Last Laugh Involvement

[Rich]

I'm unsure as to a few details about the Last Laugh's involvement in chapter 1, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas.
Specifically:

1. Why does Jil warn Ruphus (and the players) to stay away from the Orphanage? I guess she knows Terrem has been kidnapped, and that if Twindaggers and Patch were working for her, it may be her responsibility to get him back, but why warn people off going to the Orphanage? This just seems to draw attention to Terrem and imply that the Last Laugh were involved in the kidnappings.

2. Does Jil or any other Last Laugh member make any attempt to get Terrem back? As I see it, Lord Orbius (I guess the guild only deal with/know about Vhalantru in his beholder form) has charged the guild with keeping an eye on Terrem, and when they screw up, they should be keen to correct their mistake. If I was Jil and it was my fault, I'd try find the kidnapped child as soon as possible- Vhalantru was sure to find out Terrem had gone missing, and warning the Church of St. Cuthbert not to help doesn't make much difference. If anything, the players are actually helping the Last Laugh by searching for the children....unless the guild has a stake in Kazmojen's business, and don't want it discovered.

3. I'm thinking that Patch and Twindaggers should die for their incompetence. Who should kill them? Would Orbius eat them, or would Jil kill them first to try and appease the beholder-lord?

In my campaign, the players actually failed to spot Jil in the first encounter, but I like to know NPCs motivations and their actions between adventures. I find it annoying for both my players and me if NPCs actions don't make sense.

If anyone has any insight on Last Laugh motivation, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks

[Chef's Slaad]

The last laugh is a very powerfull guild in cauldron. In fact, barring the allybashers, which are as good as gone after Flood Season, the are the only guild. And powerfull thieves guilds attract powerfull underworld figures. Now putting a lot of powerfull underworld figures close together in a single organisation, and you're bound to have internal strife.

So maybe what's happeing here is one last laugh faction throwing a wrench in the operation of another faction.

Klyssandral wrote a sumary of the last laugh factions (or divisons). The details don't match with the HC, but then, this was written before the HC was released. Here's a link
The AP makes it pretty clear that Jil has no love for her Vervil Ashmantle, the Jester in charge of the Assasins guild. Vervil left a note to Kazmojen in Life's Bazaar, warning him to be carefull. Perhaps Jil wants to disrupt one of Vervil's allies, thereby weakening his own position. If Vervil is weakened, she could dethrone him, and take his position as Jester. And forcing Vhalantru to take matters into his own hands discredits Kazmojen in a big way.

So, getting back to your questions:
1) I'm not sure Patch is linked to Jil. Perhaps Twindaggers (Patch's contact within the last laugh) reports to Vervil directly, rather than go through Jil. Alternatively, the report to yet another faction with the last laugh, such as the extortionists. Jil warns Ruphus to stay away from the orphanage to encourage him to investigate it more thoroughly. Using fake last laugh thugs is just icing on the cake. Not only does that discredit Kazmojen and Vervil even further, but it also discredits the city guard, distracting them from hunting down the last laugh.

2) Maybe Vervil, concerned that Patch or another one of his allies screwed up, sends Jil to recover the boy. In that caes Jil follows the party down to the malachite hold, taking care to stay out of sight. This give you a chance to work in a few mysteries. For example, a locked door the party just passed is suddenly open, a dangerous ambush is blown at the crucial moment, or one of the ambushers' bodies is found with a poisoned dagger in it's back.
Jil tries to recover the boy, while still leading the party straight to Kazmojen's bazaar. I thinks she would call that a win-win situation (she wins both times after all. Kazmojen, of course is the big loser).

3) If Vhalantru wants to give a signal that failure will not be tolerated, patch could be turned to stone and left outside the orphanage. Better yet, his statue shattered to pieces. Otherwise, Vervil (or whatever Jester is responsible for Patch) should send the signal him or herself.

[Locke1520]

I have a much simpler interpretation. Orbius knows who has the boy and clean up is much simpler if he just retrieves the boy himself. This action sends a clear message to Kazmogen that a random group of adventurers or members of the city watch couldn't do.

