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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
 Posted - 06 May 2008 : 11:41:20
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I am looking for ideas on, well... practical jokes, mischief and mayhem. 
At the beginning of the campaign when the characters were about level 1 or 2, they made a long overland journey from Waterdeep to Impiltur. One evening they stopped in a small village (the size of appr. 100 people plus a dozen farms in the hinterlands). The local militia charged them outrageous high fees just to enter the village and get a place in the tavern (5 GP per head). After more than 2 hours of haggling, they paid the amount, but swore that they'll come back and make them pay for such a humiliation. That was about 4 years (real time!) and 5 levels ago...
Now they have finally time to do something about these guys. They decided to go there* and pay the fee once more (they have enough money now, so that's not an issue). After they got a room in the Tavern, they began to snoop around the place and talked to a few villagers to find out who's the boss, whats going on and generally looking for opportunities of revenge. Since they are of good or at least neutral alignment, bloody vengeance is out of the question - they just want to pay it back and have fun doing it! 
* They own a spelljamming wreckboat they use for overland travel. They can cover about 400 miles a day and haven't discovered wildspace yet. It is securely hidden half a day's travel away from the village, as they are very protective about it.
Here's a short description of the party (2e rules apply).
- male gnomish illusionist (level 6)
- female drow thief/psionic (ca. lvl 5/5)
- male human fighter/thief (ca. lvl 4/5)
- male elven speciality priest of Erevan Illesere (lvl 6)
the drow is cloaked in a permanent illusion making her look like a moon elve. additionally, her left arm is artificial (see 2e's "drow of the underdark" for artificial drow limbs) and very strong (18/??). both the illusion and the arm are not detectable by detect magic since it is shar's shadow magic (long and convoluted background story...). her psionic ability to read minds is not very reliable but she is well-trained enough to learn some crucial facts from the militia with a bit of luck. one of her favourite tactics is using her psionic powers to give someone an overpowering antipathy/phobia against something (gold or treasure, his/her own weapon, etc.)
the human fighter/thief is a shifter: basically a homebrew shapechanger with somewhat limited shifting capabilities. think of Odo from DS9: he can turn into a chair, form gills to breath underwater, a spider gland to produce gluey spider silk, grow "wolverine thorns" and stuff like that, being limited by a daily allotment of "shift points".
A few words on their adversaries:
The boss of the militia (about 2-3 dozen men) is Halfur Blueleaf, a "retired" halfling adventurer (fighter 7/thief 8) who chose the place in order to be "the biggest fish in a small pond". His two "second in command"s are a female halfling (swashbuckler-ish) thief (lvl 13) from luiren and a gnome bard (10th level) who travelled through the known spheres and considers Faerun a backwater, lamenting that there is no good whine or music around anywhere. He secretely plans to get easily rich here and retire in a few years somewhere else. The players yet have to learn of this background information.
The villagers originally hired the militia to deal with a troll problem two years back. They killed enough trolls to make the place reasonably safe but there are still many trolls in the surrounding woods, so the band decided to stay in the village permanently.
Halfur charges a small fee from caravans and outrageously large fees from individuals and small groups of travellers when he thinks his men can get away with it. He got in touch with the surrounding farms within a day's ride, his men are now patrolling the woods and he organised the delivery of food (bread, meat, produce, beer etc) ot the village, where it is sold to the caravans passing through, either directly in the tavern or in the form of durable travel rations.
Despite the outrageously high fees the militia charges lone travellers, their overall performance is quite good: There are less troll attacks today and the villagers earn more money than ever.
...now, enter a bunch of humiliated players out for revenge! 
I am only the DM, but still would like to hear what you would do in their place. Their first ideas are:
- laying the guards to sleep just as a caravan arrives so Halfur gets angry with his own men and they are ridiculed
- placing dead insects and rodents in the rooms of the tavern (under bedsheets, blankets, in the food, etc) to ruin their foodstuff business
...what else?
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Wyvernspur
Acolyte
15 Posts |
Posted - 07 May 2008 : 00:01:32
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I'm not sure it's worth the characters time to really do this. I mean sure it sucked along time ago but coming back for petty revenge just doesn't seem worth it. Sure it may be satisfying but say those guards get to investigating who pulled the prank on them. They are bound to be able to figure that it was the PC's who will have a hard time defending themselves to the local populace who benefits from the militia activities. The PC's may discover that their "Prank" has made them villains.
Consider other possibilities even if the PC's don't get caught. The guards embarrassed because of the prank either begin to second guess themselves or loose face in the eyes of the towns people. Without the village support or poor moral the militia starts to dwindle and eventually disbands. In that time the troll menace to the area resurfaces and begins to drive caravans and travelers away from the area. The village begins to suffer as trade disappears and eventually is abandoned. Years the later the PC's may discover the empty town or in a tavern run into a former villager/guard who recognizes them and blames them. Worst case scenario they gain a nemesis who seeks to foil their plans or spreads rumors and ill news of the party.
I guess in short what I am saying is that adventures should tread carefully as their actions resonate much more than they could imagine. |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 07 May 2008 : 00:52:08
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quote:
Originally posted by Wyvernspur
Consider other possibilities even if the PC's don't get caught. The guards embarrassed because of the prank either begin to second guess themselves or loose face in the eyes of the towns people. Without the village support or poor moral the militia starts to dwindle and eventually disbands. In that time the troll menace to the area resurfaces and begins to drive caravans and travelers away from the area. The village begins to suffer as trade disappears and eventually is abandoned. Years the later the PC's may discover the empty town or in a tavern run into a former villager/guard who recognizes them and blames them. Worst case scenario they gain a nemesis who seeks to foil their plans or spreads rumors and ill news of the party.
