Kintargo nobility in early books


Hell's Rebels


Has anyone had players want to try and interact / get the nobility on side early on? And in my case I mean book 1 where they have less than 10 followers

From memory this is a book 3 thing?

How would they even react ? I can’t see why they would give them the time of day?

Book 3 has the requirements to influence and I don’t see why they should change just because they are approached early. But should this even be an option?

Right now I have fobbed them off with the majordormo saying he will try and keep an ear to the ground for them (they rolled a crazy diplomacy). I am not sure what he can come back with - maybe a clue on the aforementioned influence checks

I think they are under the impression that everyone they choose to speak to in the sandbox will be immediately possible to sway to their current aims and goals (as if it were a sandbox computer game). An example being that they grilled two different bar owners (sense motive and all) about their knowledge of gang activity when trying to track the Red Jills - and both reacted with horror and offence

So what should I do with the nobility early on ?


The nobles likely wouldn't be risking their lives for a tiny group of up-starts that haven't done anything to prove themselves as being competent or a threat to Thrune.
The checks should be ridiculously high, much higher than what's in book 3, as they have no track record of being organized.


Remind the players that the Current Thrune Administration just burned down and "disappeared" a noble family's house, servants, and nobles. No matter how good your ideas are, no one wants your newsletter until you prove on your own that you can achieve your ends. Nobody's risking this right now. Also? Thrune is well-known for simply pulling the charter from noble families that displease them--and they've installed a crazy witch muttering about extra dimensions in the Records Hall where their title and mortgage papers are kept.

And, on a personal note, it bothers me that people role-playing revolutionaries are sucking up to the nobility at level one. I get it: everyone plays differently and if it works at your table, it's all good and it's not badwrongfun.


roguerouge wrote:

Remind the players that the Current Thrune Administration just burned down and "disappeared" a noble family's house, servants, and nobles. No matter how good your ideas are, no one wants your newsletter until you prove on your own that you can achieve your ends. Nobody's risking this right now. Also? Thrune is well-known for simply pulling the charter from noble families that displease them--and they've installed a crazy witch muttering about extra dimensions in the Records Hall where their title and mortgage papers are kept.

And, on a personal note, it bothers me that people role-playing revolutionaries are sucking up to the nobility at level one. I get it: everyone plays differently and if it works at your table, it's all good and it's not badwrongfun.

How well known if the thing about the witch in the record hall?

And what about pulling charters ? Is that from elsewhere in cheliax ?

I will admit I hadn’t thought about the alarming idea that the nobles were among the first people they ran to as revolutionaries- the group who are stereotypically least interested in rocking the boat

I was more intrigued if they would even give them a moment of time. I am starting to think they wouldn’t


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Pulling charters is from the Council of Thieves, and the books on Cheliax. It's part of a game of influence encouraged by Thrune to reward loyalty and to punish those houses that displease them.

One thing that Raynulf's Rebellion thread sold me on is that DMs need to bring the Thrune lieutenants on stage before book 4. I started a foreshadow list: Vannases Trex, Tiarise Izoni, Corinstian Grivenner and Aluceda Zhol, Zella Zidlii, Kyrre Ekodyre, Tayacet Tiora. Below is what I've done, but I'd encourage you to figure out what works for your table to give them a moment in the sun before book 4, just like Bazillai's opening scene and ridiculous pronouncements establish his villainy.

For Izoni, during book 3, I plan on having her start maliciously foreclosing on working class homes in disloyal districts after the redactors disappear their mortgage paper work (forcing Abadarans into the fight). The party hasn't quite figured out she's behind the tooth fairies.

The party heard about Grivenner from the scrivinite's testimony at the end of book one, while the party saw the scary couple, Zhol and Grivenner, when they attended the Sarinis Theater of the Real extravaganza, which happened middle of book 2. Zhol will play a bigger role at my table because I have a PC with a Nidal backstory.

