Scarnetti subplots.

[Aaron Gillespie]

Anyone want to share how you're using the Scarnetti's in your RotR campaign?

[the Lorax]

Sure.

The Scarnetti are a family with their finger in every pot, looking to take as much as they can.

They control the grain mills - controlling the Deverin's ability to process the bounty of their farmlands.

They control the lumber mills - controlling the Valdemar's access to ship and dock building supplies.

I've added a community called "Borsky's Landing" (which I read about someone else adding, and swiped, thanks whoever mentioned it) near Biston Pond, it....well from my player's guide...
"Borsky's Landing: A small community of six or so families, Borsky’s Landing is located along the Turandarok River between the Three Kings and Devil’s Platter. Borsky’s Landing once boasted the most impressive lumber mill in the area, with a water run saw blade crafted by giants. The Borsky's Landing lumber mill is now a charred husk, the once impressive blade now rusting at the bottom of the Turandarok ever since wild fires were rampant in the area during the Late Unpleasantness. Borsky’s Landing now serves primarily as a mining community run by the Scarnetti, supplying materials for the glassworks."

The below information leaves out A LOT of background info, and side NPCs, but it at least give an overview of what is going on.

Three of my PCs are brothers - Scarnetti distant relations who the Scarnetti look down upon, and would rather see their line come to an end.

The PCs family was amongs the "brothers and cousins" that Alamon Scarnetti launched his ill-fated asualt during the founding of the town. Alamon tried to pin the blame on the PCs family, a ploy that was only partially successful.

Titus would like to see their family line end so that he can promote the pro-Scarnetti version of the history. He and his family are taking the long view to all of this - he can see that the bloodlines of the other three families are failing - something he has been working to ensure does not happen to his own.

He really DOES want what is best for the town...but he also believes that him being in charge IS best for the town.

During the Late Unpleasentness, the PC's family ran a lumber mill - which burned down. The PCs, to varying degrees blame the Scarnettis for this.

SO the Scarnettis are set up as rivals to the party, but rivals who want to protect and see the power and influence of the town grow.

I have plans to try to carry out a Fist Full of Dollars like scenario using the Scarnetti and the Sczarni. I'm heading into a phase where the PCs may be involving themselves more in this plot line, so I'll see how it develops.

Does that help or were you hoping for something different?

[The Snowdens of Yesteryear]

While nowhere near as impressive as the Lorax's list, I do have one thing I've been trying out with the Scarnettis. We just finished up Burnt Offerings, and the Scarnettis started spreading rumors that they hired the adventurers shortly after the party returned to Sandpoint. One of their hired hands very publicly approached the party's witch and gave her a bag spilling over with gold as "payment for the defense of Sandpoint from the Scarnetti family."

So far, the party seems content to take Scarnetti gold and do little about the growing rumors that they are on the family's payroll. That may very well change once we finish downtime and head into Skinsaw; the Scarnettis will start taking a more active approach to undermining Mayor Deverin and, with Harker's murder in their mill and the revelation of his skimming profits off the top, I imagine the party might start thinking of them less as a nuisance and more as a possible threat.

[Tybid]

When I ran it the actually had quite a bit to do with the background 'goings-on' in the campaign. A lot of it the group never found out about I just had it running in the background to make things more active. Some notables...

1.) In the first book the group trailed a group of goblins out into the wilds to get retribution for the attacks (an idea I got from these forums). They got out there and found a burned wagon with a dead courier who just happened to be carrying a letter with the Scarnetti seal.

I hinted that it was suspicious and gave them the option of taking it to the sheriff or back to Scarnetti and they chose the latter. In the end Scarnetti offered them a bribe to cover up his connection to the cart and the letter and they took it.

2.) Not a lot happened with the Scarnettis until book 4 when Titus Scarnetti opted to sell out the town for a huge payout from the giants, and was subsequently captured himself. The group never discovered his involvement.

Around the same time the chelaxian diabolist in my group died and the escaped pit fiend from the dam claimed his soul and through clever word play managed to tear our Scarnetti's daughter's soul and place the diabolist's in it's place.

The now NPC'd diabolist, working with the pit fiend, used his knowledge of Scarnetti's betrayal to take over the family and begin building a trading empire on the coast in the Scarnetti name.

3.) I kept waiting for the group to realize something was up since I often mentioned that 'old man Scarnetti' hasn't been seen since he tried to take over as mayor during the giant siege... even hinted at a complete change in the daughter's personality.

They all didn't figure it out until near the end of the game when I let it spill to their complete amazement.

[Misroi]

I love the Scarnetti family. They're set up to be antagonistic towards the PCs, but as written, Runelords doesn't use them all that much at all. I knew I had to fix that when one of my players made a Deverin, but honestly, I wouldn't have changed all that much if he hadn't.

First off, I really only introduced them as political rivals to the Deverins at the start of the campaign. Titus wants to gain control of Sandpoint, and his initial scheme is to turn one of the PCs to his side. As a result, he tried to wine and dine the elf PC with Rich Parents, hoping he could secure some sort of alliance from her. He offered to give them the finished lumber from his mills at a reduced rate, hoping to draw her towards being sympathetic to his causes. This never really went anywhere, so he gave up on trying to woo a supporter within their ranks.

