Adventure Hook 019 – Efreets Don't Flail Me Now!

It’s time to showcase another entry in the adventure hook contest I ran last month.  This entertaining entry was submitted by Macadosche.  You can follow him on twitter: @Macadosche

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Adventure Hook 019 –“Efreets, Don’t Flail Me Now!”

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Location:

Starts in a mid-to-large town with a large amount of “stranger traffic.” Somewhere with large crowds of people coming and going each day.

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Situation:

Rumor among local adventurers has it that a mysterious merchant has appeared seeking to hire able bodies for a special mission. (Especially roguish types, thieves, mercenaries for hire, etc) He is paying much more than the normal rate, but every group interviewed has been turned down.–

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Problem:

The Man is a powerful planewalker, disguised as a simple merchant.  He is a collector of a strange type – this many collects powerful extraplanar beings, trapping their essence for his own dark purposes.  He seeks to hire a group t0 infiltrate the noble efreeti house of Djarulin, located on The Plume within the City of Brass.

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Tasks:

The players need to

1) Answer the man’s request for assistance and convince him to select them for the job.

2) Pilot a spelljammer to the City of Brass and meet their contact within the kitchens of the Djarulin complex.

3) Pose as servant girls during a great feast dedicated to the house, performing many tasks which test their non-combat skills.

4) Elude discovery and retrieve both a lock of the powerful efreet lord’s hair and a personal item from his chambers.

5) Return the items to the collector without being discovered.

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Things to explore:

1) The man is very suspicious of strangers and will need good reasons why he can trust the group. (Skill challenge opportunity for diplomacy, bluff, etc.)

2) The collector supplies the group with a spelljammer and basic instructions on how to get to the City of Brass … but there will be difficulties along the way. (Githyanki pirates, bad directions, all sorts of room for making the trek there an odyssey within itself.)

3) Once there, the party meets their contact within the slave quarters and must perform a long series of skill challenges while in disguise. Pouring a round of drinks for the main table without spilling on the guests, being singled out and made to dance sensuously for the host, helping to dress the efreet lord for the party, etc.

4) After the PCs have retrieved the hair and personal item, they are betrayed by their contact just as they are about to make their escape and must fight/flee the premises.

5) Return to home by spelljammer should be difficult, as they will be pursued by the efreet lord’s minions, as well as by the authorities of the City of Brass.

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Suggestions:

This hook is intended to focus on skills over combat and should open up a broad window of skill challenges for the DM to create for the group. Having the group dress in drag will produce some juicy roleplay tidbits which the PCs will have to work through in order to come up with a plan of action. Stay away from direct combat until the PC identities are discovered, making each one tougher than the last until the jig is up. (I drew from my own catering experience, popping my toughest customers right in as NPCs. Ugly, twisted, nasty looking ones, of course.) This hook is also a great way to give your PC’s a jump-off into planar travel, providing them with a craft from the get-go. They do have to return it eventually… or do they? The PCs may decide to betray the collector to the efreet lord or complete the mission, but either way they will create a powerful enemy who will likely return to haunt them again.

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That’s the end of Adventure Hook 019!

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I hope you are enjoying this series – post a comment and let me know what you think of them!  Are they helpful?  Is there something you wish I would address?  If you have an adventure hook you would like me to flesh out and post here, or you have fleshed it out yourself and want it posted, send an email to:

DMSamuel AT IronNeuronEnterprises DOT com

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Follow me on twitter: @DMSamuel

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Until next time, I wish you good gaming!

~DM Samuel