Also such interference has risks Orbius would likely wish to avoid. He didn’t need either Kazmogen or some overzealous band of heroes inadvertently (or deliberately) killing Terrem. If losing the boy, however briefly, got Orbius in trouble then letting him get killed would be very bad indeed.

As far as Jil warning off Rufus, she and the Last Laugh were probably given orders to distract investigations to keep adventurers away from the slavers. The only people who were going to get in the way were the Clerics of St. Cuthbert and the guild tried to handle Rufus the way such organizations handle people: through rough intimidation, either to get people looking the wrong way by looking at the guild (punishment for losing the boy?), or get them to drop it and walk away.

It is just a sign of Orbius’ arrogance that he took such a leisurely pace in getting to the boy—or that he was so enmeshed in being Lord Vhalantru that he didn’t have time to take care of it any sooner.

[Rich]

Thanks for the ideas guys!

I like the idea of guild infighting, but I don't know if I want to make the Last Laugh seem unorganized as the players' first impression. There may be power struggles within the guild, but I think that from the outside, signs of this should only be glimpsed ocasionally.

I also like the idea of the shattered statue of Patch and/or Twindaggers, but I'm not sure if it's too obvious a hint about Lord Vhalantru's involvement, especially considering his large 'statue' collection. I was thinking if just their boots were found, (including feet bitten off at the ankles) then that's a good warning without suggesting everyone's favourite half-elf noble was involved.

Chef's Slaad, do you mean Velior instead of Vervil or did you replace the original jester with the slaver?

Vervil Ashmantle would make a good jester though... Maybe Jil's warning could have been an attempt to protect the interests of Velior's fellow jester. (Even if not out of kindness, Velior could have leant Jil's services to aid Vervil for more mercenary reasons, and Jil's unsubtle methods could have actually been a sneaky attempt by Velior to do Vervil's side-business of slave trading harm, whist under the pretence of doing him a favour).

As a side note, does it actually say anywhere in the SCAP hardcover that Velior is head of an assassination division? If not, I have a really cool assassin who is also a major player within the guild- he slaughtered 3 previous jesters, one a week, until the remaining 2 (Velior and Vervil(?)) offered him a position as guildmaster. He turned it down, accepting the position of jester only (he thought he could better control the guild by manipulating the other 2 existing jesters). An uneasy truce descends on the guild, and after a while 2 new jesters are installed, both talented but not ambitious and weak willed in comparison.....let the infighting begin.

Phew! Just been working that out whilst typing, but I think that sets it up nicely. What do you think?

[Chef's Slaad]

fancy that, I mixed velior Thazo, a guildmaster of the last laugh with Vervil Ashmantle, a slaver. sorry 'bout that. I think I got them confused because both are attending the conference in house Rhiavadi. The magazine only had artwork for vervil, so I assumed they're the same person.

Another difference I noticed: in the magazine (lords of oblivion), Velior is a jester in the last laugh, in charge of the assasination division (1 of 5 divisions in the last laugh), while in the HC he's the guildmaster (THE Jester). So, no the HC doesn't mention that velior is head if the assasins.
In the description of Jil at the brass trumpet, it says jil has no love for velior.

b.t.w. I like your plot. How about a name and some more background... something beginning with a V I should thing. Vivian? Veronica? The Vixen....

[Rich]

Lol! Definately lots of Vs in the Last Laugh! The assassin in question was born in Cauldron, but has spent his professional career in Sasserine, before returning to his beloved city of birth. I'm not sure about the legalities of discussing it as I got the character, and the background story from a D20 licenced product on RPGnow. It's free to download and fits in so perfectly I couldn't believe it. The link is http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5520&
When you read his (but I agree, he should be made into a she for male/female balancing- this world needs high ranking female crooks too!) background, just think of the Lantern Street Orphanage and that the Vanderborens have taken it over only recently. After leaving the orphange, he should flee to Sasserine, and where the story leaves the character, they should just have returned to Cauldron in the past year or two for my set up. I haven't checked the stats yet, he/she may be overpowered, but that's easy to alter. Anyway, check out the link and see how good the fit is!

