Hi all, I'm running the Shackled City campaign converted over to 4E and I'm wondering how to keep the Stormblades as believable rivals.
We are right in the middle of Flood Season, and my party - who has taken the name The Stormhammers because they hate the Stormblades so much - just finishing beating the Stormblades at pretty much every competition during the Festival. Then the Stormblades started a fight with them, further cementing the enmity between the 2 groups.
This is all good, but what I am wondering is how the Stormblades will remain relevant compared to the party. I mean, soon the PCs will be famous for saving kidnapped orphans and breaking up a slave ring, stopping goblin vandals, and saving the city itself during its most celebrated event. While in comparison, the Stormblades have...rescued a kidnapped girl from Redgorge way back in Chapter 1, and collapsed the tunnels to Jzadhirune.
Why would anyone even consider them rivals after Flood Season? The PCs would be the clear heroes of Cauldron over the Stormblades. Has anyone else encountered this problem?
(Oh, I also have a 5th member in the Stormblades, the son of the Lord Mayor, which will explain the political favoring and special treatment the Stormblades get for a while, and has also led to the party disliking the "corrupt" Lord Mayor but liking his "honest" Chancellor ;) However I don't see the special-treatement angle as being believable for more than maybe the next chapter before my players start to point out that it doesn't make sense that citizens would like the Stormblades more than them since they have done way more for the city.)
Hey Deco,
Are you running Delves Deep's version of the Demonskar Ball? I would highly recommend it - its blinking awesome in its own right but it also has the Stormblades coming against the PCs in a RP environment which really works well.
Also, there is a rumour on the rumour chart where the Stormblades are apparently about to become named Champions of the City (though I don't think they ever do as such). Be sure to throw that at the PCs as it will annoy them.
Come Chapter Seven the SBs are defeated by agents of the Cathedral of Wee Jas so you only have 4 more chapters to keep them interesting. Just think up some random adventures that might have popped up and use those. For example, when the party go off into the Underdark in Chapter Four, have them come back to hear that the SBs have done something of significance. As rescuing Zenith isn't really important to the city, that gives the SBs one up. And the party head off away from the city in Chapter 5 and 6 too, so there are loads of potential options - you just need to say "whilst you were away the SBs did this..."
By the way, if you are interested I have posted 4E conversions for Chapters Four, Five and Six on my website. Feel free to grab them and make whatever use of them you can.
Cheers
Blakey
I am indeed planning on running Delvesdeep's Demonskar Ball, it's one of the things I was most looking forward to prior to even starting the campaign. As it is, each party member received an invitation (which they haven't opened yet) and one of the PCs also got an extra one for "winning" the Drink Down the Flood contest. Incidentally, one of the PCs is also infatuated and flirting constantly with Cora Lanthenmire, and they actually ended up - through random determination - facing off in the drinking contest, which was awesome.
That's a good idea to have them go on adventures while the PCs are off doing other things, especially with the whole Zenith story arc. I think I will maybe have them take on the Last Laugh publicly - since Jil in chapter 1 there hasn't been any Last Laugh involvement, and the jester coins has been an ongoing rumor ever since.
Any other ideas?
My group has a great rivalry with the Stormblades. In Flood Season they didn't want to go back to town without all the wands because they were worried that the Stormblades would come in, find the couple of remaining wands and then steal the party's glory! :)
As has been suggested, it is pretty easy to keep the Stormblades relevant. In my campaign the Stormblades have eliminated the Kobolds from underneath Cauldron and sealed of the Malachite Fortress from the Underdark. They are a little jealous of the attention the party has received for rescuing the townsfolk, stopping the goblins and finding the missing wands. They'll get a little back when the party go off to search for Zenith next chapter.
At the moment the plan is for the Stormblades to stop a Yuan-ti conspiracy that threatened the town. How much of that is actually true I haven't decided yet. So basically, all you need to do is make up "adventures" that the Stormblades have been on while the PC's are off doing other things. If you can't think of anything, look at a few of your Dungeon adventures and pretend that the Stormblades have successfully completed a couple of them.
Olaf the Stout
As mentioned above, eventually the Stormblades come under serious fire from the very same enemies that threaten the heroes. At this point, compassionate heroes may begin to feel sorry for the Stormblades they once so despised. Perhaps they may even see them as allies at some point, setting aside their differences to battle those that threaten Cauldron.
In my group, one of the PCs left. He had the Scarred Soul trait from the HC and I had him join the Stormblades (which worked very well). Prior to the Demonskar Legacy, I had the Stormblades go on a "safari" into the jungle, where they got smacked by a Babau demon. This lends credence to the rumours of the Demons in the Demonskar after the Demonskar Ball discusses them. Further, the former PC was captured by the Last Laugh for questioning (see Delvesdeep's kidnapping encounter from his foreshadowing document).
So, I had my group play the Stormblades rescuing their former friend. This was hilarious. It really showed how Chaotic the entire group was.
Since then, the former PC has left the Stormblades and founded a new Church of Kord in Redgorge (after the Seige, Redgorge impressed him with the strength of the townspeople). Cora is now a PC, so the Stormblades are not quite what they used to be. With the death of Terseon Skellerang at the Seige, and the possibility of the PCs being traitors to Cauldron by fighting against him, Zachary Aslaxin II was made the new Captain of the Guard. At the same time, a certain evil Halfling from a former adventure has made himself useful to the Stormblades and is using them to get close to the Cagewrights.
I think the key is to keep the Stormblades as being relevant to the big picture only up to a point. There comes a time when the players should realize that there are bigger fish to fry than the Stormblades. The Stormblades are an entertaining distraction, and nothing more in terms of the grand plot.
...a certain evil Halfling from a former adventure...
That's funny, Skaven survived in my game too.
However, I had him flee to the Demonskar where he met up with Dugobras. The group is heading there soon enough so I plan to have him show up there, doing... whatever it is evil halfling wizards do..,
Crafting wondrous items to screw up the group is what I plan.
...a certain evil Halfling from a former adventure...That's funny, Skaven survived in my game too.
However, I had him flee to the Demonskar where he met up with Dugobras. The group is heading there soon enough so I plan to have him show up there, doing... whatever it is evil halfling wizards do..,
He survived the first encounter with my PC's too (he took 3 PC's into negatives with a Shout spell before fleeing). However instead of fleeing from the Kopru ruins I had him head back to Triel's room. It certainly made that encounter much more deadly (nearly resulted in a TPK). He was finally taken down by an acid breath from the Conjurer.
Olaf the Stout
In my game the party went and killed the hook spider and virtually everything else in the dungeon before heading to Skaven's room. He let the air elemental keep them occupied while he slipped away.
He'll be back later, I'm sure.