Non combat methods of raising notoriety in Alushinyrra

[Marios]

I'm looking for ways to enrich the Alushinyrra experience for my group. I'll use the Battlebliss and Rapture of Rapture "encouters" plus some more combat encounters (some random combat of the "hey, who are these good guys?" type plus a confrontation with a local slave lord or "crime" boss in order to raise notoriety).

Still... I want more than combat. So, I'm looking for ideas for non-combat encounters that could lead to making the PCs notorious in Alushinyrra.

Any ideas are most welcome!

[NobodysHome]

• If you have a cleric of a good deity, you could somehow hint that the cleric could Consecrete, Hallow, and put Forbiddance on a shrine to that god or goddess in a public place. That would be a hilarious "in your face" to the demons.
  
• After the requisite named encounters, my players took their corpses and put them on public display in the Plaza of the Moon (with "I'm with stupid" signs pointing at each other). That was definitely a notoriety-generator.
  
• Not only did my group have a LG cleric of Iomedae with them, but they stayed at a 1000-gp-per-night suite right off the Plaza of the Moon. I gave them a bit of notoriety for that.
  
• Other ideas as to things the players can do: Think of Alushinyrra as Las Vegas. No one gets famous in Vegas for having a drunken brawl, hiring a prostitute, or getting married. People get famous in Vegas for rolling their SUV over in the middle of the strip, shutting down traffic in both directions for 3 hours. They get famous for winning millions at a gambling hall. They get famous for disrupting and out-performing a famous performer on stage.
  

Alushinyrra thrives on the new, the different, and the unique. Hint at that to your players and let THEM come up with ideas. I think they'll delight you.

[Yossarin]

I am in the midst of running this right now for my group and I can say that I think the best way to go about what you want to do is a little of what NobodysHome suggests: let the players take point and see what you can tailor out of the environment for their entertainment. Different characters and especially different players have different things that will amuse them or make them feel awesome. If you throw a bit of your casual party makeup here in the thread, you might get some more narrowed responses.

One of the random encounters I rolled was 2d4 Succubi. 5 Succubi. It was silly to encounter them in a violent context, I thought, so I reimagined an "encounter" with the 5 succubi. The PCs purchased an abandoned alleyway taproom from an incubus squatter and have now found themselves in one of many, many red light districts in the Ten Thousand Delights. Their several blocks are dominated by these five succubi madames who run exclusive bordellos. Since the PCs are trying to become notorious, they are attempting to manipulate the succubi madames into aiding them in a variety of ways. And they, in their own special way, are doing the same in return...

[NobodysHome]

Yep, Yossarin and I are going to get along splendidly! :-P

That's exactly the kind of thinking you want to do: In my mind, Nocticula wants Alushinyrra to be a place that attracts people to be corrupted. I really didn't like the "violence in the streets" angle for that reason: Almost every resident demon is going to be working an angle to convince otherwise good people to fall from grace, without the use of coercion or force. Open violence is going to make the "city of seduction" far less attractive to those with the means to get there (i.e., squishy squishy casters). Better to let them feel safe and secure, and offer them the world.

Yossarin's example is beautiful: 5 succubus madames run that particular district, and have welcomed the PCs and are "aiding" them. Why? What are the succubi's goals? As they aid the PCs, what are they getting, and is it helping THEM get notorious?

Everyone in Vegas wants to be famous. If they're helping you, it's because they think you're helping them get there...

Events of my campaign:

In my campaign, the PCs wanted to find a "nice" place. I let them rent out a suite in a luxury hotel right next to the Plaza of the Moon, for "only" 1000 g.p. a night!!
Of course, the room came with a resident succubus for each PC's pleasure. The bard took her up on it. She started feeding him wonderful foodstuffs and cooing to him about how brave and wonderful he was...

...by the time he learned that the foodstuffs were actually larvae (human souls), he just said, "Eh, they're damned anyway. Why should I worry about it?"...

...by the time they met with Nocticula, he considered Alushinyrra the nicest place he'd ever been, and he cheerfully accepted her Profane Ascendance...

