I'm running Escape From Old Korvosa now. My PCs found the lockbox at Vencarlo's house and got it opened. At least one player just wants to sell it all off. Especially with how much that amulet costs.
The player who was trying to sell off the Blackjack gear made a really good point. Why did Vencarlo decide it was a good idea to go in to the Arkona manor as himself?? As my player put it, either:
A. This box is just his spare outfit, and he has a second complete set of gear that he is using while trying to save Neolandus, in which case they could just sell it off without it being that big a deal.
B. Vencarlo is an idiot for walking into the maw of the beast without any of his gear, and somehow hoping to save Neolandus from a family that he knows is incredibly dangerous as a middle aged fencing instructor. If this is the case, he is probably dead and doesn't need his gear anymore anyways.
So that made me realize I need to come up with a good reason behind what Vencarlo went in there to do.
The best I have come up with so far is that Vencarlo went in to try to barter for the release of the Seneshal, but what could he have to offer that could be worth the same as the secret of Neolandus' survival? Maybe Vencarlo went in planning to offer up his own secret in exchange. The party has encountered Balckjack a few times already, and he even helped them clear out the Temple at the end of book 2. it's known to the PCs that the Arkonas and blackjack have had a lot of run-ins.
So if this is what I go with, Vencarlo goes in with a plan that likely ends in him sacrificing himself, giving up his secret identity and then dying or being imprisoned forever, but at least he saves the city by getting Neolandus out in order to overthrown the evil queen.
This is why he sends the note to Cressida. He is hoping that by the time someone comes in answer he will be gone, but Neolandus will be hiding out at the fencing academy ready to be picked up by agents of the Guard.
At this point, Vencarlo doesn't have someone to pass on his mantle to, but leaves his gear behind in the hopes that someone worthy will find it and carry on the tradition, even though his own plans for succession were such a failure.
Of course, his whole plan fails when Bahor decides to just throw him in the dungeons and doesn't accept the deal. I am still trying to decide if Vencarlo told his secret first and it wasn't good enough to win the release of Neolandus, or if Bahor just told him right out that no secret was worth giving up his trump card for and tossed him to his sister for the insult of even trying that gambit.
What have other GMs done with this? Have your players even thought it was odd that the gear was away from the guy who could have been using it to go sneak through the manor batman-style and maybe avoid being caught?
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I assumed a couple of things:
1) His capacities to get a message to Kroft are fairly limited, so he writes a missive and sends it with an untrustworthy courier. He can't be overly clear on his agendas or his information for fear of compromising his information.
2) Vencarlo knows he is being watched by Red Mantis assassins. They've already burned down his Academy to get him (literally, they're in his house waiting to kill him). Returning for his gear seems extremely dangerous. Since he knows the Red Mantis are hunting him and are on the trail of Neolandus, his time window is limited. It's not like he has the option of NOT trying to rescue Neolandus and just hoping the Red Mantis don't slip past the Arkonas and finish the job. And that's assuming that he got caught in Arkona Palace, instead of Arkona agents catching up with him on the streets and dragging him off. It's not like he spends most of his day in his Blackjack gear.
Also, are the players really so keen to destroy the legend of Blackjack in exchange for a quick influx of a moderately large amount of cash? They're robbing a legend - one whose actively gone out of his way to try and help them - and one of the city's great defenders. They'd better hope he's dead, since Blackjack is likely to be pissed (how would the PCs feel about Blackjack presuming their death and robbing them?). Even if he is dead, selling off all his gear robs the city of the chance to have a Blackjack to defend them. By all means, let them do it if cash is what matters most to them, but it'll rob them of a vital ally - both the man and the legend later when Korvosa needs it.
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I'm guessing that the players don't really know or aren't invested in Blackjack. Did you play down his role in the earlier scene with him in it? Maybe having him show up will cause the Jeggare Museum to re-incorporate The Fencing master's Local Legends exhibit. It might show them the opportunity to learn what type of opportunity they have.
Maybe the museum opens the exhibit again, and they get a anonymous invitation.
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I'm not really sure why they don't like Blackjack all that much. Always funny which NPCs the players care about and which ones bug them.
I actually thought that Blackjack wasn't scripted to appear all that much in the AP as written, so I made sure to have rumors about him around before he came in at the end of book 1.
I also had them run into Blackjack while casing the Hospice in book 2. he let them in on some background info about the warehouse belonging to the arkonas, etc. Then when they had to retreat after dealing with the top floor, he joined them in clearing out the second section. For some reasont he players were really worried he was a bad guy who was going to stab them in the back when they were weakened. Not sure what I did to give off that vibe.
For right now it's really just the one player who really wants to sell the stuff. at least 1 player is adamant about giving it all back when they save him, the others are undecided or just not vocal one way or another.
My group figured out who Blackjack was pretty quickly, and they weren't really that interested in him. They agreed to give him his items back when they found them and rescued him, but they also stated to him that if he was retiring, then they would be better served with the items. No one wanted to be his successor, and eventually they pretty much ignored him.