Adding Spy Intrigue into ROTRL

[Cleric of Caffeine]

Running ROTRL in a home brewed world. I have a player who created a character & really wants him to have a spy/james bond feel. Looking to make some minor tweaks to the campaign & add some side treks (though I'd like them at least loosely connected to the main story.) Thinking of running Tower of the Last Baron as an assassination assignment. (Just finished reading it & I thought it was great.)

I know things like this can be rough with y'all not being familiar with the world & all, but I'm just fishing for some brainstorming.

Any Ideas?

[godsDMit]

Spoiler:

Jubrayl Viski and some of his thugs could be working for the skinsaw cult on a low level. They could be kidnapping townsfolk and sending them up to Magnimar to be executed by the cult members once there.
To make sure the PCs dont skip the ending of the first book to get to the second book, Id suggest not having the thugs in town actually kill anyone, just kidnap. They shouldnt be so involved that they know about the ritual and all that, else the PCs are liable to think everyone they meet is involved.
If you dont want anything that involved, just using the thugs in town to be providing extra stuff to look into while the PCs are still involved with the goblins is a good way to go.

If nothin else, the beginning of book 2 should scratch your players investigative itch.

[Cleric of Caffeine]

godsDMit wrote:

Jubrayl Viski and some of his thugs could be working for the skinsaw cult on a low level.

I like that. I was kicking around the idea to have them shipping arms for a link to the Tower of the Last Baron, but I like that..... keeps things more on task

[Cleric of Caffeine]

Thought I'd toss this back out to the main page & see if the night owls had any ideas for me....?

[Heiko Harthun]

Cleric of Caffeine wrote:

Thought I'd toss this back out to the main page & see if the night owls had any ideas for me....?

... a few:

The notorious bandit Shaz “Redshiv” Bilger (Foxglove Manor, AP #2)
- The group can be robed by him (and his thugs?)
- He can make contact with the "new guys" and try to forge a alliance on some manor (Blackmail the Scarnetties or something like this)

Shalelu Andosana
- Use the information about her out of Armageddon Echo (AP #9)
- She searchs artifaktes for the fight against the drow
- She is recruiting elfs and half-elfs for the Shin’Rakorath

The "Paradise" is in the harbour
- The joy&pleasure-ship "Paradise" (out of AP #3) could make an early visit and the group can get a little fishy about Lucrecia and the barge

[Cleric of Caffeine]

Thanks Heiko! Good stuff. I'll be going through my campaign outline & work some o that in. Liking the idea of the Paradise.... go a bit Casino Royale feel.

Plus I've been looking for ways to expand the Skinsaw cult's role in things. Appreciate it.

[Ambrus]

I'm curious how the rest of the party figures into this character's spying activities.

As a player in RotR, I've found there to be no end of opportunities to spy, investigate and infiltrate. I usually use a combination of mundane stealth and illusion magic to thoroughly explore enemy-occupied areas, find the best entry points and identify top-priority targets before reporting back to the party and leading the whole group on an armed incursion. These tactics have repeatedly allowed the party to safely bypass problem areas and ambush unprepared BBEGs before any enemy occupants are even aware of our presence. We then usually dispatch the BBEG's underlings in reverse order as we work our way back out. It's been great fun. It's much more fun to be the one doing the ambushing than the victims of the BBEG's machinations; which is unfortunately how many modules are designed.

Spoiler:

In SM a stealthy tour of the Seven's Sawmill revealed the presence of Justice Ironbriar on the top floor and lead to our group surprising him alone in his room when our group descended from the aerie above. Similarly, surveillance of the clock tower allowed us to choose an entry point (another aerie) by which we bypassed her guards below and attacked Xanesha alone.

In HMM, a stealthy investigation of Fort Rannick revealed the hidden tunnels behind the waterfall (has a D&D module ever featured a waterfall that didn't conceal secret tunnels?) and allowed the group to enter the keep secretly and dispatch Lucretia in her dungeon before moving on to strike at the ogres' various leaders and finally the rank & file Kreegs. A similar effort at Hook mountain lead to an initial strike against the unsuspecting coven of hags and then Barl Breakbones himself before we approached the remaining ogres to offer them terms for their peaceful surrender.

We recently started in on Jorgenfist and, after a month of in-game infiltration and espionage our group started off our attack on the place with an impressive amount of intelligence. Our first strike was against Mokmurian while he slept in his workroom. We're also aware that most of the giants have been branded with the rune of greed and so we brought along four wands of erase and nonlethal weapons to take care of that issue before the giants' untimely deaths. That's where we left off last session.