I am considering having a kraken cult be the force behind a criminal syndicate. I have some over-arching goals for the organization and am looking for smaller, short term goals. So far the party has encountered them as primarily smugglers, but that can change. Thoughts?
When you say "Kraken cult", what do you mean? Short term goal should be to be released. Release the Kraken.
Normally for me, it's important the short term goals achieve one of three things:
1) Tick a checkbox towards a larger goal. If they have a long term goal of releasing some ancient horror from the far realms, and they need 500,000GP worth of adamantite to use to construct some machine to be used in that ritual, well, adamantite mines and shipments are on the agenda. So are laborers, enchanters, and so forth. Mark down what resources they need, what they already have, and breadcrumbs can be dropped (in many cases repeatedly) about what activities are linked to their efforts through a common theme.
2) Delay or remove impediments to that goal. If their goal is to get a whole town to sacrifice themselves to the kraken or something, and a town leader is being vocal about how Pelor will save them and how they should resist the teachings of these cultists and blah blah blah, he's gotta go. Whether through murder, being discredited, a "urgent issue" being revealed they know he'll go for and willingly leave the area for a while, or something else, it is in their interest to take steps to smooth the path or prevent their plan from being foiled.
3) Disguise a larger goal. Similar to the above but untargeted (most of the time), when working on a long term plan it helps to throw off chaff, and obfuscate the goal and / or your involvement in it. If going after adamantite, mixing it up in terms of who you go after and ensuring it looks like "random" attacks makes it less likely adamantite vendors will clam up and start avoiding public roads and travel. If you need the guard of a city depleted for a pending attack, paying mercenaries to make attacks up and down the coast it's on can ensure that your aims are met and that the goal remains unclear. Paying people to attack your own storehouses so it's not clear you're behind the storehouses belonging to someone else being attacked is another fine example. And so forth.
So to provide great short term goals, I'd really need to know the larger goals. However if you keep those principles in mind, I think you should be able to come up with plenty of things on their "to do list" on your own, and some short term goals should become naturally evident from that. Good luck!
My own homebrew campaign touches on both of your issues in a way where they work together. It isn't exactly what you are looking to do, but it might provide some inspiration.
I don't know if you watch the webstream Critical Role, but in case you don't, I'll give you a quick summary as it pertains to my campaign. My campaign, like the show, takes place in the world of Exandria. There is a criminal organization called The Clasp who has been around for a long time and they are pretty ingrained in underground society. I may portray them a little more sympathetically than Matt Mercer does. But there's also another organized crime syndicate called The Myriad from a distant continent who is moving in. These guys are the real bad guys. They deal in murder, drugs, and human trafficking.
The party in my campaign, through their adventures, has come to realize that there is a group of hobgoblins who have broken off from their otherwise-ordered military society to form a cult of Baphomet based around tearing down ordered society and embracing the wild impulsive side of their personalities. They are searching for a long-lost relic that will help them bring back a vanquished order of paladins of Baphomet. To this end, they have thrown in with The Myriad. From this relationship, the cult gets a more-or-less ally, as well as cover and funding for their search and excavation from a group is willing to tolerate this cult's operations. In exchange, the cult acts as kidnappers and distributors for the Myriad to earn them money and slaves and to spread their influence into this new land. They also spread chaos with their hobgoblin raids, which decreases overall social stability and benefits both organizations.
So in that regard, you have a synergy between the cult and the crime syndicate.
As far as scaling the encounters within the story, I started with a goblin raid on a town guard's outpost. The party had to defeat the goblins (pretty standard level 1 fare), retake the checkpoint, and in the process, they discovered a letter and a map in the tent of the goblin leader that spoke of a larger operation going on. When the party raided the checkpoint, a few goblins escaped and ran off into the wilderness. So the party became known to the enemy. Later in their adventures, the party was attacked by a group of assassins who had sketches of the party members, indicating it was a sponsored hit. They learned that kidnappings in the area were leading to a port town where a ship was arriving in a week. The party had to get there in time and prevent the organization from loading up the would-be slaves onto the ship and taken across the ocean. After resolving that, the party learned the location of the relic and now it's going to be a race to get it before the cult does. That's where we are now. If the party is unsuccessful, they will have to deal with the cult who now has a powerful relic. If they succeed, they will have a powerful evil tool that they might use or they might want to destroy. Either way, the remnants of the cult will pursue them to get it back and to take revenge.
I hope something in there can give you a few ideas of story hooks. I find the idea of a cult and an organized crime syndicate working together to be a great combination of two evil groups with lots of things for the party to deal with and go after.
How about a twist: the cult is actually trying to stop the Kraken from being released? The magic that have held the Kraken prisoner for thousands of years is weakening. Ancient scrolls the cult has tells this as well as describes a powerful ritual that will renew the magic. Performing the ritual will give great insights into ancient knowledge and vastly increase the dark power of the cultists.
