One of my PCs went to the Fatman's Feedsbag (the most disreputable tavern in Sandpoint) to listen for rumours. He got wind of the fact that the sczarni (criminal organisation) are trying to get their hands on the Pixie kitten (local brothel, but PCs still don't know about it), but Belor (sheriff of town) is making things hard.
I am pretty sure they did not understand much of the rumour, but I'd like it to have some consequences. Ideally, I would like one of the sczarni, maybe Jubrayl himself, to contact this PC and trick him into doing something which would help their plans. For example causing a scandal or obtaining some important information which could help the sczarni blackmail the bordel owner into accepting the sczarni "protection". However I am struggling to come up with concrete plot ideas, any suggestions?
The character (not player) in question is a fighter, a bit of a solitary (for a bunch of sessions decided to stay at the White Deer while the rest of the group was at the rusty dragon because he doesn't like too much company), pretty stubborn and not very sophisticated (Int 11, cha 10, wis 10 though), but alignment is good, so he would not help the sczarni willingly and has to be tricked into it. The group just got to second level after the glassworks thing.
The brothel owner is the (secretly but not really) fiancee of the town sheriff, which could lead to interesting developments. For example it could be funny if this PC helped the sczarni, while Belor asks the rest of the group to help with the situation. It could also be an occasion to involve Aliver Podiker, who they have not met yet (I'd like Aliver and the Sczarni to play some role in the campaign, however I do not want to go into red bishop or Kanker territory).
I played the Sczarni and Jubrayl as follows: We know Jubrayl has his hands in multiple criminal endeavors, some of them not very subtle, and we know that Belor knows or at least very strongly suspects Jubrayl to be the leader of the Sczarni and the head of a vast criminal organization, but...he lacks prove. All that is established in the book itself and that leads to two options:
Either Jubrayl is very smart or Hemlock is incredibly incompetent. Since I dislike the trope of incompetent watchmen who just need the help of heroes to save the day and I needed my group to trust Hemlock insofar that they would be willing to share information with him, I chose option 1.
And then I took a deep dive into criminal organizations, their histories, their reasons for existence and how organizations like the Sczarni were able to operate for as long as the have.
And the conclusion I came to: The Sczarni see themselves not as a criminal organization per se. Their endeavors are merely a means to an end, or at least that's what they tell themselves. See, ever since the Chelaxian brought "civilization" to Varisia, the Varisians, not unlike the Shoanti, are sometimes treated as a second class people. Or opressed, as Jubrayl would put it. Someone has to look after the Varisians in Sandpoint. The ruling families in the town are from Chelish descent (with the one obvious exception), the sheriff is Shoanti. So no one in power in Sanpoint is Varisian and therefore has no incentive to look after other Varisians.
But the Sczarni are, the Sczarni do. Jubrayl sees himself not as a leader of a crime syndicate, but as a leader of his people. Not as the head of the Scarni, but the one who watches after the Varisians in Sandpoint. That's his narrative and reasoning.
If you play him charming enough with that reasoning and smart enough to use that as an advantage and to know when to use it...it doesn't matter if your fighter is "good", because so is Jubrayl from his own point of view. Jubrayl is the hero of his story (as all good antagonists should be, to be fair).
Use that as a starting point. The Pixie's Kitten takes money from hard working dock workers for dubious services and sends it to the Calistriae temple in Riddlepoint instead of reinvesting it locally. The Sczarni aren't just extorting the brothel. (They totally are) They just want a reasonable share to reinvest it in the community.
