Starilaskur, the City of Gnomes
Characters can learn about an ongoing conflict if they listen in on some rumors or decide to visit the smiths for themselves.
BACKGROUND
The Hopping Hammer ran by hobgoblins are highly regarded as the best smith's in the city. Salkur is placed second to the Hopping Hammer and as mentioned earlier blogs, he is mad jealous of the hobgoblin's success.
He feels entitled to have more success compared to his competitor because of his race and how Starilaskur supposedly belonged to the Gnomes. Salkur is trying to scheme a devious plan to sabotage the Hobgoblin's business.
After conducting some espionage, Salkur knows that The Hopping Hammer has a large shipment of goods being delivered to the Brelish Military Force. Salkur intends to derail the shipment and replace them with a decoy shipment of inferior weapons that look similar. The sharp drop in quality will surely ruin The Hopping Hammer's reputation and possibly shift the spotlight back to Salkur's Smithee.
Salkur does not want this plan to fail. He has gone out of his way to hire Daask members and selected the best members to get the job done. One is a group of shifters who will kill the shipment's envoy while the other is a group of changelings who will take their place to ensure that there'll be nothing to trace back to Salkur as the mastermind of the crime.
Hook
The Hopping Hammer is looking for capable hands to help protect and transport a shipment of goods to the Brelish military. The Hobgoblins will pay 200gp when the job is done. This job is available at Starilaskur's Adventurer's Guild.
NOTE: The Sword Keep needs the shipment right away for some unexplained circumstances. The Brelish Monarchy has gone through great efforts to make sure that the shipment's transport will be successful therefore, the lightning rails cleared the usual schedule to accomodate the transport.
START!
The adventure starts in Starilaskur's lightning rail station where the goods are loaded into the cargo
The shipment carries large amounts of every weapon found in the game up to the common magic weapons.
===CAR AT THE REAR===
A group of guards accompany the characters during the lightning rail ride.
"Everything seems to be going fine. For starters, this shipment is very well guarded. This might very well be the easiest job you've gotten so far!"
"The guard leader requests that you head to the rear car and give the shipments another check. He warns you that you're gonna have to patrol the train a lot throughout the journey."
"The cargo appear to be fine. Nothing suspicious so far."
Once the players reach the rear car, compare their Passive Perception to the shifter's stealth rolls.
If the characters detect the shifters, they are not surprised. If not, the shifters will surprise them.
"As the adrenaline start pumping into their system, they seem to change in appearance. As if in a flash, their eyes slant in an animalistic fashion, their pupils glowing in an eery amber. Sharp teeth and claws grow from their mouths and fingers. What seemed like hair turned into beastly fur! These aren't your average bandits; these are shifters!"
===SECOND CAR===
"As soon as the last shifter goes down you start to hear worrying noises in the previous. The cargo is under attack!"
- The enemies encountered will all claim that they work for Daask Criminal Syndicate.
- Daask knows of the Hopping Hammer's reputation and want the weapons for themselves.
- [They will do whatever they can to not mention about the real mastermind, Salkur]
A Doppelganger has already infiltrated this car and has taken the form of one of the guards to deceive the characters.
The Doppelganger wants to unlock the safe and have all the spoils to itself and will try to subtly enquire about any methods to do so maybe even lie that a superior commands to ensure the content's safety.
It is also, however, tasked to eliminate all non-Daask members. As soon as the characters try to leave, it'll attack with surprise if the characters do not suspect anything. The Doppelganger is confident about its abilities to keep the threat at bay and will attempt the fight alone.
===THIRD CAR===
"The fates might be smiling upon you, or playing a cruel trick. You are momentarily relieved to sense no enemies here. "
"Suddenly, you hear what seems to be horse's galloping and... loud, explosive gunshots! Taking a peek outside you see several ashen-skinned elves with matching-colored hair who are heavily covered in tattoos on horseback. They have already caught up to the train. These elves don't look like any elves you've seen before! They look more monstrous and exudes death."
The Shadar-Kai are a little more aggressive than the previous monsters. Roll initiatives!
- "Give up the cargo. You are outmatched!"
- "But if you intend to fight us, we'll be more than happy to oblige."
The Shadar-Kais will try to enter the cars as soon as possible.
LOOT: Several Revolvers with 2d10 bullets. There are also 2d6 silver bullets on them.
===FOURTH CAR===
"A singular, ordinary looking thug stand before you when you stepped in the car. But if the last few encounters taught you anything... you'll be better off not underestimating your opponent."
- "You gonna fight or what?"
- Rolls Initiative. "You know what, I ain't gonna wait. Stand still while I slice ya into pieces!"
The bandit takes the guard statistics until defeated. This is the character's chance to dish in as much damage as possible. Deduct all HP lost (including any outstanding ones) from the Werewolf stats when he eventually transforms.
"The man seem to have taken a thrashing from all ya but he obstinately stays on his feet. Out of nowhere, his body snaps and twists into all sorts of unimaginable positions. Fur grow generously all over his body. A snout appear at where his lips and nose were. Jaws lined with razor sharp teeth. He begins transforming into a bestial creature unlike any you've seen before. You're looking at a werewolf!"
===FINAL CAR===
The changelings make one final attempt to salvage the operation. They have already knocked out all of the guards and crew members and taken up their disguises.
They'll try to trick the characters into the empty engine room before locking them in and attempting to detach the rest of the cars.
If anything goes wrong, they'll fight the characters off.
===END. OR IS IT?===
If the characters are successful, they earn their gold. If not, Daask gets away with the goods.
Daask are not interested in taking lives and will leave them stranded on some random location along the way. This can then branch into other adventures where the characters can attempt to reclaim the stolen goods.
Successful characters may eventually get the Daask to reveal that Salkur is the mastermind but Salkur is far too clever to allow anything to trace back to him. He might send assassins to silence the Daask or scouts to tamper with any evidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment