I'd love to get some feedback or assistance on a planned story arc I'm trying to come up with. Here's the background information:
One of my players is playing a bard named Lute Skyshredder was born Dinwitty VonHalvington of a very rich and influential family. He was the third generation of his family's fortune and high fluency, that he did not want to follow in his father's footsteps of private equity. His passion was music, but not the popular ditties that played during his parent's dinner soirees. He liked the aggressive and angsty bardcore music found in the smaller independent venues.
My plan was to make his families wealth come from a pact with a Glabrezu and now he is coming to collect on that pact. My issue is trying to decide what the Glabrezu wants. One idea I had was wanting to claim Lute as his own bard and take him back to the abyss for his own personal entertainment, but I'm not sure if that works. Would a Glabrezu do that? The other idea I had was just coming to kill Lute because it's a demon and they're evil and can just do that. I'm open to suggestions as well.
Um, well first you asked for feedback. This is a very strange idea. But, also A Glaberzu would probably do that. A suggestion i have is the Glaberzu is serving someone else. They wanted to make a pact with the bard on behalf of his master. The master would be the main villain. I'm not sure if you had something planned because you didn't really expand on your story arc just you base idea. But it's a good start. Maybe it could be Sseth or Adimarchus.
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May your blades stay ever sharp, and your minds as well.
DM: you party is approached by a bug bear.
Newbie: that sounds terrifying its like a bear with wings and pincers!
Veteran No, Its a...
DM: *scribbling furiously* The bugbears mandibles click furiously, everybody roll initiative!
Um, well first you asked for feedback. This is a very strange idea. But, also A Glaberzu would probably do that. A suggestion i have is the Glaberzu is serving someone else. They wanted to make a pact with the bard on behalf of his master. The master would be the main villain. I'm not sure if you had something planned because you didn't really expand on your story arc just you base idea. But it's a good start. Maybe it could be Sseth or Adimarchus.
I'm running through TfYP with a party of 7 and my hook for bringing the party together was a wealthy waterdeep noble recruited them all with the purpose to franchise an adventuring group in every city in Faerun, but he'll need the party to make a name for themselves before he can recruit other people in other cities and franchise. I was trying to make an antagonist for every character in the party based on their backstory and this was the bard's backstory. The player has only played a few times so that's why I came up with the idea of having his family be the one who made the pact instead of the bard himself. I feel like the player is kind of protective of his characters backstory, so having the Glaberzu make a pact with the bard isn't something I really wanna do.
As for having a master villain, I'm up in the air on that. Don't know who or what it's gonna be.
That sounds very on point for a Glabrezu - they are all about the temptation of mortals and general plotting, so it would be pretty believable for one to have struck a bargain with one of your character's ancestors. As for what the Glabrezu wants - taking him back to the abyss would work, but if you want to get fancy with it, perhaps the Glabrezu could appear and offer the bard a deal - letting the bard keep his soul, in exchange for providing the demon with the souls of the bard's fans/randos who listen to the bard's music. If the bard refuses, the Glabrezu might fall back to the abduct/kill plan to claim the original soul he was promised.
That sounds very on point for a Glabrezu - they are all about the temptation of mortals and general plotting, so it would be pretty believable for one to have struck a bargain with one of your character's ancestors. As for what the Glabrezu wants - taking him back to the abyss would work, but if you want to get fancy with it, perhaps the Glabrezu could appear and offer the bard a deal - letting the bard keep his soul, in exchange for providing the demon with the souls of the bard's fans/randos who listen to the bard's music. If the bard refuses, the Glabrezu might fall back to the abduct/kill plan to claim the original soul he was promised.
So with every character in the campaign, I'm going to give each of them an antagonist that they will have to deal with at some point. I'm trying to it a surprise to all of them and drop small hints about them as I can. My plan with the bard is one of his criminal contacts is going to come to him and say he's head rumors about something coming for him or his family. The next hint will be meeting the herald of the Glaberzu to announce he's coming. And then the actual meeting with the Glaberzu. I do like the part about having the Glaberzu trying to form a pact with the bard for the souls of the fans. I'll def try to work that in there.
you might want to watch an episode of buffy the vampire slayer called "once more with feeling", its about a song/music demon that makes people sing and dance themselves to death (but it is also a musical episode) so you could flavour your Glabrezu with some spell effects such as Hideous Singing (as per tasha's hideous laughter but the target sings instead of laughs) and Otto's irriestible dance.
The Glabrezu tries to tempt the bard into accepting some magical instument, maybe one of the Instruments fo the Bards from the DMG and all for the low low cost of one mortal soul.
you could also have the "fight" if one breaks out be a series of contested performance challenges rather than the usual.
