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NonProphetApostle
Acolyte
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - 18 May 2021 : 04:29:46
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Hello all,
I am working on an adventure setting for 15-20(5e). I have this organization I am putting together to be the source of a few example plot hooks and I wanted to know if the concept is sound or intriguing.
Guilded Daffodils
"We may worship gold, but we're only interested if the price is in platinum"
Have you heard? Waukeen is showering the people with her divine blessings! Boisterous Adventurers brandishing a Daffodil symbol have been spotted throughout Toril! Nobody knows why, A few think she might be stimulating trade to aid the worlds recovery from the after-effects of the spellplague, Harlots Coin Heretics believe the machinations of Graz'zt have finally begun to move.
Subtext:
In my head, Waukeen is well aware that she is not exactly Ao's favorite after the last couple of centuries. Maybe she even suspects he is going to replace her for someone who better personifies the portfolio. But Waukeen is a shrewd investor, and she can spot a keen business mind. She arrives in the dreams of these people, offering them her blessing and granting them divine power(like, 1 cleric level, or maybe even paladin) and tells them that they need to scour the earth for hidden wealth, to protect trade routes, forge deals, stimulate the economy. In reality she is just buying out her competition while they are small, and keeping them busy in her name.
(This also has some narrative potential I like with the Harlot's Coins, maybe Waukeen is fed up with the mortals thinking they know what she is upto, so she will play a trick on them, start her own fractured cult inside her patrons and manage them like a business. I'm also keeping this layer of subtext intentionally vague, maybe the DM decides Graz'zt succeeded all those years ago, if they want to blow up the moon that is not my personal problem, I just want DM's and players to feel more comfortable participating in and running games at the reality bending levels of adventure.)
Side Notes
Yes, I wrote this to explain why my wizard gnome in another campaign only took one level of Cleric, and because I considered a gold coin shaped shield for about a minute before deciding it was too camp and settling on her alternate symbol the Daffodil. (it's also a meta-comment on a PC being "chosen by the gods" since they might think they are chosen, and then they find out there are like, 500 others similarly chosen. this was not intentional, I'm not actually that good.)
Mainly the group will be higher level merchants, patrons, knowledge vendors, and possibly the employer of one or more foils along the way in an adventure focused around Anauroch. (in addition to the Gnomish Daffodil character, I also have an undercover warlock scout character dispatched from the Halruaan council, A tribe of Bidean Addax riding anti-magic paladins, and am thinking of Thay and Thultanthar based characters/organizations. there is no homebrew in the characters just yet, I want to keep them largely core classes, with multiclassing and optional UA variants, just so that newer players have better examples of what can be a devastatingly powerful combination of abilities, IMHO, the worst feeling is hitting level 15 and realizing that you just don't keep up with combat anymore because of a feat you took at 4th level, especially if you are in the campaign of an unforgivable tyrant.)
The goal of the adventure isn't so much about a cohesive story as much as it is a collection of "Unmoveable Object Vs Unstoppable Force" scenarios that DMs and players can get tripped up on when the party has more than one member that can cast wish, how you might handle a Mythalar in a game if you found one, what it looks like when a Deity actively meddles in the Prime Material, and what might motivate a non religious character who doesn't want to be royalty.
They also aren't a formal organization so much as they are a group of people with similar goals and the skillset to coordinate well, similar to a merchant guild, but don't call them a merchant guild, the highest ranked Daffodils are constantly bickering about their classification:
D1: "No, I'm telling you, we are a company!"
D2: "No you old coot, we don't share assets. Surely, we are the Order of the Guilded Daffodils"
D3: "You are not giving Our Lady of the Coin her due you fool! we are, in fact, a Sodality"
D4: "I think you are all insane, worrying about restructuring a business in the middle of a quarter, and what if the temple hears of this Sodality nonsense? I tell you if we do all that the local Lords will take something worse than our heads: Taxes."
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Edited by - NonProphetApostle on 18 May 2021 08:35:10
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Guilded Daffodils(moved from General Chat)
