So... Turn of the Torrent advises you build up Luculla as much as possible, get the party to like and trust her before the shocking reveal in the Lucky Bones. But as written, there's not a lot of opportunity to do that: after the whole opening sequence with Octavio and Setrona, they'd pretty immediately want to go to the Holding House, and then there's only one more Level 4-appropriate mission (The Poison Pen) before they'll want to start exploring the LB - Varl Wex is recommended for level 6. And once they go to the LB, of course, Luculla and her cultists are the very FIRST group of baddies to contend with. Any advice on dropping in more chances to interact with Luculla?
Honestly, I replaced Clenchjaw's with the Tooth & Nail and fortunately my party just likes hanging out with Setrona and Luculla.
(of course I also have Luculla as a potential ally instead of The Enemy)
I did something similar as Grankless.
After the riot at the very beginning Rexus brought the group to the Tooth & Nail to talk about things so the group started frequenting the pub and I'd have Luculla make frequent appearances. (Wearing oven mitts because she had just taken whichever treat she brought over out of the oven.)
The group let her get away in book 2 so I had her be the witchfire that appears in a later book.
The cult also wasn't working against the group, but was more of a third party that was against Thrune while being very secretive and had no problem killing people. (So, still antagonists for the group unless the PCs realized what was going on and made efforts to befriend them. And even then, the PCs would have to be okay with some of the things the cult was doing.)
I just had her in the dungeon.
Honestly I completely missed setting up that whole reveal. I couldn't find a good way to introduce her as a character, and so I just didn't. A missed opportunity, sure, but the dungeon crawl of clearing out the cultists still went fine.
If I recall correctly, I had her be the source of a rumor while the Silver Ravens did 'Gather information' Rebellion activities. When the Ravens followed up with her/ran into her at the bar it went well enough. A PC took a liking to her/her baked goods and I got some mileage out of the betrayal, but it ended up more on the "Aw, its a bummer this nice NPC we met turned out to be an evil cultist. Ah well no more free donuts."
If I was interested in expanding her role any, I'd introduce her earlier with a unique gimmick. Spell Completion item pastries is the first thing that comes to mind.
Session 1 - one of the rumours the group picked up was some workers talking about "Lucy" Gens incredible blueberry tarts.
After that, I had her turn up every time they spoke with Setrona, being super sweet and giving them sweets - and playing her like a schoolgirl in love with our dashing Elf Rogue.
If they didn't bite there, I was planning of having Setrona quietly ask the group to dispose of Luculla's supplies of peppermint, as a way to tie her to the group and present her as perhaps anti-Thrune, but currently they seem quite content with her as she's been presented.
I'm definitely going to try and play her deception, with her playing the damsel in the dungeon - but our party is quite insightful, so that should be fun.
Warped Savant wrote:
The group let her get away in book 2 so I had her be the witchfire that appears in a later book.
She got away in my game too, came back for the Silver Span Celebration (the rest of the party freaked out when the new player was like, “Hey, this nice lady gave me a couple of really good fruit tarts…”), and followed the party into the caverns where the Soul Anchor is (but didn’t engage because she was massively outnumbered.)
Now one of the party’s allies is trapped in the mirror of life trapping, and I’m thinking of being “nice” to them by having Luculla have the command word to release the ally… *for a price.* I’m just having trouble coming up with an appropriate cost.
She’s pissed at them for destroying the Anchor, and her being in proximity means that she got the same mythic tier I gave them when they destroyed it, so she’s still going to be a credible threat going forward. Anyone have any suggestions?
DreadPirateRhys wrote: Warped Savant wrote:
The group let her get away in book 2 so I had her be the witchfire that appears in a later book.
She got away in my game too, came back for the Silver Span Celebration (the rest of the party freaked out when the new player was like, “Hey, this nice lady gave me a couple of really good fruit tarts…”), and followed the party into the caverns where the Soul Anchor is (but didn’t engage because she was massively outnumbered.)
Now one of the party’s allies is trapped in the mirror of life trapping, and I’m thinking of being “nice” to them by having Luculla have the command word to release the ally… *for a price.* I’m just having trouble coming up with an appropriate cost.
