Re: intrig[OT]
Jag börjar helt sonika med att posta kampanjen här. Det är på engelska för att jag först skrev ner den till en amerikansk kille som ville ha några idéer.
Something’s Rotten in Waterdeep
Style: Political intrigue
Story summary: A member of one of the Noble houses of the city suspects another noble houses of dealing in illegal goods and recruits the PC’s to help him in his investigation. (Alternative intro: One of the PC’s is a member of the crooked Noble house and notices his father’s dealings). The fact of the matter is that the noble house’s involvement is just a very small part of a much bigger threat.
10 years back Orcus, the demon lord of undead was hindered in sending his right hand man through a portal to this world because of other PC’s doings and ever since then he has plotted revenge on the world and those that would stop him. He appeared in a vision to the necromancer Karlaz and instructed him to do his biddings. In short he was asked to summon a great army of undead by means of an artifact known as the Bones of the North. A lot was needed to realize the plans and slowly Karlaz begun to build a net of contacts. At the time that the PCs enters the story this net has become a web that has grown out of the necromancer’s control.
The campaign takes the PCs from 1st level as investigators to near 20th level as they go head to head with the demon lord himself. This campaign was played for 10 months straight with 3 sessions a week, every week. I expanded the experience table to include higher compensation for detective work, doubled experience for monsters, no experience for treasures found, experience gained for successful use of proficiencies and experience for attendance.
Setting: If you’re familiar with the Forgotten Realms you’ll recognize Waterdeep. I’ll assume that you’re not. The main action takes place in the city of Waterdeep, a large city of several hundred thousand citizens but there are wilderness treks, some dungeon crawling and some dimension hopping involved. You’ll need one fairly developed large city with noble hoses or families, one large wilderness area (mine used the North, a cold wilderness that becomes decreasingly populated the farther away you travel from Waterdeep), and two alternate worlds (I created one and used one of my old campaign worlds. Any TSR or other fantasy setting will do except Dark Sun). Detailed areas include the city sewers (Undermountain if you have it), Karlaz headquarters and Orcus’ castle.
Characters: Orcus is detailed in The Monster Manual I or II and some for me unknown 2nd edition source (Maybe Guide to Hell). If you don’t have that just make him up. Just make sure that he’s a real challenge for the characters when they do meet him.
The Mindflayer Ajanz. Unbeknownst to all in this great criminal conspiracy this is the real leader, appointed by Orcus.
”The Spider” is an old thieves’ guildmaster and is the person who is in contact with most of the others involved.
Karlaz, the necromancer is the head of Orcus main force. He knows nothing of Ajanz but knows of ”The Spider”. Under him are his three apprentices. They run day to day maintenance of Karlaz’s headquarters and are the once responsible to keep Karlaz’s orc and bugbear forces happy. These forces are also kept in check because the orcs shaman wants to learn the necromantic secrets Karlaz has. They serve as errand boys and guards for the necromancer.
Anteos family is sort of the centre, or at least that’s what it will seem to the PCs in the beginning. From their mansion in Waterdeep is run a slaving business which is hugely profitable. They were offered part of a drug running operation but limitations forced them to contact the Stormweather family for this part. The Stormweathers get help from Karlaz’s undead but doesn’t have direct contact with him (Anteos handles this).
The Undermountain Orcs (or the city sewer orcs) protect Anteos’ cellar for food. The cellar is used to store various illegal items.
Tesper family is also part of Anteos scheme. They have contact with the few thieves’ and assassin’s guilds that operate in the city. The thieves procure items needed and the assassins off anyone that isn’t doing his part or stands in Anteos way. Tesper got involved because they owed Anteos a lot of money (which was lost in business dealings and ventures) and perform this service against their will.
”The Shadowrunner” is an old guild leader who was forced to leave the city when the city watch destroyed the guild. For many years he has bided his time in the far south, rebuilding a new guild. He was contacted by ”The Spider” to assassinate some high level opponents. More and more of his organization has transferred to Waterdeep and they make their home in the sewers/Undermountain. The organizations main goal is to retrieve its treasures that they were forced to leave when the watch barged in. This treasure is hid in their old headquarters which the city watch now uses as a prison.
Pasha Alima is the southern crime lord that runs the main drug trade from his plantations in the south.
The Aboleths. The Bones of the North is in fact an old Aboleth device constructed to help Aboleths fight above water and the activation of this device has brought their attention.
The Harpers. An organization of rangers and druids who fight evil wherever it rises.
Plot: These are the objectives that the PC’s will accomplish.
-Discover the web of criminal activities led by the Mind Flayer Ajanz
-Put an end to the slave trade run by the Anteos family
-Put an end to the drug trade run by the Stormweathers and Pasha Alima.
-Help the Tespers break free from Anteos grip and put an and to the thieves and assassins of the city.
