Adventure Building

[jtougas]

Ok got some time to sit down and write a outline. I haven't put any names for locations or characters as I assume we will want to discuss that. This is very basic but I think it's a good frame to build on. Let me know what you think


In this adventure, the PCs must retrieve the "Cup of Kings" and return it to their employer. This must be done discreetly as word of the cup's theft cannot leak out to the public for fear of political damage to the king.

The king is old and kind. however he is also ineffective. He simply cannot see that some people do bad things. He trusts his people implicitly.

The PCs employer is the kings steward. He has great affection for his king but is very aware of his shortcomings. He is also convinced that something has been done to his ruler to change his personality.

The PCs must recover the "Cup of Kings" and return it to the king's steward. The king must never know of it's disappearance. This should be done as discreetly as possible.

The "Cup of Kings" is an ancient magical device given to the current kings ancestors hundreds of years past. It helps the kings of this land make wise decisions and protects them from mind altering magic as long as they are within it's range.

The city thieves guild is just an agent of the person(s) who want the cup. They were hired to steal it and get it out of the city.

The person(s) who want the cup cannot travel into the city as they are bitter enemies and would be attacked or imprisoned on sight.

The caravan is simply that a caravan that travels between the major cities of the kingdom selling goods and providing various services. The owner is a middle aged man that descends from a long line of caravan owners. His family often accompanies him on his travels as they have on this trip.

The Kings steward can be of help determining where the cup has gone. The kingdoms Archmage can track the cup in a limited sense enough to know that it is leaving the city on a caravan.

The PCs should attempt to retain employment with this caravan. They could serve as guards or as general labor. The caravan rarely carries anything of great value and has little need for protection in most cases.

Unknown to the PCs (and the caravan owner) a thieves guild plant has been employed with the caravan as a driver. This persons task is to see that the cup makes it way to it's destination. The PCs will discover this during their journey.

The cup's destination is a city controlled by a rival to the king. The ruler there knows that with the cups assistance he can invade and destroy his enemy. The cup is not "attuned" to one specific person and can be wielded by anyone. As a relative to the king the cup is (he believes) likely to be that much more effective.

The ruler of the city feels slighted as he is not a direct descendant of the current royal family. He feels he should be king. He has made several attempts to seize the throne by various means in the past all of which have been thwarted by various agents loyal to the king.

If the PCs succeed in retrieving the cup, they will gain a powerful friend in the kingdom that can help them during their careers.

If the PCs fail (or switch sides) they will gain a powerful enemy in the kingdom although most likely the rival ruler will take the throne and reward the PCs in some way. The agents loyal to the king will never stop trying to unseat the usurper and punish the PCs for their duplicity.

[ravells]

That's very good! It all hangs together realyl well.

[Djekspek]

thanks! looking good so far. 2 question that come up
- why the thiefs guild that operates in the kingdom would steal this importat thing (usually those guilds dont want too much trouble in their 'area of operations' and losing this artifact may change their world and they may lose a gullible king...) , or do they also have a hidden agenda?
- why would the party help the king? is there a reward other then eternal gratitude? hehe, my group would probably steal the cup and become kings themselves
cheers, DJ

[industrygothica]

It seems like there needs to be a more immediate and discernible change in the king's behavior, something to raise a red flag, so to speak. I understand that the king is wont to see only peoples' positive attributes, but it seems like that is more of a character flaw that was exploited in order for the cup to be stolen, not a result of it having already been.

What would happen if the PCs were hired to track and catch up to the caravan, rather than seek employment on it? To me, it seems that if they were to encounter the caravan before it left town, all they'd have to do is perform a quick search to retrieve the item and call it a day.

However, if they were tracking the caravan and found it to have been sacked by an unrelated band of monstrous humanoids, it quickly turns into a race between the PCs and the King's rival to find the item before the (orc/goblin/troll/whatever) king realizes exactly what it is he has accidentally stumbled upon. This would also make this adventure more appropriate for lower levels, as surely any king's rival worth his weight in salt would be significantly tougher a challenge.

Is this making any sense at all?


*EDIT* I do think Djekspek has a point. What if it were instead a guild operative working outside the purview of the guild itself? It could make for an interesting side quest in bringing the offender back to the guild to face charges.


-IG

[geamon]

Also with your suggestion IG you can create a track the item situation which I always find fun. We can even create 2-3 different options on where the cup was taken to and the PC's can track it to the location or to the wrong destination which they end up failing when time runs out on their search.

[tilt]

sounds really good. We're about to get our little corner of the guild to work in ... soon

[jtougas]

Those are all good points. I was hoping for some discussion on this I really like the track the item idea as well.

As far as the thieves guild goes, I have always ran "thief heavy" campaigns I tend to have a different take on what thieves will and will not do for money. I was thinking that in this case someone high in the guild hierarchy would have a secret agenda in regards to the item. (possibly being a relative of the "bad guy") or being promised a position in the new government. (it's always easier to rob the people legally after all)

I think I kind of jumped past the kings "behavior change" and it would be better if he had a personality alerting event after the item was stolen. I think I can do something with that.

[RobA]

This is the latest version of the list of signups

Please say which of the below roles (feel free to choose more than one) you fell confident taking and how involved you'd like to be Its ok if you just want to make a single illustration or flesh-out an encounter, but it will be nice to know how much time people are willing to devote to the project


llustrators - heroes, monsters, backdrops, etc
- Jaxilon, DevinNight, Djespek, Geamon, Ascension

Mappers - all sorts of maps needed
- Gidde(regional), Jaxilon, DevinNight(interior), Djespek, Geamon (encounter), Ascension, Ramah

Techies - knowledge of VTs and whatever else is out there that I don't know about
- Redrobes

Industry guys - publishers, printers, etc
- tilt

Game guys - they know the various systems
- Gidde, Djespek, Geamon

Managers - keep things organized
... see project Leaders

Art director or art committee - pick the best stuff and keep things stylistically coherent
- tilt, Jaxilon, Djespek, Ascension

Designers - page layout and stuff like that
- tilt, DevinNight, JoeyD473, Djespek

Project lead - tells managers what to do and when to have it done
- tilt, IndustryGothica, Ascension

Idea men - general all-around thinker types
- tilt and just about everyone

Writers - make stories, scenarios, plot hooks, etc.
- IndustryGothica, Gidde, jtougas, JoeyD473

Editors - make sure that the stories make sense and are logical
- IndustryGothica, Ascension

Proofers - look for typos and grammatical errors
- Ravells, IndustryGothica, Gidde, DevinNight; Korash, Yandor, Ramah, rdanhenry

OK-

If I didn't bollux things up there should be a new forum category "Adventure Building" with a private forum called "Caravan Adventure". To see/post in it you need to be in the group "Caravan Adventure".

I've put all those above into that group, so you should all be able to see/post in the new forum.

Tilt is the group Leader and can approve (along with any of the CL's, I think) any requests to join this group.

Can someone please confirm they can see this new forum properly?

Once confirmed, we can move all "Caravan" email to that forum from here.

-Rob A>

[Ascension]

I see it just fine, but I'm a CL so we need some non-CL input as well.

[industrygothica]

I can both see and post in it.


-IG