I didn't give my players the chance. I had the city lock it up, specifically done by agents from the magical swat team that appear during the Umberhulk rampage.
My party however, did make Drakthar's way into a base and bought the property above the fancy bedrooms and tunneled another entrance there (for the batman like scion of Surabar, known as the Hawk.)
-c
|
Hmm, that is a much better idea than the Stormblades collapsing the place. I never liked that reasoning for the party being unable to enter the Underdark there to search for Zenith. Of course, this requires the government to be aware of the place. Which may not happen depending on how circumspect the PCs are.
In my campaign, the MTA didn't become aware of Jzadirune or the Malachite Fortress. Lord Vhalantru hadn't consolidated enough power at that point to be able to alert the authorities of those two places without having to explain how he knew about a slave trade going on right under the city.
The PC's even kept Keygan Ghelve's involvement on the Q-T. With the help of an out of town wizard who owed a favor and the church of Selune (mine's in FR and Selune took the place of St. Cuthbert), they were able to lift The Vanishing from Jzadirune. I said the contructs were Typhoid Marys of the curse (carriers, but unaffected themselves). That way they had to be destroyed.
Keygan has been allowing small groups of gnomes to re-enter through his home. They're trying to contact svirfneblin to see if they'll take control of the Malachite Fortress.
I let the Stormblades bring the house down. It added a nice feeling of finality to the Stormblades success at the expense of the party.
Although I did have the mimic ride out on the back of one of the constructs under a cloak (I was thinking of Andre the giant et al in 'The Princess Bride'. The duo ended up at the home of a pc with the noble trait. Currently the mimic is 'hanging out' guarding their treasure and the construct is available as a companion. The construct was a big morale boost for the party when it accompanied them on their attempt to kill Drathkar.
The constructs actually caused my PC's a fair bit of trouble at the time. They were quite pleased when they found out they had to "smash those metal mother-smurfers into junk."
yeah, my group only fought one and it was a huge fight. the stormblades saved them the trouble of having to fight the two in the malachite fortress.
I changed stuff around a bit in my game. I made Jzadirune a separate complex beneath the streets of the city. The Malachite Fortress I then turned into a dockside warehouse complex.
My group started poking around that they wanted the deed to the Malachite Fortress to have as a base of operations. Some time later they got it and moved in. They turned the facility into an adventuring school, all generously bankrolled by the benevolent Lord Vhalantru.
As long as you don't refer to him as "Orbius." That was waaaay too much of a dead giveaway. I mean, its not quite as bad as Professor Lupine or Sirius Black, but it's pretty bad.
As long as you don't refer to him as "Orbius." That was waaaay too much of a dead giveaway. I mean, its not quite as bad as Professor Lupine or Sirius Black, but it's pretty bad.
Especially with the pronunciation "orb" "eye" "us"!
I'm going to drop the name at the flood season ball and see what happens.Either that or I'll retroactively change his name to 'Lord Vader'!
Either that or I'll retroactively change his name to 'Lord Vader'!
That would be about as subtle.
In my game I changed him to an advanced vrock so the name wasn't an issue. The party still didn't think he was evil until they got the reveal WAY later.
That would be about as subtle.In my game I changed him to an advanced vrock so the name wasn't an issue. The party still didn't think he was evil until they got the reveal WAY later.
Advanced vrock eh? No-one in our group has ever faced a beholder, so I really want to have us experience that. Must be my inexperience, but once again I have no idea how they are going to survive.
No-one in our group has ever faced a beholder...
At the time of the Kazmogen fight my players were all D&D n00bs so the threat of a beholder would have been mostly lost on them. We had just played a game where the big bad was a vrock that wrecked house on them in the finale (it was a low-level game) so i knew a vrock's sudden appearance would appropriately cow them.
Of course now they are 14th level and moving of House Rhiavadi. All the while I'm wondering how the hell I'm gonna make those sorcerer levels matter and the fight be worthwhile at all when the party descends into Oblivion. They have really become some serious power houses.
I was actually wondering how you were going to power-up the Vrock. I thought you might bring it back as a different demon(?) each time (with a distinguishing mark or a t-shirt announcing who it is).
Just because Vhalantru wasn't there in the beginning doesn't mean he can't be in Oblivion now.
Perhaps the beholder is an ally to the vrock (like Governor Tarkin and Lord Vader)?
That might short circuit those power houses.
Originally I was just going to add sorcerer levels but I don't think that's going to cut it. I'm thinking sorcerer levels but also advance the vrock using the rules in the back of the MM. Make him a vrock on steroids as it were. Of course, it's starting to look like my players are going to bypass Oblivion all together. They tricked the location of the Fiery Sanctum out of Thifirane during the party last session. I might need to spring the eruption on them early.
Are there any other downsides that I'm missing? What other pitfalls should I throw in?
Well my dwarf fighter moved into the malachite fortress, hired some guards to man the gate to the underdark and to repair the damage dnone by the characters when using the pulverizer. in addition work was started on a new tunnel to the surface because using ghelves house and moving through jzadirune is too "complicated" (although he bought ghleve a new house and took over so the entrance into the city remains). the monthly income from dwarven goods manufactured in the forges roughly covers the expenses but he has to spent gold from his adventuring. this is good because the party has started to teleport to greyhawk to sell magic items abnd buy new ones, sometimes "en mass". until the volcanoe broke out and part of cauldron was destroyed during the fiery sanctum chapter nothing serious happened, although pilrak showed up at the doors (the fled the characters during the first (?)chapter) to look for his old slave-merchant. he was surprised to see the fortress occupied and was chased down into the underdark where he led the party to a small slave-outpost. In this mini adventure the party destroyed the outpost and killed pylrak.With the damaging of cauldron some cracks showed up in the fortress but it survived rather unscathed (determined randomly) - so no problem to repair the damage.In addition my brother-in-arms, a cleric of Moradin, has started to build a small temple.
|
This is a bit odd, but.
