It is likely that the party won't know about Salathiss until pretty late in the adventure, and will probably take action more or less as soon as they do. They will, however, likely realize that Magistrate-Mayor Asanda is up to no good, and might even suspect that he is involved with whatever strange, shadowy force seems to be pushing back on Froglegs's forces.
Response Teams
A common thread in all of these response teams is that the Serpentfolk are honestly kind of bored with it all. While Salathiss is extremely motivated to get rid of Froglegs, most of his minions are growing weary of pretending to be humans. They take solace in their occasional kills, and certainly don't want to be discovered and potentially hunted, but might be amenable to anything that gets them out of this unimportant city and to somewhere more important.
Surveillance Teams
If the party is obviously investigating Salathiss, he will send 2 coil spies (Trivial 6) to tail them. Normally, they won't interfere directly, though Salathiss might have a team of them try to assassinate a single player character. They usually operate without support, though there are a few fallback locations that they have (see below).
Kill Teams
If the party become too much of a threat to be ignored, Salathiss will try one of the following options depending on how threatening the party seem:
4 coil spies (Moderate 6) that originally made up two separate Surveillance teams. This option isn't ideal, as they are better infiltrators than fighters, but is the easiest to pull together on short notice.
If there's more time to pull a team together, Salathiss will send either a Serpentfolk Venomcaller leading 3 coil spies (Severe 6) or 3 Serpentfolk Granitescales (Severe 6) under the effects of chameleon coat. He prefers sending the latter for a straight up assault, but will only do so at night as they aren't disguised.
While Salathiss doesn't have Bell Ringers on his payroll per say, since he is impersonating Magistrate Mayor Asanda he is able to direct them where he chooses (as is Syrith, disguised as Magistrate Mayor Thuba). See "Crooked Cops" for potential encounters, though if the party haven't actually committed any crimes they will likely be able to talk their way out of it, and the Bell Ringers try their hardest to avoid actually lethal force (the real threat is being killed in cells by coil spies once taken in).
If matters become serious enough, Syrith and Longshimmer (disguised as Magistrate Mayor Thuba and her pet panther) might lead either 2 coil spies or 2 watch officers in an attack (Severe 6), though Salathiss is much more likely to retreat to Asanda's manor and wait for the party to come to him.
Related Quests
Flooded Workshop (p24-25)
The quest can be run as written pretty effectively (it's a nice break from the more combat-focused other challenges), but if the canal is never restored then it will eventually flood even further! Indeed, as the Serpentfolk escalate their plans and seek to throw the city even further into chaos, one way that they do this is by causing similar disturbances all over the city. After seeing multiple of these, the party might be able to trace the acid to that sold by Fire Pot Ubano.
Fiery Debt (p38-43)
If the time between the party uncovering Oyo and Mtembe in the storeroom in Chapter 1 and Ubano beginning his reign of terror is short, you can run things as written. If it's been a while, however, then unless they survived and escaped it doesn't make much sense for them to be the catalyst for his rage. In that case, something else must have happened more recently.
Depending on how long its been, it's likely that the serpentfolk needed more supplies, this time for more acid to dissolve the canals or more poison for their weapons. They went using different identities, Hamidi and Rashid, and wrote a letter of credit from the Magaambya for both the original purchases and their own. When Ubano tried to redeem this letter of credit, he was informed by Oukosh that not only was the letter of credit not real (and not something the Magaambya even did), but the four students in question never existed. Or, if you want to be especially cruel, perhaps the serpentfolk have replaced someone the party cares about, and bought supplies under their name...
If the Stone Ghost survived Book 1, he had a part in egging Ubano on as well - going by his original name, Uduak Bosni, he posed a customer, buying some minor items, got Ubano talking about his frustrations, and then offered to help him get his money by any means necessary. If the party don't deal with Ubano quickly, the Stone Ghost will talk him into setting fire to the Spire Dormitory, which is likely to get at least some of their favorite characters hut (indeed, the Stone Ghost might join in the fun by ensuring that some of them never get out...)
If you want even more pressure on poor Ubano, we can have Magistrate Mayor Thuba (really Syrith) place some heavy fines on his business that he does not have the money for, but that the money he is owed would largely cover. The fines are for bullshit reasons that the party could potentially get thrown out in court, but Ubano is not an educated man thanks to his rejection from the Magaambya and can't see them for what they are.
Carving Trouble (p51-53)
This is a weird one if the party fought the wooden golem a long time ago at this point. Instead of the listed motivation ("Since the heroes breached the talisman room, Salathiss has worked to eliminate several loose ends that might expose him, including Goana."), we'll have Goana send a letter to Janatimo, saying that she thinks her life is in danger but that she doesn't know where is safe. She has pieced together that Asanda is not who he says he is, and that the pieces she made for the golem were clearly used in some sort of nefarious purpose (perhaps she made pieces for more than one, and it was used in attacks on Froglegs's operations). Unfortunately for her, some coil spies had been monitoring her after contracting with her and noticed how suspicious she was acting, prompting Salathiss to send Nairu and Kreekos.
Alternatively, you can use them as another Kill Team if the party is being disruptive but Salathiss doesn't want to reveal his serpentfolk yet!
Legal Troubles
The party might pursue either Asanda or Thuba at their place of work, though they will likely have to contend with several guards. Without hard proof (obtained from the manor), there's little that can be done publicly, but catching them unawares in their offices might work! Either Salthiss or Syrith and Longshimmer will call for Bell Ringers to assist, however, and if things go bad they likely have contingencies. Ideally, they will be able to support each other in battle (spelling almost certain doom for the party if they didn't bring help), and if not they have seeded a few coil spies among the lesser functionaries that can keep the party busy while the more important characters escape.
No comments:
Post a Comment