One of my players has chosen to be a follower of Oghma, a god of many things, but specifically of Bards and Magic. In my research of Oghma there is a group within the church called the Companions of the Silver String, which are a group of heroic bards who fight and risk their lives in serve to the church. This player is of course a bard, and I managed to squeeze in that his lute has a shiny silver string. In our session last night, while in a city, a member of the church noticed his shiny silver string, and rushed him to visit the church. I haven't fully decided what I wanted to happen while he was in there, and so that's where I ended the session. I have tried looking to see if anyone has posted ideas online about the companions of the silver string but I have not found anything.
I have two ideas, but not quite sure about them yet.
1: The Companions of the Silver String all have silver strings on their instruments, and therefore he is inducted into the group while he in the church.
2: The church believes he is a personal servant of Oghma, and therefor would like to worship him for a time in hopes that Oghma would reward them, answer prayers, or they could ask him to deliver messages to Oghma and such.
I would love to hear other ideas to make that side story more interesting for him. If I go with number 2, I think I might make Oghma contact him somehow and actually begin to start communicating with him. it wouldn't be totally random as he has only just discovered this church in his travels and has only begun to follow Ogmha so I could make a swing that Oghma was waiting for his arrival or something. Either way I feel he will want to become a Companion of the Silver String, so I am not sure if I should go with number 1, and if I did, I am not sure where i would go further in that story line.
So First thing I would do is create this organisation before coming up with what customs they have.
what is the goal of the companions of the silver string?
why were they formed?
who formed them?
what are their methods?
how do they get new members?
why do they want new members?
are they limited to one location or franchised?
is there a world order that can be achieved where they would freely disband?
etc
Really get a feel for what this organisation is, are they a knights Templar, an avengers, a guild, a family, ghostbusters etc.
Do they work in shadow, are they like the A team, do they only help in specific circumstances, are they widely known. Maybe there are myths about them. Folk tales of bardic heroes that saved the day and vanished.
idea I might do - maybe the silver strings are all connected, made as part of the same thread, crafted by Oghma themselves, maybe Oghma crafted the strings to tune to his lute and used it to banish a omega level fiend from the planes. When one is plucked the nearest silver string plays the same note. If your bard is ever in trouble he can pluck the string to call out to his bardic brothers. Maybe the bard is awakened one night by the sound of the string and knows he is being called to.
maybe an evil character is hunting down the strings, they wish to rebuild Oghmas lute and free their abyssal master from its banished prison.
maybe only a few silver stringed instruments exist and a completely unrelated fiend is threatening destruction of the plane and the bard needs to search for other silver strings so they can play a song in unison and summon the magic of Oghma to banish it.
maybe the strings are Oghma himself, bound and trapped within the silver prison bars of the 8 silver strings, reaching out to his unknowing jailers through music and creation. The strings are unbreakable however the right song played at the right time in the right place weakens them enough to be destroyed and on destruction of all 8 Oghma is freed
The above post has great suggestions about fleshing out the organisation. Great idea. I would simply make the character an initiate in the order and have quest options from there. There are legendary bardic instruments in the DM guide and they would be perfect.
My 2 cents would be to have a good think about what you know about the player, or if you want, you could just straight up ask them what sort of things they find cool.
What does the player like to do, do they like being the face of the party, collecting magic items, being a offense/defense/support character in combat (I expect the support if they are a bard but you never know)?
There's no point putting in lots of effort to a personalised experience for the player if it isn't going to be interesting and engaging for them. Once you have an idea of what that would be, you can then think of some story hooks that will appeal, such as Sardonic Monkey's good suggestions.
I would also suggest you consider how the storyline can connect to the primary campaign or adventure goal the players have, so that time spent exploring your Bard's storyline does not feel disengaging for your other players. They might be really cool and supportive of it, but you don't want them to get bored or frustrated.
