Help Campaign Building - GC, VR Bleak House and more!

Discussing all things Ravenloft
User avatar
Nox
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 261
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:28 am

Re: Help Campaign Building - GC, VR Bleak House and more!

Post by Nox »

DustBunny wrote:
Nox wrote:Just 2 problems: My PC actually are in Invidia, One of them is born in it, and all the other went there for different reasons. I need an excuses to bring them to Azzy. I could (and I will) move the campaign to other domains, but i think that my PC will always try to come back to Invidia, since all they have is there.
Invidia...hmm.

Okay, instead of Azalin running the show, there is a degree of separation. One of his spies in Invidia decides to use local assets to achieve his lords goals in addition to expanding his network.

Their new 'patron' does the whole venerable sage act and so forth, paying them handsomely to go and retrieve the Hexad scroll in NotWD. They return to Invidia and then the 'sage' sends them off to retrieve the missing verse and once they have done that he sends them off to his fellow sage (aka boss) in Darkon. From here it would be easy to tie it into in 'the concerned king line' learning of the dire prophecy and wanting to discuss their findings. From there continue as before.

You can also use the 'spy patron' as an introduction to other patrons, (ala Van Richten). The spy gives them a letter of introduction from the wise sage Dr NotaVampire to Dr Van Richten.

As for the special character he could be tricky - a party of holy types and a vamp. I wouldn't do it personally but it's his PC so.... hrm..

If he has some minor amnesia, he could remember that Azalin is important for some reason but not why. Also with the line 'dooming all to live with a dreaded curse' line of the Hexad, and 'the devil Strahd' you could apply a strong push for the cause of his condition. The 'patron' can also drop hints how the scroll may reveal the secrets of a cure.

You not lying you're just letting them jump to conclusions from incomplete data. :mrgreen:

So when Azalin goes on about 'the evil vampire lord threatening his realm' and mixes it in with a bit of the lycanthropy 'kill the head of the bloodline' lore, the PCs should jump at the chance for a 'cure' by working with the nice king to stop the evil Strahd. Also if the PC does start remembering too much, Az can control all undead in Darkon, so he can easily deflect any concerns by a little memory erasure.
The player with the special character turned out to be a dungeon crawler, not my kind of player. After the first session he left us since we spent almost all the time roleplaying ( :diamabel: ). So problem solved!

I had an illumination (Ok, maybe i'm exaggerating)!
Actually i'm playing only with one of my players, the paladin. Later on, next week probably, we will start playing all toghether. The paladin needs a good reason for venturing, since he is almost an Ex-paladin, he became alcoholic, he's depressed, and he actually lost most of his interest in helping people and in the church in general (after the facts of our last campaign, in which 90% of the party died in Tomb of Horrors, along with many NPCs). The paladin feel guilty for this, since he thinks it's his fault if they went there.

I was reading about Keith De Lalune. Kargat is involved in this mess. I just had my paladin close to Keith when the assassin tried to kill him, so I'll link them to the Kargat, and then to Azalin.

I have some problem with this:

The assassins tried to kill Keith De Lalune. My paladin will not be happy to work with them. I need to find a reason to justify the fact.

Since the Kargat has some business here (As stated in the Netbook-canon in which Keith is firstly presented) i have a "Netbook-canon" reason for a Kargat spy to be in invidia.

Would you be so kind to help me find out a solution for this?

What happened so far:
VIEW CONTENT:
Keith went on Ravenloft, My paladin saw him while people of Karina was going to lynch him, and saw Father Daltrey "save him". After that My paladin Helped him learning the language of the land (since his mother is from Faerun he knows both faerunian and Balok).
They keep in touch with him for several years, till today. Father Daltrey Died (Apparently natural death, but the thrut is he has been poisoned by Twistle, a friend of Keith). Twistle engaged assassin guild (kargat) to kill Keith since he see Keith as a menace to him. Keith menage to fight back the Kargat Killer, who stumble and fell, killing himself with a dagger. My paladin was sleeping in the same building and hear that sound, and came to see what happened. after Keith explained what happened they both find a letter from Twistle that engage the killers. They go to twistle room and there Keith start a debate with twistle about his evil behaviour. - We stopped here for now.

I need a way in wich my Paladin ends up working for Kargat.

From now on I can modify anything, but i'd like to keep the story as close to the Netbook Canon as possible.
The story proceeds like this: Keith will say to twistle that all the church member will know what he did the next morning during the common breakfast. When they come back to the room the body of the killer is gone.
The next morning they find Twistle dead (seemingly suicide by poison), with a lecter who says he cannot hold the hard commitment the church was going to ask him.

Keith Keep the secret of that night.

He then go away from the church for some days to confront his killers alone. He sets up traps and magic gliph around the little house where he awaits.

Finally a killer comes, and get trapped and paralyzed by a glyph. Keith bring her inside and tie her to a chair to interrogate. Keith is bad at interrogating and the woman is cold and efficient, Keith feels like he's the one tied to the chair. The dialogue end up with the woman telling him "I hope we will not have to kill all those novice to have you..." At this point Keith find himself cornered, since he knows that more assassins will come. He asks what can he do to avoid this, and the woman say: "Work for us". Keith accepts and from then on he works for Kargatane, giving them information, and being more and more corrupted over time.
Keep in mind that my paladin could always do the opposite of Keith (Tell the truth, for example), and i need a way out in any of these case.