She’s pissed at them for destroying the Anchor, and her being in proximity means that she got the same mythic tier I gave them when they destroyed it, so she’s still going to be a credible threat going forward. Anyone have any suggestions? Depends on how long you want this to go on for. If you're up for a whole side quest, these are very high level PCs. Send them to Geb or Nex or wherever for something to fix the Soul Anchor.
Now, since they went to the effort to destroy it, maybe she wouldn't tell them what she was sending them to retrieve, just after an item to replace what they took from her or somesuch.
Kasoh wrote:
Depends on how long you want this to go on for. If you're up for a whole side quest, these are very high level PCs. Send them to Geb or Nex or wherever for something to fix the Soul Anchor.
Now, since they went to the effort to destroy it, maybe she wouldn't tell them what she was sending them to retrieve, just after an item to replace what they took from her or somesuch.
Well, the players are distraught that we're almost done, so extending things isn't a bad idea. :D
I wasn't sure if repairing the Soul Anchor was out of reach... but that would be *delicious* irony, given that the ally they want released is a Pharasman priest.
I'd also been thinking about retooling the Terapsillion, and having them defeat an upgraded Ithanothaur so she can raise him and replace Adrakash (since there's still that mirror for her to protect). Might be able to kill two birds with one stone, claim Ithanothaur had something she needs, then have it not be there...drag out their final quest a bit. Thanks!
So, I whole clothed another mission introducing Luculla, where the guards were confiscating metal goods in order to melt them down for "The War Effort" (Actually just Thrune being greedy- he's gonna sell them on the black market) which introduced Luculla getting backhanded across the street while all of her cooking implements are appropriated.
This gave her a good intro to the group, and I made sure to play up her interactions with the players allies- in particular giving free confectionary to the orphans my players were protecting.
Later when they fought their way through the cult, I gave her a scroll of invisibility to use for the fight there, so when things went south, she hid in the back room, tied herself up and gave herself a head wound, acted like the players were rescuing her from being sacrificed.
From there she was...uncannily always seeming into distress. The party interrupt her attempt to recruit Varl Wex to the cult? "Oh no, this slasher is going to kill me!" etc.
Eventually one of the players started sleeping with her...and she took the opportunity later to try and ritually extract his sorcerous blood for...specific character reasons that would take far too long to explain.
Nothing like players going into a boss fight they weren't expecting, where the boss has been buffed...by them
In the middle of book 1 at the moment. My players are halfway through clearing the Sallix Salt Works. My plan is to have Forvian Crowe suggest the Tooth & Nail as a temporary safe house, since they are out after curfew, and crossing the city and Bleakbridge to get back to Longroads is a bit out of the question.
JD Niemand wrote: So... Any advice on dropping in more chances to interact with Luculla? I liked Luculla as an NPC. Couple things I did... She was playing darts with Setrona when the PC's first meet her, quick intro and description and she leaves.
Then I have a story showing her interacting with local kids that I rather like (below).
And on Octavio's way out of town, I had her imploring him to look for the twins that had gone missing, works as a nice segue to Wex and her.
My script for the second encounter with Luculla:
You round the corner, to see a group of small children sitting on the steps as Luchulla Gens wraps up a story, “..and that’s when the dread pirate Bellamy thrust his harpoon through the eye of Admiral Rotscrim!” As she does this, she puts her cupped hand to her eyepatch with a poorly executed slight of hand, and drops a small egg painted like an eyeball. The kids love it and run screaming, some dropping their treats as they go.
“I don’t know why they always do that, some of these kids have seen me do this gag a dozen times. I never get tired of it either I suppose.”
If pressed:
“My… my childhood wasn’t a great one,” she says, self consciously putting a hand to her cheek, “it’s nice when I can do a little something nice for others in that same boat.” Her expression turns wry and she tightens her apron strings, “but you look like a full grown and virile adults with healthy appetites. And me with blackberry tarts about to come out of the oven, how many dozen are you looking to buy?”
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