CoD 1: Session 06: Cavesmuth's Factions

 Pre-scene Notes

Surprised and awed at the DND community's victory over the OGL war and not letting a few executives and capitalists that haven't even played DND before completely ruin the name that's started before they were anything. I'm not sure whether the damage is done already, but considering this is one of the rare cases a massive company backed down and publicly apologised for messing up, it should be worth celebrating. Still in the candid sense, only money talks, and this is driven by seeing their competitor's spike and theirs decline, and if only there were more good news stories like this every day.

Scene setup/conflict: 

Party visits the Trade House and Governor’s Office to decide which faction to work for

Interrupt scene: NPC action, Overthrow Animals. The overthrow got me thinking this must be related to the Governor. Considering I want to emphasise the factions, and it was the party’s next destination, I decided it was between Trader’s House & Governor’s Office. Took me a while, but decided the ‘animals’ part is an export from the Cave. Considering the low Chaos factor, I really thought we have to progress to a Cave dive soon, so I just hurried along instead of having the party involved here. Not to mention the party had ability to get involved being weak unknown newcomers and I did not want a battle.

Scene: 

The Party came out of the Cliff’s Edge Tavern to commotions from the other side of the stalls and Town Square. They went over to see a group of merchant-looking types outside the Governor’s Offices, in a stand-off with some of the office officials.

Merchants were protesting that animals and creatures were now considered contraband by the Governor and no civilian sale of them were no longer allowed. They stated that was just because of the the lucrative Pigmypuffs trade the last adventure had bought back last week, as the small cute creatures would be popular in the Capitol’s courts. But if the officials continued on like this, the merchants said they might as well stop shipping in the chicken and cattle, and see where they the island would get their eggs and milk then.

The situation escalated to pushing each other but the crowd cleared the way for Rose to come in. She asked who gave the merchants permission to protest, and her assistant whispered she had been far too lenient on them, first the Blue Horizon, then this.

The crowd parted again and it was the Governor this time. 

“When I heard it was the Rose woman again, I’d wondered what she’d want this time. Just because your family owns a monopoly in some backwater, don’t think you can do the same here.”

“Governor,” Rose nodded with a blank face, which said enough considering she had more than pleasantries for even the lowliest beggar. “Don’t you think it’s unreasonable to ban the civilian sale of living creatures? Where will it end? It’ll be plants next, then crop. If so, the Governor’s Office may as well make it a monopoly for the Banquo family themselves to service this town. The Roses can pack up immediate if that is your wish.”

“You know full well this is a beneficial engagement between our two families. You do what you excel at and we give you every advantage amongst the Empire’s courts. How else do you think you were able to be the big fish here?” Banquo took a step back, “I am nothing if not reasonable. How about a tax on the sale of loot from the Cave?”

“You’ve been wanting this for a long while, and I object as before. Ultimately putting a tax on those treasures the adventurers earned with their lives will put the burden back on them, devaluing it.” Rose looked pained as she gritted her teeth, “The Rose family will take that burden. We mustn’t cold the adventurers’ flames for the Cave. Any rare items sold at the Rose merchants, we will pay the tax imposed by the Governor.”

Zar reasonable knew from background and rolled high, but Yankovic rolled higher with a nat 20 Insight.

Filli commented how Rose she was to take the tax for the adventurers, but Zar commented he knew a bit about business, and explained Rose did that so all the adventurers will likely go to Rose instead of the Governor instead with their rare artefacts, which was ultimately what both sides wanted obtain so they could trade it on the continent. Weird Elf said he was in charge of a small church branch’s finances for a while, and said that was not the ulterior motive. The Governor needed to have sanctioned that rule change unlike the Rose’s merchants, so his real motivations were still upcoming. Sure enough, Banquo spoke next.

“It is only reasonable for a bit of backfill for the expense of running this settlement, considering export from the Cave is its main asset. There is still so much to do in order to get this settlement up and running - even the roads are not fully paved yet. There is just a massive list of tasks and requests on the Governor’s Office’s board regarding expansion that are left gathering dust. The guards need to patrol and settle affairs at the docks, so won’t nearly have enough time to tend to everything. You know, the Roses have such a large group of manpower as your ‘bodyguards’, won’t you be able to spare a few for the expansion of this  infant town?”