-Put a stop to Karlaz undead army and the necromancers.
-Put a stop to the Aboleth threat.
-Uncover the returning Shadowrunner and his thieves.
Subplots: These are some sidetreks that can be used as you wish. Subplots may also develop as the campaign evolves. None of my subplots were established from the beginning.
-Romance. If you like to add some pressure on the PCs have them be romantically involved with a lady of a noble house that’s involved in the conspiracy and play up the economic disaster that the house will face when the PCs destroy part of their income, not to mention kill off some family members.
-Rivalling adventurer groups. To add to the fun you can introduce one or more adventuring bands that compete with the PCs for the fame and fortunes.
-Any extra adventure needed. Players being what they are may want some hard hitting action among their socializing and detective work and for this I used Undermountain. It’s generally a deep dungeon with plenty of traps, monsters, abandoned dwarven temples and such. I used the first three levels of it but there are more to get. These extra adventures, if you have full control, should come if the players need to raise their levels for their trials ahead.
Story Structure: Apart from the introduction I allowed my players great freedom. It is very important in an adventure as large as this to be flexible.
-Introduction. See story summary above. It’s important to have this set the tone of the campaign with lots of detective work and interaction with the NPC’s. If you’re starting a game from scratch tell your players that it will be largely citybased so they should go for social proficiencies but they should not neglect the wilderness. I allowed my players any choice for race and class including kits but be sure to read through what they want to play to see if it fits your vision of the adventure. If they do make new PCs make one of them or several of them be noble. This will have them adventure not for money but for fun, to prove themselves, or to gain independence from their family. My final group consisted of a human ninja, a human mage, a svirfneblin fighter, a lizardman fighter/mage, a human priestess and a fighter of a race that will be mentioned later. My suggestion for a well balanced group would be two priests, a fighter, a thief, a bard and a mage. Races should preferably be any non-monstrous, reasonably large type (that is, no giants and such). It’s really best with any of the standard races.
In the introduction the players will notice that the Tesper family is dealing with criminals (a small thieves guild) and will stop this in whatever way they choose, either by force or by detective work and leave the fighting to the city watch. Either way they should learn that another noble house is behind it all (Anteos).
-Part 2: Now the players will have to find out what Anteos business is. Before they will get a chance to investigate they are asked by one of the PC’s noble houses (or the man who hired them, as in the story summary above) to find a caravan that was lost in the wilderness between two villages/towns/cities/trading posts. Have one of the caravan members be someone important to the PCs so they will readily accept this. They will travel to where it was lost and find the remains away from the main route. None of the caravan members are found and whatever the caravan was transporting is either eaten or trashed. It looks like it was attacked by trolls so noone would have survived. The PCs return and report. (In reality the caravan members are now slaves to Karlaz.)
When the PC’s return they will be told that Anteos will hold a banquet soon (as in a day or so). That is nothing unusual, noble houses have them all the time and it’s part of their socializing. Good food and entertainment…and an excellent opportunity for the PCs to sneak around the Anteos estate. Here they should somehow discover that Anteos is making a lot of money on whatever they’re shipping out from a harbor on the coast some distance away from the city. How they discover it depends, they can overhear a conversation, find ledgers detailing incomes and so on. This first noble house party should be an opportunity for you to introduce some of the others involved in the story. Which ones and in what way is up to you. If you feel the need for fighting have them find the secret entrance to the sewers/Undermountain and bash some orcs and find some of what is stashed there.
One major NPC that should be introduced now is a member of a noble house of your naming choice. (Mine was named Helve which is what he’ll be referred as to in the text.) This NPC could be the one that first hired the PCs to help him in the investigation or he could be new for now. He should mention that he is interested in helping/getting help from the PCs. This NPC is to be used mainly as a driving force if the players miss a clue or need direction.
-Part 3: This is the main body of the adventure and as such it should be structured as you feel you like to play. I usually let my players roam around and go about their normal lives among the adventuring and investigation but it can be played in a more focused way as sessions. A lot of things will happen here and the order you spring it on the players is up to you.
Helve’s reason for getting involved is because his younger sister (namedMiriam in my campaign) has disappeared. Helve has taken it on himself to find her even though the head of his noble house has enlisted others to find her (another adventuring band/the city watch) and in his investigation he has found out some interesting things. She was kidnapped because she was an easy victim by thieves and sold to Karlaz. Helve managed to trace the thieves to Tesper and has found out that they were forced to do this by orders of Antos otherwise they would be bankrupt. Antos now has the Shadowrunner and his thieves to perform the same functions Tesper once did. From observing Anteos various family members he has found out that they run a slave trade from a sheltered bay north of the city. He has been there and knows of Karlaz by name and that he is looking for something called the Bones of the North by following the Ancients Way.