[Rich]

Sorry, forgot about Jil.
It's always interesting when a character has multiple motivations. I think that as Jil is not loyal to Velior, it is possible she'd support Vervil in a power struggle (given enough pay), or help the players for pay or if romantically involved with one of them. Therefore, I guess her actions are slightly more unpredictable than other NPCs', due to her being 'pulled' in different directions by conflicting loyalities and desires. I think she may well be ambitious enough to try and replace Velior, but she needs to increase her own strength, and does she really want to bring herself to the attention of a highly professional and cold-blooded assassin (see previous)?

On a side note, I'm not that keen on different divisions of the guild, nor of one guildmaster having complete power. I think that the idea should be that each of 5 jesters shares the resposibility of running the guild, and that although each has their own speciality and loyal guild-members, they keep in regular contact and each decide what they'll focus on on a weekly basis- i.e. each jester has some autonomy, and manages their own resources, but will pour their resources into whatever task is decided for them by the meeting of jesters. Of course, this works better when one jester hasn't murdered 3 previous jesters, and 2 of the other jesters are essentially puppets. In this case, I imagine the weekly meetings to be rather tense (full of concealed weapons and thuggish lieutenants), with all parties eager to gain the upper hand in discussion of guild activities, but not to offend each other, lest the infighting reaches a full-on guild split and war! In fact, this could be one way for smart players to take down the guild... it would be very satisfying to watch the organized crime guild descend into bloody chaos!

Hmmm, that side note was bigger than the actual post!

[Chef's Slaad]

Rich wrote:

Sorry, forgot about Jil.

It's always interesting when a character has multiple motivations. I think that as Jil is not loyal to Velior, it is possible she'd support Vervil in a power struggle (given enough pay), or help the players for pay or if romantically involved with one of them. Therefore, I guess her actions are slightly more unpredictable than other NPCs', due to her being 'pulled' in different directions by conflicting loyalities and desires. I think she may well be ambitious enough to try and replace Velior, but she needs to increase her own strength, and does she really want to bring herself to the attention of a highly professional and cold-blooded assassin (see previous)?

On a side note, I'm not that keen on different divisions of the guild, nor of one guildmaster having complete power. I think that the idea should be that each of 5 jesters shares the resposibility of running the guild, and that although each has their own speciality and loyal guild-members, they keep in regular contact and each decide what they'll focus on on a weekly basis- i.e. each jester has some autonomy, and manages their own resources, but will pour their resources into whatever task is decided for them by the meeting of jesters. Of course, this works better when one jester hasn't murdered 3 previous jesters, and 2 of the other jesters are essentially puppets. In this case, I imagine the weekly meetings to be rather tense (full of concealed weapons and thuggish lieutenants), with all parties eager to gain the upper hand in discussion of guild activities, but not to offend each other, lest the infighting reaches a full-on guild split and war! In fact, this could be one way for smart players to take down the guild... it would be very satisfying to watch the organized crime guild descend into bloody chaos!

Hmmm, that side note was bigger than the actual post!

I like where you're taking this Rich. To get the creative juices flowing even further, let me put one question to you:

The cagewrights are pulling in the reins as the AP progresses. So how are they involved in the last laugh? Or to put it differently... who's pulling the puppetmaster's strings?

[Rich]

As someone in a previous thread said, I think that Orbius is really running the Last Laugh, not the Cagewrights. It says in the HC that the Cagewrights use lots of proxies, and I guess that in this case, Orbius is running the guild for them. He has been in Cauldron for longer than them, and has more contacts (in both Vhalantru and Orbius forms), which could be useful for them. No matter how much infighting there is the guild, all the jesters are scared sh*tless by the presence of an eye-tyrant in Cauldron, and he often bullies them into following his orders. Quite a few Last Laugh members will know of the existence of Orbius, but definately not of the Cagewrights. The jesters may suspect a power behind Orbius, but it is unlikely. The Cagewrights will manipulate the guild throughout the AP for their own purposes, but I don't think they've infiltrated it directly- it seems to make more sense to use Orbius.
Anyway, that's just my view on the link between the Last Laugh and the Cagewrights.

[christian mazel]

You're right, even if doesn't really rule the guild he is the more powerful creature in (Upper)Cauldron and as such controls many things, the Cagewright promised that he could rule the city once the gate will be open, he is the go between.