Ok guys Lords of Oblivion starts tonight and one forseeable problem I know I am going to have are the two empty manor houses at the end of the chapter. My party is going to be on these like white on rice. Since neither Vhalantru or Lady Rivaldi have known heirs I plan on having the property rivert to town ownership to be sold at auction. I have thought about having a long lost heir show up but I am still uncertain about that. My question is what price should the manors be. Off the top of my head (I live in South Florida by the way, and a brick crap house costs 200k here) is 500,000 GP for Lady Rivaldi's and a cool mil for Vhalantru's place.
Curuious for some thoughts?
500k is way too much. These properties would have been forclosed to the city of Cauldron (making the city itself the owner) and forclosure houses always sell for a lot less. 10k at the most for Lord V's place.
But...
Why charge them? The way I see it, as long as the same party reaches this point that started the campaign, they've already established themselves as much-needed to the city. Especially if you have a character or two that have looked into being in leadership roles for the city, this is a good way for the nobles of the city to shmooze there way into the kindness of the party. And they're just houses...it will help the party to have a base of operations.
However, if the party moves into greed-mode and begins to question taking down the adamntine doors in Oblivion to sell and wants a ton of cash to sell the property, be stingy. It should be a base-of-operations reward, not a monetary one. If they get real nasty about it, just burn down the place(s) in Foundation of Flame (chapter 9, I believe?).
If your party has enough time to start looking for houses, you need to run Foundations of Flame. From the start of Lords of Oblivion to the final showdown with Dyr'ryd should be less than 72 hours, tops.
Afterwards, the party will have enough on its hands rebuilding Caudron and killing off the surviving Cagewrights. I'm of the opinion that House Rhiavadi, standing as it does on the edge of the gash from the eruption, would be a suitable reward for an adventuring party from a grateful city. Why worry about property value? The PCs will barely be there.
This is a good thread, my players will probably do the same thing.
Along the same lines I have plans to kill off the two remaining clerics on the Temple of Pelor. Which would leave the temple empty.
I have a favored soul of Heironeous, a monk dedicated to Heironeous and two other followers in my party of six. The monk has been determined to open a place of worship in the city dedicated to Heironeous and the favored soul is shaping up to be a natural teacher. I think that they'll jump at the opportunity to acquire the temple of Pelor.
So what would happen to the temple if the last two clerics perish? I'm assuming that it is probably owned by the "church of Pelor" who would send priests from Sasserine, but what if the timing was just bad and they were unable to maintain a presence in Cauldron. I'm thinking they would look to sell the temple if possible. What would be a reasonable price? If they have an auction the Temple of Wee Jas would probably jack up the price to make sure no one else got it. But how much do you think a temple might go for?
I'll probably have a visiting cleric from Sasserine come back with Sacrem and be found in the Lucky Monkey. When he discovers that the Temple of Pelor has lost their priests he may offer the temple to the players first, providing they are willing to pay, just to ensure that there is a strong presence of "good" within Cauldron.
Great thoughts guys. I had already planned on at least one of the places going down in foundation of flame, probably Rhivaldi manor. Yes boths places will forclose and become the property of Cauldron. Thanks for the input