Have your characters ever considered moving into either of Jzadirune or the Malachite fortress?
The only downside of Jzadirune is that you cannot make magic items as easily there. But once the characters have a high enough level, they can just remove the curse on the items and move on. Perhaps eventually just breaking the entire curse itself.
Alternatively, they could move into the fortress and have no such problem (or just make the items there). But this makes them the guards of the underdark entrance.
Are there any other downsides that I'm missing? What other pitfalls should I throw in?
Thanks,
IMarv
I had a player who tried to claim Jzadirune as his own. He even went to the public office and payed a 200 gp fee to gain the license to it. The thing was, he couldn't reinforce it. With the continuing corruption of the city, the officials were inclined to look the other way when someone (like the Last Laugh gang, or whatever they were called) wanted to move in. So, every time he came back to his dungeon, he was occupied, and he had to clear it out again. The party gave up after the third time, and collapsed the room under Ghelves Locks to bury the entrance and prevent anybody else from taking it over. Still, it added some great color to the game, and provided some much needed "inbetween modules" XP & treasure.
So, it is a new campaign with a new group, but the wizard has suggested to the group that they take over the Malachite Fortress. The group thinks that's a fine idea.
This group wanted the book thrown at Keygan, the duress of a kidnapped familiar meant diddly-squat to them.
The sergeants of the Watch are more autonomous in their own precincts than in modern day. The group has made friends with Sergeant Krewis and he's offered to occupy the cells. They'll convert the cells to barracks and he'll slowly recruit soldiers (dwarfs and gnomes, mostly) to patrol the Fortress.
The longer the group waits before asking Krewis for back-up, the larger his force will be. The took all the loot from Life's Bazaar, sold it and are using it to 'remodel.' It amounts to around 15K, so they should be able to accomplish quite a bit.
At the end of Flood Season, the Office of the Exchequer will hit them with, "Do you have the title deed to the Malachite Fortress? No? Well, then if you'd like to claim Squatter's Rights, you'll just have to occupy the property for 100 years (dwarf property requires longer), pay the 10 years of outstanding taxes, and keep current. You'll also need a favorable Incident Report, Form I9/A fromt he City Watch asserting that you didn't do anything untoward when you gained access to this property. Unless the previous occupant had a Will. Can you provide a Deposition for Absence of Will, Form DN1774-A? That'll require a 38416-42/C Death Certificate showing that Zenith Splintershield is, in fact, deceased or, if he isn't, then a AC79-R Declaration of Mental Incompetence Form."
And that's only a summary. I'm actually making the forms for them to fill out. They'll either love it or hate it. I'm cackling just thinking about drowning them in bureaucracy.
I like the idea of trouble obtaining the property, Mykull.
But I would not do forms, because it doesn't fit with my medieval vision of the D&D world.
-- Form numbers only make sense after the printing press. And that would make scrolls and books no longer cool treasure items. Loses that "Name of the Rose" feeling for writing.
-- Bureaucracy with forms feels 19th century or later.
Another way to make the player's lives difficult would be to have contractors refuse to go into the Malachite Fortress, because it's just too scary.
Moveable type hasn't been invented in my world, but non-moveable printing has been. I produce legal-sized broadsheets for the players.
I know the form numbers are a bit anachronistic, but it is more for the PLAYERS than the CHARACTERS. Form numbers and the red tape is really for them as a recognizeable pain in the neck.
I just hit them with it last night:
So, the group goes to the Office of Deed Registry. A doddering bald old man named Mr. Atoz asks, "How may I help you?"
"We want to register for a deed to the Malachite Fortress."
"Well, you'll need form LC207 stroke A, Quit Claim Deed. You can acquire that form from the Office of Deed Dispensation. Unfortunately, their closed for the day. Please come back tomorrow during their regular business hours."
They go to Deed Dispensation (which is the wicket right next door to Deed Registry. Mr. Atoz awaits them in Deed Dispensation, but has no recollection of the group nor what they want. The group starts in with, "We need the form to register for the Malachite Fortress."
"Which form is that?"
"The form you just told us." -- This is to me as the DM, not to Mr. Atoz.
"I'm sorry, I can't give you a form unless you know which one you're asking for. You can get that information from the Office of Deed Registry; they'll be open in a few hours."
"ARG!"
Group returns in a few hours to see Mr. Atoz behind the desk, "How may I help you?" They right down the form number this time and then come back the next day to acquire form LC207 stroke A.
"Who is the current owner?"
"Zenith Splintershield."
"Yes, that's what our records show. It also shows that he's still alive. Can you produce a death certificate, form . . ."
They opted to fill out the form 'Affidavit of Adverse Possession' to start the procedure to claim the Malachite Fortress based on squatter's rights. In real life, that takes ten years. Since this is a dwarven owned property, it'll take a hundred.
But this all happened at the end of Flood Season. Once they do Zenith Trajectory and retrieve Zenith, they'll have to fill out the form 'Declaration of Mental Incompetency,' 'Absence of Legal Will,' and 'Release Waiver' (from his guild because w/o a Will the property reverts to his guild).
And, yes, I actually have made these forms and given them to the players. They found it amusing at first . . . then bureaucracy really set in. They'll get the property in the end, but it is a fat fortress to hand out at third level and I want them to work for it.
Also, Cauldron is a corrupt city. This is a way for the group to really experience that corruption first-hand and want to change it.
Where is the corruption? If that's what you want, shouldn't Mr. Atoz be hinting a bribe to facilitate the transaction?