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We'll start with a virtual Session 0. I'd like the PCs to know each other going into the first scene. We have:
Arma, a changeling independent cat burglar from Sharn
Ash, a shifter trying to lose himself in Throneport
Goggh, a minotaur bouncer at a Tarkanan bar
Ilendur, a half-elf local who works security for Phiarlan
Jixel, a ratfolk witch from Estaby who does financial crimes for the Boromar Clan
Pierce, a warforged inquisitive from Sharn
I'm not asking PCs to be best friends or anything, but the first scene will be the group going a meet with a contact and they should at least be familiar with each other and more or less what everyone can do.
I also have some other house rules I'd like to float but let's do this first.
Hi there, Illendur works in "operations" for Phiarlan, which mostly means moving talent around the city, and ensuring the performances go according to plan. He's worked security a number of times, and fights with two weapons. He's probably met Goggh a few times given the nature of both, that's an easy connection :D
Pierce checking in.
Here on a case as an Inquisitive from Sharn. This would be his first trip to the city. Really his first trip outside of Sharn.
Ash checking in! We certainly are a disparate lot! I imagine Ash has been in Throneport for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, depending on how well that meshes with any potential links to others' backstories. He's always ready to defend shifters, so he might have run into Goggh before, or even Jixel, while trying to get one out of trouble? Possibly also Illendur, though that might be more of a reach?
Hey guys! Very happy to be here! Thanks for the invitation, GM.
As my mates said, very easy for Goggh to know a handful of them, considering his line of work. He can probably be even the link for them, if at some point some NPC came to him to "remember if he knows someone with a specific set of skills".
Pierce might be the hardest one for him to have met - but maybe Pierce was sent already from Sharn to "meet that big bouncer" for his mission?
Goggh is a lot more charismatic than you could expect from your regular Minotaur - I know 12 is not a lot, but still hardly the focus of any of his species.
I am moving tomorrow so my availability will be limited that day (if at all). I will be on a bit more on Wednesday and fully back at it on Thursday.
Hello. I'm going to have an alias up for Arma shortly.
And here's her alias.
Hi folks! Looking forward to adventuring with you :-)
Jixel (Ratfolk Witch), I was thinking is a relative newcomer to Throneport. Probably a month there so far? As for existing links to other PCs:
Arma, a changeling independent cat burglar from Sharn
If Arma has done some independent work for Boromar Clan in Throneport, it is possible the two have briefly met as part of an innocent underworld dealing? Could be delivering a note or small item, or working together on a small burglery kinda thing?
Ash, a shifter trying to lose himself in Throneport
Having met coincidentally and then assisted you in defending a changeling in some kind of previous altercation sounds good. Whoever the NPC was, could be part of a criminal element to connect us to Arma too?
Goggh, a minotaur bouncer at a Tarkanan bar
Bars are a good place to learn about local activities, gossip, and maybe even meet a "handler". The bouncer would certainly be a memorable chap!
Ilendur, a half-elf local who works security for Phiarlan
This is a tricky one. A secret house of spies eh? Jixel has some very basic divination skills, so if the ratfolk has been doing some scammy "readings" on the side, then maybe Ilendur noticed... Or Jixel could have been spied upon in general lol.
Pierce, a warforged inquisitive from Sharn
Jixel might have tried to employ you to assist in finding someone she can trust in Undercliff. This could have failed, or be a project in progress?
Arma is a currently a member of one of the largest streetgangs in Sharn. With that being said, however, you might have met her in one of her other forms, since she has a few "lives" she lives (I'm kicking around a few ideas now as to the details).
Well the bar where Goggh bounces seems like a natural meeting place for people, and perhaps there is a connection there. And something which gives the party the opportunity to know each other a little more, or at least some of the party a little more...
maybe a very large barfight, or the authorities raiding the joint, or something?
Thoughts?
It does seem like Goggh can be a good common denominator here. He meets a lot of people in his day to day life. I would be fine with the contact having asked Goggh if he knows some people who might be able to get something done and Goggh being like 'yeah, I might know some people.'
-Ash's idea of stepping in to defend a shifter at the bar and gaining Goggh's attention/respect/friendship/whatever sounds good to me.
