Luke, if you're reading this, you'd better stop now. Major spoilers ahead for your character:
I have a player who has given me a great background hook for his character. Basically, he's a teenager who is in Sandpoint awaiting his father's arrival. His father is to take him home. The kid is a bookworm and not very wise to the ways of the world, so when his father doesn't show up, he kind of just keeps on. He gets swept up in the events of RotRL.
Right now, the party is just wrapping up thing in the Misgivings.
I'd like some help on ideas for good hooks to weave the character background (whatever happened to his father) into the campaign.
Having his father become a victim of the skinsaw man/cult seemed to easy. I would like this to be a bit of an investigation. Maybe some clues spring up and the character has to look into it.
Any ideas on good ways/places to start this?
Thanks all!
Maybe his father is one of the Rangers at the fort in book 3? (Was going to come back, got called up for an emergency, hasn't made it back yet.) You can have some letters and things from the father, with hints and stories about the others he's working with, and the new gambling boat that just arrived downriver...
I like the idea of using him at the fort somehow. His dad is more of a scholar, academic sort.
No reason a scholar couldn't be visiting Fort Rannick, or maybe even be their local expert on monsters...
I had a character with a similar background in an old Runelords game. I wrote his father up as a new NPC and placed him in the same role as the treacherous and lovestruck Kevan Windstrike (Kevan got cut it). It was a hoot.
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You could run a ghoulish attack on Sandpoint if the players haven't gone through that potential event already. Without the leadership of the Skinsaw Man, the ghouls could really get desperate for food.
Have one of the last ghouls be wearing the father's scholarly robes and a satchel full of journals.
Alternatively the father could have gotten wrapped up in events at Turtleback Ferry, researching this strange 7-pointed star that's so popular at this "Paradise" barge.
What if the PC are sent to capture a band of cutthroats that are terrorizing the hinterlands around Sandpoint. They kill or capture them and the PC finds his father's belongings in the loot.
The cutthroats (hopefully alive) tell him they took the stuff off a guy they robbed in Turtle back Ferry.
That could kick off the investigation.
What do you all think? I really appreciate the help, by the way.
Oh! Oh!
This could be a really effective "Journey to the Center of the Earth" type situation, where at every step of the adventure, the PCs find evidence that the missing father is one step ahead of them, investigating the same strange goings on, avoiding the fighting, but still managing to discover things and leave helpful clues for the PCs. Just like the carved "A.S." runes.
You could easily weave in several successive capture scenarios, but the father has already used his magic powers to escape, leaving perplexing clues behind.
Bingo. Let's go along these lines. Love it.
Okay, so I wrote up tonight's session. The character will find his father's belongings on a road bandit. Included is his father's journal. The last few entries are from his stay at Turtleback Ferry and talks about the presence of a 7 pointed star on some of the residents.