My PCs headed up to Riddleport (via the Feast of Ravenmoor module) after ROTRL Burnt Offerings where I started the group on The Shadow in the Sky. Cue a frantic brainstorm for side-quests in Riddleport and purchase of urban/city maps to run the encounters on. Here's a few I have run so far after the PCs agreed to work for the Golden Goblin, with a number of them counting toward (or harming)the Goblin profits:
1.Lavender Lil. One of Saul's merchant contacts is in town, staying in the private apartments in the Goblin. Whenever he stays he likes some 'company' from the House of the Silken Veil. And his favourite lady is Lavender Lil. Given she's wanted by Zincher and under virtual house arrest, the PCs have to escort her at night to the Goblin. But Zincher's men are watching the House entrances. (in my game the PCs failed to get the job done and she was kidnapped and never seen again!). The merchant was not happy and the profit rating was reduced. I used the city streets flip mat for this one.
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2. The Apprentice: After dealing with the problems in Ravenmoor on the way to Riddleport, the PCs promised to help the village get back on its feet by taking the stirge blood-sausage (served at the banquet during the eponymous Feast)to the masses! They took a few samples with them to Riddleport, where Saul's cook served them for dinner for the Goblin employees. Saul was so impressed he sent someone to Ravenmoor to secure an exclusive purchase agreement for the sausage. Now batches have started to arrive from Ravenmoor, and its the PCs job to market them Apprentice-style. I left it to the PCs to determine how to do this, and they came up with few ideas, such as opening a one day only shop, selling upmarket in the Windward, and downmarket in the Rotgut, and firing up a BBQ on the street for people to taste them. I used a skill check mechanic to determine their successes, like Charisma and Diplomacy, within a wider economic success model such as orders and a public perception mechanic. The PCs enjoyed the challenge. The GG profit rating went up considerably after a day of marketing, and nobody got fired!
3.Treading the Boards. The Goblin has sponsored a play in Riddleport Theatre. The play is about a warlord who makes a pact with Mephistopheles for a kingdom, a political allegory against Cheliax by a well-known anti-Cheliax playwright. Problem is that word of the play has got to Egorian, and House Thrune has activated a local asset to disrupt it. So after opening night almost the entire cast and crew are poisoned at an eatery. Only the two leads and the playwright are not affected as they dined separately from the rest of the cast and crew. Saul is beside himself having sponsored the play and asks the PCs to head over & find out how they can help. The playwright thinks the PCs are the new actors and crew he's requested from a local amateur theatre, the Argento, and sets them to work....on their lines and on stage crewing. He won't hear any protests. The play is back on that night, business as usual. The PCs were allocated tasks - one in the gods doing sound and stage effects using skill checks, and 3 PCs have 2-3 walk on parts in the play for which I wrote a page of tongue-twisting dialogue for them to 'act'. As this was a week after they'd been in town and they'd already stirred up some of the crime bosses, towards the end of the performance I had some of Zincher's men storm the place and try to get the PCs without their armour or weapons, using the Theatre flipmat. My players role played the acting really well and I used a combo of that and skill checks to determine audience reaction, based on things like timing, vocal projection, accuracy and pacing. All the skill checks contributed to an overall audience satisfaction mechanic, leading to success or a short run, despite the fight at the end. The GG profit rating went up for this one. And the next day the cast and crew recovered and were back on the boards that night.
4. Dump the Cargo. Having stock-piled urban maps and map-packs for urban encounters, the warehouse flip mat proved useful. Saul has got word from an informer that Boss Groat (I used Groat rather than Croat) has a shipment of drugs coming into the Wharf District quays during the night into one of Groat's warehouses. Cromarky turns a blind eye to it for a cut, but wants such shipments to be brought in secretly at night. The PCs have to head down, avoid the quays guards (I had one doing a foot patrol around the warehouses with a torch), wait for the shipment to come in a small vessel to be let into the warehouse by one of Groat's men, get into the warehouse and dump the cargo. Of course some of Groat's half-orcs and a couple of tengu rogues are playing cards at the table in the gantry on the flipmat.
5. Break Out. Saul is beside himself because a regular gambler in the Goblin, a merchant named Fallon, ran up a large tab last night and said he'd be back in the morning with the money. Only he is arrested for xxxx the following morning and is being held pre-trial in a small holding prison on Cromarky's island (rather than in the large prison north of the Leeward district which I made out was for convicted criminals). The charges are murder and he could be found guilty. the Pcs have to bust him out and get him out of the city, after making sure he pays Saul. Saul arranges for a rowing boat across the river to get the PCs across, with a grappling hook in it. I used the prison flip mat for this, with the courtyard area on the map 'open air' so it could be climbed down into. Stealth went to pot though, and my players had a tough fight on their hands against the guards, and an evil torturing jailor with a fire mephit sidekick. But its a prison so it shouldn't be a cakewalk should it? They busted him out and got Fallon on a ship to Magnimar after he collected the few hundred gps from his house before word had got out of the break out. The GG profit rating went up with this one.
In-between some of the side quests and main Shadow in the Sky encounters, I had Saul give the PCs minor jobs to do some mornings relating to the GG profit rating. These included:
advertising the Goblin - a simple skill check system using Charisma, Diplomacy and Bluff skills for each PC as they fan out across the town to advertise the Goblin
threaten jobs - Saul asks a PC to threaten employees of other gambling halls at their homes or in the streets, using Intimidate skill checks, such as for example an expert croupier at a rival hall in the Free-Coin District: 'you won't go to work tonight will you'
working in the Goblin - some evenings the PCs had to work in the Goblin. I split these into gantry spotter, bouncer, bar-work and meeting and greeting (for four PCs), using skills checks appropriate to the tasks.
Simple stuff but it kept the GG profit rating ticking over every day.
that's it for now but more Riddleport side quests to follow tied to flip mats and map-packs. I hope DMs running or planning to run Shadows in the Sky or basing part of a campaign in Riddleport find these useful or helpful. Just to say I'm not trying to win any originality awards here, much of the above is fairly generic been-done-before stuff, but just posting in the spirit of sharing if anyone gets stuck for things to do in Riddleport.