Results 1 to 7 of 7
  1. #1

    Introductory Adventures

    Hello all!

    I am asking for help, *BIG* time.

    I have a group of players, (1 from each class) coming over to play some
    Birthright this weekend.
    Problem: I have no 1st level adventures and am totally dry on ideas!!!!

    AAAAAHH!

    Anyway, here's the situation:
    1) The Cleric is from Proudglaive in Roesone, and the player is the
    'primary' character. (IE. He's the only one of the 4 who do more than
    roll dice and seek out treasure) so I want to curtail the adventure
    around him, and throw in a few bones for the others.
    2) I am setting the game just after Marlae's rise to power. As such,
    she is still 'settling in', and all the neighbors are testing the waters
    with her. (Incidentally, the cleric is a priest of Ruornil, the one
    small temple in Caercas I believe).
    3) I am ultimately planning to have Ghoere become very nasty, and want
    to involve the MOC at some point as well. I will be using the Roesone
    handbook.
    4) I am trying to come up with ideas for a few very basic adventures to
    serve as introductions to the larger (and more evil) plot, which
    involves Ghoere, the MOC, the Spider, and the Tarkal Deeps.

    Anyone have any ideas???


    Morg
    - --
    "I hate it when my brain stem hurts."
    The New Draftmine Repository:
    http://members.home.net/morgramen/index.html

  2. #2
    Mark A Vandermeulen
    Guest

    Introductory Adventures

    OK, Brainstorming proceeds below.

    On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Morg wrote:

    > Hello all!
    >
    > I am asking for help, *BIG* time.
    >
    > I have a group of players, (1 from each class) coming over to play some
    > Birthright this weekend.
    > Problem: I have no 1st level adventures and am totally dry on ideas!!!!
    >
    > AAAAAHH!
    >
    > Anyway, here's the situation:
    > 1) The Cleric is from Proudglaive in Roesone, and the player is the
    > 'primary' character. (IE. He's the only one of the 4 who do more than
    > roll dice and seek out treasure) so I want to curtail the adventure
    > around him, and throw in a few bones for the others.
    > 2) I am setting the game just after Marlae's rise to power. As such,
    > she is still 'settling in', and all the neighbors are testing the waters
    > with her. (Incidentally, the cleric is a priest of Ruornil, the one
    > small temple in Caercas I believe).
    > 3) I am ultimately planning to have Ghoere become very nasty, and want
    > to involve the MOC at some point as well. I will be using the Roesone
    > handbook.
    > 4) I am trying to come up with ideas for a few very basic adventures to
    > serve as introductions to the larger (and more evil) plot, which
    > involves Ghoere, the MOC, the Spider, and the Tarkal Deeps.

    OK, some speculations on topic. It always seemed to me that the
    Impregnible Heart of Haelyn was important, if not integral to Marlae's
    rise to the throne, so it has always struck me as interesting the she
    didn't make the IHH the official temple of Roesone. Perhaps your PC's
    could have something to do with that. As a priest of Ruornil, the PC
    should be concerned about the possibility that his holding in Caercas
    could be named outlaw and contested out of existence with the full support
    of Marlae. Perhaps your PC is integral to making sure that this doesn't
    happen. The PC might perform some service for Marlae, and a grateful
    Marlae grants the PC a boon, which the PC askes for not making the IHH the
    official temple. This can help set some things up for later on when you
    want to bring the Militant Order into the picture.

    However, now you need to design an adventure where a priest of Ruornil can
    really shine, to impress Marlae. So, what are the strengths of Ruornil
    priests in comparison to those of Haelyn. Well, for one, they're also
    magicians, so get magician spells, although not until 2nd level if I
    remember correctly. Their major drawback is that they cannot wear armour,
    so a battle-heavy adventure is probably not going to be called for. I
    would say that they are masters of subtlety, so some sort of intrigue or
    espionage is called for.

