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benhamtroll
Here to stay
(3/1/03 9:41 am)
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Another Tanbrosh Question
The other Tanbrosh question made me wonder:
How did you guys bring Tanbrosh into the game? Obviously, if the characters don't investigate stuff in town, they'll never meet Tal and not have the opportunity get involved.
Did you have any clever way of bringing the temptation into the game?
There's no business like gnoll business |
Entropius
Here for a while
(3/1/03 9:50 am)
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Well...
I guess that depends on how addictive the stuff is. If just a few doses are enough, Tal could arrange for some to be mixed with the PC's food at the inn.
So, how addictive IS Tanbrosh? What rules do DM's start using once PC's take the stuff?
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uncdevil
Here for a while
(3/1/03 10:21 am)
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Re: Well...
We had to introduce a new character, so I simply took him aside and explained the situation. They met him as an addict who needed help. Amusingly, another PC sent his animal companion (a wolf) to greet the new PC. The wolf licked the new guy's hand, thereby getting a pretty good dose himself since the new guy was an alchemist who had been trying to manufacture the stuff on his own.
I played it pretty easily. The alchemist figured out a cure pretty quickly, and the PCs set up a distribution center for antidotes after shutting down Tal's operation and confiscating all the doses.
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Hypersmurf
Looking around
(3/1/03 1:53 pm)
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Re: Well...
My Tanbrosh tie-in is coming along spectacularly, almost by accident!
One of my players submitted a rogue with a connection to Organised Crime in Verbobonc.
I decided to run with it, and as a 'hook' to get him to Hommlet, I told him that a couple of couriers bringing a shipment of Tanbrosh from the Lortmil Mountains were overdue. Since Hommlet was on their route back to Verbobonc, he stopped off there to see if they'd been seen.
What had actually happened was that Tal Chammish had made use of the couriers to deliver a message to Master Thaque at the Moathouse... but en route, they'd run into Big U. In the ensuing carnage, some of the tanbrosh scattered on the road, and Big U took the sachel containing the rest back to the moathouse, in case it turned out to be interesting.
Ol' Del, who'd witnessed the dragon attack, looted the bodies of the couriers, and collected some of the scattered tanbrosh. Curiosity got the better of him, and he tried a pellet, becoming addicted.
I've given tanbrosh two side effects in my game - one is a mild paranoia (nothing major), and the other is a tendency to hear voices of people from your past speaking to you. Thus, when the party met Del (hopped up on drugs), he had a disconcerting habit of having half of a conversation with someone nobody else could see.
Skip to combat with Big U. They actually managed to drive him off (two criticals in the first round helped, and I played up the overconfidence side of Utreshimon's personality, which got him into trouble) - he escaped with 2 hp remaining. In the process, he left the archer and the cleric unconscious and bleeding... and the cleric was the only person in the party with a/ any healing capacity, and b/ any ranks in the Heal skill.
... however...
... the mobster rogue was carrying a couple of pellets of Tanbrosh, and while he doesn't know its exact game mechanic effects, he knows there's a Con bonus involved. he decided the risk of addiction was better than possibly letting two characters die, and secretly slipped one into the cleric's mouth under the guise of checking for breathing.
The Con boost was enough to bring her up to 0 hit points, and she zapped herself with a CLW and started curing the archer. No problem.
The cleric player originally submitted a background that centred around her lover, a paladin, having been dragged off-plane by evil outsiders. She now wanders around performing good deeds in Heironeous' name, while looking for clues as to his whereabouts.
So once the drug took hold, the side effect kicked in... and the cleric is now joyously chatting with her missing boyfriend, assuming Heironeous has somehow allowed them a chance to speak to each other, while the rest of the party looks at her oddly and the rogue tries hard not to look guilty...
Fortunately, the satchel with a reasonable supply of the drug is now lying in Big U's lair not too far away, so she should be able to stay alive long enough to get a Neutralise Poison from Y'Dey...
... unless she decides a drug addiction and a penalty to wisdom is a fair sacrifice for the illusion of having her Paladin with her again...
Of course, right now, the cleric's player only knows that she's getting a lot of private messages, and I've asked her to play the cleric "just a little paranoid"... she has no idea why. I'm just happy I've got players I can pull this off with!
-Hyp.
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benhamtroll
Here to stay
(3/1/03 3:56 pm)
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Re: Another Tanbrosh Question
Well, this brings up yet another question.
How do you handle the wisdom loss and other effects of the Tanbrosh? Do you explain the thing to your players, or do you take all the extra work of monitoring the loss on yourself?
There's no business like gnoll business |
Hypersmurf
Looking around
(3/1/03 4:40 pm)
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Re: Another Tanbrosh Question
Since she doesn't know she's drugged yet, I haven't told her anything about stat modifiers. I've told her she feels energetic and pumped, like she could arm-wrestle the fighter and win...
Once the reason becomes apparent (like the first time she needs to take another dose to stave off withdrawal), I'll reveal the stat modifiers and let her keep track of them.
-Hyp.
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LordGuest
Here for a while
(3/2/03 11:43 am)
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Oh My Tanbrosh!
Our cleric made a heal check, cast Neutralize Poison on them, and the side trek was DONE.
EXCEPT...it's not.
You see, Tal had partnered with one of the individuals at the local disreputable bar. He'd been selling Tanbrosh distilled in a liquid form, and he'd gotten most of the town unknowingly hooked on the stuff. The PCs, not knowing whom the supplier is and not knowing the bartender knows about the properties of the liquid he's hocking, have started a witch hunt in the town that has caused Tal to pull up pegs and move away from the town. Now, the supply of Tanbrosh is gone, and the PCs are leaving the city, not knowing that when they return in a few weeks, half of it will be dead....
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