RangerWickett
Legend
My PCs will recruited to steal a magical clay tablet from the temple of a sea goddess, and I need ideas for what challenges stand in their way.
In my setting, the sea goddess Beshel is depicted as a writhing tentacled thing, prayed to by fishermen who desire bounty and sailors who fear the leviathans of the deep. But a century ago Beshel's champion made an alliance with a city a hundred miles upstream from the sea, and since then the goddess has added a vibe of "fulfilling undesired duties, grasping chaos and forcing it to order, yearning for home but staying out of obligation." Her priests bless prominent contracts, including marriages.
The temple is centered around a miraculous pool some 120 feet across that is both in the city and on a rocky shore of the sea. Waves crash in, affected by the tides, and the temple cultivates the pool like a fabulous garden. Fish can freely swim into the pool from the sea a hundred miles away, then vanish just as easily back into the deep, but people and manufactured items cannot cross; they have to stay in whichever area they start.
The setting has all manner of holy tablets which create magical effects in close radius (e.g., no rats or fleas can come within 12 cubits). What the boss of the party's gang wants them to steal is one that sets the parameters of what sorts of creatures are allowed to move from the pool in the temple to the corresponding patch of sea on the coast. (It'll be useful for smuggling.)
The tablet is 18 inches by 18 inches by ~4 inches, and weighs 130 pounds, so sneaking it out will be no easy feat. And the tablet is, of course, in the pool.
I'm thinking the overall layout could be something like this:
A canal would run past the temple's outer plaza, which would lead into the temple colonnade, surrounding the central courtyard, which is where the pool would be. Holy ceremonies would be held on its perimeter. Then beyond that would be the inner compound with rooms temple functionaries, shrines to minor deities, monsters, and heroes of the faith, sacred chambers for the priesthood to engage in their mysteries, and then a reliquary vault.
That's how a utilitarian real-world temple could work, with guards walking the premises. But let's add some magic.
The party might come in during the day, maybe during some prominent holy festival around a prominent tide. Or they could attend an evening wedding where there are lots of visitors whom the guards would let come and go in any of the public places. Or they might sneak in at night. More people help with distracting the guards, but how are you going to sneak out carrying a big heavy tablet while you're dripping wet? Do you want to put a fake replacement in, to throw off suspicions? Getting away from the temple and to the criminal lair should have what sorts of bonus challenges?
Should there be, like, golems that patrol the temple? If an intruder goes into the pool, should a sea monster emerge? But that's just fight stuff. What about schemes and sneaking and talking? Should there be people there to, like, turn to your side? Some infamous paladin whose keen senses have to be avoided? How does it become more interesting than sneaking in, yoinking a big brick, and sneaking out?
There should be big oysters full of pearls in the pool, to tempt people to steal more than they need? Traps? Puzzles? Maybe the main tablet is just sitting in the open, but there's an alarm tablet in the high priest's chambers that needs to be deactivated first? Is there a person in the crowd who's a member of an opposing gang who threatens to out the party unless they steal something extra for him?
In every good heist there's a moment of crisis when the characters' clever scheme hits a snag and they have to improvise a way out. You obviously can't plan for that fully in a game, but maybe you can suggest things that might go wrong so I can also plant seeds for possible solutions.
And you want the heist to highlight and challenge the skills of the characters. I've got:
A silver-tongued changeling.
A pacifist who can speak to spirits of the dead.
A curious magical tinkerer who steals magic for his research.
A gambler with minor telekinesis.
A catfolk copper merchant who found it impossible to make an honest living with all the corruption and bribes he had to deal with.
So okay, clearly there needs to be:
People who need to be tricked, and someone to impersonate.
A dark side to the temple - they drown their enemies, and so maybe some spirits still linger.
Magical defense tablets the tinkerer can intuit the presence and powers of.
Some small thing that's hard to access - unless you've got telekinesis.
A fabulous copper statue - heck, a copper golem?
Who should the antagonist be? Like, who's the priest who ordered someone drowned, and what did that drowned person do? Were they also a thief?
I'm thinking the paladin guard of the temple made some sacred oath to not betray someone - not realizing that person is the head of the city's black market. So he is stuck in a conundrum of wanting to stop a theft without being able to actually hurt those responsible. So he'll get in their faces if he figures things out, and look for a way to make things right without violating his oath. (He would have to manipulate the one he swore to into removing her protection from the PCs. But that's a later plot.)
Let's have there be a rival gang member be conning a VIP of the city into a wedding, and she doesn't cause trouble for the PCs now. But later they'll get word of the husband being killed in an alley. The 'wife' doesn't get to inherit everything because the wedding did not bear a child, but she gets her dowry, which she uses to splurge for a celebration for multiple gangs.
The goddess handles contracts, so is there some implicit contract you agree to, like a EULA, as you enter the temple? (Yeah, Helldivers did this in the tutorial section, but steal from the best.) Like you agree not to have your lungs fill with water if you cross any barrier of copper (aka, railings around the pool, thresholds of the priest chambers) or interfere with any copper elements of the temple without permission of priest of the temple.
Do I want any boring old guards? Giant crabs? A triggered flood that slows the thieves down but which the golem can walk through effortlessly?
Sacred towels. That's a silly idea, but I was going to have the party's lair initially be nearby where a bunch of weavers congregate, so early on they ought to see a temple functionary trading for high-quality towels.
