Assassins and Monsters and Thieves, oh My!

About the adventure

Classic whodunit meets political intrigue with assassins, spies, and double agents. It’s up to a party of adventurers masquerading as diplomats to locate the villain, solve the mystery perpetuating a war, and secure peace. There has been a war for countless years between your home country of Vertohin and the neighboring country of Fenderrey. Twenty years ago a peace was brokered, and a party of diplomats on both sides and a number of escorts sailed to Fenderrey to negotiate terms for a peace. The boat washed up on their shores badly damaged, with only six survivors. All of the diplomats had died. While politicians on both sides survived and accounts differed, all agreed that a green smoke that formed into vicelike claws had been the demise of the ship and the diplomats. Fingers were pointed, sides were taken, and the incident only served to exacerbate the war. Now, twenty years later, another proposition for peace has come forward. Fenderrey has offered further security this time – providing faster transport (teleportation) instead of a boat, and allowing the Vertohin’s to send ahead a set of trusted guards to greet you on the other end. But Vertohin has taken precautions of their own. Instead of diplomats, they’ve hired a few individuals with a reputation of being able to take care of themselves, and armed them with a few… trinkets. For their own protection, of course. With your kings blessing and a pocket full of platinum for your troubles, it’s up to you and your party to tackle the world of deadly politics, secure a peace agreement, and form allies and a plan of protection for when the king follows in your wake to sign the treaty you’ve prepared. This adventure will serve as the launching point for a longer campaign. The first few sessions will be structured to follow the mystery and bring together players as they forge alliances in life or death situations and learn to trust each other. After the adventure several paths will be open or players can pursue their own paths. From there the overall plot of the campaign will form based on the various player backstories

Additional Details

How to prepare

I do character art for all my PCs participating in anything longer than a one shot, so please come to the (virtual) table with an idea of what your character looks like (a written physical description I can reference is ideal but not necessary) Have a loose idea of what your background will be so we can go over it during session zero and form some connections (I find it helpful if at least a couple of the PCs already know each other). Please make sure you have a working camera and microphone. Especially for role-play-heavy sessions, I find that having their camera turned off makes it harder to read and engage in role-play with the player, and I want to make sure everyone feels engaged and connected during their RP.

What I provide

I have a roll20 with lots of visuals I'll be displaying, custom PC art, a dnd beyond account with the basic books and a few extras and I'll be sending everyone a link to a campaign so you can create your characters with choices from all the books I have.

Gameplay details

I definitely incorporate combat every few sessions, though I lean towards being more roleplay and problem-solving/puzzle-focused. That said, depending on the PCs, violence is always an option and I lean towards where the players are steering the story - I won't railroad you into a set play style. Everyone will start at level 5. Multicasting is allowed at the DMs discretion. Please limit your choices to just 2 classes total. Feats are allowed. The first session will be a session 0 where we will build our characters and backstories and get to know each other/go over any specifics regarding the plot and/or rules for the game. I also work as an illustrator and do character art for each PC, so please come in with some idea of what your character looks like (a written description I can reference is ideal). As long as the players think creatively and interact well with each other, any level of experience is welcome. The usual amount of violence is expected, but nothing particularly triggering. If anyone has anything they're really not comfortable with bringing up in-game we will go over it during session 0 to make sure everyone is on the same page. As a general rule, I don't allow evil characters unless the player wants to play through a redemption arc early on. It just results in too much PvP conflict.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

(none)

How will character creation work

Characters will be created at session 0 or before with communication from the DM. Characters will be 5th level. Feats and multi classing are allowed at the DMs discretion. We will be using mostly standard array, but instead of a 15 players will get a 17 so everyone can start the game being super good at at least one thing. Most races are allowed, though I'm not familiar with the really new ones and would want to look them over first if someone is considering playing one.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.