“As much as I agree opening up farmlands nearby will no doubt benefit everyone by lowering food prices, and is another step towards the island being self-sufficient, I must regrettably decline. My retainers are also charged with convoys for the merchants, essential supplies for the island, and aiding the Trade Hub’s operations. Without them, I dare say things may run riot. I can try and convince my bodyguards to lend a hand, after all just because I’m a young woman, I can protect myself, but they may decline considering my family just can’t fathom the though of little frail  me in danger…”

Yankovic pointed with his hand, “See? This story had been going on long before we came here. Adventurers prefer questing in the Cave as that brings more riches and fame, so the town-building tasks are falling behind. As town infrastructure strengthens the Governor, if he is able to even temporarily claim some of Rose’s manpower to develop a local source for food for example, he’ll be less reliant on Rose’s imports. The Rose girl sees this of course, so no way she’s agreeing, and she’ll drag out this initial weak state as long as possible. And who knows if despite the outward rebuke of her assistant, she may have sanctioned her merchants to do this protest anyway.”

“Rose girl? Weird Elf, how old are you?” Filli asked, considering he seemed to have had many church and life experiences.

“Can’t tell, maybe two hundred to five hundred?” He flexed his stiff arm like an old man, “Saying that, I have started feeling my body waking up a bit stuff, so maybe the later end. You know we elves live long, but I’m a Weird Elf, so who knows.”

“How can someone not know their own age?” Zar barked.

“And you are?” Yankovic challenged. 

“Twenty. Round about,” Zar whispered.

“I’m sixteen,” Filli piped up to the surprise of both.

“And you’re still that short?”

“You gotta drink more milk.”

“I’m fifty percent halfling!” 

The argument did not really come to a satisfactory conclusion but at least broke up the tense situation between the merchants and the officials. Both sides led their people away and the crowd dispersed. Yankovic said they were at least here so might as well check out the Governor’s missions first.

I had in my mind for the campaign the party affect the settlement’s development, which I think will mostly surround the power struggle between the two factions. If party helps the Rose more, maybe there’ll be more capitalistic establishments, and if the Banquos, then more the state’s infrastructure. The relationship between the NPCs as well I will have the party affect and tease out as the campaign goes on, wherever it leads, but probably related to specific quests or Cave dives. This was also the reason why I’d homebrewed this campaign setting, as I’d felt it brought a lot of flexibility, and conflicts, for a simple concept. As an author or GM, following logic to a settle was great to get conflicts, like the nobles vs commoners, what of the assistants keep ear-whispering to the two leaders, the adventurers overall view of the leaders etc. 

#

The Governor’s Office was littered with paperwork and officials running about, busy much like the Governor’s Estates. There was a very large board behind the counter, which actually seemed to be magically enchanted for ease of switching out requests and missions. A few other adventurers were here either handing in quests or looking at them on the big enchanted board. The quests on the board ranged from clearing monsters, exploring uncharted territory, ploughing new farmlands, or just gathering raw materials. There was an instruction at the top of the board to speak to an official for more information or to accept a job.

Zar scoffs and commented there was one for finding a noble’s cat, considering this place to be just a way for nobles to get lackies.

Filli though spotted a job of bringing back some giant crab meat for a noble. He considered it might be possible to see if Stella had also been washed up ashore if she mistakenly fell out their lifeboat. And doing a job like this was easier than going into the Cave immediately. He certainly did not have money to pack rations for days.

Yankovic said it was best to ask the officials to see where the crabs were exactly. The unperturbed official explained the giant crabs were far enough down the beach eastward they were not a threat to the city, but Viscount Estiafan from the Capitol really liked the texture of the meat for breakfast. Feel free to go and collect ten of them and the pay is one gold each, which was more than generous. There was always the chance though if the party were too slow, someone else might get there first as requests were not exclusive.

Filli tried to report Stella being missing. The official wrote down his statement and said he would pass it onto the guard captain to decide what to do. 

#

Party remembered Rose’s promise of compensation and went to the Trade House next.

