I'd like to write an adventure that is an intro to Sigil, but can't think of a suitable plot. I'd like to start the adventure in your standard sleepy town in the middle of a forest, called Sugarloaf perhaps. Some minor incident in Sigil will spill out through a portal in or near Sugarloaf (none of the locals know it exists), and provide a route to the planar metropolis for the PCs.
I'd like the incident to climax in a decision that the PCs must make between law and chaos (rather than the classic good and evil), both of which will provide the PCs with an 'in' to one faction or another (pre-faction wars). Both choices should be Good choices, and have equal (though different) appeal to a party of good characters.
I've thought about the classic 'girl runs away from her betrothed with a lover who thoughtlessly gets them into trouble'; the PCs rescue the girl and must choose between returning her to her betrothed or lover, but haven't been able to come up with any inspiring details.
I've thought about the characters discovering some item which 'belongs' to two different Sigilans and having to choose which Sigilan to give the item to. Similar problems.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated,
TS
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Any ideas are greatly appreciated,
TS
How about something along these lines (needs some detail work of course...) A generally good (but perhaps somewhat self centered) individual, group or faction has access to a Door ... but they need the Key. They determine that the portal key is in fact the head of the statue of the founder of the village of Sugarloaf on the Prime.
The statue head is of little gp value, but is of immeasurable sentimental value to the good people of sleepy sugarloaf. The Planars who need their Key can't understand this (or simply don't care enough about the concerns of Primes to care).
So they steal the head of the statue (or send goons or hirelings to do so).
Enter the PCs, hired to find and return the statue head - through a series of adventures they track it back ot the portal and into Sigil. When they eventually find it, they discover that the Door could lead to great wealth, or be good for the forces of Good or whatever ... but the poor folk of Sugarloaf just want their statue back? What to do...?
OK, maybe the Law / Chaos axis is a bit weak, but you get the idea. The good, law abiding citizens of Sugarloaf want to maintain the order of their village and restore civic pride, a matter of tradition if nothing else. The powerful Planars are trying to acheive something great and Good (or at least not evil) but really don't care that their plans have thrown an insignificant village of Primes into chaos.
Blood War stuff is kind of obvious, if you want to go on the Law/Chaos stuff try a weakening of the Spawning Stone's bindings, with the Inevitable's responding with excessive "inevitability" and the modron's trying to finish kicking out the Formians so they can march on Limbo.
I've thought about the classic 'girl runs away from her betrothed with a lover who thoughtlessly gets them into trouble'; the PCs rescue the girl and must choose between returning her to her betrothed or lover, but haven't been able to come up with any inspiring details.
I don't know from Planescape, but the kernel of adventure you have here is really inspired. There's no player on Earth that won't instantly connect with the star-crossed lovers theme.
What are the law and chaos factions in Planescape? Is it reasonable to have a child of the law faction (ie the Capulets) fall in love with a child of Team Chaos (aka the Montagues)? Of course Law's family thinks that's impossible, but Chaos' family could be all like "sure, the more the merrier."
The party doesn't even need to know this and would probably run better to your intent if they didn't. All the adventure would be is helping this chick escape from some lawful outsiders and agreeing to take her to Special Place X. Along the way, they have to dodge/fend off a couple attempts by lawful outsiders to get her. When they get to SPX, they find out she's joining Team Chaos. Of course members of Team Law turn up too and during this scene is when the party gets the full run-down on the backstory. It's my opinion that giving the backstory earlier will bias the players to choosing True Love. Confronted with Law's arguments and faced with law-chick's plan to marry a Slaadi or something, it may be a harder choice.
Thanks for the responses, everyone. All great ideas, but Fletch convinced me that the romance plot has the best potential so I shall focus on that.
Thanks for the responses, everyone. All great ideas, but Fletch convinced me that the romance plot has the best potential so I shall focus on that.
Now you have to name one of your dramatic NPCs after me. That's my standard cost for saying I like your idea.
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Incidentally, the 2E boxed set had a neat little low level adventure in it that might be a good start for your romantic campaign. A portal/gate/door was near some rich old lady's mansion, close to where the guards were stationed (if memory serves; it was something like this). An imp or something kept using the door to get to and from Sigil and was casting a sleep spell on the guards; the lady fired them, then fired the next batch that also fell asleep on duty, then got suspicious -- enter the PCs to investigate -- whatever.
The activation component (or whatever) for the door was a feather; ie, you had o have any mundane feather to use the portal.
Also, the best adventure out there, better than "Dead Gods" (blasphemy, I know), is Perkins' stand-alone follow up to "Umbra" where the PCs track down a missing guy from Sigil. A Marilith got her hands on 6 swords and the PCs have to fight her Rakshasa Lt and her in her layer of the Abyss. I want to say it was Dungeon 59 but that may have been Perkins' "Seeking Bloodsilver." I'm sure someone will be able to look it up (or remember). BTW, "Umbra" was in Dungeon 55.
-W. E. Ray
Why can't the Capulets be the Chaos family, huh?!
They can Tony and Maria for all I care...
In any case, I just happened to be flipping through my Monster Manual tonight (during the commercial breaks on G4's Star Wars 30th anniversary coverage...still not quite the nerdiest moment in my life) and happened across the Inevitables. I was having a hard time imagining a Modron or Formian damsel in distress, but a porcelain-skinned semi-mechanical doll girl could thump some hearts. Come to think of it, the robot woman from 'Metropolis' was named Maria, wasn't she? I think we've just named your protaganist.
The hook that's been rattling around in my head for a while: (Slightly mature, as it deals with suicide)
A baron of a local fiefdom's daughter has been the subject of the courting of a young prince. The Baron hires the PCs to take the daughter to the healing baths outside of ribcage, in the outlands, citing a "rare medical condition" that threatens the betrothal and refuses to elaborate. The daughter is done up so that none of her skin aside from her face is visible, and she is dejected and agrees with anything her father says, without any vigor. The reward should be huge.
The baron has access to a portal to Sigil, but it's up to the PCs to find a portal to ribcage, or another to the Outlands and travel to ribcage. While hunting for passage to ribcage, (which should require involvement with the factions, such as suspicious harmonium) the young noble should try and run away at least once. Eventually, the PCs will get suspicious of the condition. If they don't, her clothing gets teared without any good reason by a Xaositect. What is revealed is that her arms are horribly scarred by suicide attempts. She refuses to speak much of them, other than that her father wants them removed so the courtship can go smoothly.
This should lead the PCs to believe that the young woman does not wish to court the prince. However, the truth is more sinister. A vile schemer, perhaps a baatezu, with a desire to gain political influence has researched and divined the woman's truename, and can use it to bestow powerful commands and geases. The entire betrothal has been engineered for this purpose. Unable to even speak of her problem, caring for her prince and her kingdom, the baron's daughter attempted suicide to prevent harm to both.
The baron is entirely unaware, and sent the daughter to the baths of ribcage as to avoid any peering eyes to know the embarassing secret of her daughter, while erasing the scars.
If the PCs unravel the mystery, feel free to give them a chance to hunt down and destroy the one who keeps her in thrall, and then require research into the unravelling of the geases.
Thanks for the responses, everyone. All great ideas, but Fletch convinced me that the romance plot has the best potential so I shall focus on that.Now you have to name one of your dramatic NPCs after me. That's my standard cost for saying I like your idea.
Actually, Fletch is a perfect name for one of the NPCs, so I will.