, the rotary service organizations. Some say it's bribe money. He calls it being "involved in the community." Nevermind that every once in awhile, potentially incriminating evidence (or witnesses) just happen to disappear/get lost/misplaced/etc. And he can turn those factions on the PCs (ie get harassed by corrupt cops/city guards). However, in doing all of the above, he's really going to be careful when he does his Evil Badguy Stuff, because all of that credibility could evaporate quickly. So the PCs can keep foiling his evil operations... But eventually he'll slip and that key piece of irrefutable evidence will turn up (like a visiting representative of the Claw turns out to be a Vampire or some other irrefutably evil thing). Or maybe he'll finally lose his cool after being foiled so many times, and he'll lose his temper and leave himself open (maybe that visiting representative's a vampire assassin that he brought in to take care of the PCs - he really should have known better to not do something quite that blatant, but the PCs have "...foiled me for the last time!"). The whole idea behind the merchant is that nobody suspect that he is connected to the Order of the Emerald claw.