The players are:
Alex, Good Wild Elf Cleric of Selune from Cormyr. She was raised in a village in Cormyr where the villagers sacrifice someone every 100 years to protect themselves from the wrath of Shar. She escaped and the villagers plan to get her back at any cost.
Ryks'Kro, Unaligned Orc Barbarian from Thay. He's a farmer orc who is highly intelligent, but falls into violent mood swings when battle occurs.
Verdrim, Good Genasi (stormsoul, windsoul) Wizard from Akanul. He went to Chessenta earlier in his career and was caught spellcasting in that land. Bounty hunters have pursued him since he escaped, all the way to Baldur's Gate.
Kendas, Good Moon Elf (Eladrin) Rogue from Luskan. A man who was born on the day the Spellplague broke out, who's lived a constant life of danger due to the monstrous inhabitants of that city. Left the city of sails recently to pursue his own adventures in Baldur's Gate.
Masten, Lawful Good Shield Dwarf Paladin of Moradin from Icewind Dale. Journeyed from his home and clan to pursue knowledge of the laws in Baldur's Gate. Eager to protect any comrades he may find.
The basic things that have happened so far, and my ideas of what will happen (subject to change based on player actions, which I hope occurs):
The players arrived in Baldur's Gate and saw a spokeswoman of the Order of Blue Fire giving a speech about spellplague creatures, only to have all her guards beside her mysteriously fall asleep. The spokeswoman, Iseli, was then attacked by a group of goblin thugs who burst out of the doors to the houses nearby (they'd been helped in through the sewers by the Thieves Guild and had killed the occupants of those homes in their sleep).
After the PC's managed to foil the plot, they began running investigations as to why Iseli was targeted. They've discovered that the Shadow Thieves, who recently have been replacing members of the Baldur's Gate Thieves Guild, were behind getting the goblins in, and that the goblins are working for a dragon who recently united his kobold tribe with a group of goblin slaves.
Recently, the PCs discovered that there is a rivalry between the Order of Blue Fire's suppliers (Sorcerous Sundries) and a new wizard tower within the district known as Wizardly Wonders, thinking that perhaps the wizards of the latter tower put Iseli's guards to sleep. The PCs, upon Alex's request, infiltrated a shrine dedicated to both Shar and Sseth recently (the idea being that the Shar nightcloaks provide the mazewalkers with slaves to transform into snaketongue cultists, whom I have also belonging to Sseth along with Zehir). Inside the temple, they confronted the Shadar-Kai leader named Albrek who is basically out to ruin Alex's morality by questioning her decision to doom her village. Meanwhile, Masten took a slave he found to the parliament in Baldur's Gate to negotiate the removal of Shar worship within the city (evil deities are allowed to be followed so long as they aren't openly committing evil acts).
That's as far as they've got (Albrek escaped), but now I wanted to discuss what I had in mind for the future. My idea was that the knights who were with Iseli weren't magically put to sleep, but rather pretended to do so on their own, as they are actually spellscarred Zhentarim spies. The Zhent are being hired by the Order of Blue Fire to kill Iseli and her faction of 'do-gooders' (since she genuinely doesn't know about the Order's evil nature and is trying to help the spellscarred creatures) to get around unopposed to the Order's real goal: Conducting Spellplague experiments across the Sword Coast.
The Zhent tried using the Shadow Thieves and goblins from the nearby dragon's tribe (a Gray Dragon, if that helps, though I'll change the idea if needed since the PC's haven't delved much into that hook) to get the job done nice and easy, but obviously things didn't go so smoothly. The Order of Blue Fire then tipped off the Shar nightcloaks about a cleric of Selune in the city to do away with them quickly, but made sure to have the Zhentarim write the letter (the PCs will discover the Zhentarim's 'involvement' tonight).
Ultimately, while the Zhent may seem like pawns, they have their own agenda while within the Order's ranks: to secretly convert anyone they can to their cause, and perhaps to change some of the humanoid leaders into vampires to work under Manshoon.
With all that out of the way, what do you think would be a good change in the above outline? Would you add on anything, or perhaps have good motives in mind with the NPC groups involved? Any help would be appreciated.
Shar's involvement with the Zhents is interesting too. It's hard to infiltrate the Clergy of Shar, but the Order of Blue Fire might be easier for Zhent spies to asurp.
Your plot is extremely well developed and detailed. Thus, my question: Would you say yours is overcomplicated at all?
Obviously I don't know your players or your style of play, but by gut reaction is that your plot is almost too busy.
If this style is one you and yours enjoy, my apologies. If not, my advice would be to lessen the complications.
I'm curious also: Is the dragon at all knowledgeable of the total activities of what's going on in town? I always liked the idea of having "A Dragon at the Center" of everything, even if it's the dragon subtly twisting the plots of other groups to its own ends.
If your dragon were to have a spy with the Order, the Zhentarim, the Shadow Thieves and so on, that might help guarantee your players confront it somewhere down the line. Fighting dragons is always fun. ;)
Thank you for sharing your plot and the characters. Sounds very fun overall.
-M.
Obviously I don't know your players or your style of play, but by gut reaction is that your plot is almost too busy.
I know where you're going with this and I'm inclined to agree (it's a much better thing for me to hear than me not having any hooks at all, at least
). One thing that I think makes it realistic is that the organizations are in the dark about some of the other's activities, but this doesn't change the fact that from a player's point of view, it may seem like there's too much going on at once. What would your advice be to simplify things?I'm curious also: Is the dragon at all knowledgeable of the total activities of what's going on in town? I always liked the idea of having "A Dragon at the Center" of everything, even if it's the dragon subtly twisting the plots of other groups to its own ends.
The dragon is getting updates from the Zhentarim via letters which are keeping it informed about the Order of Blue Fire's activities in Baldur's Gate. Since the PCs are starting to be a thorn in their sides, they've also taken liberties in trying to describe them to the dragon. The dragon realizes that there's a lot of potential with the spellplague (spellscarred kobold minions would be quite interesting to say the last), so he'd likely be trying to get on the Order's good side. He would also want to watch the Zhentarim, since they're not ones to be trusted very much. The Shadow Thieves also have the potential to be useful to him, but I doubt he'd be able to get a spy within their ranks just yet.
Thank you for the suggestions and advice.
Whne using Yuan-Ti don't forget the Coiled Cabal.
That's an idea to keep in mind. Perhaps as a minor quest, some disguised Coiled Cabals could show up to 'visit' the Order in Baldur's Gate, or some such. Thank you for the suggestion, I may incorporate that when the game hits higher levels.