D&D 5E [SKT] Players want to 'own' Nightstone

[Greg Benage]

This isn't too different from what's happened in my SKT game, where the Seven Snakes took over the town (installing Daphne Featherstone as a figurehead) and the PCs have been working for Xolkin Alassandar. The campaign opens with Nightstone being bombed by giants, and it's never going to be safe until the giants and their allies are dealt with. They're eventually going to have to hit the road to keep "their town" safe. You can definitely roll with this.

 

[Nagol]

Have the rightful lord of the area (whomsoever the lady swore fealty) show up. Rather than stringing the pretenders from the trees, the lord offers the rights to the town (by swearing to the lord obviously) if and only if the SKT situation is satisfactorily resolved.

 

[Greg Benage]

Have the rightful lord of the area (whomsoever the lady swore fealty) show up. Rather than stringing the pretenders from the trees, the lord offers the rights to the town (by swearing to the lord obviously) if and only if the SKT situation is satisfactorily resolved.

As far as I can tell (Realms experts correct me if I'm wrong), there's no feudal system, and no surviving kingdoms for that matter, on the Sword Coast. I don't think there is a "rightful lord." The Nandars -- some Waterdhavian family -- had a hunting lodge in the Ardeep Forest, which was destroyed two hundred years ago. Their descendants returned and built a keep, prompting a conflict with the wood elves, which resulted in the death of Lord Drezlin Nandar.

I don't really know what the political-economic structure is supposed to be. Maybe Italy after the Italian Wars, only with more political fragmentation (and yet, surprisingly peaceful relations between polities and extensive trade and commerce).Basically plutocratic despotism?

Anyway, I think you can make a claim on Nightstone. Make the right alliances with the regional signorie and factions.

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm reminded of Pathfinder's Kingdom Building system. Previously, our group tried Kingmaker with limited success - they wanted to stay home and have all the resources come to them instead of wandering about as the adventure intended. We never actually got to the Kingdom Building part.

That was a few years ago now, though, and we have a new and eager player rounding the team to four. This new player wants the 'full' D&D experience; I compromised with the others and offered the town up as something that can be managed during Downtime. I'm going to experiment with the Kingdom Building rules to see if it's even worth looking into.

Some of you have correctly surmised that Nightstone is intended to be the noob/throw-away portion of the game and there's no in-game support for the town once the PC's are whisked away to a new city. There's already a highly improbable stack of hostile events that happens in said area. One might almost think it was cursed...

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=93631]Greg Benage[/MENTION]: My understanding is that the Nandars of Nightstone were part of a much larger family. There are no doubt other Nandars in Waterdeep who would have rightful claim to the village, although it's possible none of them would want to stake that claim.

 

[Nagol]

As far as I can tell (Realms experts correct me if I'm wrong), there's no feudal system, and no surviving kingdoms for that matter, on the Sword Coast. I don't think there is a "rightful lord." The Nandars -- some Waterdhavian family -- had a hunting lodge in the Ardeep Forest, which was destroyed two hundred years ago. Their descendants returned and built a keep, prompting a conflict with the wood elves, which resulted in the death of Lord Drezlin Nandar.

I don't really know what the political-economic structure is supposed to be. Maybe Italy after the Italian Wars, only with more political fragmentation (and yet, surprisingly peaceful relations between polities and extensive trade and commerce).Basically plutocratic despotism?

Anyway, I think you can make a claim on Nightstone. Make the right alliances with the regional signorie and factions.

*shrug* then go with rightful heir or even "powerful political entity that can make the claim plausibly".

Ultimately, the DM knows something the players want. Turn that into advantage for moving the train forward. Dangle the wanted item as a reward for moving forward with the AP. You don't necessarily need to insist on adventure completion to achieve the reward. Use the player-provided bait to push the PCs far enough along they'll want to finish/find other things of interest.

 

[Jester David]

Give them the flying ship earlier. Have that be part of town's valuables.
Then have some of the other plot hooks come to them. Have them defend Nightstone from giants and the like. Also have them questing to recover the stolen stone to cement their power. (Which isn't in the adventure. You'll have to add that.)

So rather than being hobos across the North they do little short ventures to and from Nightstone.
You can send them to other cities for other reasons as well: securing engineers and builders to repair the walls, arranging for trade, and the like.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Perhaps the removal of the Nightstone weakened the barrier between worlds, not only requiring them to recover it for the long-term viability of the settlement, but also giving them a means to easily return to the town between adventures (perhaps they find a shard of the Nightstone that allows them to teleport back to town once per week - you could even have it happen subtly during a long rest to avoid it being used to escape combat, if you prefer).

 

[Greg Benage]

[MENTION=93631]Greg Benage[/MENTION]: My understanding is that the Nandars of Nightstone were part of a much larger family. There are no doubt other Nandars in Waterdeep who would have rightful claim to the village, although it's possible none of them would want to stake that claim.

Not arguing with you because it would be cool if you could point me to some more information on the Nandars that I could use to complicate things, but this is all the adventure says, AFAIK. Under "The Nandars of Nightstone," after Lord Drezlin is killed by elves:

"His widow, Lady Velrosa Nandar, made peace with the elves and promised to make no further incursions into the Ardeep Forest—a promise she kept for the rest of her life. Velrosa was mortally wounded when the cloud giants bombarded Nightstone, leaving the village without a lord or lady to govern it."

 

[Stormdale]

Me, I'd kick the "real" adventure to touch and roll with it. The game should be based on meaningful choices made by the players and the consequences of those and their adventures growing from their actions which are not necessarily the ones the DM thinks they want. My players find it impossible to complete any of the adventures as written, they wander off onto their own adventures that grow out of the things they get up to and the consequences of those actions.

So I'd roll with it and adapt the adventure to them. They might be happy with a session or 3 of town building then the town could, for example, be attacked by hill giants (leading to the hill giant section of the adventure) and this then lead into other parts of the adventures from there. I use the adventures as a framework or smorgasbord of ideas, not a railroad the players can't get off.

Stormdale