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BESW
BESW
6:44 AM
Trying my hand at making a front. I'm choosing a relatively simple one unrelated to the major events of the campaign.
As I understand it, fronts start by picking something you want to see in the campaign, and creating a collection of dangers which involve that thing.
Not sure if this'll actually make it into the final soup, but here goes: the gentle tribe of locathah is supplanted by a group of sahuagin raiders who attack Knave Port and the pirates.
So I'll call this The Invasion of Blue Bay.
Types of Dangers: Ambitious Organizations, Planar Forces, Arcane Enemies, Hordes, Cursed Places.
So, dangers include the sahuagin, obviously.
Motive: the sahuagin want to settle Blue Bay.
The locathah want to keep their home.
 
BESW
BESW
7:54 AM
Grim portents:
- a sahuagin scouting party attacks the locathah
- a sahuagin raiding party wipes out the locathah
- the sahuagin settle in Blue Bay
- the sahuagin attack ships
- the pirates attack the sahuagin
- Knave Port attacks the sahuagin
- the sahuagin attack Knave Port
- sahuagin attack pirates
Maybe I am moving too fast.
Maybe the whole front should just be the first bit, and it ends with the sahuagin slaughtering the locathah and settling the Bay.
Then a new front is about the sahuagin conflict with the other factions.
 
Stizzle84
Stizzle84
Hello
 
 
3 hours later…
BESW
BESW
10:53 AM
Impending Doom: Sahuagin raiders control Blue Bay.
 
BESW
BESW
11:13 AM
Dangers: sahuagin raiders
Umm... if I can't think of any other dangers, is that a problem?
The impending doom is significant enough, I think: it's the introduction of an aggressive new faction in the region.
More googling found this, which while it seems to be the same content as this, is much more legible.
So my grim portents are on through three on the previous list:
- a sahuagin scouting party attacks the locathah
- a sahuagin raiding party wipes out the locathah
- the sahuagin settle in Blue Bay (is now the Impending Doom, though.)
This is very straightforward. Too straightforward?
Now, stakes: what do I want to discover as this plays out?
- Will anyone help the locathah?
Okay, I think the trouble is that this is too D&D of a front: sahuagin aren't multifaceted, they're just WAAARGBLE.
Let's try one major Impending Doom of the campaign: Zagreus controls Knave Port (by converting a majority of the Council, and the Mayor, into yuan-ti).
To do this he's using: a snake cult in the Ruby Tower; a finishing school for young ladies; an orphanage. He also has an army of sewer mutants--I think those are more for subduing the lizardfolk, but they should probably go on the list too.
So those are the four dangers.
It looks like each danger gets its own impulses and grim portents.
Miss Calvierri's Finishing School for Young Ladies has the impulse produce marriageable yuan-ti ladies.
[adjustment: the Impending Doom is Zagreus controls the Council; he will be arranging other Impending Dooms like Zagreus controls the docks separately. To this end, I'm removing the orphanage from the list of dangers here because it's going to support a separate Doom.]
> The Finishing School's description and cast: The Calvierris are a human noble house recently settled on the island. Lady Calvierri is a loyal yuan-ti who runs the only finishing school in the city. Its reputation is growing.
Grim portents:
- coming out ball for the school's first graduates
- nobles start marrying the ladies
- husbands are turned
- new girls are enrolled
- new girls are turned
Impending Doom: The "human" candidates for Council seats are all yuan-ti.
 
BESW
BESW
12:08 PM
Stakes:
- Will the School be forced to take elven/dwarven ladies (to stay politically viable)?
- How does the School cover up the inevitable deaths and mutations among its pupils?
 
BESW
BESW
12:22 PM
Hmm. Okay, so I'm fiddling with the structure a bit. I might not get it yet and the original front structure will make sense later.
But for right now, I'm treating each danger as its own thing with stakes and an Impending Doom, and the Impending Dooms all add up to a handful of much bigger ones.
DANGER: Miss Calvierri's Finishing School for Young Ladies
IMPULSE: produce marriageable yuan-ti ladies
The Calvierris are a human noble house recently settled on the island. Lady Calvierri is a loyal yuan-ti who runs the only finishing school in the city. Despite only taking human girls (only humans can be turned to yuan-ti), its reputation is growing.
GRIM PORTENTS:
- coming out ball for the school's first graduates
- new girls are enrolled
- new girls are turned
- nobles start marrying the ladies
DANGER: Brewers for the Snake and Staff
IMPULSE: elven control of the Ruby Tower
A secret elf-only snake cult dedicated to the use of magic and alchemy to bend others to the will of its members. It produces and sells drugs to the lizardfolk farmers; unknown to its members, the drug is also the compound which converts humans into yuan-ti.
GRIM PORTENTS:
- Ruby Tower magi are mind controlled
- the PCs are nudged toward discovering the cult
- the cult is exposed by the PCs
IMPENDING DOOM: the Ruby Tower is exposed as corrupt and the elves are discredited
Okay, sewer mutants.
They're what happens when the compound fails to turn a human into a yuan-ti, but they don't die of it.
They're loyal, but nearly mindless.
So... impulses... kill non-yuan-ti, probably.
DANGER: Sewer mutants!
IMPULSE: Kill all who aren’t yuan-ti.
Mutants (broodguards) are what happens when the compound fails to turn a human into a yuan-ti, but they don't die of it. They’re hidden in the sewers, but as the dwarves settle deeper into the underground networks it’s harder and harder for mindless mutants to keep a low profile.
GRIM PORTENTS:
- dwarves start disappearing
- mutants begin attacking people in the streets at night
- the Council declares martial law
- the sewers are abandoned and gassed
IMPENDING DOOM: an army of mutants rampages through the streets
STAKES:
- Does anyone figure out the mutants are people?
 
BESW
BESW
12:51 PM
I'm having trouble with the orphanage; not sure how it's a danger. I'll think on it.
 

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