In my homebrew campaign, my players are members of an adventuring gguild. During their travels, they meet all kinds of other adventuring parties, their advancing stat blocks inspired by the Call of the Netherdeep adventure.
Thus far, two rival parties stand out to them: one of them is a friendly rivalry, made up mostly of childhood friends from a PC's backstory that started adventuring before he did, so they're higher up in the chain of command than he is, and thus he had to join a lower-ranked party (hence the party being formed); the other party is made up of embodiments of "problem players" to give the party an enemy that's not strictly evil (to their own POV, that is).
However, I'm working on one more party made up of primarily Neutral characters that will become enemies of the party's faction through villaino7s acts witgout being villains: a party of antiheroes, if you will. A deciding moment will be whether the party joins their developing side or goes against them. They advance similarly to a rival adventuring party, it's all part of the story in mind.
But right now, this "team" only has three characters with a planned fourth further down the line, and I feel like I want ideas for allies these characters could have in the world- not just other warriors that would fight with them, but NPCs that could act as actual allies of theirs that would interact with the party and either be people advocating for the group or maybe even spying for them. Here's the trio so far:
A Blood Hunter of the Lycan Variety, seen a monster throughout the Kingdoms. He's the one that brought Blood Magic to the current age, and he's the reason one of the PCs is a Blood Hunter, for they're also a werewolf and he shares it with cursed people so they can control their curses to become a boon. He's a heroic individual, but refuses to bow to anyone. Because this is a Wuxia-esque setting, he's the first person to coin the term "Ronin." He has repeatedly refused offers to join the adventuring guild, but he's intelligent and a capable warrior. He's beginning to adhere to his own anarchistic and socialism-adjacent ideals (if you're familiar with the concept, his character is c!Technoblade-esque, except he's not actively looking to topple any governments, he mostly just wants to be left alone).
A little girl, a Fire Genasi. She's a sorceress with powerful fire magic that she's learning control, and it being raised and protected by the Blood Hunter and the Druid. She considers them both her parents, and she's also a bit of a macguffin- for reasons the players won't know, their Adventuring Guild will want to obtain the little girl and take her away from her "parents." They'll claim it's because a child shouldn't be raised by people like them, but there's something more to it...
A Druid that's not really a Druid, but an aspect of a powerful sealed entity. She's trying to free herself and her siblings, and while she's not strictly evil, her morals don't line up with mortals. She only began traveling with the Blood Hunter to help him raise and protect the girl, and never really considered him anyone important. However, when she saw his power, she brought him to some ruins from back when she and her siblings were truly free, and gave him a powerful weapon. From there, she secretly considered him her champion, but after her true self is revealed against her will, the Blood Hunter will reveal he'd figured it out months ago and continue to defend her, because he believes that people are capable of change, and he'd seen her do good things. Needless to say, she's smitten, and her current mission is to offer him the world on a silver platter, to try and get him to give into her own way of thinking, that they should rule and be powerful...needless to say, they need to find a compromise.
The fourth member yet to come, is simply a Ranger. They're a Bounty Hunter that only took the job hunting these three to join their group, for long and mildly convoluted reasons.
The group's main goal will consist of gathering a collection of artifacts and finding ways to free the Druid's siblings. This will put them in the party's path, but it's entirely the party's actions whether this group will be allies or enemies...or nothing at all! This world is very open world, so it's just as possible that the party will wind up never seeing any of this come to fruition...but hey, I like to be prepared! If you've got a Neutral / Morally Gray character idea or concept from your own world or mind that you wanna pitch to help me out, I'd really appreciate it! Or at least, some ideas that I can play with to turn into something more.
A Warlock that made a pact with a hive mind (i.e. Mind Flayers or Kruthiks) that is trying to regain his free will, but unfortunately keeps going on uncontrollable rampages. He feels that the PCs are doing something to prevent him from destroying the Hive Mind, and also doesn't mind killing random people if it helps to destroy the Hive Mind. He joined the party because the Adventuring Guild came after him during one of his rampages and is trying to kill him.
(I think you should let the players get a chance to destroy the Hive Mind and/or befriend this guy)
In my homebrew campaign, my players are members of an adventuring gguild. During their travels, they meet all kinds of other adventuring parties, their advancing stat blocks inspired by the Call of the Netherdeep adventure.
