Author Topic: plot suggestions needed  (Read 1297 times)

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Offline Druss_the_Legend

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plot suggestions needed
« on: October 28, 2017, 05:04:11 PM »
 The party are immersed in a complex plot involving an assassins guild who plan to assassinate the prince governor of the city. Unknown to them there is another plot to kidnap a high priestess by the same assassins guild who are working with another faction of blood worshipping cultists.

The timing of the kidnapping attempt is important. The kidnappers plan a mission impossible style mission to kidnap the high priestess and replace her with a decoy. The cult have plans to sacrifice her in a ritual to resurrect their vampire lord leader. The assassins guild have been hired to grab the high priestess and deliver her alive to the cultists.

The is a pc who is a spy working for the assassins guild. He is a double agent. He has Ben used as a sleeper agent in the past. Undercover inside the assassins guild. He was trained as an assassin by a group wanting to overthrow the assassins guild from the inside of the organisation. He could here partial information about the kidnapping plot or even be used unwittingly as a distraction to facilitate the kidnapping. Perhaps sent on a decoy mission or perhaps he will be framed for the crime thereby throwing the authorities off the trail of the real wrongdoers?

What I am unsure of is what to reveal to the players. They have heard rumour of a assassination attempt that will be made at a festival in the city but they are not sure of the target. My instinct says to drop a few clues about the kidnapping but keep things vague and reward the players if they are resourceful enough to uncover the true plot.

Thoughts?

Offline Druss_the_Legend

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2017, 05:16:14 PM »
I think the revelation that the high priestess is a decoy could be a really pivotal part of the story. I plan to give her personal body guard a chance to see thru the deception and if he does he will attack her at a large public event. This would create an interesting dilemma for the party. Who is the decoy and which side do they take!

Offline Druss_the_Legend

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2017, 03:14:22 AM »
What if the party learn of the kidnapping plot and are recruited to protect the high priestess? Possibly even replacing the high priestess with a decoy player character?

Offline JohnK

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2017, 05:18:52 AM »
One possible different view to your game would be to let the PCs learn about the kidnapping, they can start searching for the kidnapped priestess but they won't know that she is the decoy (placed by the assasins guild). When they finally learn that, when they rescue the false priestess, there will be limited time to rescue the real one by the hands of the guild. The rite for the sacrifice could have already started when they reach the place where it would take place. That would be dramatic enough.
On a similar urban campaign it s difficult for me to plan a plotline. I am trying to solve it by adding many factions with differing interests. For example there will be a a sage with a dangerous necromantic book left to him by an enemy, a desperate steward who is more warlike than a tactfull politician, two brothers (the necromancer and his bodyguard) who have a mysterious bond like soul and body (if someone perishes the other fades also) and many more factions. There will be rumors that will reveal the whole view step by step.
Also when your PCs finally reach the place of the sacrifice, it could be made like a court set to damn the priestess attended by the the evil factions or even some neutral. Then the PCs could have a chance to roleplay while following the sinister rules of a a court with intentions to sacrifice a person.
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Offline jdale

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2017, 12:04:46 AM »
What if the party learn of the kidnapping plot and are recruited to protect the high priestess? Possibly even replacing the high priestess with a decoy player character?

If the bad guys have a decoy... and the PCs have a decoy...  and maybe the high priestess already has a body double for her own protection... and some third party looking out for her without her knowledge has a decoy...  you could have decoys replaced by decoys until no one involved knows who is what! Is the replaced decoy a decoy of the decoy or it is actually the real high priestess?

Another idea that might not be where you are going with this...  suppose the bad guys do kidnap her and put their decoy in her place. As soon as they hear someone has caught their decoy, they will be forced to act immediately and sacrifice the real high priestess. But as long as their decoy is being successful, they can take their time. So perhaps the decoy is not really that good at pretending to be a high priestess, and the players have to ensure the bumbling decoy is successful long enough to buy themselves time to break into the cult's HQ. (Replacing the cult's decoy with their decoy might be useful in that regard.)
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Offline Druss_the_Legend

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2017, 01:27:55 AM »
What if the party learn of the kidnapping plot and are recruited to protect the high priestess? Possibly even replacing the high priestess with a decoy player character?

If the bad guys have a decoy... and the PCs have a decoy...  and maybe the high priestess already has a body double for her own protection... and some third party looking out for her without her knowledge has a decoy...  you could have decoys replaced by decoys until no one involved knows who is what! Is the replaced decoy a decoy of the decoy or it is actually the real high priestess?

Another idea that might not be where you are going with this...  suppose the bad guys do kidnap her and put their decoy in her place. As soon as they hear someone has caught their decoy, they will be forced to act immediately and sacrifice the real high priestess. But as long as their decoy is being successful, they can take their time. So perhaps the decoy is not really that good at pretending to be a high priestess, and the players have to ensure the bumbling decoy is successful long enough to buy themselves time to break into the cult's HQ. (Replacing the cult's decoy with their decoy might be useful in that regard.)

good ideas here.
my intention was to only have one decoy but i wasnt too sure whether i wanted to tip off the party to what the bad guys plan to do or just let them carry out their swap the real priestess for a decoy plan and then let the party find out later on (the next day... imagine the parties surprise when the high priestess attacks the prince governor in public at a scheduled event or when the priestesses own body guard attacks the 'decoy' when he sees thru her disguise IF the party is not privvy to the plot they are going to hav to choose sides... is the bodyguard a decoy or is the high priestess the decoy?)/ If i go down this route then all who know the high priestess would have a chance to detect she is behaving oddly but i guess only some type of magic detection would reveal she is not who she appears to be.

Lets say the party learn of the badguys plan but are too late to stop it. Now they will have to make some hard choices. Do they track the bad guys to their base and hopefully rescue the priestess or do they try and expose her as an imposter and possibly take the decoy alive with the plan to interrogate her as to the location of the badguys base? The second choice would likely secure them some support from her temple acolytes/temple monks on any mission to rescue her provided they can actually expose the decoy for who they are. I quite like the potential for the party to cook up a plan to expose her as an imposter. The real high priestess has legendary healing powers.

The party may decide that the best way to convince people that the high priestess is a decoy would be to actually rescue the real one and show up with her at a schedule public event and get the decoy and real priestess to the same location.

Offline Druss_the_Legend

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Re: plot suggestions needed
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2017, 04:22:12 AM »
Breakdown of options.

1) ADVANCED WARNING. pcs hear rumour there will be an abduction attempt made on the high priestess. this gives them an opportunity to get warning to her or perhaps even intercept the bad guys en route if they can gather reliable intel on the specifics of the abduction. Pcs will want to validate the rumour before they take action.

2) LATE WARNING. pcs are sent word that the high priestess is under attack! If they hurry to the Guest Embassy where she is staying they arrive to find her guards fighting with a group of assassin's. The assassin's will try to make the switch of decoy for priestess during the battle by creating a diversion. Will the party arrive in time to save the real priestess?

3) ACCURATE INTEL. A pc in the party gets accurate intel from an informant about the exact plans of the assassin's guild (they know about the decoy plan). Will the rest of the party trust the intel? Will they send word to the priestess or deliver a warning in person or will they organise a counter strike themselves?

4) NO IDEA. the first the party learn of the decoy plot is when the priestess attacks a gov official or the decoy is spotted and attacked by her own body guard who sees through the ruse.