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Puppet_Master
Acolyte
Norway
4 Posts |
 Posted - 29 Jun 2008 : 12:48:17
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Greeting.
I am currently working on a campaign where I want the Twisted Rune as the main villains. For those who don't know who the Twisted Rune are, they are a group of undead spellcasters who control southern parts of the Sword Coast through manipulation from behind the scenes. This is a very secretive organisation, and most of the people who work for them don't even know who they are working for.
The idea is to create a campaign that is based upon much intrigue and politics, where the Twisted Rune are manipulating events in Waterdeep to place their agents into the right positions in order to increase their power base. What I would like to get some help with, is how can they obtain control of Waterdeep? How would they plan a takeover like this, given that time is not an issue?
From what I have gathered from various books about Waterdeep, the power of Waterdeep lies with the hidden lords, as well as some of the guilds. With regards to the guilds, it is rather easy for them to stage events where agents of theirs can solve situations to rise in the internal ranks of the guilds.
As an example of how I have thought that they can position their agents in power positions within the guilds, I have thought of one scenario where the shipments of ore from Mirabar ceases due to ambushes organised by agents of the Twisted Rune. This leads to ore shortage in Waterdeep, which again leads to higher prices of fine metal workings and weapons. Since no shipments manage to arrive in Waterdeep, there are no income for the humans in Mirabar, so they can not pay the dwarves who mine the ore. Finally this leads to a stop in ore production by the dwarves.
One of the agents of the Twisted Rune is currently a low ranking member of Splendid Order of Armorers, Locksmiths, & Finesmiths. Through his connections he obtain the responsibility of negotiation with the dwarves to contine the production of ore. With the intelligence that this agent has, it is easy to send some adventurers to take care of the problems and rise as a shining star within the guild.
Are there any good ideas of how to control the Lords ? By killing them, there will only be selected new lords which will replace them. The Twisted Rune are looking at this from a long term perspective, and are therefore in need of getting their agents into their ranks or find another way of controlling them. Any ideas or comments will be appreciated.
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Sanishiver
Senior Scribe
USA
476 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2008 : 19:41:35
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Hrmm....that’s a tough one.
Waterdeep is a city with much experience in dealing with monsters and magical plots.
Doesn’t mean the Twisted Rune can’t take control of the city, rather that it will be harder to do.
Your idea of creating a market shortage in Waterdeep for a trade item, then putting an agent from the Twisted Rune in place to negotiate a deal that re-opens trade and creates a positive reputation for the agent, is a good one.
Curious, are the players in your game acting as agents of the Twisted Rune or as the adventurers that the agent instructs where to go?
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09/20/2008: Tiger Army at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. You wouldn’t believe how many females rode it out in the pit. Santa Cruz women are all of them beautiful. Now I know to add tough to that description.
6/27/2008: WALL-E is about the best damn movie Pixar has ever made. It had my heart racing and had me rooting for the good guy.
9/9/2006: Dave Mathews Band was off the hook at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
Never, ever read the game books too literally, or make such assumptions that what is omitted cannot be. Bad DM form, that.
And no matter how compelling a picture string theory paints, if it does not accurately describe our universe, it will be no more relevant than an elaborate game of Dungeons and Dragons. --paragraph 1, chapter 9, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene |
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Puppet_Master
Acolyte
Norway
4 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2008 : 20:34:53
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I have thought of them being tricked into doing some of the ground work for the Twisted Rune, and at a later stage in the campaign discover what their actions actually resulted in. This will be an ingtrigue/politics campaign, where they will have the option of joining one of the many fractions that work to increase their power in Waterdeep.
I am planning that they will be member of a good aligned group that may discover what is happening and stop what is happening, and may even end up putting a stop for the Rune itself. I know this will be hard, but I will create several layers of bad villains that don't know who they are working for. Starting at level 1, the characters will not know who they are truly facing before around level 20-25. |
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Sanishiver
Senior Scribe
USA
476 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2008 : 21:36:23
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Nice!
The cool part about this sort of campaign structure is that you can have other agents of the Twisted Rune call upon the players after they succeed in helping the agent inside the Splendid Order of Armorers, Locksmiths, & Finesmiths.
As the rune slowly infiltrates the other guilds, their agents will ‘want’ to work with proven operators like the player characters. Thus you can send them all over the Realms; basically wherever Waterdeep's trade interests might take them.
I could see this sort of thing culminating in a grand manipulation to get the characters to kidnap or unseat a Hidden Lord of the city. If/when they fail, the Twisted Rune’s agents can try to pin the blame on the characters, who must then fight the city and the Rune to prove their innocence and remove the veil of treachery the Twisted Rune has cast over Waterdeep.