Thus far, two rival parties stand out to them: one of them is a friendly rivalry, made up mostly of childhood friends from a PC's backstory that started adventuring before he did, so they're higher up in the chain of command than he is, and thus he had to join a lower-ranked party (hence the party being formed); the other party is made up of embodiments of "problem players" to give the party an enemy that's not strictly evil (to their own POV, that is).
However, I'm working on one more party made up of primarily Neutral characters that will become enemies of the party's faction through villaino7s acts witgout being villains: a party of antiheroes, if you will. A deciding moment will be whether the party joins their developing side or goes against them. They advance similarly to a rival adventuring party, it's all part of the story in mind.
But right now, this "team" only has three characters with a planned fourth further down the line, and I feel like I want ideas for allies these characters could have in the world- not just other warriors that would fight with them, but NPCs that could act as actual allies of theirs that would interact with the party and either be people advocating for the group or maybe even spying for them. Here's the trio so far:
A Blood Hunter of the Lycan Variety, seen a monster throughout the Kingdoms. He's the one that brought Blood Magic to the current age, and he's the reason one of the PCs is a Blood Hunter, for they're also a werewolf and he shares it with cursed people so they can control their curses to become a boon. He's a heroic individual, but refuses to bow to anyone. Because this is a Wuxia-esque setting, he's the first person to coin the term "Ronin." He has repeatedly refused offers to join the adventuring guild, but he's intelligent and a capable warrior. He's beginning to adhere to his own anarchistic and socialism-adjacent ideals (if you're familiar with the concept, his character is c!Technoblade-esque, except he's not actively looking to topple any governments, he mostly just wants to be left alone).
A little girl, a Fire Genasi. She's a sorceress with powerful fire magic that she's learning control, and it being raised and protected by the Blood Hunter and the Druid. She considers them both her parents, and she's also a bit of a macguffin- for reasons the players won't know, their Adventuring Guild will want to obtain the little girl and take her away from her "parents." They'll claim it's because a child shouldn't be raised by people like them, but there's something more to it...
A Druid that's not really a Druid, but an aspect of a powerful sealed entity. She's trying to free herself and her siblings, and while she's not strictly evil, her morals don't line up with mortals. She only began traveling with the Blood Hunter to help him raise and protect the girl, and never really considered him anyone important. However, when she saw his power, she brought him to some ruins from back when she and her siblings were truly free, and gave him a powerful weapon. From there, she secretly considered him her champion, but after her true self is revealed against her will, the Blood Hunter will reveal he'd figured it out months ago and continue to defend her, because he believes that people are capable of change, and he'd seen her do good things. Needless to say, she's smitten, and her current mission is to offer him the world on a silver platter, to try and get him to give into her own way of thinking, that they should rule and be powerful...needless to say, they need to find a compromise.
The fourth member yet to come, is simply a Ranger. They're a Bounty Hunter that only took the job hunting these three to join their group, for long and mildly convoluted reasons.
The group's main goal will consist of gathering a collection of artifacts and finding ways to free the Druid's siblings. This will put them in the party's path, but it's entirely the party's actions whether this group will be allies or enemies...or nothing at all! This world is very open world, so it's just as possible that the party will wind up never seeing any of this come to fruition...but hey, I like to be prepared! If you've got a Neutral / Morally Gray character idea or concept from your own world or mind that you wanna pitch to help me out, I'd really appreciate it! Or at least, some ideas that I can play with to turn into something more.
I wrote this before bed last night, I've cleaned it up today to be a bit better. I'll also be glad to answer any clarifying questions.
For instance, one reason I need their team bigger is because the PCs are a Party of 7!
A Warlock that made a pact with a hive mind (i.e. Mind Flayers or Kruthiks) that is trying to regain his free will, but unfortunately keeps going on uncontrollable rampages. He feels that the PCs are doing something to prevent him from destroying the Hive Mind, and also doesn't mind killing random people if it helps to destroy the Hive Mind. He joined the party because the Adventuring Guild came after him during one of his rampages and is trying to kill him.
(I think you should let the players get a chance to destroy the Hive Mind and/or befriend this guy)
Roll for Initiative: [roll]1d20+7[/roll]
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