The cult are evil clerics and necromancers. Hence, nobody trusts them and they suspect, and hate, most of the orders of the land. Thus, they are doing something that will prevent a monstrosity from getting loose but without being people the PC:s will be sympathetic to (most likely). With their new powers they will gain followers and spread evil worship/do bad stuff. However, everyone else is unaware the of the danger that looms. At least at start. You can have omens and weird stuff happening more frequently as time passes.
To perform the ritual the cult must obtain a number of objects and rare materials. Hence, thefts occurs that the PC:s can struggle with. They can be hired or otherwise motivated to solve thefts or prevent one from happening. They can also be introduced to it by stumbling upon a burglary in progress by chance The thieves can be a couple of cultists with zombies or such. Enough to show that this is clearly not ordinary cRima aka and spur the players into action.
The PC:s can investigate the thefts, with a clue about the cult they can research that as well and stumble upon (slowly) the horrifying truth about the Kraken and a ritual that stops it getting loose.
The clock is ticking all the time for the PC:s. Bad omens and supernatural events can be increasingly common to show all that something bad is happening but nobody (but PCs and cultists) might know why Ultimately there will be a dilemma for the PC:s. Will they stop the cult and risk a Kraken? Allow them to perform it and have a much more dangerous foe in the cult? Seek to stop the cult but perform the ritual themselves (perhaps with some powers as a boon but of a corrupting sort)? Or seek aid of others to stop it, with or without the ritual?
Whatever the choice, let it drastically impact the local/regional setting so that the players feel that their characters choices had a big impact.
“A kraken dreams of casting its tentacles into the heavens and strangling that which birthed it, and when its dream exceeds its reach, it settles for the occasional passing ship.”
I tend to think when it comes to these massively influential beings it is exactly influence they crave - usually at the expense of other influences (gods).
I enjoy the twist ending cult above, but you can always go more traditional - a kraken seeking more followers, perhaps even adopting a false name so individuals don't realize that they are serving the kraken at first. Or the kraken seeks godhood itself hoping to take the portfolio of another of the storm / Ocean gods,
I am considering having a kraken cult be the force behind a criminal syndicate. I have some over-arching goals for the organization and am looking for smaller, short term goals. So far the party has encountered them as primarily smugglers, but that can change. Thoughts?
Are you looking for affirmation on that being a cool idea or are you interested in ideas for story direction/goals to add to the larger picture?
A little of both, but you should probably forget you ever saw this...
When you say "Kraken cult", what do you mean? Short term goal should be to be released. Release the Kraken.
Normally for me, it's important the short term goals achieve one of three things:
1) Tick a checkbox towards a larger goal. If they have a long term goal of releasing some ancient horror from the far realms, and they need 500,000GP worth of adamantite to use to construct some machine to be used in that ritual, well, adamantite mines and shipments are on the agenda. So are laborers, enchanters, and so forth. Mark down what resources they need, what they already have, and breadcrumbs can be dropped (in many cases repeatedly) about what activities are linked to their efforts through a common theme.
2) Delay or remove impediments to that goal. If their goal is to get a whole town to sacrifice themselves to the kraken or something, and a town leader is being vocal about how Pelor will save them and how they should resist the teachings of these cultists and blah blah blah, he's gotta go. Whether through murder, being discredited, a "urgent issue" being revealed they know he'll go for and willingly leave the area for a while, or something else, it is in their interest to take steps to smooth the path or prevent their plan from being foiled.
3) Disguise a larger goal. Similar to the above but untargeted (most of the time), when working on a long term plan it helps to throw off chaff, and obfuscate the goal and / or your involvement in it. If going after adamantite, mixing it up in terms of who you go after and ensuring it looks like "random" attacks makes it less likely adamantite vendors will clam up and start avoiding public roads and travel. If you need the guard of a city depleted for a pending attack, paying mercenaries to make attacks up and down the coast it's on can ensure that your aims are met and that the goal remains unclear. Paying people to attack your own storehouses so it's not clear you're behind the storehouses belonging to someone else being attacked is another fine example. And so forth.
So to provide great short term goals, I'd really need to know the larger goals. However if you keep those principles in mind, I think you should be able to come up with plenty of things on their "to do list" on your own, and some short term goals should become naturally evident from that. Good luck!
My own homebrew campaign touches on both of your issues in a way where they work together. It isn't exactly what you are looking to do, but it might provide some inspiration.
