Hey guys, I'm looking for some dming help here. I'm running dotmm with my 4 person, level 8 party, and my players, having heard enough about the xanathars guild now, have just killed Rizzeryl, (and also metagaming a little and wanting to meet xanathar because of the book) and have decided that they'd like to trick Shunn Shureth, on level 2, room 9B, and claim to want join the Xanathars guild. Their current plan is to see where this takes them and play it out.
Now the book says that if Shunn can knock the players unconscious, he takes them to Skull Island and leaves them with Commander Sundeath. I'm thinking I have a few options from here but I'm curious what other people think I should prepare for.
My current thoughts:
Option 1: Shunn claims to be allowing them to join the Xanathars guild, but is bluffing and tries to trick them into a trap or to walk themselves all the way to Sundeath.
Option 2: Shunn gives them a chance to prove themselves, sending them on missions to cull the other areas of the floor, helping expand Xanathar territory. Eventually presenting them to Sundeath as potentially suitable candidates for the Xanathars guild.
Option 3: Shunn asks the group the prove themselves, but is using the players, and will backstab them and take the credit upon success.
My group really wants me to expand on our roleplaying. Which I know is difficult while running a megadungeon but I really enjoy the premise of this module.
What are Xanathars motives and goals? What do you think he wants from the dotmm? And how do you think a being of such high intelligence would go about achieving his goals?
If you were writing this campaign, how would you prefer this scenario play out?
I'm currently running DotMM, but one of my players is Zhentarim and hates the Xanathar's guild for killing his father when they played through Dragon Heist. They are actually looking for Rizzeryl to help them, so slightly different than your campaign.
Did the party play through Dragon Heist? Did any of them join factions?
Option 4: Shunn takes them to Xanathar's lair (DH ch 5) which can be accessed via Skullport's Guts & Garters Inn (22). Instead of letting them join Xanathar, they are tricked into fighting in the gladiator pit (X6). There's a section on the gladiator tournament. Could be fun to have them fight certain monsters or even each other. If they lose, they are hauled off to Skull Island. If they win, they can chose to join Xanathar, or betray him.
Wow! Thank you for that option, that wasn't something I'd read yet and my session is tonight. No we hadn't played dragonheist, I transitioned into this at level 7 when we completed a mix of some other pre-made campaigns and some homebrew, but I have been reading it because I wanted to include Waterdeep as part of my DOTMM campaign. I was reading about the Xanathars guild (as well as the other factions in WD) and it says right there that they accept all members after forcing them to commit a crime. So when they bring the key to Shunn, my plan is for him to give them the task of wiping out the goblin market, if they try to deceive or backstab him (which I honestly know my group pretty well so I'll give it a 90/10 they do), he'll invite them to skullport to meet his boss (General Sundeth), who will send them to the pit. I think this is the most interesting chain of events.
If they don't decide to backstab Shunn (at some point they will, they're not evil characters and he'll be telling them to do things against their nature, like take slaves to be sold), he'll offer them another job to continue proving themselves and working their way up the ladder. Shunn's there to loot the level, so I may even tell the party that he requires them to search the floor for magical items, he's been informed there's one here, and that will pay their way to meet Sundeth. At this point I'll have Xanathar assign a Gazer (from dragonheist) because he's curious about his new pets.
That's as far as I'll plan for this session. They shouldn't make it through that much content. Thanks for the help
Hey guys, I'm looking for some dming help here. I'm running dotmm with my 4 person, level 8 party, and my players, having heard enough about the xanathars guild now, have just killed Rizzeryl, (and also metagaming a little and wanting to meet xanathar because of the book) and have decided that they'd like to trick Shunn Shureth, on level 2, room 9B, and claim to want join the Xanathars guild. Their current plan is to see where this takes them and play it out.
Now the book says that if Shunn can knock the players unconscious, he takes them to Skull Island and leaves them with Commander Sundeath. I'm thinking I have a few options from here but I'm curious what other people think I should prepare for.
My current thoughts:
Option 1: Shunn claims to be allowing them to join the Xanathars guild, but is bluffing and tries to trick them into a trap or to walk themselves all the way to Sundeath.
Option 2: Shunn gives them a chance to prove themselves, sending them on missions to cull the other areas of the floor, helping expand Xanathar territory. Eventually presenting them to Sundeath as potentially suitable candidates for the Xanathars guild.
Option 3: Shunn asks the group the prove themselves, but is using the players, and will backstab them and take the credit upon success.
My group really wants me to expand on our roleplaying. Which I know is difficult while running a megadungeon but I really enjoy the premise of this module.
What are Xanathars motives and goals? What do you think he wants from the dotmm? And how do you think a being of such high intelligence would go about achieving his goals?
If you were writing this campaign, how would you prefer this scenario play out?
I'm currently running DotMM, but one of my players is Zhentarim and hates the Xanathar's guild for killing his father when they played through Dragon Heist. They are actually looking for Rizzeryl to help them, so slightly different than your campaign.
Did the party play through Dragon Heist? Did any of them join factions?
Option 4: Shunn takes them to Xanathar's lair (DH ch 5) which can be accessed via Skullport's Guts & Garters Inn (22). Instead of letting them join Xanathar, they are tricked into fighting in the gladiator pit (X6). There's a section on the gladiator tournament. Could be fun to have them fight certain monsters or even each other. If they lose, they are hauled off to Skull Island. If they win, they can chose to join Xanathar, or betray him.
Wow! Thank you for that option, that wasn't something I'd read yet and my session is tonight. No we hadn't played dragonheist, I transitioned into this at level 7 when we completed a mix of some other pre-made campaigns and some homebrew, but I have been reading it because I wanted to include Waterdeep as part of my DOTMM campaign. I was reading about the Xanathars guild (as well as the other factions in WD) and it says right there that they accept all members after forcing them to commit a crime. So when they bring the key to Shunn, my plan is for him to give them the task of wiping out the goblin market, if they try to deceive or backstab him (which I honestly know my group pretty well so I'll give it a 90/10 they do), he'll invite them to skullport to meet his boss (General Sundeth), who will send them to the pit. I think this is the most interesting chain of events.
If they don't decide to backstab Shunn (at some point they will, they're not evil characters and he'll be telling them to do things against their nature, like take slaves to be sold), he'll offer them another job to continue proving themselves and working their way up the ladder. Shunn's there to loot the level, so I may even tell the party that he requires them to search the floor for magical items, he's been informed there's one here, and that will pay their way to meet Sundeth. At this point I'll have Xanathar assign a Gazer (from dragonheist) because he's curious about his new pets.
That's as far as I'll plan for this session. They shouldn't make it through that much content. Thanks for the help
All of that sounds great. Good luck, have fun.