A little background: my players have been tasked with retrieving an ancient artifact from the manor of a nobleman by attending a grand ball he's hosting. The players are trying to retrieve it before a malicious cult, also likely infiltrating the ball, can obtain it and use it for their own purposes.
I'm struggling with coming up with events and tricks to throw at the players to make it more than just a search and retrieve mission. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!
Adventurers without the Noble background should find everything about this quest to be as intimidating and inscrutable as a beholder encounter. Every interaction is a contest in persuasion or deception to fly under the assembly's notice, have a dance and test their acrobatics to keep up with unfamiliar steps, test constitution saving throws as they drink to not make jerks of themselves, etc. Give players a chance to show their less-used talents, such as disguise-making and performance. It's a great opportunity to turn the format on its head and make something innocuous into a struggle. Then once the heist goes down, make their successes and failures change the likelihood of notice.
Also give them a chance to meet and mingle with the important people of the city, and insodoing make allies (or enemies) that will matter to the campaign. It's a great excuse to make a sidequest into something that snowballs into something more.
Maybe have something in this ball that totally prevents combat from anybody, at least in the ballroom itself. Then it makes the game tense - the cultists taunting you in the ballroom where you cannot fight them; you just saw a cultist leave the ballroom though a side door, they might be seeing an ambush, do you follow? Things like that, I think there could be lots of cool story moments from it
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
What level are your players currently at, and what sort of adventures have they been on up until now? What i find to make social encounters very enjoyable is to throw a third party into the mix. Maybe somebody at the ball recognizes the players? Adoring fans that follow the characters around, making stealth and investigation troublesome. Or maybe an old nemesis or rival that never quite forgave them for slaughtering his guards, a nobleman they haven't even heard of until this point! But oh, he knows them, and he remembers.
The treasure vault has a number of Mimics residing in it as pets of the nobles.
A young nobleman/woman becomes taken with one of the characters and insists on accompanying them, making plenty of persuasion checks to try and convince the player to run away with them.
Everyone is a doppelganger, two different groups of the shapeshifters have infiltrated the courts and are waging a shadow war against each other, are the player's cat paws, victims, or both.
Blood red gold coins litter the treasury, any who pick them up are cursed and gain the flaw, I must possess my companions wealth.
Cursed magic necklace, anyone who sees it is compelled to put it on. Anyone who puts it on is strangled by the cursed necklace.
Crypt under the mansion has become infested with ghouls.
The McGuffin is a Red Herring, the real thing is safely hidden away.
Someone comes to the ball with Cackle Feaver, by the end of the night everyone will have a deadly laugh and a nice, big grin.
The cult shows up disguised as the city guard, then the city guard shows up.
A second cult dedicated to a trickster god crashes the party to show everyone what a really good time is like.
The noble has a wizard cousin and so gets Animate Object cast on a lot of his things at a low cost. Play up having the table walk around the ballroom and deliver hors-d'oeuvres while art deco statues dance an minuet.
An old tradition at many gatherings was to try and contact the dead, the noble spared no expense and instead of hiring a performer to pretend to be a medium a necromancer has shown up, alternatively, a diviner with Contact Other Plane for the entertainment of the guests.
While the ball is nice, the real party is in the nobles private Demiplane.
The party is in the Feywild, the only way to open the portal is to steal one of the guests Onyx Tickets or buy/rent one for the night from an NPC named Eli Miller.
Some of these are references but hopefully, you will find a use for one or two and hopefully, everyone else has enjoyed reading them.
References include Archer, the works of Paul Shapera, The Belgariad by David, and Leigh Eddings, Masquerade of the red death and a handful of others.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
A noble is assassinated (but not by a member of the cult). The PCs are blamed as the killers; or are tasked with finding the assassin before he strikes again...and he will.
The treasure vault has a number of Mimics residing in it as pets of the nobles.
A young nobleman/woman becomes taken with one of the characters and insists on accompanying them, making plenty of persuasion checks to try and convince the player to run away with them.
Everyone is a doppelganger, two different groups of the shapeshifters have infiltrated the courts and are waging a shadow war against each other, are the player's cat paws, victims, or both.
Blood red gold coins litter the treasury, any who pick them up are cursed and gain the flaw, I must possess my companions wealth.
Cursed magic necklace, anyone who sees it is compelled to put it on. Anyone who puts it on is strangled by the cursed necklace.
Crypt under the mansion has become infested with ghouls.
The McGuffin is a Red Herring, the real thing is safely hidden away.
Someone comes to the ball with Cackle Feaver, by the end of the night everyone will have a deadly laugh and a nice, big grin.
The cult shows up disguised as the city guard, then the city guard shows up.
A second cult dedicated to a trickster god crashes the party to show everyone what a really good time is like.
The noble has a wizard cousin and so gets Animate Object cast on a lot of his things at a low cost. Play up having the table walk around the ballroom and deliver hors-d'oeuvres while art deco statues dance an minuet.
