Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Host of Angels 07-19-05, 04:35 AM	OK those greedy bastards (aka the PCs) have caught me off gaurd. What should I do? Spoilers! They have succesfully completed SOTLW, killed the elementals and retrieved the schema(s) and the creation pattern. When they met up with Elaydren, they dutifully handed over the schema - BUT - they have decided the creation pattern was not part of the contract so to speak. They have shown it to Elaydren, but are not handing it over to her on the grounds that they figure it must be worth thousands (solid admantine, mithril laced etc). I could try having Elaydren claim it as House Cannith property - but that seems like a slippery slope - "OK, we go find someone from one of the other factions and sell it to them". Or I could just let them keep it? Or maybe Elaydren could just offer them a 20% off voucher for custom magic item creation services from House Cannith. Any great ideas?? Playing tonight so I have precisely 8 hours to come up with something - and work out what the hell is going to happen in the next session. Oh - the hardships of GMing...
Host of Angels 07-19-05, 07:27 AM	Another though I had - what happens in the later published Eberron modules if the party looses the schema / creation pattern to the Emerald Claw or the Lord of Blades? If they want to keep it I could always arrange for it to burgled, before they find a buyer...
Crimsonsun 07-19-05, 07:45 AM	Do they have a permanent base of operations? If so, they must leave SOMETIME. Have the pattern picked up by an House Philarian working for the EC. Or have Elaydren offer a magic item in trade (glove of storing if shes feeling really nice ;)
Host of Angels 07-19-05, 08:17 AM	No - so far no permanent base - although they seem to have taken a fancy to The Broken Anvil inn. Hmm - but yes that seems like a good ploy. I would prefer bringing the Lord of Blades back in at this point. Would the Lord of Blades hire House Philarian? Why glove of storing in particular? Aside from that it is a cool item (just read description)...
AlDaRoN Arg 07-19-05, 08:22 AM	They have succesfully completed SOTLW, killed the elementals and retrieved the schema(s) and the creation pattern. When they met up with Elaydren, they dutifully handed over the schema - BUT - they have decided the creation pattern was not part of the contract so to speak. They have shown it to Elaydren, but are not handing it over to her on the grounds that they figure it must be worth thousands (solid admantine, mithril laced etc). I could try having Elaydren claim it as House Cannith property - but that seems like a slippery slope - "OK, we go find someone from one of the other factions and sell it to them". Or I could just let them keep it? Or maybe Elaydren could just offer them a 20% off voucher for custom magic item creation services from House Cannith. Any great ideas?? Playing tonight so I have precisely 8 hours to come up with something - and work out what the hell is going to happen in the next session. Oh - the hardships of GMing... If you feel really evil today just stole it from them :D If not, you could make them feel that they are being observed. Trash their room and start attacking them until they feel they should sell the creattion pattern.
MarkB 07-19-05, 08:28 AM	The Lord of Blades would use his own agents, as he did in The Forgotten Forge. SPOILER for beginning of Grasp of the Emerald Claw: GotEC opens with the Emerald Claw having stolen the schemas and Creation Pattern from Lady Elaydren, so it will fit well plot-wise for the EC to take the Creation Pattern from the players, and lacks the potential for creating a rift between Elaydren and the players.
Crimsonsun 07-19-05, 08:31 AM	Why glove of storing in particular? Aside from that it is a cool item (just read description)... Its quite a pricy item (10k) that isnt TOO gamebreaking, but it can be... just remember it can only hold ONE item up to 20lbs ;)
cmanos 07-19-05, 08:33 AM	Cannith will try and get the pattern any way they can, if the players don't give it to her in exchange for another magic item, She'll probably have Cannith agents try and steal it. Then again, you could always have the LoBster send his own dudes to get it. Then you have the other two Cannith factions that would be interested in it as well. I'd let them keep it and make their lives completely miserable for having it. Everyone will be after them sometime.
Host of Angels 07-19-05, 09:48 AM	I shall definately make their lives miserable if they hang onto it :D Hmm - I like the idea of giving them an option however. I will try the cool-magic-item bribe first. If that fails I want the LoB to try nicking it. What would the consequence in GotEC if the creation pattern is held by the Lord of Blades? I figure he knows they went off to get some more of the schemas and - oh look - they return to Sharn with lots of cash to splash after a Cannith sponsored job. So he has a reason to try a little break-and-entry. On the other hand, teh Emerald Claw thinks it has all the important loot from Whitehearth, so why would they come after the PCs just now?