Another option is the assumption that the character stole the lute or is somehow unworthy of carrying the item and must prove himself in the eyes of the church. "The Name of the Wind" does some good concepts on Bardic contests if you want some wider tangential inspiration
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One of my players has chosen to be a follower of Oghma, a god of many things, but specifically of Bards and Magic. In my research of Oghma there is a group within the church called the Companions of the Silver String, which are a group of heroic bards who fight and risk their lives in serve to the church. This player is of course a bard, and I managed to squeeze in that his lute has a shiny silver string. In our session last night, while in a city, a member of the church noticed his shiny silver string, and rushed him to visit the church. I haven't fully decided what I wanted to happen while he was in there, and so that's where I ended the session. I have tried looking to see if anyone has posted ideas online about the companions of the silver string but I have not found anything.
I have two ideas, but not quite sure about them yet.
1: The Companions of the Silver String all have silver strings on their instruments, and therefore he is inducted into the group while he in the church.
2: The church believes he is a personal servant of Oghma, and therefor would like to worship him for a time in hopes that Oghma would reward them, answer prayers, or they could ask him to deliver messages to Oghma and such.
I would love to hear other ideas to make that side story more interesting for him. If I go with number 2, I think I might make Oghma contact him somehow and actually begin to start communicating with him. it wouldn't be totally random as he has only just discovered this church in his travels and has only begun to follow Ogmha so I could make a swing that Oghma was waiting for his arrival or something. Either way I feel he will want to become a Companion of the Silver String, so I am not sure if I should go with number 1, and if I did, I am not sure where i would go further in that story line.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
So First thing I would do is create this organisation before coming up with what customs they have.
what is the goal of the companions of the silver string?
why were they formed?
who formed them?
what are their methods?
how do they get new members?
why do they want new members?
are they limited to one location or franchised?
is there a world order that can be achieved where they would freely disband?
etc
Really get a feel for what this organisation is, are they a knights Templar, an avengers, a guild, a family, ghostbusters etc.
Do they work in shadow, are they like the A team, do they only help in specific circumstances, are they widely known. Maybe there are myths about them. Folk tales of bardic heroes that saved the day and vanished.
idea I might do - maybe the silver strings are all connected, made as part of the same thread, crafted by Oghma themselves, maybe Oghma crafted the strings to tune to his lute and used it to banish a omega level fiend from the planes. When one is plucked the nearest silver string plays the same note. If your bard is ever in trouble he can pluck the string to call out to his bardic brothers. Maybe the bard is awakened one night by the sound of the string and knows he is being called to.
maybe an evil character is hunting down the strings, they wish to rebuild Oghmas lute and free their abyssal master from its banished prison.
maybe only a few silver stringed instruments exist and a completely unrelated fiend is threatening destruction of the plane and the bard needs to search for other silver strings so they can play a song in unison and summon the magic of Oghma to banish it.
maybe the strings are Oghma himself, bound and trapped within the silver prison bars of the 8 silver strings, reaching out to his unknowing jailers through music and creation. The strings are unbreakable however the right song played at the right time in the right place weakens them enough to be destroyed and on destruction of all 8 Oghma is freed
The above post has great suggestions about fleshing out the organisation. Great idea. I would simply make the character an initiate in the order and have quest options from there. There are legendary bardic instruments in the DM guide and they would be perfect.
My 2 cents would be to have a good think about what you know about the player, or if you want, you could just straight up ask them what sort of things they find cool.
What does the player like to do, do they like being the face of the party, collecting magic items, being a offense/defense/support character in combat (I expect the support if they are a bard but you never know)?
There's no point putting in lots of effort to a personalised experience for the player if it isn't going to be interesting and engaging for them. Once you have an idea of what that would be, you can then think of some story hooks that will appeal, such as Sardonic Monkey's good suggestions.
I would also suggest you consider how the storyline can connect to the primary campaign or adventure goal the players have, so that time spent exploring your Bard's storyline does not feel disengaging for your other players. They might be really cool and supportive of it, but you don't want them to get bored or frustrated.
Another option is the assumption that the character stole the lute or is somehow unworthy of carrying the item and must prove himself in the eyes of the church. "The Name of the Wind" does some good concepts on Bardic contests if you want some wider tangential inspiration