    First thing that springs to mind is an assasination attempt. That could
    work, esp. if it is a magic-using assassin that is attempting to come
    after the Duchess. Or perhaps something more subtle: an assassination
    attempt where the blame is engineered to fall in a certain direction,
    perhaps on Aerenwe, or on Medoere itself, straining the alliance between
    the two and casting suspicion on the PC him/herself. The PC must then not
    only find out who is really responsible in order to clear him/herself, but
    also stop the second attempt from succeeding and throwing the two realms
    into the chaos of war, to which they will be easy pickings for the real
    enemy (probably Ghoere, but that's a little too obvious; perhaps Guilder
    Kalien or Orthien Tane, eager to pick up the guild pieces after a war).

    A variant sprang to my mind as I was writing above, so I'll share that as
    well. Perhaps Marlae has been having bad dreams. In these dreams she dies
    (sees her own dead body), and is concerned about them. She naturally
    summons the diviners and priests of the realm, and asks them for an
    interpretation. Priests of Haelyn, focused on Justice and Noble War may
    not be able to give a very satisfactory answer to this, but this thing
    should be right up Ruornil's alley. Clues could reveal, as the party
    understands them, step by step, a plan to assissinate the Duchess, and by
    the time the party finally puts all the pieces together, they have no time
    to do anything but rush to where-ever Marlae is and foil the plan. I can
    envision dark alleys in Proudglaive, secret catacombs under the city,
    melees with poison smugglers in the dead of night, assassins scheduled
    to arrive at the docks at a certain time, and then revealed to be red
    herrings, chases through the city under the cover of night,
    Marlae's brother kidnapped, oblique clues which first seem to lead one
    way, and then another, trusted advisors proved to be false, and the final
    desperate battle with the betrayer in a small side chapel in the
    voluminous Cathedral of Haelyn, with the life of the Duchess on the line.

    This scenario has a number of good points for it: the stakes are revealed
    early on in the game, and the goal is uniquely Cerilian. What the players
    "win" is not cheifly gold or magical items (although there may be one or
    two of those) but influence and respect with important people, the favor
    of a temporal ruler, and the appreciation of your superiors (i.e. in the
    Church of Ruornil, who don't want to loose the holding).

    Whew. I'm exhaused now. I hope there are some good ideas there. More than
    happy to provide continuing advice as you shape your ideas into a workable
    story.

    Mark VanderMeulen
    vander+@pitt.edu

  3. #3

    Introductory Adventures

    AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Mark, YOU DA MAN!

    Mark A Vandermeulen wrote:



    > A variant sprang to my mind as I was writing above, so I'll share that as
    > well. Perhaps Marlae has been having bad dreams. In these dreams she dies
    > (sees her own dead body), and is concerned about them. She naturally
    > summons the diviners and priests of the realm, and asks them for an
    > interpretation. Priests of Haelyn, focused on Justice and Noble War may
    > not be able to give a very satisfactory answer to this, but this thing
    > should be right up Ruornil's alley. Clues could reveal, as the party
    > understands them, step by step, a plan to assissinate the Duchess, and by
    > the time the party finally puts all the pieces together, they have no time
    > to do anything but rush to where-ever Marlae is and foil the plan. I can
    > envision dark alleys in Proudglaive, secret catacombs under the city,
    > melees with poison smugglers in the dead of night, assassins scheduled
    > to arrive at the docks at a certain time, and then revealed to be red
    > herrings, chases through the city under the cover of night,
    > Marlae's brother kidnapped, oblique clues which first seem to lead one
    > way, and then another, trusted advisors proved to be false, and the final
    > desperate battle with the betrayer in a small side chapel in the
    > voluminous Cathedral of Haelyn, with the life of the Duchess on the line.

    This is an *excellent* idea!!! I love it! You have my eternal gratitude. ;)
    Here are some more Brainstorms following Mark's idea above (please feel free to
    suggest or redirect as you feel inclined):

    What if Count Bellam double crosses everyone? He longs for the throne, and
    somehow (this is what I haven't worked out yet) manages to arrange it so that
    Kalien, and Ghoere are left holding the 'guilty stick' when the smoke clears.
    Then, just as Marlae is being held responsible for the failing alliances with
    Medeore and Illien, the assassin strikes, and she is killed. Bellam uses his
    connections with Kalien & Ghoere to claim the Throne, and at the same time,
    manages to expose them to Medeore and Illien as the culprits behind it all, and
    he somehow comes out smelling like a rose.

