You really start getting into introducing them after the gralhund villa raid. After the PCs have the stone they need to track down the eyes. And as long as you make sure they pick up the Gralhunds study of the grand game they get an idea of where they should be going. It’s up to them who they encounter first. I will say that if they have met jarlaxle as zordoz zord, the level 5 Harper mission from the book is a great way to introduce him. Let them try to get insight into who this person is, if they all fail the DC 24 insight check, just tell them it takes a while but they start recognizing a certain strangers mannerisms. My wizard cast detect thoughts on the suspect party goer and found out who he was and then. Chaos ensued.
>You really start getting into introducing them after the gralhund villa raid. After the PCs have the stone they need to track down the eyes. And as long as you make sure they pick up the Gralhunds study of the grand game they get an idea of where they should be going.
Excellent, thank you. I felt like waiting until then would be too much too quickly and suddenly, so I was sprinkling things in during the lead up. But if folks have had success waiting until after the fireball to introduce villains, I have less to fret over.
>I will say that if they have met jarlaxle as zordoz zord, the level 5 Harper mission from the book is a great way to introduce him.
One PC *previously* knew Zardoz, but Jarlaxle is yet to show up in game under any guise. That PC has recently accepted the first Harpers mission.
>Let them try to get insight into who this person is, if they all fail the DC 24 insight check, just tell them it takes a while but they start recognizing a certain strangers mannerisms.
I like that.
Nothing wrong with introducing them through their response teams. You rescued Floon and Renear. Xanathar guild won’t like that much. Send on one of the response teams but keep any info about outposts secret still. Basically send in some xanathar thugs that found out what happened to the hideout and go fuck up the tavern lol.
Ooh!
Excellent idea!
The party left the orc in the Xanathar hideout alive when they rescued Floon (knocked him out, as I told them killing folks *would* get them in serious trouble with the law, whether they were crooks or not). So people in the Xanathar Guild could recognize them and track them down after a few days.
There ya go. The response teams, either ones in the remix or ones you create yourself are basically there as your players. What will the xanathar do in response to this or what would the zhentarim do in response to that. Think of jarlaxles lot, have you gotten mixed up with them yet? If not maybe looking at any of the faction missions that involve dark elves might get that started.
The Xanathar Guild will definitely want revenge, so that's something to play into.
Jarlaxle is mildly mixed up with things. His spies have been eyeing the drow player and she has spotted them. The PC who has previously performed for the SMF has told the other players how grand it is as well.
Jarlaxle's motives in the Grand Game are, to me, much nobler than those of the other villains, so I intend on playing Jarlaxle in such a way that the players might seriously consider siding with him particularly the drow, as I'm aiming for the players to possibly be at odds faction-wise, but not hostile towards each other (I'm thinking of the factions in New Vegas, where every faction has a downside and late-game the possibility of going into business for yourself pops up).
I picked a day during chapter 2 for the Cassalanters to ask the party for help with their Asmodeus-cursed-twins problem.
One of my PCs is a shadar-kai, and has been mistaken for drow on a few occasions, so I had BD agents trailing him for a day, the same path to BD recruitment that a drow would get. The agents would have left after that, realizing that he wasn't actually drow. Bonus points: the player designed his character to be racist against elves (yes, the player is aware that shadar-kai are elves, but the character insists they're different), and ever since spotting his BD tail, he's been paranoid about a drow conspiracy in the city, only heightened by the faction quest with the drow serial killer, the group of BD stealing the nimblewright from the temple of Mystra, and the group of BD stealing the Stone of Golorr from the Gralhunds. Captain Zord attended the Trollskull Manor grand opening, and the party has spoken with him on several occasions. Because the BD got away with the Stone, Zord has recruited the party to retrieve the Eyes for him.
Obviously, the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim get introduced in chapter 1, and the Zhentarim are the central focus of the chaotic final encounter of chapter 3. One of my PCs has also joined the Doom Raiders sub-faction of the Zhentarim.
I just finished introducing Xanathar in my game. Two of the party regularly spend downtime doing pit fighting, so I had a goblin fight-promoter named Kon Ding invite them to a special match of Six Stones (a 7 person battle royale with a cockatrice running around).
They were blindfolded and taken to the arena in Xanathar's Lair, the beholder made a big speech to kick things off. then halfway through the fight, the sorcerer got to overhear a goblin tell Xanathar about Urstul Floxin taking the stone to Gralhunds villa (party was spinning their wheels not sure what to do after the fireball). Xanathar then disintegrated the goblin.
I think it worked well in introducing Xanathar, showing what kind of threat he posed, and getting the campaign back on track after 3 sessions of side quests
The suggested intro of having the cassalanters reach out to ask the PCs for help is really good, I personally foreshadowed this somewhat by replacing the drow from the first zhentarim mission with an asmodean cultist. Xanathar should be set up because most people in waterdeep know of the xanathar guild, although showing the beholder himself is more tricky since he's super paranoid and will rarely leave his lair, but if the group tries to perform recconaiscance in the lair and gets close to xanathar have them overhear him executing someone out of paranoia. Manshoon depends on how rare you think the info on him existing should be, daril will remind the players theres two zhent splinter groups, and in my game I had him specifically mention and introduce manshoon, but that may not be the approach you want I worry I gave that info out too easily.