Instead, he decided that he needed to take them down a peg. Almost immediately after they got back from Thistletop, he spoke out against them as tools for House Deverin. He brought up the questionable things in their pasts, the problems they bring, and whether they were the role models that House Deverin had made them out to be. True, they had saved the town this time, but did they really deserve to be lauded as "heroes?" They were able to turn public support towards them, though, so he decided to find other ways to strike at them. (This interaction gave them a strongly negative impression of Titus, so when the murder occurs at one of his lumber mills by someone named Your Lordship, he's on their radar.)

After that, they were more or less a background element, inevitably scheming, but not immediately interested in striking at the PCs until they had an opening. Once they finished up at Hook Mountain and found out that Sandpoint was under attack, they returned to town and put together a meeting with all the nobles. Scarnetti was initially dismissive of the party, but once he realized that the town was seriously in danger, he stepped up and committed what resources he had to the effort - after all, if Sandpoint falls, then there's nothing for him to rule! He ended up calling in several favors with the Valdemar family to have several ships waiting in the harbor to evacuate townsfolk should things get really bad, and contributed a portion of his house guard to bolster the town's defense. But the party never really got over his initial attempt at character assassination, so when they saw that the giants had hit his estate, they kept on dealing with the giants in town, not too concerned for his safety.

From there, some interesting things happened. Titus was of course captured in the assault, and the party's inquisitor challenged Jubrayl for control of the Sczarni in town. He won, and was about to kill Jubrayl when the Varisian played his trump card - let me live, and I'll give you all the dirt I have on Scarnetti. It worked, and when the party returned to Sandpoint with Titus, the inquisitor let him know that he knew where the bodies were buried, and that the noble had better dance to whatever tune he played. Titus rankled at this, but knew when he was cornered.

So that's where things have left off. With Titus under control, I plan on having Hobart Deverin die off and force Kendra to take over in Magnimar as the head of the family, and have Gaven take over. Gaven has recently had a bit of a reconciliation - it's a very long story, but he's recently had a vision of his brother, and while it was due to a curse, it helped him get over his funk. He may never brew another barrel of ale in his life, but he can take over in town until my party's wizard, Octavius Deverin, can fully move in.

[the Lorax]

Nice stuff everyone, Misroi, as always you have stuff for me to swipe!

In my NPCs You've added to the AP thread here, I have the major NPCs that I've added so far, including Titus' niece and nephew, and his fixer.

One of the challenges is that the Scarnetti seem to be alone in town.
The Deverin and Valdemar are clearly cautious and/or resentful of Scarnetti influence. With the death of Lonjiku, Titus making some sort of play for the Glassworks and trying to discredit Ameiko causes more problems with the Kaijitsu. The Sczarni are decidedly anti-Scarnetti.

That doesn't leave many people in Titus' corner.

Possibilities:
Aesrick Battlehorn - a rival to the shipyards/Valdemar
Father Zantus - an outsider perhaps he sees Titus' desire to improve Sandoint?
Ven Vinder - His daughters' rebellions are do to their overly strict upbringing, perhaps Ven supports the Scarnetti Family.
Any of the older history/knowledge based NPCs like Quink, Hadlan and Parooh - They approve of his conservative values.

My players are Sandpoint now, and I'm building up to HMM, I've dropped some hints about the Scarnetti hiring mercenaries to go around the farmlands to clear up the ghoul infestation, giving me some ground work for having the Scarnetti have a bunch of armed guys around.

Titus' nephew has been seen around town with an attractive woman (who happens to be Jubryl's sister - thanks fellow forum members again). Neither one is romantically interested in each other - only in trying to find out information about each others sides. For now they appear to be a couple, but actually do not like each other.

[Misroi]

Really, I see the Valdemar as "resentful, but unable to do anything about it." They're the shipbuilders of Sandpoint, and they're completely reliant on Scarnetti lumber to maintain their position. As a result, he can raise prices on them if they try to do anything he disapproves of.

This actually gave me a thought - the Valdemars will note that Scarnetti is dancing to the inquisitor's tune, and he might get contacted by their family head to discuss getting some sort of protection from the Scarnetti lumber monopoly. This is the weakest the Scarnetti family has been since the founding, so this is their time to strike if they want to get that yoke off of their necks.

[the Lorax]

Absolutely, the Valdemar are somewhat helpless to do anything about it.

I've been playing Ethram as an old man who, despite being mostly bed-ridden with hacking, bloody coughing fits, knows everything that is going on around town. Enfeebled, but still sharp as a whip. It's time that my PC who has been trying to get in the good graces of the Valdemar to receive an invite to Valdemar Manor.

The Valdemar's situation makes them a good foil to Scarnetti activity.

My PCs have a mixed, but mostly antagonistic relationship with the Scarnetti, as there is some suspicion that the Scarnetti were behind their families lumber mill burning down and the death of their parents.
I really expect it to come to blows at some point - but I actually want to portray Titus as a pro-Sandpoint guy, one who is looking out for the town but you can't really trust much either - its a fine line.

[RobReid]

When I DM'd RoTR, the PC who lead the party became Hannah Velerin's boyfriend. Another, (a chaotic evil Shoanti barbarian), casually spread a rumour in a Sandpoint pub that one of the party was the Skinsaw Man (this was before they killed the Skinsaw Man). A partial exodus from town ensued.
When the Sheriff found out the source of the rumour he worked on finding and arresting the barbarian for spreading panic (a subplot that later lead to intra-party murder, murder of locals by the party, an arrest and a hanging). In response to the rumour, Titus Scarnetti kidnapped Hannah and put posters around town telling the party that she was under their "protection", and it would be unfortunate if the Skinsaw Man attacked his family because Hannah might get hurt.