I want to do a short side-quest between Zenith Trajectory and the Demonscar legacy. The characters need some more xp before we move on to the next couple of adventures and I would like to ground the campaign in Cauldron a bit more.
I would like to use this tread to toss around a few ideas. Hope you guys are up for it.
I want to feature the following elements, more or less in this order:
• Taxes are being raised by the Lord Mayor. Citizens are scared and overburdened (this is a lead in to the tax riots)
• Etablish Alec Tercival as a paragon of good. Makes his fall in Demonscar a bit more powerfull
• Introduce some of the behind-the-scenes work the cagewrights are doing. constructing cages, capturing shackleborn etc.
• Feature some of the other power-groups: The striders; the chisel etc.
A couple of ideas. I've been reading thriteen cages and strike on shatterhorn again to get a better feel for the cagewrights.
I want to do something connected to the tree of shackled souls. The cagewrights need to gather a large amount of adamantine and mithral for its construction. And they need to smuggle it into the fiery sanctum without the Chisel or the Striders finding out about it.
The easiest way for the Cagewrights to get the materials into (or at least close to) the fiery sanctum would be teleportation. Unfortunately, it’s a huge amount of materials and the cagewrights suspect that someone is monitoring teleportation into and out of Cauldron. They may be wrong, it may not even be possible, but hey, they’re paranoid. So the cagewrights are limited to conventional means of getting all that adamantine and mithral into the fiery Sanctum. Using the lava tubes is also pretty risky. After all, what if someone were to spot a shipment and decide to follow it? (again, paranoid). The cagewright’s best option, it would seem, is to transport the materials through the underwater caverns connected to the central lake. What the cagewrights have been doing is taking their shipments of precious metals from all over the surrounding countryside into cauldron and storing it into a warehouse by the lake shore. Occasionally they use a boat to take their shipments out to the centre of the lake and dump it in. At the bottom of the lake Gau Kleeoch, the cagewright minotaur awaits the crates and carries them up to the fiery sanctum.
This process has been going on for some time now. And had it not been for the Lord Mayor’s tax increase, this would have continued unnoticed. See, the Lord mayor has tremendously increased the gate-tax. The guards also have strict orders to search every shipment that comes into the city. The cagewrights, unwilling to show their valuable merchandise to nosy guards, and perhaps attract suspicion, received a letter of exemption through Vhalantru. And due to the illest of luck, Maavu noticed a cagewright shipment that wasn’t checked at the gates. As a merchant, Maavu is especially hard hit by the gate tax. So anything that lightens the tax burden is of course welcome. When the Lord Mayor and Vhalantru both refused to give any further explanation, Maavu decided to have the shipments themselves investigated. And that’s where the PC’s come in…
A couple of ideas.
The cagewrights need to gather a large amount of adamantine and mithral for its construction. And they need to smuggle it into the fiery sanctum without the Chisel or the Striders finding out about it.
I really like this idea.
The first thing that pops to mind though is how do the cagewrights deal with the fiendish morkoth in the lake? A minor point, but since it will be dropped into the game later the question could come up.
To get both Alek and the Striders involved, how about something that emphasis the striders are not 'good' but neutral. They may do things for the greater good though...
The Striders also noticed these shipments were coming in untaxed and instead of looking for means to get their own taxation from the ruling government have forged documents to match those of the cagewrights after their agent picked the pocket of a caravan leader, forged it and returned it before the poor drunken sod could wake.
Since Cauldron has no way of producing it's own food, the poor have been particularly hard hit by the gate taxes; all food coming into cauldron has an inflated price from the price of the tax being passed onto the customer. The Striders are actually smuggling in food for the poor and desperate but are willing to use illegal means to do so.
Alek then could be investigating this link to bypassing the gates and who is behind it. How will he react? Will his Lawful side of a paladin of St. Cuthbert win out over his good side and helping the starving and poor? Can the PCs perhaps have the opportunity to negotiate an exemption for food goods through the gate tax (political rp is a good thing)?
I would think about some of the other players as well, even if you don't include them, like the Last Laugh. Perhaps have a small scene that shows them finishing off the last of the Alley Bashers in Cauldron. How might they take advantage of the increase in market values? Traditionally black markets would be thriving in this type of environment.
Have the various churches caught up in squabling conclaves with one another to determine what they are willing and able to do for the poor of the city.
Anyway... sounds like a great adventure... I would be very interested in hearing what more you come up with.
You have potential for three good and distinct play locations (city, water as they track through the lake, and a lava tube receiving dock whose connection to the cagewright stronghold is collapsed prior to the PCs reaching it)
Chance for combat in the receiving dock, investigation, political RP (negotiate an alleviation for the poor), throw in a good skill based encounter like a chase across the roof tops at night and you have the makes for a great adventure!
The only missing "critical" piece I can see would be a great villian.
Sean Mahoney
So why not use one of the 13 or at least a toned down version? As it is there are too many villian that the party no nothing about in the Thirteen Cages adventure. Why not move one of them to this adventure and use it as the great villian.
I plan on inserting a few of these thirteen in other Side Trek adventures of my own making as the path progresses.
Delvesdeep