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you might want to watch an episode of buffy the vampire slayer called "once more with feeling", its about a song/music demon that makes people sing and dance themselves to death (but it is also a musical episode) so you could flavour your Glabrezu with some spell effects such as Hideous Singing (as per tasha's hideous laughter but the target sings instead of laughs) and Otto's irriestible dance.
The Glabrezu tries to tempt the bard into accepting some magical instument, maybe one of the Instruments fo the Bards from the DMG and all for the low low cost of one mortal soul.
you could also have the "fight" if one breaks out be a series of contested performance challenges rather than the usual.
Oh I've seen all episodes of Buffy and Angel. Own all the DVD boxed sets too. I do like the idea cursing one of the instruments however and temping him with it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I'd love to get some feedback or assistance on a planned story arc I'm trying to come up with. Here's the background information:
One of my players is playing a bard named Lute Skyshredder was born Dinwitty VonHalvington of a very rich and influential family. He was the third generation of his family's fortune and high fluency, that he did not want to follow in his father's footsteps of private equity. His passion was music, but not the popular ditties that played during his parent's dinner soirees. He liked the aggressive and angsty bardcore music found in the smaller independent venues.
My plan was to make his families wealth come from a pact with a Glabrezu and now he is coming to collect on that pact. My issue is trying to decide what the Glabrezu wants. One idea I had was wanting to claim Lute as his own bard and take him back to the abyss for his own personal entertainment, but I'm not sure if that works. Would a Glabrezu do that? The other idea I had was just coming to kill Lute because it's a demon and they're evil and can just do that. I'm open to suggestions as well.
Um, well first you asked for feedback. This is a very strange idea. But, also A Glaberzu would probably do that. A suggestion i have is the Glaberzu is serving someone else. They wanted to make a pact with the bard on behalf of his master. The master would be the main villain. I'm not sure if you had something planned because you didn't really expand on your story arc just you base idea. But it's a good start. Maybe it could be Sseth or Adimarchus.
May your blades stay ever sharp, and your minds as well.
DM: you party is approached by a bug bear.
Newbie: that sounds terrifying its like a bear with wings and pincers!
Veteran No, Its a...
DM: *scribbling furiously* The bugbears mandibles click furiously, everybody roll initiative!
I'm running through TfYP with a party of 7 and my hook for bringing the party together was a wealthy waterdeep noble recruited them all with the purpose to franchise an adventuring group in every city in Faerun, but he'll need the party to make a name for themselves before he can recruit other people in other cities and franchise. I was trying to make an antagonist for every character in the party based on their backstory and this was the bard's backstory. The player has only played a few times so that's why I came up with the idea of having his family be the one who made the pact instead of the bard himself. I feel like the player is kind of protective of his characters backstory, so having the Glaberzu make a pact with the bard isn't something I really wanna do.
As for having a master villain, I'm up in the air on that. Don't know who or what it's gonna be.
That sounds very on point for a Glabrezu - they are all about the temptation of mortals and general plotting, so it would be pretty believable for one to have struck a bargain with one of your character's ancestors. As for what the Glabrezu wants - taking him back to the abyss would work, but if you want to get fancy with it, perhaps the Glabrezu could appear and offer the bard a deal - letting the bard keep his soul, in exchange for providing the demon with the souls of the bard's fans/randos who listen to the bard's music. If the bard refuses, the Glabrezu might fall back to the abduct/kill plan to claim the original soul he was promised.
So with every character in the campaign, I'm going to give each of them an antagonist that they will have to deal with at some point. I'm trying to it a surprise to all of them and drop small hints about them as I can. My plan with the bard is one of his criminal contacts is going to come to him and say he's head rumors about something coming for him or his family. The next hint will be meeting the herald of the Glaberzu to announce he's coming. And then the actual meeting with the Glaberzu. I do like the part about having the Glaberzu trying to form a pact with the bard for the souls of the fans. I'll def try to work that in there.
you might want to watch an episode of buffy the vampire slayer called "once more with feeling", its about a song/music demon that makes people sing and dance themselves to death (but it is also a musical episode) so you could flavour your Glabrezu with some spell effects such as Hideous Singing (as per tasha's hideous laughter but the target sings instead of laughs) and Otto's irriestible dance.
The Glabrezu tries to tempt the bard into accepting some magical instument, maybe one of the Instruments fo the Bards from the DMG and all for the low low cost of one mortal soul.
you could also have the "fight" if one breaks out be a series of contested performance challenges rather than the usual.
Oh I've seen all episodes of Buffy and Angel. Own all the DVD boxed sets too. I do like the idea cursing one of the instruments however and temping him with it.