The place had less paperwork lying about, but were filled with dwarfs, oils, smoke and spices. Instead of business, it was more of chaos. Haggling was everywhere, and even a small auction was going on in a corner. Instead of a concise enchanted board, there were just parchments running alongside one wooden wall that named the category of goods someone might be looking for, ranging from mystical swords to cursed earrings. The large square entrance hall was boxed in by a long counter surrounding the boundary, but a wide staircase at the back led to the second floor. Merchants behind the counter were not waiting around like officials, but were either on step ladders to take something from the cabinet and shelves behind them, or jumping over the counter to haggle with an adventurer. Sale posters for Beads of Nourishment and Refurbishments plastered the walls.

Unable to find anything of note on the walls, the party tried to flag a merchant down at the counter. A stout merchant spotted Zar and enquired if they were selling anything. Thee party explained about Rose’s compensation and asked if there were any jobs down the eastern beach. The merchant went away to verify on the compensation and asked a clerk to tell them about possible quests. 

#

The gnome clerk said if the party could find any cute little creatures in a Cave run, that were all the craze at the moment in the Capitol for a Duke’s daughter or a Viscount’s concubine, it could net them some nice gold. For the beach direction, if the party could find a lost necklace a noble’s daughter dropped on her very innocent day out there ‘alone’, which was why she did not want the Governor’s Office advertising this request, then there would be a handsome 15G reward. 

The fetch quests were just on the spot thinking per their cliché nature. At this point, I had also thought of enemies for the next encounter, crabs, just because they were free Roll20 assets. The beach was a logical choice with Filli’s motivations to ensure Stella was ok too. 

#

The stout merchant came back after verifying the party’s compensation: to help the party’s journeys into the Caves, they offered them specially-made Traveller’s Clothes that would protect them against most weathers. Maybe not the ocean trenches or highest mountain peaks, but the odd rain and snow were no problem. The party seemed a bit disappointed but the clerk explained these were the best selling equipment in this store and said considering there was no clue what climates they could land in each Cave dive, they should not underestimate the importance of these. 

As the party did very little to earn any reward, I had been thinking what was not valuable but did not Elodia Rose as a cheap or ingenious, therefore it had be something thoughtful to the party. Considering she did not know much about party, I’d thought I would kill two birds with one stone, as I do not plan to run many survival campaigns, and there were a lot more other things a party need to contend with than weather if I wanted them to deal with those challenges.  

Zar pointed out at least they could sell their current clothes for gold. Filli also said he did not really want any compensation, so this was more than what he had expected already. 

They thanked the clerk, took the clothes in their chosen styles and colour, and sold their common clothes. The clerk pointed out Zar’s was of a much finer quality, like costume show clothes, and therefore fetched a much better price. Zar brave-faced it as he needed the money. Yankovic got more suspicious, asking what order was it he trained with and what training was like. Zar said his mentor was a dwarf and he passed away now, which was also the reason his training might not be comprehensive. He proceeded to ask the clerk about flutes, as his mentor had also apparently taught him that to change the conversation topic. 

Scene close-out: 

• Chaos factor down to 3. Despite the conflict on the factions, it was not related to the PCs
• - party thread: to find out more about requests/missions
• + party thread: 15G to find missing necklace by the bridge
• + party thread: 1G for each giant grab meat

Post-scene Notes: 

Although it made more logical sense for the party not to rush their first Cave dive, from an author’s POV, delaying the main meat of the whole setting is not ideal. Even as a GM, it may have been best to have the party experience the Cave first instead of expansion quests. However, this was also the way DND works and feels logical to character motivations, and one of the reasons the injured Cave diver came in at the tavern before as well, to continue the give the Cave a menacing presence.

Also, I’d thought it was a good time to post a character portrait of one of the PCs as I had no screenshots for this scene. Here is Zar Onu, level 1, with his paladin costume. 

Portrait from Iain Miki 

I think this is a very common image googled for a orc paladin but just thought it fitted Zar’s theme. The symbol is of Pelor from Critical Role, so not Xanthia so will have to ignore that. I plan to update his and maybe Filli’s character portraits if the campaign goes on long enough. I already found good ones of them a few years down the line. Weird Elf however was still an Elf, so unlikely his features will change much as they’re relatively ageless after reaching adulthood.