Zidlii is now the chancellor of the Alabaster Academy and Lady Docur's, and is basically Dolores Umbridge. (I have a PC enrolled at Lady Docur's.) Seizing all the books during midterms to ensure that they didn't spark the student street protest has worked nicely. This was throughout book 2.

The murder investigation in Turn of the Torrent revealed that Trex regularly consults her, although the party hasn't figured out why the chief of the dottari would consult with a Harrower yet.

The Order of the Rack will take center stage in book three, as leveled-up dottari are not nearly so fun. Having Ekodyre act like Judge Dredd as he announces a no-tolerance policy on anarchist revolutionaries, then stalking off to the HQ while teams of HKs do house-by-house searches for banned poetry, hauling off people for minor infractions, etc., feels like it should do the trick.

I started a thread on the Gardner and what I'm figuring out with her there. This will be book 3 and bring in the Alabaaster Academy a bit more.

I've talked a lot about House Sarini, another under-utilized group, but their teenage scions were the noble leaders of the Queensmen in my campaign. They came on stage in book 2 as well.

Tiora in my campaign was the chief of dottari but got kicked down to beat cop under Thrune. She's the one good cop... which is great, but it also means that she will arrest the Ravens if she has to. This was the serial killer investigation.


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My Foreshadow List:
Vannases Trex -- I had her watching and taking pot-shots during the opening scene of the AP. Haven't used her much since other than mention that she's been going in and out of the Opera House throughout the first 3 books (the group has some people keeping an eye on the place)

Tiarise Izoni -- She was providing names and descriptions to Varl Wex. The PCs found a note signed "T" in with his stuff. The PCs confronted the River Talons in book 1, afterwards both groups started marking territory. Tiarise and Zella Zidlii worked together after Zella had a vision (or something) that the River Talons had "met with someone important". The two of them found out about the symbol the Ravens were using. So then Tiarise would get a devil to leave that same mark after Wex killed someone. The group had a description of Tiarise from someone in Redroof that saw her in the area shortly before the tooth fairy murders started. The group saw her go into the opera house a few times, and Tayacet was able to identify her by name (which tied her to Varl Wex) to the group in book 3. The group raided the Records Hall as they wanted to run a heist and steal the payroll so I added a basement to the Records Hall. (Which lead to the group closing the Menador Gap to prevent Thrune from getting more money to pay the dottari with). Tiarise will be at the Ruby Masquerade and will (likely) be killing a favoured (minor) NPC. When she goes to teleport away Barzillai will have cast Dimensional Anchor to screw her over. (It's said in the books that Tiarise and Thrune don't really trust each other and Thrune will punish her for failing to properly protect the Vault.)

Corinstian Grivenner -- He was mentioned in a session 0 thing I ran but hasn't really been used since. But has been seen in and around the opera house.

Aluceda Zhol -- Seen a couple of times but not really utilized. Will be replacing Tiarise in the Records Hall in book 4 and is currently resting in the vault.

Zella Zidlii -- See Tiarise.

Kyrre Ekodyre -- Used her during the opening scene of the AP. She came out of the opera house swinging to kill NPCs. Has been seen a few times. Also used in Session 0 to kill a tiefling friend of the groups tiefling.

Tayacet Tiora -- Love using her! She was investigating the murders that Varl Wex was committing (worth noting: Tiarise and Zella were using Wex to kill off potential turn-coats in the dottari ranks. All victims were pre-Thrune dottari). Tayacet wasn't impressed with Thrune and knew something hinky was going on with the murders so when her and a few Hellknights arrived at Wex's place she had the Hellknights go investigate the other apartments as she "didn't want them destroying any evidence" (or something) and spoke with one of the PCs. They handed over Wex and the kukri, she informed Thrune that a group calling themselves the Ravens has subdued Wex and handed him over so he was forced to acknowledge them at the end of book 2. During book 3 she would slip them bits of information, like who Tiarise was.

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