    Now... all those details..... hmmm....

    Morg
    - --
    "I hate it when my brain stem hurts."
    The New Draftmine Repository:
    http://members.home.net/morgramen/index.html

  4. #4
    Jim Cooper
    Guest

    Introductory Adventures

    Mark A Vandermeulen wrote:
    > First thing that springs to mind is an assasination attempt.<

    Well shoot! Great minds really DO think alike. I posted my suggestions
    and BOOM! here now is Mark saying basically the same thing! Cool!

    :D

    > A variant sprang to my mind as I was writing above, so I'll share that as well. Perhaps Marlae has been having bad dreams. In these dreams she dies (sees her own dead body), and is concerned about them. She naturally summons the diviners and priests of the realm, and asks them for an interpretation. Priests of Haelyn, focused on Justice and Noble War may not be able to give a very satisfactory answer to this, but this thing should be right up Ruornil's alley.<

    Yet more proof! IMC, not only did my PC assassinate his sister, but the
    next day he himself was threatened with assassination by an unknown
    assailant, simply known as "The Watcher" (incidently, this is the same
    assassin of the Ilien dude that whatshisface took over from).

    But this was no ordinary assassin. This guy attacked mentally - through
    dreams, and letters; no matter how many guards the PC posted, or how
    many locks on the door, once every month, the PC (or the targeted
    regent) received one death threat, which got progressively closer to the
    person of the regent until it was placed next his sleeping body in bed.
    The next month, The Watcher struck. Boy, did this freak out my PC!
    hehehehe. A single black rose was the signature of The Watcher.

    The Watcher has yet to be caught ... my poor PC friend ...
    MWUAHAHAHAAA!! :)

    (Incidently, IMC The Watcher is an elven assassin, once a close
    confident of Rhoubhe, who went rogue after he was disillusioned with
    Rhoubhe and his 'unimaginative' methods of wiping the human menance from
    Cerilia. He is, IMC, the head of the secret organization of The
    Watchers, which I mentioned there in the BROCP project. Their goal is
    to cull the human regency 'threat' (to the elves)! Ironically, the only
    elf in the organization is the sole assassin, The Watcher himself).

    Cheers,
    Darren

  5. #5
    Jim Cooper
    Guest

    Introductory Adventures

    Morg wrote:
    >
    > AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Mark, YOU DA MAN!<

    What about my little post?!? What if Count Bellam double crosses everyone? He longs for the throne, and somehow (this is what I haven't worked out yet) manages to arrange it so that Kalien, and Ghoere are left holding the 'guilty stick' when the smoke clears. Then, just as Marlae is being held responsible for the failing alliances with Medeore and Illien, the assassin strikes, and she is killed. Bellam uses his connections with Kalien & Ghoere to claim the Throne, and at the same time, manages to expose them to Medeore and Illien as the culprits behind it all, and
    > he somehow comes out smelling like a rose.<

    Well this works just fine! And you thought you were dry for ideas!?!

    Cheers,
    Darren (Just carving out my heart with a spoon is less painful!)

  6. #6
    Mark A Vandermeulen
    Guest

    Introductory Adventures

    On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Jim Cooper wrote:

    > Morg wrote:
    > >
    > > AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Mark, YOU DA MAN!<
    >
    > What about my little post?!?

    >
    > Cheers,
    > Darren (Just carving out my heart with a spoon is less painful!)

    Hey Darren,
    Don't take it too seriously, Dude. Morg probably just got my post first. I
    certainly enjoyed hearing about your South Coast campaign, esp. about
    different modules and Dragon adventures which translated well into BR.

