I rolled up some 'tags' - Foul Sorcery and Holy Site - and a plot - "An Antagonist seeks to steal something precious to a target."
The plot workflow had a few bits:
Draw or choose either the Antagonist or the Target, whichever your hero is most likely to care about.
Draw an unknown actor to be foundy after a successful Investigation scene spent discovering their identity.
Be waylaid by a hostile Actor with a Clue.
The object being stolen is the Target’s most precious possession or something important to the Antagonist that the Target possesses.
Scenes revolve around finding the thieves, guarding the object, and snatching it back if it is stolen.
- Infiltrate a Location where the activities relate to a Clue
- Trick an Actor into revealing a Clue.
- Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them
I rolled up a skilled sorcerer and a paid guardsman as actors and some locations - a Public well and a Fighting pit. Combining those with the tags and thinking through how it ties to dangling threads from previous adventures I rewrote all this as:
- Skilled Sorcerer [quest-giver] turns up looking for help
- Antagonist is seeking quest-gives most precious posession - a Tome of forbidden lore
- Figures they are in the city, this is where their networks are, degraded as they maybe
- seen by public well - start there
- get waylaid by bribed guards [catspaws of Maganza], tickets to local fighting pit in their pockets
- Infiltrate a Location where the activities relate to a Clue (fighting pit, predator)
- investigate there, ancient shrine to predator queen - terror bird
- spot servants of antagonist - need an approach angle
- Trick an Actor into revealing a Clue.
- Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them
- Plan revealed need to extract and get word back
I then localised it by combing back through old sessions to refresh my memory on locations and players at large to conserve my NPCs, and came up with:
Quest-giver - the Marchioness - an illusionist they had helped before, who's apprentice is on 'work experience' with the party as a henchman
Antagonist - Maganza, fallen noble, ruined as a result of a previous open table heist.
Hand-behind-the-Antagonist - an imp, freed by the party previously, offering Maganza assistance to restore his house if he grabs the Marchioness Tome
The Butterati - a gang of ne'er do wells who's lair the players burnt in a long-ago escapade and who were stranded on an island by their more recent actions
The crew of the Smiling Shark - a crew of buccaneers whose ship was destroyed to strand the Butterati
Session Report: Iron Quill Temple
Our heroes Astrid - a human rogue, Prismo - an owling monk, Philbert Brombeery - an orc paladin, Lortash Brombeery - Philberts half-orc rogue brother, Kierkorak - a seagull araacockra - are approached by Alfonse the apprentice illusionist with a tip that their master the Marchioness is looking for adventurers to help them. Visiting them at their very overt wizards residence they hear how someone broke into a decoy vault looking for a dreadful book that they hold secure and that the Marcioness needs them to find out who seeks it and stop them as best they can. With satisfactory pay terms agreed, they set out with Rufus the butler to tour the vault site and be shown what tracks the Marchioness was able to scry out.
[DM Commentary - slight delay in a two-part quest-giving - first getting Alfones to approach them where they live then the briefing from the Marchioness. I realised it in relatively good time and compressed the detail for getting to the Marchioness.]
The 'vault' turns out to be a non-descript town-house, and after some prying and investigating they find no more info than valuables and decoys were ignored by whomever broke into the illusion-hidden vault. Querying the local grandma-on-her-balcony they find that a hogling visited a few nights ago and the week before then passed by with some others - a notably ugly man, a marionette and a worn-looking noble. Following the winding trail to a public well Prismo plunges in as soon as they arrive, drawing a crowd as they 'search for a lost ring' - the guard arrives being unusually alert but a remarkably quick and stealthy decision to vacate the premises has them avoid notice.
[DM Commentary - good investigative poking around - creative decision to canvas witnesses got them good info - was not prepped but since this was conversation of NPCs it was easy to answer. For investigation sections I find getting the details right for unexpected approaches players take to always be challenging so having a good idea of your antagonists helps as you can figure out what they would have been doing consistently.]
They decide to seek information at the Red Serpent, notorioius for its rebels without cause, where pumping the barman for information and a brawl sparked by Prismo and Kierkorak lead to clues that identify the men seen outside the false vault - the Butterati - and to a new fighting pit in town. Venturing to the Iron Quill our heroes spot the Butterati and Astrid decides to flatter Ghino, leader of the Butterati and while the rest trail along gets shown down to the 'entertainments' below.
Venturing down a long spiraling staircase they find below a huge space, the Iron Quill bar just being the top turret of a great buried dome. Philbert and Lortash shadow Astrid and the Butterati down the nightingale staircase while birdfolk Prismo and Kierkorak glide out into the darkness and collide with a great black iron statue at the end of the space.
[DM Commentary - I expected some shadowing of the antagonists or discrete questioning, not the brazen 'let me join you' approach - it worked though. The two birdfolk soaring off the ramp was a gift, letting me introduce one of the big lurking mcguffins in the room below.]
Between poking around and querying the Butterati they find that fights are being held with a ghoul-nun from the Spinsterite Abbey and that the noble, Signore Maganza, has taken over the rooms at one end and is directing their efforts. A great altar to one side of the fighting circle is the last focus of the few dozen people gathered for the fights.
Prismo and Kierkorak commune with the Queen of the Terrorbirds as they perch upon her ancient statue while Philbert, Lortash and Astrid scout the rooms. Dreadful snarls and scraping noises come from one side so Philbert and Lortash sneak into the other. Within they find Signore Maganza and interogate him as to his plans. He readily admits that he seeks the Marchioness book to trade to an imp for the restoration of his houses fortunes - and Philbert and Lortash slay him where he stands. Deciding from the flash that the moment is nigh, Prismo and Kierkorak impersonate the dreadful statue and panick the crowd into fleeing back up the dark, railing-less staircase. The Queen gleefully approves as some plummet to their doom.
Philbert and Lortash seize documents and valuables before joining the flight. Astrid detours to investigate the whispering altar, making some quick offerings of blood and treasure to have questions answered. With their colleagues climbing out, Prismo and Kierkorak glide down, have last moments with the altar and the spirit in the idol respectively before following.
[DM Commentary - good sneaking and distracting work done to achieve the main aim... and then a surprising amount of people individually hanging back to interact with the dreadful artefacts of the temple - the clearly malevolent (just not to them) idol and the speaking altar that provides answers for sacrifices.]
The Iron Quill bar having been cleared by the panic, Lortash grabs some bottles while Philbert sets the place alight to bury the dark site below before they venture back to tell the Marchioness of their success. With Maganza gone, noone seeks the book any longer.
Session report ends
This one ran very well - two priceless moments for me as a GM - first that two of the PCs were birdfolk - a seagull aracockra and an owlin - both of whom were *very* taken by the spirit of the Queen of the Terror Birds in her black iron idol. The second was that the person who ended up holding the 'mastermind' at swordpoint while they explained how they were just seeking the book to trade to an imp to have their fortune restored was the Paladin with an Oath of the Watchers - against interference of infernal beings. There was no worse possible person to make this confession to and it rapidly went badly wrong for the mastermind.
I made no bones about the fact that this was a dark cults temple - stealing straight from the Black Iron Gods of Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan - a cackling idol that loves things dying on the temple floor, an altar that asks for blood and heads to answer questions - and people were 'perhaps they could be friends?' The paladin almost certainly acted wisely in burning the place to the grounds given how susceptible the rest of the party was.
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