Brainstorming a pirate city in crisis

[roguerouge]

Okay, so the PC has destroyed the drug manufacturing plant of a highly addictive drug that had taken over three districts of a pirate city. (The drug's effect was the hallucination that you were a god controlling a demiplane for a while. So you were a DM!) There's some dealers and some of the drug left; there are many addicts. No more of the drug can be made. The PC is working a cure.

So, what crises should erupt in this pirate town while her cohort works up a cure?

The PC is a 16th level bard, if that helps.

[Chengar Qordath]

Well, in a situation like that where supplies start running low, I could see the addicts really fighting over what's left. The dealers would also start jacking up prices, which would lead to eventual violence from addicts trying to steal enough money to pay for their next dose, or just outright attacking the dealers.

[HaraldKlak]

Different ideas:

1. Initially the addicts are thrown into a frenzy to get the remaining drugs. Adding in widespread looting and you got yourself an area filled with riots.
1a. How does the rest of the city respond? Is there political interests in solving the problems a certain way? Is there a powerbalance that might shift due to this?
1b. Other people from the city don't want to wait for the cure, and sets out to kill the addicts, if the PC can't stop them.

2. Some addictions (though manly alcoholism) will make the physical depency so severe that people die if they are forced to a cold turkey. It might be an interesting morale dilemma to have some of the people the PC is trying to save, die from the intervention.

3. Apathy. Being affected by a drug such as these, the real world is going to seem bland. Addicts has the tendency to work towards their next fix with few long term plans. Removing their drug entirely put them in a situation, where they can't the single thing that makes their lives tolerable (in their minds).

4. Taking a route with a bit more fantasy included, what was the origin of the drug? I could se different wierd effects.
4a: Those three districts themselves are infused with power from the shared hallucinations. So streets moving, houses changing, as the streets take on the malleable qualities of the demiplanes.
4b: The former drug addicts are blessed/cursed with magical abilities and/or mutations because A) the drug had some magical ability transforming them, or B) their shared madness draw some being from the beyond close.

[roguerouge]

HaraldKlak wrote:

1a. How does the rest of the city respond? Is there political interests in solving the problems a certain way? Is there a powerbalance that might shift due to this?

There's little effective law here, but there's some. There's a power struggle on the city council for who will be chosen as leader right now, between a cunning lady merchant heading merchant interests and an evil elf bard, heading up his own interests.

HaraldKlak wrote:

2. Some addictions (though manly alcoholism) will make the physical depency so severe that people die if they are forced to a cold turkey. It might be an interesting morale dilemma to have some of the people the PC is trying to save, die from the intervention.

HaraldKlak wrote:

3. Apathy. Being affected by a drug such as these, the real world is going to seem bland. Addicts has the tendency to work towards their next fix with few long term plans. Removing their drug entirely put them in a situation, where they can't the single thing that makes their lives tolerable (in their minds).

So riots and catatonia...

HaraldKlak wrote:

4. Taking a route with a bit more fantasy included, what was the origin of the drug? I could se different wierd effects.

4a: Those three districts themselves are infused with power from the shared hallucinations. So streets moving, houses changing, as the streets take on the malleable qualities of the demiplanes.
4b: The former drug addicts are blessed/cursed with magical abilities and/or mutations because A) the drug had some magical ability transforming them, or B) their shared madness draw some being from the beyond close.

The origin of the drug was a vampire Zon-Kuthanite cult, as drugs are biology's shackles. As vampire drug dealers, there was no worry about them taking the drug themselves, as the dead are immune to mind-affecting effects....

[boring7]

So it is a physical addiction? Because there's a pretty vast gulf between the chemically addictive need and the psychologically addictive want. The first leads to murder and suicide, the second leads to lots of whining and petty thefts. Examples, I knew someone coming off heroin was wracked with pain, like "starving to death while being injected with mild acid," pain. The person coming off of weed on the other hand merely became depressed as she realized what a loser she was, actually cleaned up her act for 3 whole months (as in her apartment was no longer a sty and her job performance was, "good," instead of, "why haven't we fired her yet?"). But she also spent the entire time coming up with excuses why she'd be better on weed, that it helped her think, that she was smarter and better with it and that there was no difference at all so she should start toking again.

Presuming it's more like heroin, I'm reminded of that scene in GoT where Bronn talks about sieges and starvation. The smart dealers are going to stockpile every scrap they can, stealing when able and banding together when not, while dumb ones are going to jack up the prices, sell everything, and then get torn apart by rabid junkies when they run out and the junkies refuse to believe them. You'll have pretty rich folk trading magic and treasures for a single hit, you'll have killers trying to put everyone else in the same raw pain they're feeling, you'll have at least 3 people trying to synthesize more or force some kidnapped alchemist to do so. Alchemists like your cohort?

A psychological addiction just results in a whole lot of bitter grumpy a!*&#$%s taking out their dissatisfaction on the rest of the world. They'd also commit crimes, not as desperately as a smack-addict because they still have other things to live for but they'd steal and lie and murder more for the drug than they would have if it were readily available.

Other dealers would be dealing other drugs, because there is always a vice to be found, various dealers who used the drug to control their minions would fall and most organized crime would become DISorganized as the crime families "restructured" just like Robespierre's reign of terror. Since it's a pirate city chances are good a lot of angry pirates in bad moods would be sober enough to do a bit more raiding than normal.

But I also like HaraldKlak's suggestion of more fantastical elements. Consider, a demiplane is a massive creation and a lot of creativity, supposing there's some godling or alien horror that feeds off of creativity, consuming the "spark" of the soul that leads to beauty and art and creation as users "burn it out" on their hallucination. It probably would be angered and hungry once the supply of junkies dwindled and come a-calling, to find out why and how to get more.

Common "cures" that successfully replace an addiction include OTHER addictions, religion, and undeath. A new cult that cures the DTs as long as you keep worshipping the new god(dess) who is secretly an aspect of (insert fiend lord here, perhaps Nocticula or Eiseth?). Or perhaps an ambitious vampire is raising an army of bloodbound spawn. Or finally you just have black lotus make a comeback and a war start over territory.

[Necromancer]

roguerouge wrote:

The origin of the drug was a vampire Zon-Kuthanite cult, as drugs are biology's shackles. As vampire drug dealers, there was no worry about them taking the drug themselves, as the dead are immune to mind-affecting effects....

Have some hyper-orthodox inquisitors (in role, not necessarily class) of Zon Kuthon show up in search of the vampire. They would claim that the vampire's methods were heretical and plan to capture the undead; the high priest likely wants the vampire brought back for "reconditioning" or just punishment.

At first the inquisitors cause problems and unintentionally generate more chaos with their arrival, but might end up as temporary allies.

Just an idea.