An old tradition at many gatherings was to try and contact the dead, the noble spared no expense and instead of hiring a performer to pretend to be a medium a necromancer has shown up, alternatively, a diviner with Contact Other Plane for the entertainment of the guests.
While the ball is nice, the real party is in the nobles private Demiplane.
The party is in the Feywild, the only way to open the portal is to steal one of the guests Onyx Tickets or buy/rent one for the night from an NPC named Eli Miller.
Some of these are references but hopefully, you will find a use for one or two and hopefully, everyone else has enjoyed reading them.
References include Archer, the works of Paul Shapera, The Belgariad by David, and Leigh Eddings, Masquerade of the red death and a handful of others.
I only see one Eddings reference. Obviously, I need to reread The Belgariad.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I only see one Eddings reference. Obviously, I need to reread The Belgariad.
There is never a bad reason to reread a good series.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
A little background: my players have been tasked with retrieving an ancient artifact from the manor of a nobleman by attending a grand ball he's hosting. The players are trying to retrieve it before a malicious cult, also likely infiltrating the ball, can obtain it and use it for their own purposes.
I'm struggling with coming up with events and tricks to throw at the players to make it more than just a search and retrieve mission. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!
The cook's been kidnapped and impersonated by a doppelganger employed by/in/leading the cult, who tries to poison the characters.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Adventurers without the Noble background should find everything about this quest to be as intimidating and inscrutable as a beholder encounter. Every interaction is a contest in persuasion or deception to fly under the assembly's notice, have a dance and test their acrobatics to keep up with unfamiliar steps, test constitution saving throws as they drink to not make jerks of themselves, etc. Give players a chance to show their less-used talents, such as disguise-making and performance. It's a great opportunity to turn the format on its head and make something innocuous into a struggle. Then once the heist goes down, make their successes and failures change the likelihood of notice.
Also give them a chance to meet and mingle with the important people of the city, and insodoing make allies (or enemies) that will matter to the campaign. It's a great excuse to make a sidequest into something that snowballs into something more.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Maybe have something in this ball that totally prevents combat from anybody, at least in the ballroom itself. Then it makes the game tense - the cultists taunting you in the ballroom where you cannot fight them; you just saw a cultist leave the ballroom though a side door, they might be seeing an ambush, do you follow? Things like that, I think there could be lots of cool story moments from it
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
What level are your players currently at, and what sort of adventures have they been on up until now? What i find to make social encounters very enjoyable is to throw a third party into the mix. Maybe somebody at the ball recognizes the players? Adoring fans that follow the characters around, making stealth and investigation troublesome. Or maybe an old nemesis or rival that never quite forgave them for slaughtering his guards, a nobleman they haven't even heard of until this point! But oh, he knows them, and he remembers.
The treasure vault has a number of Mimics residing in it as pets of the nobles.
A young nobleman/woman becomes taken with one of the characters and insists on accompanying them, making plenty of persuasion checks to try and convince the player to run away with them.
Everyone is a doppelganger, two different groups of the shapeshifters have infiltrated the courts and are waging a shadow war against each other, are the player's cat paws, victims, or both.
Blood red gold coins litter the treasury, any who pick them up are cursed and gain the flaw, I must possess my companions wealth.
Cursed magic necklace, anyone who sees it is compelled to put it on. Anyone who puts it on is strangled by the cursed necklace.
Crypt under the mansion has become infested with ghouls.
The McGuffin is a Red Herring, the real thing is safely hidden away.
Someone comes to the ball with Cackle Feaver, by the end of the night everyone will have a deadly laugh and a nice, big grin.
The cult shows up disguised as the city guard, then the city guard shows up.
A second cult dedicated to a trickster god crashes the party to show everyone what a really good time is like.
The noble has a wizard cousin and so gets Animate Object cast on a lot of his things at a low cost. Play up having the table walk around the ballroom and deliver hors-d'oeuvres while art deco statues dance an minuet.
An old tradition at many gatherings was to try and contact the dead, the noble spared no expense and instead of hiring a performer to pretend to be a medium a necromancer has shown up, alternatively, a diviner with Contact Other Plane for the entertainment of the guests.
While the ball is nice, the real party is in the nobles private Demiplane.
The party is in the Feywild, the only way to open the portal is to steal one of the guests Onyx Tickets or buy/rent one for the night from an NPC named Eli Miller.
Some of these are references but hopefully, you will find a use for one or two and hopefully, everyone else has enjoyed reading them.
References include Archer, the works of Paul Shapera, The Belgariad by David, and Leigh Eddings, Masquerade of the red death and a handful of others.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
A noble is assassinated (but not by a member of the cult). The PCs are blamed as the killers; or are tasked with finding the assassin before he strikes again...and he will.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
This helped me with creation in a new light, thank you!