Help with Magnimar sidequests...

[Aaron Gillespie]

My party just finished Burnt Offerings and they want to go to Magnimar. I'm going to have them escort Tsuto and Lyrie and testify at their trial before Ironbriar.
I would like to do some things with Ironbriar to make the PCs trust him and make it more of a shock when he's revealed as one of the big bads of Skinsaw Murders. I don't think Ironbriar would be worried about them yet, so he's not going to send them on a suicide mission or anything. That would come later after they come to Magnimar to investigate the Brotherhood.
Any help I could get with ideas for what I could do is appreciated. I admit to being at a bit of a loss.

[Basillicum]

I know I've read posts by others who had Ironbriar conduct the trial against Tsuto/Lyrie/other baddies on these forums, but I didn't get to do that myself. Some say that he should be openly arrogant and basically sentence the accused almost immediately, but if you want to build up some trust for him he probably shouldn't seem corrupt.

In any case, if your players try to mingle with the elite, you should probably try to introduce more than just one Justice, else perceptive players may start making lucky guesses about the future. Justice Dorexhi (?) might be a good secondary.

Dawn of the Scarlet Sun:

The Dawn of the Scarlet Sun is a pretty interesting module which you could involve Ironbriar in. It may be that the town watch (Kasadei) that works the case in Underbridge is currently under the supervision of Ironbriar, making it his quest. A respected judge giving the PCs a quest to hunt down a demons should make them trust him.

Your players might want to investigate "the Skinsaw Man" if you included that name in Nualia's notes and journal. I don't know how well it would work (for my players, probably not), but you could consider allowing Justice Ironbriar to orchestrate the capture/killing of a fake Skinsaw Man, if you think this would give your players the illusion of closure for Burnt Offerings. Personally I considered changing Dawn of the Scarlet Sun a bit for this.

[elcaleeb]

I tried to get my players interested in the drug trade (I don't have the book on me, but I think the group is called Midnight Dawn), though through other means. There is some good info on this in the Magnimar: City of Monuments book. He could be interested in sending them to investigate some of the low level dealings and reporting back their findings, theoretically helping both the city from a justice perspective, and the cult by removing some "competition". You could even build on this later in the campaign when they are higher level.

I also ran the module "The Godsmouth Heresy" in between books 1 and 2, though I moved the location to under the Sandpoint Cathedral to make it easier for myself, I think the location could be changed to Magnimar easily as well. Perhaps someone is robbing graves and Ironbriar is legit trying to do his job and investigate, or maybe he is worried that some "marked" bodies may be unconvered. Either way, I felt the module had a good Thassilonian theme that gave some clues to what the players may face in the future.

[Ckorik]

Many people make Ironbriar the secret father of Tsuto - use that as you would.

As to side quests - they should be level 4 now so you could play any cityish adventure for that level. If you want to play up the father/son connection I'd perhaps bring up what evidence they have to support the charges - and make them cough it up or trek back to thistletop to gather evidence - where another goblin tribe has moved in....

Or another possibility would be to have them run into a thieves guild operation - say a pickpocket steals an item from a PC - if they succeed the party can gather information (diplomacy, knowledge local, intimidate...) and find out where that gang hides out - if they get caught the guild tracks down the players for revenge....

Say you'd like to keep things non combat...

The players being in a large city are going to want to visit at least one shop that sells magic items - so Bob the merchant would love to give them a huge discount on that item they want (or pay full price say for the one they want to sell) and offers them a deal - if they fetch a rare pheonix feather for them from the alchemyst in another part of the city ...

The alchemyst (yeah flavor so I'm not confusing you with the class) Pete would love to sell them a feather or give it away - but needs a packet of rare herbs from the dockyards.

Steve the herb vendor is out - and the shipment is being held up by customs - if they can work something out with the customs office to free up his shipment they can have a pouch gratis.

The customs office is in the city government building - which is having a session of the council when the party arrives - so they get to see some of the movers and shakers of the world walk past with retainers and in a hurry - some of the personal guards (nice and high level - play up the description) eye the party as they walk past - one even winks at them with a smile.

The customs officer starts unfriendly and refuses to budge - but with a little bit of coaxing he mentions that he'd be willing to move the paperwork if they can help him out - he's got an issue with his wife and seriously made her upset - and doesn't know what to do about it.

How the party helps him fix his problem is left up to them.

Change names and or sexes as appropriate.

[Misroi]

I agree with Basillicum - don't make Ironbriar corrupt. I ran a courtroom scene with Justice Ironbriar, where the PCs had to convict Lyrie of involvement with Nualia. I described Sheriff Hemlock as relieved that Ironbriar was the presiding justice - many of the others are known to be corrupt, but he has a reputation as "harsh, but fair." The adventure I crafted, ostensibly, was "gather information about Lyrie's character in Magnimar," and the more info they gained, the more guilty she looked. Earn enough Guilt points, and he convicted her, sentencing her to the Hells. They did, so away she went.