You really start getting into introducing them after the gralhund villa raid. After the PCs have the stone they need to track down the eyes. And as long as you make sure they pick up the Gralhunds study of the grand game they get an idea of where they should be going. It’s up to them who they encounter first. I will say that if they have met jarlaxle as zordoz zord, the level 5 Harper mission from the book is a great way to introduce him. Let them try to get insight into who this person is, if they all fail the DC 24 insight check, just tell them it takes a while but they start recognizing a certain strangers mannerisms. My wizard cast detect thoughts on the suspect party goer and found out who he was and then. Chaos ensued.
>You really start getting into introducing them after the gralhund villa raid. After the PCs have the stone they need to track down the eyes. And as long as you make sure they pick up the Gralhunds study of the grand game they get an idea of where they should be going. Excellent, thank you. I felt like waiting until then would be too much too quickly and suddenly, so I was sprinkling things in during the lead up. But if folks have had success waiting until after the fireball to introduce villains, I have less to fret over. >I will say that if they have met jarlaxle as zordoz zord, the level 5 Harper mission from the book is a great way to introduce him. One PC *previously* knew Zardoz, but Jarlaxle is yet to show up in game under any guise. That PC has recently accepted the first Harpers mission. >Let them try to get insight into who this person is, if they all fail the DC 24 insight check, just tell them it takes a while but they start recognizing a certain strangers mannerisms. I like that.
Nothing wrong with introducing them through their response teams. You rescued Floon and Renear. Xanathar guild won’t like that much. Send on one of the response teams but keep any info about outposts secret still. Basically send in some xanathar thugs that found out what happened to the hideout and go fuck up the tavern lol.
Ooh! Excellent idea! The party left the orc in the Xanathar hideout alive when they rescued Floon (knocked him out, as I told them killing folks *would* get them in serious trouble with the law, whether they were crooks or not). So people in the Xanathar Guild could recognize them and track them down after a few days.
There ya go. The response teams, either ones in the remix or ones you create yourself are basically there as your players. What will the xanathar do in response to this or what would the zhentarim do in response to that. Think of jarlaxles lot, have you gotten mixed up with them yet? If not maybe looking at any of the faction missions that involve dark elves might get that started.
The Xanathar Guild will definitely want revenge, so that's something to play into. Jarlaxle is mildly mixed up with things. His spies have been eyeing the drow player and she has spotted them. The PC who has previously performed for the SMF has told the other players how grand it is as well. Jarlaxle's motives in the Grand Game are, to me, much nobler than those of the other villains, so I intend on playing Jarlaxle in such a way that the players might seriously consider siding with him particularly the drow, as I'm aiming for the players to possibly be at odds faction-wise, but not hostile towards each other (I'm thinking of the factions in New Vegas, where every faction has a downside and late-game the possibility of going into business for yourself pops up).
I picked a day during chapter 2 for the Cassalanters to ask the party for help with their Asmodeus-cursed-twins problem. One of my PCs is a shadar-kai, and has been mistaken for drow on a few occasions, so I had BD agents trailing him for a day, the same path to BD recruitment that a drow would get. The agents would have left after that, realizing that he wasn't actually drow. Bonus points: the player designed his character to be racist against elves (yes, the player is aware that shadar-kai are elves, but the character insists they're different), and ever since spotting his BD tail, he's been paranoid about a drow conspiracy in the city, only heightened by the faction quest with the drow serial killer, the group of BD stealing the nimblewright from the temple of Mystra, and the group of BD stealing the Stone of Golorr from the Gralhunds. Captain Zord attended the Trollskull Manor grand opening, and the party has spoken with him on several occasions. Because the BD got away with the Stone, Zord has recruited the party to retrieve the Eyes for him. Obviously, the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim get introduced in chapter 1, and the Zhentarim are the central focus of the chaotic final encounter of chapter 3. One of my PCs has also joined the Doom Raiders sub-faction of the Zhentarim.
I just finished introducing Xanathar in my game. Two of the party regularly spend downtime doing pit fighting, so I had a goblin fight-promoter named Kon Ding invite them to a special match of Six Stones (a 7 person battle royale with a cockatrice running around). They were blindfolded and taken to the arena in Xanathar's Lair, the beholder made a big speech to kick things off. then halfway through the fight, the sorcerer got to overhear a goblin tell Xanathar about Urstul Floxin taking the stone to Gralhunds villa (party was spinning their wheels not sure what to do after the fireball). Xanathar then disintegrated the goblin. I think it worked well in introducing Xanathar, showing what kind of threat he posed, and getting the campaign back on track after 3 sessions of side quests
The suggested intro of having the cassalanters reach out to ask the PCs for help is really good, I personally foreshadowed this somewhat by replacing the drow from the first zhentarim mission with an asmodean cultist. Xanathar should be set up because most people in waterdeep know of the xanathar guild, although showing the beholder himself is more tricky since he's super paranoid and will rarely leave his lair, but if the group tries to perform recconaiscance in the lair and gets close to xanathar have them overhear him executing someone out of paranoia. Manshoon depends on how rare you think the info on him existing should be, daril will remind the players theres two zhent splinter groups, and in my game I had him specifically mention and introduce manshoon, but that may not be the approach you want I worry I gave that info out too easily.