Absolutely fricking awesome campaign idea. |
09/20/2008: Tiger Army at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. You wouldn’t believe how many females rode it out in the pit. Santa Cruz women are all of them beautiful. Now I know to add tough to that description.
6/27/2008: WALL-E is about the best damn movie Pixar has ever made. It had my heart racing and had me rooting for the good guy.
9/9/2006: Dave Mathews Band was off the hook at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
Never, ever read the game books too literally, or make such assumptions that what is omitted cannot be. Bad DM form, that.
And no matter how compelling a picture string theory paints, if it does not accurately describe our universe, it will be no more relevant than an elaborate game of Dungeons and Dragons. --paragraph 1, chapter 9, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene |
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Puppet_Master
Acolyte
Norway
4 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2008 : 00:07:45
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Wow:) Thanks. I like how this idea develops. I really like the idea of kidnapping/unseating one of the hidden lords of Waterdeep. This would be a natural method for the Twisted Rune to obtain information regarding the hidden lords, as well as increase their power base in the city. Through manipulation, several layers of agents, the Twisted Rune could convince the characters that one of hidden lords that the Twisted Rune know about is in fact an agent of the Zhentarim or the Red Wizards of Thay. The characters don't have to know that the person that they are tasked with stopping is one of the hidden lords. As the Twisted Rune are master of contigencies, they have also positioned agents that will benefit from the apprehention of the characters, and thus prove their worth as allies of the hidden lords.
This could result in an escape from the lords of Waterdeep as they try to hunt down their assassins. The characters must then flee Waterdeep and try to find out who set them up from the beginning. I have thought of using the Shadow Thieves as one of the layers between the characters and the Twisted Rune, which means that the characters eventually must leave for Athkatla to hunt down the shadow counsil and find out who set them up. This will then eventually lead to other agents of the Twisted Rune, and the last part of the campaign can take place in Calimshan, where the largest power base of the Twisted Rune is.
Feel free to share some more ideas Sanishiver, I really need some feedbacks to get the ideas flowing. |
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Puppet_Master
Acolyte
Norway
4 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2008 : 12:09:23
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| Another thought of how to increase the power of the Twisted Rune instead of sending the characters to kill one of the hidden lords, is to have them kidnap them as you suggested Sanishiver, since a killed lord only would be replaced by another. This way they can send one of their agents to stop the characters from kidnapping the hidden lord, and thus gain influence with one of the hidden lords. Through several such acts, the agent would maybe become one of the hidden lords through his dedication to help the city. |
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Dracons
Learned Scribe
USA
299 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jul 2008 : 19:18:22
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Hmm. I rely on randomness for my DM style, so this is really just off the wall crap that I just come up. May or may not work.
Have one of the proxies get to a minor Wizard from the Thayan enclave. Since time is not a factor, maybe they have other agents already there, and making this Thayan life hell. Perhaps he isn't smart enough or strong enough to stand up to it. But someone comes, with a minor way of doing something to stop it. All he has to do is a few minor favors. Really, just crap ones like go to X, or do B, slowly the insider agents stop picking on him, maybe even respecting him. (Keeping up?). Now the shadow agent appears once more. Offering a way to become a Red Wizard of some power. Naturally, the wizard has gotten most of his bullies ether taken care off, or whatever, so he'll likely agree. All he has to do is use this scroll on some random person.
The scroll contains a slightly higher spell then he would be able to cast. But hey, your a DM it could work. The spell, cast on say a Halurran or whatever, would modify his memory to a exact purpose granted by what the Twisted Rune it to be. Perhaps a hero of a the Wizards guild in Waterdeep.
That wizard would have the hidden agenda of kidnapping said Waterdeep Lord and hiring a Shadow Thief as an actor to replace lord. Of course, one would have to figure them out. But hey, that's why that rising /hero/ starts to woo a lowly servent girl at Paladinson castle. After all, he is a open lord, and mayhaps that servent girl heard something.
Now, the point of that is, if the ruse is discovered, it could easily be blamed on that Red Wizard, and suddenly no-one likes him anymore, or is killed. A secondary effect could be the Thayans are no more wanted, and a second guild could be placed in, to replace the attempted murderers of Thay.
Now Thay wants answers, and the Twisted Rune could easily sell or provide answers that point to the PCs.
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I love PMs! Please send me a message. Even if its Hi. |
Edited by - Dracons on 01 Jul 2008 19:20:45 |
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Twisted Rune in Waterdeep