Or so they thought. The Guilt points were really Awareness points, and the more they gathered, the more Ironbriar realized he could use her in the Great Work he and his cultists were performing. So, when they went to the Seven's Sawmill, and encountered her, they were incredibly surprised to find her there. It made a lot more sense when they fought the Skinsaw leader and unmasked him to find Ironbriar underneath.

So, yeah, definitely consider making him a trusted person in Magnimar's government. There's enough bastards there already, so I don't see any reason to add another.

I'd be careful about adding Dawn of the Scarlet Sun between Books 1 and 2. It's a rough adventure, especially at that level. I added it in when they visit Magnimar in Book 2, since the party is about the right level at that point. The final encounter has a LOT of TPK stories, so you might be ending the campaign sooner than you'd like!

[Meangarr]

I also introduced Ironbriar between Burnt Offerings and the Skinsaw Murders, he arrived in Sandpoint to collect the party's statements in regard to the captured Tsuto, Lyrie, Orik, and Nualia. Because they had read Nualia's diary which suggested a criminal conspiracy in Magnimar they asked Ironbriar about it.

I had Ironbriar talk about disappearances in Magnimar, his suspicions about them, and his frustration in his investigations being obstructed by the corruption of the city (I'm playing him more like a District Attorney than a Judge). When the party offered to help him investigate he demurred, but showed some openness to accepting their help down the road.

Playing it this way I think he earned some of the players' trust, demonstrating that he had some need the party, and suggesting that he wasn't corrupt by projecting the corruption on others in Magnimar's government.

Consequently when Aldern's journal led the party to Magnimar they sought Ironbriar out. He offered the party a lead (an actual Skinsaw Men victim, chosen for his greed but with no obvious ties to the cult) and listened to their leads, seeing how much they know.

After a somewhat disastrous encounter at Foxglove's townhouse Ironbriar sent town guards to bring the group in to offer them a new lead. On the way back to him they were intercepted by another Justice that I had added to the module who suspects Ironbriar of corruption. Because of her brusqueness, and her unwillingness to make any concrete allegations against Ironbriar when the party finally made it to him he was able to cast their suspicions toward her and shore up their trust in him.

This is the point I added in a side trek into the module. Ironbriar had received a lead into the whereabouts of a former Skinsaw cultist who had left the group after becoming a worshipper of Zon-kuthon. Ironbriar wanted this man killed due to his knowledge of the cult, and he also wanted the party gone as they were getting too close. Therefore he cast this man as his chief suspect, suggested that he couldn't pursue the lead within the confines of the law, but asked the party to do so intending to send cultists in to kill the survivors.

This side trek was all custom but I think as a hook you could use it to tie in any side trek or module centered on a single evil mortal, casting them as a former cultist whom Ironbriar wanted to silence. I think doing it in this or a similar way fills out the Ironbriar arc by building the parties trust for him while also foreshadowing his betrayal.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this will be of use to someone.

[SoylentG]

I stole a page from thelesuit's book, and made the Seven into a Brotherhood of serial killers.

Each of the Seven had claimed a district of Magnimar as their "hunting grounds," and under Ironbriar's influence (as Eldest Brother) they'd begun to kill at a frenzied pace (always marking their victims with the Sihedron Rune). When the PCs arrived in the city, people were being advised to stay off the streets after dark, and members of the Order of the Nail were augmenting the harried police effort to catch the killers. In exploring the city's districts, the players stumbled onto a number leads.

• Naos District: Youngest Brother, the protege of Aeryn Darvengian. "Scarlet Fog" from Missions in Magnimar, Asylum Stone (Shattered Star chapter 1)
  
• Underbridge District: Sister Scarlet, a reskinned Zadendi from Dawn of the Scarlet Sun, as per Basillicum's suggestion.
  
• Dockaway District: Sabriyya Kalmeralm's people had been paying the Night Scales for protection. In the face of continuing murders by Sister Skintaker, Theryn Raccas enlisted the PCs help tracking the killer.
  
• Ordelia District: Eldest Brother, Lord Justice Ironbriar operating out of the Seven's Sawmill.
  

And three others, which the players never investigated on their own. After Ironbriar was revealed, the remaining Senior Brothers met up in their sewer cathedral (map from Missions in Magnimar, Asylum Stone) and the PCs had a big old fight. Only two of the Senior Brothers managed to escape...

There's also the matter of the Kaijutsu Villa, which has become occupied by squatters; Ameiko had acompanied the PCs to Magnimar to attend the probate hearings for her father's will. Afterwards, she enlisted the PCs in helping evict the squatters (Urban Blight, also from Missions in Magnimar, Asylum Stone)

Basically, pick up Asylum Stone, it's got a bunch of Magnimmar side-missions that can easily be integrated into RotRL.