Mod Idea

Hello,

Not trying to derail anything, but just giving some preemptive points for you and the others to consider.

1. As you correctly point out, I’m not going to approve an adventure that kills Matias. I know you already pointed this out, but I wanted to underscore that.

2. So, given the above, what exactly is the purpose of the killing? Is it to send a message to Matias and/or Nasha? If so, what is that message? How do you think Matias and Nasha will react to the killing of one of Matias’ acolytes?

3. Who’s the Target? There haven’t been any named followers of Matias’ cult introduced, as far as I remember. There is Matron Delea*, but she’s protected by the story for the moment.

4. Why are the members of the Emerald Society gunning for Matias? It can be argued that he led the Heroes to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the First City in decades. Given that the Emerald Society and the Followers of the Azure Way have not been forbidden access to the Well of Souls, what is the motivation to sending this message to Matias?

5. Is this sanctioned by the Emerald Society? If not, how will the organization, as a whole, react to their members assassinating someone in cold blood? Or is this is just a band of individuals doing this?

6. Are you killing just a random member of Matias’ cult? In cold blood? A person who perhaps is a fervent believer in the religion preached by Matias, but is not evil, per se? As vaunted “Heroes”, wouldn’t that be a decidedly evil act?

7. Lastly, on the twist to being hired to protect your target, (which I happen to like, especially if the characters [I can’t call them Heroes] are the ones who spread the rumor that an attempt on the target’s life is possible), how do you explain that death away? True, accidents do happen, but wouldn’t that either cast the characters as incompetent or complicit?

Anyway, just some points to consider.

I’m not trying to dissuade you from writing this adventure (God knows it would be nice to have another writer creating for the campaign), but just trying to head off some potential problems and avoid some back and forth. I would actually welcome an adventure that deals with Matias and his cult.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

*Matron Delea, a middle-aged woman dressed as the other Beltinians of Matias’ cult, but covering her head with a tightly wound shawl. This severe looking woman has a blocky physique comparable in size to the Blood Guard holy champions and with a stare so sharp it cuts to the quick.

sure i don’t have to explicitly say it, but your thoughts are welcome too Henry if this idea tickles something in your thinking.

Been a while since this topic was last updated, but Necromancy is in right now and I’m bringing it back. I’m just going to open up with this: I have trouble writing politics and mystery. Reason why I decided not to write a module about the aftermath of “The Echoes of Silence”, with the Mourners in Silence fractured between the those who follow Oblivion, and those who reject it. It was a great module idea, but I just wasn’t able to write something like that (side note: I really hope someone picks up that particular plot thread, has some amazing potential).

What I am good at, though, are meat-grinders and dungeon-crawls. Due to my formative years of D&D being sorely lacking in role-play, with campaigns either being written like books, not having any story, or simply falling apart, I just got really good at structuring combat encounters and optimizing.

With that tangent out of the way, I’m going to make this recommendation: give incentives for and against both sides. One of the issues I had with “The Price of Honor” is that there was no incentive for Venu Khan Forso’s side. Isul Khan Daxio and Nasha both offered rewards for ruling in their favor, where being honest got you nothing, along with the fact a lot of players weren’t fond of Forso anyway, and probably ruled against him whether or not he was right. Of course, the rewards don’t have to be monetary, but the point still stands: everybody likes more stuff. You shouldn’t lose out on rewards by having a code of honor. If they don’t feel like they’re going to miss out on something, they will be more open to choosing what they believe in, rather than just following the certs.

Hello,

One of the issues I had with “The Price of Honor” is that there was no incentive for Venu Khan Forso’s side. Isul Khan Daxio and Nasha both offered rewards for ruling in their favor, where being honest got you nothing, along with the fact a lot of players weren’t fond of Forso anyway, and probably ruled against him whether or not he was right. Of course, the rewards don’t have to be monetary, but the point still stands: everybody likes more stuff. You shouldn’t lose out on rewards by having a code of honor. If they don’t feel like they’re going to miss out on something, they will be more open to choosing what they believe in, rather than just following the certs.

I think you missed the point.

There wasn’t any reward for being honest and honorable on purpose. If a “Hero” turned a blind eye in exchange for a prize, then that was the “Price of Your Honor” or in other words, that character can be bought and paid.

That’s why the adventure was structured in that manner. I don’t believe every adventure has to have treasure handed out. This was one of those adventures.

I completely missed the point, thank you for enlightening me.