Pasha Alima moves to town. He is favorably welcomed to the city as he brings a printing press to the city as a gift to it’s library. He moves into a mansion. He brings a retinue of 40 men, most of which are Shadowrunner’s thieves.
The PCs will be attacked by the Shadowrunner’s thieves and be alerted to their comeback. To show the PCs what level of threat these thieves present you can have them off the PCs’ friends, family, or if you have introduced other adventuring bands have one of those be killed except the survivor who can tell what happened to the PCs.
If you wish to run with the Aboleth invasion then this is the time you should let them find a portal that takes them to one world that the Aboleth have conquered and see what will happen. They will notice that the waters of the big seas has turned black and poisonous, large tracts of land has been scourged. Around the beaches at an even distance from each others are what look like three long bones tied together with string. This is exactly what the Bones of the North look like and it is alarm beacons that Aboleths use to protect their territory. The artifact bones have been enchanted above this of course but still retain their warning function and that’s why the Aboleths will notice when Karlaz uses them and so start on a new conquest. (Depending on when you let them pass into this conquered world they might know or not what the Bones look like. If they do know this can lead to some fun red herrings.) Whatever device you let them travel to the Aboleth conquered world they should be able to travel to it once per week at most. The first time they travel there they should be able to explore and meet the conquered peoples (I had two main races, the greys and the greens. The greys were long, thin, agile and the greens huge, supermuscular and mute.) The second time the Aboleth will have their pearl fortress rise to the surface and go to attack against the last of the peoples. The third time the Aboleths will have won and a fierce winter storm plagues the land. This visit is to show how dangerous the Aboleth are.
After that visit I let them visit another world and this time they could warn the authorities of the threat the pearl fortress is. So the word was sent to all heroes and together with this world’s heroes the PCs could defeat this invasion. This time they learned some of the Aboleth weakness and so will be prepared when they invade your world. (This second world was my own homemade world but any will do as long as it has water enough for the Aboleth to survive.)
During this time you should stage enough noble house parties that the PCs can collect enough information to later justify their bashing of them/indite them for their crimes.
Sometime the players should check up on the harbor Antos use and either destroy it or at least scout it out for later.
The Aboleths attack, starting with your chosen city. The PCs have fun kicking them back into the sea and become heroes of the city.
-Part 4. The Harpers contact the PCs and reports that they have seen Miriam in the far North, in what the Harpers suspect is a necromancers lair. They want the additional help of the PCs before they assault the place. This attack should be a nice tactical ”military style” outing with scout reports, maps, miniatures if you have some, and discussions about the best way to attack it. My necromancers lair was a long natural cave with several entrances and exits so that the villains and PCs could flee if they needed to. The cavesystem was up in the mountains and went through, from one side to the other with the necromancers hideout near the far side. There where also enough place to house the orcs and bugbears that guard Karlaz. This should be the time where the players get their hands on the Bones of the North. If the necromancer dies, fine. If he escapes have him return in either Ajanz’s fortress or Orcus’ palace. In the necromancer’s lairs are found the members of the lost caravan from earlier, and Miriam.
-Part 5. Now it’s time to tie up all the loose ends from earlier parts. Which way is up to the players. Either discriminating evidence that leads to the convictions of the involved or a big battle if that’s more of their style or both. During the investigation evidence that points to Ajanz whereabouts must be found.
-Part 6. Ajanz is discovered and the players must enter his fortress. Make this a unique place that reflects the alien illithids culture. (Suggestions include a flying fortress, an underwater fortress, a spelljammer, a demiplane.) What they find here is among other things a gate to Orcus palace.
-Finale. The heroes travel to Orcus fortress where Orcus assault the PCs with their now undead former allies. Anyone that the PCs got close to during the adventure is fair game. Try to make this exploration/sneaking in the beginning then add some creatures (minor demons perhaps) that can hunt the PCs. Make the palace huge, this is the grand home of a being that has lived since the beginning of time. Use PlaneScape for flavoring but be sure that this does not suffocate your chosen worlds style. The artifact should be destroyed at this time (throwing it into the hellfires and such.)This will end with a hard battle in the main audience chamber. When Orcus is killed the campaign adventure will be over. The PCs will receive no reward for this last part other than what they loot from his castle.
Endgame: I hope this gives you enough information to work with and develop and use as you wish.
Som du ser har jag möjligjort för intriger genom att ha flera parter med enga mål, alla med olika relationer. Vissa känner till vissa av de andra i det kriminella nätverket men inte alla. Men skulle jag göra om äventyret för att få in rollpersonerna i mer intriger själva istället för som nu när de är en utomstående part skulle jag låta rp komma från olika adelsfamiljer själva, några som jobbade mot ondingarna men med egna delmål som inte alltid går ihop så att det blir intriger mellan rollpersonerna också. Personliga mål är ju bättre motivation än för allas goda.
Daniel "Warduke" Schenström