-Ilendur could have met him while escorting talent to the bar and probably talked (security) shop.
-Jixel could probably have met people at Goggh's bar. We can say Boromar and Tarkanan have an arrangement in Throneport and are sort of complementary criminal groups rather than direct rivals.
-Pierce probably knows bars where low-lifes gather are good places to pick up information. We'll work on this one.
As for cross-backgrounds, I like the idea of Jixel and Arma having done something together. From my read, Jixel is more of a fraud/scam artist and a planner (maybe sort of a pseudo fixer?) than an in the field kind of thief. Maybe Arma, being new to Throneport, got hooked up with Jixel through underworld contacts. Sort of a 'this person can help you out with planning' kind of thing.
If my read on Jixel is right, she could also have been scamming some artist and Ilendur escorted the artist to make a pay-off.
Pierce and Arma, we may need to change your backgrounds around a little bit to fit the campaign better. Nothing drastic, but please be open to suggestions.
Well the bar where Goggh bounces seems like a natural meeting place for people, and perhaps there is a connection there. And something which gives the party the opportunity to know each other a little more, or at least some of the party a little more...
maybe a very large barfight, or the authorities raiding the joint, or something?
Thoughts?
Hahaha. I like this! Maybe all or some of you spent a night in a jail cell together after being arrested after a bar fight.
Bar fight! Are you guys saying I didn't do my job well?
... Or that I bounced inside instead of outside? :)
Regardless, I like the direction it's going. Very cool flavor.
Suggest away! :-)
Still moving so I won't have time to add much meaningful thought to this till Thursday evening.
As for cross-backgrounds, I like the idea of Jixel and Arma having done something together. From my read, Jixel is more of a fraud/scam artist and a planner (maybe sort of a pseudo fixer?) than an in the field kind of thief. Maybe Arma, being new to Throneport, got hooked up with Jixel through underworld contacts. Sort of a 'this person can help you out with planning' kind of thing.
That works. She'd want help establishing an identity in the city, too.
I think this is coming along pretty well. Looks like Goggh is going to be the fulcrum that gets the group plugged into the wonderful world of private security contracting, with some people knowing each other from side projects or chance connections.
I kind of like the idea of doing a brief 'so you've all been thrown in jail' scene as an intro, then going into the first game scene a few days or weeks later.
Arma, at the end of your scene you had a boss type person call you into a meeting because of your skills- did you have any ideas on where that was going?
Pierce, I still like the idea of you coming to Throneport to do groundwork for your boss's missing child investigation, but we need to figure out how to get you involved with these criminals and scumbags. No offence to the rest of you. ;)
Tavern altercation. Jail time. Love it :-D
I think the assumption that Jixel is more of a schemer than a doer is pretty spot on too. If the rat was given a few projects that were hands-on, she might have even subcontracted them to Arma in exchange for helping the changling find some contacts and independent work etc.
The idea of an unknown identity paying our bail to get us out could be fun too lol.
Not really. I just was going with the whole "heist" thing. Let me know if I need to remove it.
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I do like he idea of us meeting in jail; it worked really well in the usual suspects.
It looks like we're golden then. Guardians of the Galaxy style ;)
Hey, there are only so many ways to get a group together to cause mischief. And if we're up for a 'heist' then it makes sense to me :D
I think this is coming along pretty well. Looks like Goggh is going to be the fulcrum that gets the group plugged into the wonderful world of private security contracting, with some people knowing each other from side projects or chance connections.
I kind of like the idea of doing a brief 'so you've all been thrown in jail' scene as an intro, then going into the first game scene a few days or weeks later.
Arma, at the end of your scene you had a boss type person call you into a meeting because of your skills- did you have any ideas on where that was going?