...at which point I alignment-shifted him from CN to CE for willingly consorting with a succubus, happily destroying human souls for his pleasure, and allying himself with a demon lord of unknown allegiances while working to defeat another demon lord.

It was awesomely fun, and all about temptation and sin, no violence.

EDIT: Yeah, I wouldn't have shifted him just for dallying with a succubus. But eating human souls, finding out they were human souls, and then CONTINUING TO DO IT is definitively evil in my book. Then siding with Nocticula against the party was the nail in his coffin of the alignment shift...

[Marios]

Now, this is exactly what I was looking for!

Temptation, that's what I should go for and indeed you both are correct in suggesting that I should allow the players themselves to direct the "action".

There are 5 PCs in my group:

i) An Iomedean cleric, very strict in behaviour (too strict IMHO) whom I doubt I can directly tempt, but could easily cause him to fall from grace by association (for example a couple of sessions ago he failed to note that the party's witch had cast Infernal Healing - an inherently evil act - and when I pointed the fact to him he responded with threats of violence. I had to remind him that the problem lies in the fact that the witch was not actually evil but rather a target to be corrupted by the power of evil and she must be treated accordingly).

ii) A bard who at times seems to be extremely selfish (e.g. he always votes for "no" whenever the group is about to embark on a dangerous mission) and at times he seems as goodly good as your average healing cleric. My guess is he's a prime target for corruption I just haven't found yet what would make him tick.

iii) A witch who's an absolute mystery to all (even to me!) given that she's new to the party. Hmmm... I guess I should have asked for a more extensive background!

iv) A ranger who absolutely hates demons and doesn't really cares what he does as long as he kills demons. Being in a huge city surrounded by thousands of them should drive him crazy!!!

v) Last but not least a Calistrian Inquisitor striving to bring (ordered under his command) chaos to the team and has (under his high priestess's guidance) manipulated the group in appointing him as leader. He was given the choice of death or serving in the frontier for torturing and murdering a noble when he realised that he himself had been manipulated by a woman to believe the noble as innocent for murdering prostitutes. Throughout the campaign he's after that woman whom his church found out that she was last seen in the Worldwound. Met her as an advisor to the Ivory Cult but lost her again. What he doesn't know is that she actually is Jerribeth, whose favored pasttime is, naturally, seducing and corrupting mortals! I think she sould pay him a visit, don't you?

So... there you have them! Any more specific ideas which I will unashamedly steal and use for my own sinister purposes? :)

[captain yesterday]

these are just a few ideas, getting kiddos ready for the epic journey thru the frozen wastes to school (its just a 1 mile walk thru woods and over train tracks, but kids love drama:-p

the Cleric

:

your best bet i suspect is to go all Scrooge on him, have a sleeper cell of ex-clerics to show him the pointlessness of rigid religious beliefs. not everything is black and white, etc.

the Bard

:

Drugs and Hookers! seriously what musician doesn't love drugs and hookers, however if he's a Bass Player, have a bunch of Demons stop him on the street asking when he's gonna deliver the pizza:-p)

the Witch

:

Exotic spell component bazars! have a demon ask innocently "do you need any Unicorn horn?" when she says yes pan to the cambion behead the Unicorn and hand her the bloody horn:-p there are all sorts of weird s%~+ like that you can do to f~~% with a witch:-p)

the ranger

:

give him what he wants! add as many demons to BattleBliss as he wants! as they say in The Avengers thats a lot of red in his ledger:-)

i'll get back to you on the calistrian, they require more thought
first thought

:

V.D's and lots of them!

but thats too easy, i can do better:)

[Yossarin]

Some ideas for you Marios.