Kid SixXx 07-19-05, 06:43 PM	Also remember that the party really shouldn't be thinking in terms of keeping the creation pattern as it is the property of the Dragonmarked house that they're currently doing a favor for. They should really be a bit more in tune with what's at stake and weigh the circumstances. If they get greedy and keep the creation pattern, they run the risk of incurring the wrath of their first paying customers. What's better at this early stage in their career? Gold, or the continual good wishes and favor of House Cannith? Give them a chance to wise up. If they don't, feel free to show them just how influential House Cannith can be.
themind 07-20-05, 12:32 AM	I had this happen in my game as well, except they didn't let Elaydrin know that they had the pattern. I had her mention that they found reference to a creation pattern in their research, just to let the PC's know that what they had was important. So a night or two before the GotEC was to start, I had a thief sneak into the room of the character who had it, and stole it. Of course, the PC had a good listen roll and woke up just the theif was leaving. But he got away with the pattern. Even though it does sound convienent for the plot and a little cheap, remember the EC would have resources to find about the pattern, to do divinations of some kind to find out where it is or who has it, and to be able to steal it.
a_psh 07-20-05, 01:26 AM	Elaydren is rather naive, so I wouldn't start out by screwing them over... leave that for when she gets frustrated and tells Merrix. If you're feeling magnanimous, you can try to pay them off with stuff that's really awesome but useless from a metagaming perspective. A great example: take the noble residence floormap in the Sharn book, show it to them. Tell them she offers them one of those in a suitably good district. This'll give the PCs a permanent base of operations without twinking them out with 50,000 gp worth of actual, y'know, items. A giant house is a rather awesome thing to have, advances the story, and doesn't really help them kill people any quicker. Likewise, perhaps more nebulous "favors" will make a better reward than money here. House Cannith can help a wizard get into a college or guild, erase some past mistakes, provide some secret information, &c., &c.
EmoryM 07-20-05, 02:32 AM	My Artificer couldn't really figure out what the creation pattern did, but since Elaydren didn't ask for it he didn't bother showing it to her. For whatever reason though my DM told me my character was suddenly in love with Elaydren, when I tried to spellcraft all he said was "Hey, love is magical"... Basically I left it over at her house, which my entire party blasted me for (since it kinda got stolen.) Anyway, it seems simple enough to have it stolen.
Host of Angels 07-20-05, 04:26 AM	OK - thanks for all the help. So this is how it panned out.... As I suspected they decided that the creation pattern was not part of the deal and must be worth squillions. Elaydren politely explained that it was technically Cannith property but that she was not going to make a point of it. To show good faith she helped them get a bunch of stuff identified to start with. They made it clear to her that they thought they could easily find another buyer. She eventually offered them a deal - they could either take the most valuable item she had (the glove of storing ;) ) and a 20% discount on purchases of magic items from House Cannith up to a value of 10,000 gp. OR they could take the 10,000 gp value of the glove and no discount. I pulled this out completely on the fly - but much to my delight they then spent an hour arguing over what to do. The fighter wanted the glove (handy with a two hander), the rogue wanted the cash and the psion / mage wanted to take the glove, spend the discount and then sell the glove (which given he is LG seemed a bit odd). In the end they decide to spend lots of cash on assorted magic weapons and armour (at 20% off) and take the glove. Elaydren agreed to come by the next morning to do the exchange. They kept the pattern safe in the handy haversack. That night I figured I would have someone kick down the door so to speak. The Lord of Blades had been waiting for the players to return. A hit squad of a warforged warrior, a mage and two kobolds hired a skycab (or whatever they are called), killed the driver and flew up to beside the players room at the Broken Anvil. The mage used a scroll of Rock to Mud to make a hole in the wall, and then jumped off the boat floating away on feather fall. The fighter leap in swords drawn. The psion/mage was on guard, but had dropped to sleep. I gave them a listen roll to hear the boat scraping against the wall, the psion/mage made his roll and shouted to wake the others. I then gave the fighter and rogue an easy listen roll (DC10) to awake. The fighter made it but the shifter rogue failed despite having +7 listen and using an action point! Snake eyes! The warforged moved to the nearest bed - randomly determined as the sleeping rogue and used coup-de-grace. :eek: Splat - rogue took the damage but failed the save. The fighter and psion/mage took the warforged down in two rounds, and the fighter used great cleave to dispatch both kobolds. Holy cow - you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! So that traumatised the party and me. I always try to arrange for PC deaths to at least be heroic and memorable. But killed in you sleep by an encounter designed to annoy. Sheesh. So what sort of modifier should I give them on the exp earned from killing the warforged and kobolds? Should I give them some exp to take into account the mage that got them in the room but didn't play any other part in the combat. :confused:
Crimsonsun 07-20-05, 04:50 AM	So what sort of modifier should I give them on the exp earned from killing the warforged and kobolds? Should I give them some exp to take into account the mage that got them in the room but didn't play any other part in the combat. :confused: Wow, always sucks to die like that... and yes, if the mage ran, he was 'defeated' and they definatly get the XP for it...
Host of Angels 07-20-05, 06:43 AM	well - it is not so much that he ran - his task was to get the fighter and kobolds through the wall and then to get out of trouble. I figure spell casting warforged are a bit unusual and a resource the LoB does not have many of. Hence the caution... From a mechanistic point - it was just a way to get the bag guys through the wall. Although rock to mud is 5th level and the scroll is worth 1,125. So I was thinking maybe give the main bad guys a +1 CR...