What could i do if he decides to tell the truth to someone about Twistle intent? Should i Allow him to go with Keith to wait more killers? Should i let him know that Keith will work for Kargat from now on? If I do, he will know that they are evil, and I dont really want him to find it out yet (I'd like to follow your first idea and make the party work for the Kargat, and then directly for Azalin, at least at the beginning). More in general, how would you arrange this?
User avatar
Joël of the FoS
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 6644
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:24 pm
Gender: Male
Location: St-Damien, Québec

Re: Help Campaign Building - GC, VR Bleak House and more!

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Ah, Keith Delalune, I love this NPC. He is an important part of my Karina fauna IMC.

If you want to stay close to netbook-canon, you could make it work that way. Make Keith a layer between the kargatane and the paladin.

- Seeing Twistle is dead, and Keith is now headmaster, Keith makes the paladin promise he won't say anything about last night's events. "That is a great task awaiting me at the church, I would not like to see it tainted with a murder investigation. Can we keep this a secret for a while, while we can see clearer what is going on? And brother Twistle is dead, what would it change if his infamy would be publicly known? Nothing, my friend, but a bad image for the church... Really, let's make this a secret for now, it's for the best interest our beloved Ezra church ..."

- Keith becomes headmaster of the church and has 100 % of the rest of the church behind him.

- After a day or two, Keith announces a week long retreat, to gather his ideas, pray and prepare for his new life (his trap plan for the next assassin). If the paladin wants to come, Keith say he wants to be alone in this retreat.

(if needed: insert red herring or little side quest to distract the paladin and keep in Karina, ex. a new murder by the Midnight Slasher?)

- what happens in the wood camp happens (Jorane Amos*)

* by the way, she is portrayed in short in PEOPLES TO MEET IN THE LAND OF MISTS article in same netbook, in case you missed it.

- Keith is back in Karina, and is now a kargatane informant.

- Keith "learns" of quests / things to do for the paladin (officially "through the confessions and usual church informant" or "this is coming from high level in Levkarest, I can't tell you all the details", but really, it's the kargatane who feeds him with missions). So the paladin works for the kargatane indirectly, through missions given to him by Keith.

To be credible as coming from Keith, the only thing is to make sure these missions appear to have a goal for the church, i.e. there is a good church reason behind these missions.

Eventually, the paladin learns the ugly truth and all hell break loose :twisted:

Joël
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
User avatar
Nox
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 261
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:28 am

Re: Help Campaign Building - GC, VR Bleak House and more!

Post by Nox »

Joël of the FoS wrote:Ah, Keith Delalune, I love this NPC. He is an important part of my Karina fauna IMC.

If you want to stay close to netbook-canon, you could make it work that way. Make Keith a layer between the kargatane and the paladin.

- Seeing Twistle is dead, and Keith is now headmaster, Keith makes the paladin promise he won't say anything about last night's events. "That is a great task awaiting me at the church, I would not like to see it tainted with a murder investigation. Can we keep this a secret for a while, while we can see clearer what is going on? And brother Twistle is dead, what would it change if his infamy would be publicly known? Nothing, my friend, but a bad image for the church... Really, let's make this a secret for now, it's for the best interest our beloved Ezra church ..."

- Keith becomes headmaster of the church and has 100 % of the rest of the church behind him.

- After a day or two, Keith announces a week long retreat, to gather his ideas, pray and prepare for his new life (his trap plan for the next assassin). If the paladin wants to come, Keith say he wants to be alone in this retreat.

(if needed: insert red herring or little side quest to distract the paladin and keep in Karina, ex. a new murder by the Midnight Slasher?)

- what happens in the wood camp happens (Jorane Amos*)

* by the way, she is portrayed in short in PEOPLES TO MEET IN THE LAND OF MISTS article in same netbook, in case you missed it.

- Keith is back in Karina, and is now a kargatane informant.

- Keith "learns" of quests / things to do for the paladin (officially "through the confessions and usual church informant" or "this is coming from high level in Levkarest, I can't tell you all the details", but really, it's the kargatane who feeds him with missions). So the paladin works for the kargatane indirectly, through missions given to him by Keith.

To be credible as coming from Keith, the only thing is to make sure these missions appear to have a goal for the church, i.e. there is a good church reason behind these missions.

Eventually, the paladin learns the ugly truth and all hell break loose :twisted:

Joël

It's a good idea.. I was looking for a way to hook that with the GC and the rest of the adventure. I dont know how to do it... fact is I'd like that they will meet azalin and he should be the one who give them missions... Keith is important but i cant figure out a way to link them...

I mean, i can tell them "go there and speak with azalin" but then why should they follow his requests?

I'd like to have Keith as Kargat agent who uses them to accomplish some mission for his king, but then i'd like that they meet the king and follow his requests, untill they figure out what's going on and what are Az's real motivations...
Post Reply