I agree with everything you said except for this part. It seems like an unlikely "slippery slope" and isn't persuasive--although it is possible, it's also possible that a prank would be quickly forgotten about and the guards will go on with their lives. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
Edited by - Rinonalyrna Fathomlin on 07 May 2008 00:53:38 |
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Wyvernspur
Acolyte
15 Posts |
Posted - 07 May 2008 : 01:56:28
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| Possibility is the point and potential plot seeds. |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 07 May 2008 : 09:00:18
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Thanks both for your input! 
I should have pointed out a little more that, when the party was in town for the first time, the guards were really snotty. Imagine a more than two hours long roleplayed discussion between two snotty opponents on the one side who sometimes even made fun of the PC - and the PCs, whose mood changed from surprised and baffled to optimistic ("we will eventually convince them to get in for free!") to outraged and finally teetgrindling giving in (*sight* "ok, lets plunder our travel funds...").
Since they returned to town, they already found out that these guys are indeed useful (guarding the town, organising business...) and accepted (again with a bit of grinding teeth) that their pranks shouldn't be too hard, let alone bloody or lethal of course.
A few more details (I only hope I am not blathering too much!)
In a little more than one day a merchant caravan of the Firehands Coster is due to arrive, which is when things will get quite busy. The town guards will, as usually, organize a nightly armwrestling contest in the tavern - one of them is a very strong halforc barbarian who wins most of the times s and brings a little additional profit to the militia's coffers, even if it's mostly for the fun of seeing arrogant caravan guards lose. This will be a nice opportunity for the drow's, *ahem* strongarm tactics.
Should they chat a bit with Halfur and his two friends, they might hear a few hair-raising stories about the Known Spheres (foreshadowing the campaign's spelljamming turn to wildspace).
Oh, I forgot another detail. Halfur, the leader, owns an artifact called the Lucky Coin (from the Tome of Artifacts) - which means this guy is incredibly lucky! He will miraculously escape every prank the party tries to pull on him. Should they try to gamble with him, he'll win every single time. Of course this comes at a prize: Everytime Halfur forces his luck he builds up "bad carma". The priest of Erevan Illesere will sense this in a vague way (hints from the DM...) but won't be able to point his fingers to anything concrete The coin alters fate retroactively, so it is hard to discover anything. It doesn't even radiate magic.
On the next day I'll stage a discussion/small talk between him and the party outside the tavern, a few hours after the caravan has left and the cleanup works are done. I'll have to find a way to let him utter something like "Lightning should strike me if I lie!" He'll use this phrase a couple of times before so the playes know that it is one of his facourite catchphrases...
Mere moments after that declamation a two ton heavy steel anchor will drop out of the sky, smash in the middle of the town road and bury Halfur beneath him. The only thing left of him will be an innocous copper coin rolling away, which is quickly picked up by the NPC gnome bard who knew about the Lucky Coin and guessed that something very bad will happen (He'll have uttered "Don't go overboard, Halfur!" more than a few times the evening before). I plan to use him as a recurring character later in the campaign.
The dropped anchor belongs to the flying ship of Jon Tobart, who claims to be the captain of a Haluaan* airship. He is trying to find heroes to save the world from a truly apocalyptic menace that is arriving soon and will lay waste to the whole world, city after doomed city. He'll be aghast that his anchor killed a brave man and ask about his next of kin, but all this will have to wait until the threat is dealt with... This is the beginning of the Spelljammer adventure module called "Wildspace", btw.
*The party was recently in Halruaa and had, after a couple of "incidents", a couple of rather intensive talks with the realm's security forces (mindreaming priests of Mystra). They'll (wrongly) suspect a connection between Tobart and their former "adventures" in Halruaa. In truth the captain is a shapechanged beholder mage, but they will find that out soon enough - its hard to keep something like that hidden from a party consisting of a psionist, a shapechanger and an illusionist!
...so, now after I blathered on a little(...) more about the scenario, perhaps you'll see more opportunities for pranks. I'm sitting in a creative hole and have no ideas - but then again it's the players who'll have to come up with ideas! I guess I just wing it and see what opportunities present themselves since forcing a "scripted" developement would quickly make the players feel being railroaded... |
Edited by - tauster on 07 May 2008 09:01:15 |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 07 May 2008 : 14:45:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Wyvernspur
Possibility is the point and potential plot seeds.
Right, but I think probability is sometimes as important. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Lady Fellshot
Senior Scribe
USA
379 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2008 : 06:32:29
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I once made a list of (mostly) harmless practical jokes that one could do in a game. Here are a few of them...
- A cantrip called "administer wedgie"
- Move all the outhouses back three feet and hide the hole
- A curse that will result in a dead fish (fresh or stinky, caster specifies)landing on the target's head every time the target preforms a particular action.
- Love potion in the drinking water
- Laxatives in the drinking water or replace cow's milk with coconut milk (nets a similar effect)
- Replace the target's favorite condiment with something really spicy/ salty/ sweet (whatever)
Hope this helps a bit  |
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Looking for practical jokes