Cleric:

I have a paladin in my group who is like a combination of your ranger and your cleric. A hardass Iomedaen paladin who hates demons, so being in this abyssal city is making his skin crawl. Right now he is lurking in the cramped space they bought, terrified of going out into the streets lest he lose his temper and start slaughtering a bunch of demons. Even with the Talismans provided to them, he is extra cautious. I intend to have him run across a group I call the Lost Company, a company of crusaders that went missing in the Second Crusade. They have been here in this Abyssal city all this time, given a kind of unending life by Nocticula for the sheer amusement of having a bunch of underpowered crusaders wandering around an abyssal city. They made a pact amongst themselves to struggle against temptation over the many years, but have gradually lost this battle, and now only a handful remain, still wearing their old tabards, though battered and torn and dirty. They are ridiculed by just about everyone in the city, and maybe threatened or intimidated but rarely harmed because they don't pose any threat. The Lost Company has reached a terrible point and many of their members have recently either succumbed completely to vices or have thrown their lives away at Battlebliss. These weary souls are committed to a suicide pact and will be sacrificing themselves in Iomedae's name on Gelderfang's many blades, and it will be up to the paladin to try to inspire/save them from their own misery, and he can do so by joining in a battle with them at *drumroll* Battlebliss! Which seems a neat transition into the renown gathering opportunity listed in the book. Of secondary benefit for this character is, should he aid them in surviving the battle and restore their hope, they still need to be "released" from their "curse" by Nocticula. This will give the paladin something to bring up with her when they have their negotation with her, because otherwise I fear he would keep his lips sealed to avoid risking his soul by dealing with a demon. Even though he has special dispensation. He's a choir boy.

Bard:

Tough call on this cookie, but get him to the Ten Thousand Delights. Let him loose. Let the player know he can pretty much find whatever he wants here, and let him let his character look for it. Being given the freedom to do so will probably have him directly or indirectly telling you what to take advantage of. If you allow him to perform, the denizens may tell him he rivals others they have heard and push him towards the other challenge, the performance challenge with the succubus listed in the book. It mentions that PCs can even be offered a chance to work for her, so if he impresses her, he may find himself having a lot of misadventures as a part of her "harem", as it were.

Witch:

Depending upon her alignment, you may entice the witch with promises of a coven. Alushinyyra is rife with lots of evil creatures, and hags among them (a night hag is specifically referenced as an NPC in there, in fact, a peddler of instruments if I remember correctly.) The coven would give her more power to accomplish her goals, but may bind her to some very wicked creatures. If she is of an evil enough alignment to consider it, the hags would work well. If she is a nicer alignment, they may still work well, but would probably disguise and pitch themselvs more as white witches in an attempt to bamboozle the doe-eyed Material Planer into giving them both the power inherent in a coven while they intend to make her low witch on the totem pole. They may get involved in all kinds of sticky ritual stuff involving larvae and tantric magic and other potentially unsavory aspects of the abyss.

Ranger:

Battlebliss definitely sounds like a place where this guy could have some fun, and it would be a way for him to get what he wants...even if it is at the amusement of other demons he isn't killing. Provided he'll suffer the roars of the crowd for a chance to draw blood, you may have him engage in several battles that you resolve in minor ways to build his reputation before he has an opportunity to overthrow the fat cambion who leads Battlebliss and try to throw the whole arena into chaos. If he is successful, I am sure everyone could have a blast with that and it would certainly lead to some renown! Might be a good opportunity to put the Minagho/Assassin storyline in, too, perhaps with the cambion not liking this Material Planer and trying to give Minagho and her pet assassin the chance to put him down.

Inquisitor:

I think you are on the right track there, sir. It sounds like this player has given you a lot to work with. Those are my favorite players. :)

[Seannoss]

Your ranger is very similar to a fighter type from my campaign. I gave him ascending assassination missions. It felt natural to me with demons plotting against each other, especially as the city is ruled by a goddess of assassins.

You may not need much for the witch, throw a few things her direction and see what she does. Or ask her what she does in her free time, could be that easy.

The cleric may not need further torment as he may want to keep the rest of your group walking the good path.

[NobodysHome]

OMG! Brilliance! Sheer, sheer brilliance! I *love* what you did with your paladin!

Spoiler:

If the witch is evil enough, offer her a coven that includes a witchfire. Now that there's some serious temptation for anyone with a hunger for power, and the witchfire can hide easily enough belowground to not come to the paladin's notice.

[Marios]

Now that's why I'm coming to these forums!

So many *excellent* ideas!

Next session will be a "probing" one... I'll let them wonder around town, dazzle them with wonders and let them puzzle out how the heck are they going to impress a creature like Nocticula... I bet they're going to give me leads galore!

Shall be back with more after the sessions!