I don't know if you watch the webstream Critical Role, but in case you don't, I'll give you a quick summary as it pertains to my campaign. My campaign, like the show, takes place in the world of Exandria. There is a criminal organization called The Clasp who has been around for a long time and they are pretty ingrained in underground society. I may portray them a little more sympathetically than Matt Mercer does. But there's also another organized crime syndicate called The Myriad from a distant continent who is moving in. These guys are the real bad guys. They deal in murder, drugs, and human trafficking.
The party in my campaign, through their adventures, has come to realize that there is a group of hobgoblins who have broken off from their otherwise-ordered military society to form a cult of Baphomet based around tearing down ordered society and embracing the wild impulsive side of their personalities. They are searching for a long-lost relic that will help them bring back a vanquished order of paladins of Baphomet. To this end, they have thrown in with The Myriad. From this relationship, the cult gets a more-or-less ally, as well as cover and funding for their search and excavation from a group is willing to tolerate this cult's operations. In exchange, the cult acts as kidnappers and distributors for the Myriad to earn them money and slaves and to spread their influence into this new land. They also spread chaos with their hobgoblin raids, which decreases overall social stability and benefits both organizations.
So in that regard, you have a synergy between the cult and the crime syndicate.
As far as scaling the encounters within the story, I started with a goblin raid on a town guard's outpost. The party had to defeat the goblins (pretty standard level 1 fare), retake the checkpoint, and in the process, they discovered a letter and a map in the tent of the goblin leader that spoke of a larger operation going on. When the party raided the checkpoint, a few goblins escaped and ran off into the wilderness. So the party became known to the enemy. Later in their adventures, the party was attacked by a group of assassins who had sketches of the party members, indicating it was a sponsored hit. They learned that kidnappings in the area were leading to a port town where a ship was arriving in a week. The party had to get there in time and prevent the organization from loading up the would-be slaves onto the ship and taken across the ocean. After resolving that, the party learned the location of the relic and now it's going to be a race to get it before the cult does. That's where we are now. If the party is unsuccessful, they will have to deal with the cult who now has a powerful relic. If they succeed, they will have a powerful evil tool that they might use or they might want to destroy. Either way, the remnants of the cult will pursue them to get it back and to take revenge.
I hope something in there can give you a few ideas of story hooks. I find the idea of a cult and an organized crime syndicate working together to be a great combination of two evil groups with lots of things for the party to deal with and go after.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Sounds like a fun story. I like the idea of a relic that could lead to a new group or class of enemies.
How about a twist: the cult is actually trying to stop the Kraken from being released? The magic that have held the Kraken prisoner for thousands of years is weakening. Ancient scrolls the cult has tells this as well as describes a powerful ritual that will renew the magic. Performing the ritual will give great insights into ancient knowledge and vastly increase the dark power of the cultists.
The cult are evil clerics and necromancers. Hence, nobody trusts them and they suspect, and hate, most of the orders of the land. Thus, they are doing something that will prevent a monstrosity from getting loose but without being people the PC:s will be sympathetic to (most likely). With their new powers they will gain followers and spread evil worship/do bad stuff. However, everyone else is unaware the of the danger that looms. At least at start. You can have omens and weird stuff happening more frequently as time passes.
To perform the ritual the cult must obtain a number of objects and rare materials. Hence, thefts occurs that the PC:s can struggle with. They can be hired or otherwise motivated to solve thefts or prevent one from happening. They can also be introduced to it by stumbling upon a burglary in progress by chance The thieves can be a couple of cultists with zombies or such. Enough to show that this is clearly not ordinary cRima aka and spur the players into action.
The PC:s can investigate the thefts, with a clue about the cult they can research that as well and stumble upon (slowly) the horrifying truth about the Kraken and a ritual that stops it getting loose.
The clock is ticking all the time for the PC:s. Bad omens and supernatural events can be increasingly common to show all that something bad is happening but nobody (but PCs and cultists) might know why Ultimately there will be a dilemma for the PC:s. Will they stop the cult and risk a Kraken? Allow them to perform it and have a much more dangerous foe in the cult? Seek to stop the cult but perform the ritual themselves (perhaps with some powers as a boon but of a corrupting sort)? Or seek aid of others to stop it, with or without the ritual?
Whatever the choice, let it drastically impact the local/regional setting so that the players feel that their characters choices had a big impact.
I'm so stealing this idea. Thanks!
From the monster manual ...
“A kraken dreams of casting its tentacles into the heavens and strangling that which birthed it, and when its dream exceeds its reach, it settles for the occasional passing ship.”
I tend to think when it comes to these massively influential beings it is exactly influence they crave - usually at the expense of other influences (gods).
I enjoy the twist ending cult above, but you can always go more traditional - a kraken seeking more followers, perhaps even adopting a false name so individuals don't realize that they are serving the kraken at first. Or the kraken seeks godhood itself hoping to take the portfolio of another of the storm / Ocean gods,
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