I could lean into silly beach party tropes. Blitzball from FF10.
Okay, I think that's a good starting point.
In my setting, the sea goddess Beshel is depicted as a writhing tentacled thing, prayed to by fishermen who desire bounty and sailors who fear the leviathans of the deep. But a century ago Beshel's champion made an alliance with a city a hundred miles upstream from the sea, and since then the goddess has added a vibe of "fulfilling undesired duties, grasping chaos and forcing it to order, yearning for home but staying out of obligation." Her priests bless prominent contracts, including marriages.
The temple is centered around a miraculous pool some 120 feet across that is both in the city and on a rocky shore of the sea. Waves crash in, affected by the tides, and the temple cultivates the pool like a fabulous garden. Fish can freely swim into the pool from the sea a hundred miles away, then vanish just as easily back into the deep, but people and manufactured items cannot cross; they have to stay in whichever area they start.
The setting has all manner of holy tablets which create magical effects in close radius (e.g., no rats or fleas can come within 12 cubits). What the boss of the party's gang wants them to steal is one that sets the parameters of what sorts of creatures are allowed to move from the pool in the temple to the corresponding patch of sea on the coast. (It'll be useful for smuggling.)
The tablet is 18 inches by 18 inches by ~4 inches, and weighs 130 pounds, so sneaking it out will be no easy feat. And the tablet is, of course, in the pool.
I'm thinking the overall layout could be something like this:
A canal would run past the temple's outer plaza, which would lead into the temple colonnade, surrounding the central courtyard, which is where the pool would be. Holy ceremonies would be held on its perimeter. Then beyond that would be the inner compound with rooms temple functionaries, shrines to minor deities, monsters, and heroes of the faith, sacred chambers for the priesthood to engage in their mysteries, and then a reliquary vault.
That's how a utilitarian real-world temple could work, with guards walking the premises. But let's add some magic.
The party might come in during the day, maybe during some prominent holy festival around a prominent tide. Or they could attend an evening wedding where there are lots of visitors whom the guards would let come and go in any of the public places. Or they might sneak in at night. More people help with distracting the guards, but how are you going to sneak out carrying a big heavy tablet while you're dripping wet? Do you want to put a fake replacement in, to throw off suspicions? Getting away from the temple and to the criminal lair should have what sorts of bonus challenges?
Should there be, like, golems that patrol the temple? If an intruder goes into the pool, should a sea monster emerge? But that's just fight stuff. What about schemes and sneaking and talking? Should there be people there to, like, turn to your side? Some infamous paladin whose keen senses have to be avoided? How does it become more interesting than sneaking in, yoinking a big brick, and sneaking out?
There should be big oysters full of pearls in the pool, to tempt people to steal more than they need? Traps? Puzzles? Maybe the main tablet is just sitting in the open, but there's an alarm tablet in the high priest's chambers that needs to be deactivated first? Is there a person in the crowd who's a member of an opposing gang who threatens to out the party unless they steal something extra for him?
In every good heist there's a moment of crisis when the characters' clever scheme hits a snag and they have to improvise a way out. You obviously can't plan for that fully in a game, but maybe you can suggest things that might go wrong so I can also plant seeds for possible solutions.
And you want the heist to highlight and challenge the skills of the characters. I've got:
A silver-tongued changeling.
A pacifist who can speak to spirits of the dead.
A curious magical tinkerer who steals magic for his research.
A gambler with minor telekinesis.
A catfolk copper merchant who found it impossible to make an honest living with all the corruption and bribes he had to deal with.
So okay, clearly there needs to be:
People who need to be tricked, and someone to impersonate.
A dark side to the temple - they drown their enemies, and so maybe some spirits still linger.
Magical defense tablets the tinkerer can intuit the presence and powers of.
Some small thing that's hard to access - unless you've got telekinesis.
A fabulous copper statue - heck, a copper golem?
Who should the antagonist be? Like, who's the priest who ordered someone drowned, and what did that drowned person do? Were they also a thief?
I'm thinking the paladin guard of the temple made some sacred oath to not betray someone - not realizing that person is the head of the city's black market. So he is stuck in a conundrum of wanting to stop a theft without being able to actually hurt those responsible. So he'll get in their faces if he figures things out, and look for a way to make things right without violating his oath. (He would have to manipulate the one he swore to into removing her protection from the PCs. But that's a later plot.)
Let's have there be a rival gang member be conning a VIP of the city into a wedding, and she doesn't cause trouble for the PCs now. But later they'll get word of the husband being killed in an alley. The 'wife' doesn't get to inherit everything because the wedding did not bear a child, but she gets her dowry, which she uses to splurge for a celebration for multiple gangs.
The goddess handles contracts, so is there some implicit contract you agree to, like a EULA, as you enter the temple? (Yeah, Helldivers did this in the tutorial section, but steal from the best.) Like you agree not to have your lungs fill with water if you cross any barrier of copper (aka, railings around the pool, thresholds of the priest chambers) or interfere with any copper elements of the temple without permission of priest of the temple.
Do I want any boring old guards? Giant crabs? A triggered flood that slows the thieves down but which the golem can walk through effortlessly?
Sacred towels. That's a silly idea, but I was going to have the party's lair initially be nearby where a bunch of weavers congregate, so early on they ought to see a temple functionary trading for high-quality towels.
I could lean into silly beach party tropes. Blitzball from FF10.
Okay, I think that's a good starting point.