[laraqua]

Here are a few minor bits and pieces that could be usable, in general. Not sure if any of them are specifically useful to your circumstances.

LIGHT: Have you got, played or ran the Council of Thieves campaign path? They have an adventure which includes a feast that causes wisdom damage each hour because of how gluttonous it is. Look up some odd and slightly off putting dishes - like the songbird drowned in liquor that you devour whole and can fit entirely in your mouth. Any methods that reduce their wisdom can make them more prone to foolish choices, though don't push them on what their choices should be. Let the players find their own foolishness.

LIGHT: Someone might offer them something in exchange for something small - smash this religious icon of Iomedae (non-magical) and they'll provide information or a slave. I'm pretty sure Iomedae wouldn't care about any petty acts of vandalism during such a mission, so I wouldn't have a paladin need to atone for it, but it may give demons a thrill and paladins pause.

MEDIUM: Perhaps they really don't like another God ... perhaps they could pay to destroy a replica church to that God? Smashing an Asmodean altar or a Kuthite torture chamber isn't evil, per se, but it will likely feed the destructive flame within them. Knowing that there's someone next door smashing up an Iomedaean chapel may also grate.

DARKER: You can also include temptations and delights that are morally grey zones. Perhaps they have a slave house where nymphs, ex-paladins, aasimar and other fantastic races have been trained to be pleasurers and house slaves? The PCs might want to purchase their freedom (or at least one's freedom) but what happens when the rescued individual tries to show her gratitude in the way s/he's been trained? If s/he's still brainwashed, then it's hardly right to go with it.

[JohnHawkins]

This is my current list of odd encounter sites and groups I am working on expanding before my group get to the city . I am seeing the city as a cross roads of influences from different planes including different world on the prime material plane. So a lot of glamour culture and gangster culture from our won world as the pc's should recognise it.

Casino's
--Las Vegas Casino- Actual Neon lights, shows, slot machines , gambling floor- Based on Circus Circus
--Bond Casino – Poker and similar played in shady rooms high stakes
--True Demonic Casino-- Played for souls, bet your life , years of servitude etc
--Varisian Harrow Parlour

Arena with prizes
--Captured Crusaders vs Unstoppable Demons
--Beast fighting
--Gladiatorial competition
--Succubus Gunslinger
--Circus Acrobats
-- PG-18+ Shows
--Emperors children Space Marine
-- Aquatic arena

Hotels
-- Hitech Modern Luxury Hotel AI, Air conditioning, Servant Robots, etc
--Classic Victorian Hotel, Demons dressed up, Succubi or Incubus in Every room, tea served, maid service etc
-- Flop house
--Western Style hotel- American West
-- Medieval Inn
--Arabic Hotel

Brothels- seperate from hotels
Geisha House
False crusader Brother
Slave Brothel
The Paladin's fall
Calistrian shrine
Arabic Harem
Undead
Sentient Creatures

Shops
--tech shop
--Mercane
--Glazebru
--'Crusade Knock offs'
--Succubus
--Strange Alchemy
--Samurai Store
-- Old mage in worst neighborhood
--Money Lender
--Slave sellers
Groups
-Gangs Protection racket territorial control, gang colours most lead by succubi or incubi
-Mafia- More like Tongs, business associations protecting their territory - Hire Paladin as Hitman
---- Chinese Tong Style
---- 1920 capone style
---- Wasps
Visiting Inquisitor 40k
Succubus Antipaladin
Other planar beings including natural enemies of demons
--Kytons
--Asura
--Div
--Rakshasa
--CG Outsider
Drow
Succubus Ninja
Incubus Samurai
Vampires
Dragons

[laraqua]

Maybe include a "clothing store" for those demons who can possess others - like Invidiaks who are commonly in Nocticula's employ? "Come buy a nymph to wear for a day!" There's also possession feats in Council of Thieves, I do believe, which would allow other demons to possess as well.

[JohnHawkins]

If it is of any interest to anyone I have a somewhat better written up Gazateer of the above at

Link

Which I may add to as the group investigates the city. It is somewhat Idiosyncratic as I have some references to an earlier WH40K campaign and a Robotic Hotel which has so far amused the players