    Mark VanderMeulen
    vander+@pitt.edu

  7. #7
    Mark A Vandermeulen
    Guest

    Introductory Adventures

    On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Morg wrote:

    > What if Count Bellam double crosses everyone? He longs for the throne, and
    > somehow (this is what I haven't worked out yet) manages to arrange it so that
    > Kalien, and Ghoere are left holding the 'guilty stick' when the smoke clears.
    > Then, just as Marlae is being held responsible for the failing alliances with
    > Medeore and Illien, the assassin strikes, and she is killed. Bellam uses his
    > connections with Kalien & Ghoere to claim the Throne, and at the same time,
    > manages to expose them to Medeore and Illien as the culprits behind it all, and
    > he somehow comes out smelling like a rose.

    Well, let's see. Bellam is a wizard himself, isn't he? So perhaps to cast
    the blame on Kalien or Ghoere he casts Charm on the known agents of one or
    both of the two and draws them into his schemes. Note that he doesn't need
    to get them to do the actual deed, just get them into a place where they
    look suspicious. Or perhaps he just kills them and sets one of his own
    cronies in their place by using one of the Illusiary or Transformative
    spells to create the resemblance. This might be an interesting option,
    because he could kill the blokes, freeze them solid, and then thaw them
    out later to be found "slain" by their supposed "compatriots" in the
    scheme. The forensic science of the time might not be able to tell the
    difference between a fresh body and a frozen-and-thawed one. The one thing
    that springs to mind is the eyes, which might burst when frozen, but that
    could be masked by post-mortem mutilation of the corpes (sorry if I'm
    getting too gross here). So the PC's find the quarry that they think are
    responsible, but find them slain and their eyes carved out. "What does
    this mean?" they ask. "Is it a ritual, or some sort of oblique warning
    about "seeing too much." When in fact it is just a red herring again, and
    a good healing proficiency check or divinatory magic might reveal the
    truth. (Either should require some time to do.)

    So Bellam selects his patsies, plants the clues that the PC's will
    initially find that directs them at the patsies, and casts the spells that
    bring his patsies into compromising positions. Then he has his cronies
    make the assassination attempt.

    The PC's hear of the attempt, or perhaps foil it, and in attempting to
    follow them up, come across the patsies. The patsies protest their
    innocence (truthfully, if any of the PC's have the Detect Lie blood
    ability), and the PC's have to let them go (or perhaps they CAN put them
    in custody, or put a tail on them). Later the PC's find all the clues that
    Bellam has planted, and decide they need to look at the patsies more
    closely. Meanwhile, Bellam has killed the patsies, frozen them, and placed
    his replicas in place. The replicas consistently avoid the PC's, plant
    more clues linking the attempt to the patsies and their superiors, and
    generally act suspiciously. After a day or two of merry chase, when all
    the necessary evidence is planted, they make the switch for the dead
    bodies.

    Now the PC's need some clues to point them back in the right direction.
    For one, everyone who knows the patsies should tell them that they just
    haven't been acting themselves lately, which should be some clue, perhaps
    getting them to think of charm spells. They may also get the clues from
    the corpes mentioned above. Further clues should come from the dream of
    Marlae, and now, that being the only clues the PC's have to go one, that
    might start to make some sense. Bellam might have planted some evidence to
    get the PC's out of the way, so they go to intercept the "new assassins"
    at their scheduled destination, only to realize that it's a trap. When
    springing the trap, they realize who is really behind the attempt, and
    have to rush to the conclusion to rescue Marlae just in time.

    OK, your turn.

    Mark VanderMeulen
    vander+@pitt.edu

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Birthright Adventures
    By Lord Eldred in forum The Royal Library
    Replies: 28
    Last Post: 04-06-2004, 08:00 AM
  2. adventures
    By Sellenus in forum The Royal Library
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-03-2004, 10:18 AM
  3. Adventures...
    By Stasa Stanisic in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-27-1998, 11:28 PM
  4. Using BR Adventures for a normal BR
    By Glenn Robb in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 10-05-1997, 06:42 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
BIRTHRIGHT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, the BIRTHRIGHT logo, and the D&D logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by permission. ©2002-2010 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.