Pierce, I still like the idea of you coming to Throneport to do groundwork for your boss's missing child investigation, but we need to figure out how to get you involved with these criminals and scumbags. No offence to the rest of you. ;)
Easy enough through the "all thrown in jail" scene. Pierce was present gathering information, wrong place wrong time and he got scooped up as well and arrested. Maybe he was released first as a "non-participant". Over the course of the next few days, Pierce would contact each of the PC's to see if/how they could aid his investigation, after all he does not know anyone else BUT them. Plus it's criminals that kidnap children, not law abiding citizens. :-)
If Pierce's missing kid is part of a ring of missing children, it's even conceivable that Ash was already looking into missing shifter kids, and shares that info. That pooled knowledge could be a reason to stick together.
Oh, Pierce's missing kid is part of a ring of missing children. Muahahaha.
So for the out of towners, Act II of the adventure kind of assumes the PCs have plans to stay in town long term. That's cool for everybody but Arma and Pierce. I have an idea for Arma, but Pierce has an actual job back in Sharn so we're going to need to come up with something for him.
At this point I feel like we're all comfortable enough to start this 'thrown in jail' scene. I can put up an IC post later this afternoon if you guys are all ready, too.
As I see it, Jixel-Arma have worked together in some capacity before; maybe you were even meeting at the bar to discuss work. You guys have all probably talked with Goggh to some degree, too, beyond him checking your ID at the door. So there's some established relationships but for most of the PCs this is their first in-depth introduction to each other.
We good to go?
Sounds good! :D
I'm good to go.
The events of Act I can keep Pierce in town for additional investigative purposes. After all, an Inquisitive has to follow the leads and cannot be beholden to a boss or a job!
I'm good with that. Jixel can be my local contact, and I might have been sent here for a longer term job, like maybe "how rife is the city's underworld for a takeover?"
Works for me :) excited to get it going!
@Goggh, just wanted to make sure you saw that we're posting in the gameplay thread now.
Hey team - let's update it, huh? Didn't hear anything from anyone since Wednesday. Let's keep it going strong :)
I'm mostly waiting on the GM's reaction (from other cells etc.) before posting.
Really enjoying this! Just wanted to say :-)
Jixel will await Mister Mino's reaction, before skittering over to the scene of what looks like a tavern brawl precursor hehe.
Sorry, guys, I've been slammed at work this week. I'm going to post right now.
Hey Illendur, I don't mean to ignore you, but I'm newish to Eberron, and I got Daask mixed up with House Tharashk and mercenaries in my mind. X( Not sure if we're supposed to know anything about Daask yet, so I'm going to hold off on answering.
No worries, the question can be hypothetical too!
Guess I can't wait forever for the minotaur. If he's left the tavern then I'll post for Jixel heading over to the others.
Sorry, everyone, I've been slammed at work. I should be back to regular posting now.
DM, how well-known is information about Daask?
For underworld types, it would be general information. Goggh and Arma definitely know about Daask. Pierce might, with a Kn:Local check. Ash might, maybe? Ilendur almost certainly doesn't know about Daask.
Ash doesn't have K:local for some reason, but maybe his general asking around about troublemakers (im assuming he was taught how to do that discreetly, so as not to warn his prey off) for the shifters led to him hearing about them? Maybe that's why he was impressed, he's just heard rumors.
LOL. Maybe he's been fed a lot of fake stories. "Daask? Yeah, they eat babies at their initiation and their leader has three heads."
Will post in the morning, hectic weekend.
I'm trying to imagine the mugger desperate enough to try Goggh. XD
Six armed people: walk by.
Moron Mugger: Hold my beer!
I found this really great interactive map of Waterdeep, our ersatz Throneport, complete with place names and street names and a distance/time calculator. It won't have our Eberron changes, and the calculator doesn't take into consideration traffic, but it's a really great resource for keeping track of where we are in the city. I'm even gonna pin it to the top of the threads.
Love the map!
Will update tomorrow, RL been extremely busy lately.
Hi Folks, apologies for the long absence between work, side business and still getting organized at the new place I got way behind.
I also believe I am a bit burnt out on RPing. Been doing it a long time and I think my muse needs a break. Going to withdraw from most games here on the boards. My apologies especially on this one, the flesh is willing but the will is non-existent these days.
Sorry to see you go, Pierce! I hope you find yourself renewed with will to game after a rest. Burnout sucks.
No problem. I totally understand, Shadow. See you around.
Take a good break and come back when you're refreshed!