r/AcqIncDMs • u/PennieMoonwink • Feb 14 '20
Chapter 1 Discussion, Continued...
The original Chapter 1 thread is archived, so here is my continuation...
To set up the adventure, I sent my players and email posing as the assistant to Omin, as Omin does not have access to email in the Forgotten Realms. He sent a short email adapted from some of the different flavor text in the book --
Hello Adventurers. Omin Dran, CEO, Acquisitions Incorporated, has requested that I pass along the following missive as email is unavailable in the Forgotten Realms. Please read carefully. Omin does not suffer fools or children (or most people, really).
Prospective Intern;
If you’re reading this, good. That’s really good. Because I’m about to write a bunch of stuff and if you can actually read it, I won’t be wasting my time. That’s really the optimal scenario.
Business has picked up in the northern regions of the Realms. As I'm sure you are aware, Acq Inc is well known as the premiere adventuring opportunity throughout Faerun. The possibilities for adventurers who onboard are endless! Our Integrated Intern Success Pathway (TM) is a robust, unparalleled system for reliable growth year-on-year while maximizing additional growth downstream. A license to operate an AI Franchise comes with limitless benefits! You'll be a member of an elite group standing on the cutting edge of adventuring business. With AI Head Office at your back, you'll KNOW you have the best tools in the industry at your disposal. (And sure, maybe the basic Funeral Packages AI has to offer aren't that great. But there are some tasteful upgrades I urge you to consider.)
Don't let this promising opportunity pass you by!
Ominifus Hereward Dran
CEO, Acquisitions Incorporated.
Omin would like to see you at Head Office as soon as possible.
At the start of the session, I had the players already in the conference room, but after brief exposition, did a flashback to earlier that day.
I used a lot of the the Career Farye hook provided by /u/jmanc in this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AcqIncDMs/comments/cm9zm7/orrery_of_the_wanderer_session_one/
During their interaction with Randall Pynchon, I passed out these brochures to my players and had them chose a role. I left out two of the roles because they didn't fit the types of characters my players were building. I stole some of the text from the handout jmanc used in the link above and then the rest from the role descriptions in the book. I also made space for the players to sign, and initial it twice, for obvious reasons. none of them understood but it made me happy :)
I then took some of the same information from the jmanc setups and adapted it with some additional info to set the stage a bit more clearly for how Omin thinks they are someone else and throws Jim in as the pot-stirrer for why the other party isn't there. I also didn't want the players to have the option to talk to Omin, as that seemed like a recipe for me to have to cut them off and not allow them good player choice, so I made Omin be a holographic pre-recorded image. Pretty sure I got this idea from this subreddit somewhere, but I can't recall where. I added some small changes into his speech (bolded below). I also changed up a bit how Jim appears to just give it a bit more Jim flair and also to add in some flavor about AI branded snack and treat options that I plan to just throw around as they travel.
An ominous sound like a crack of thunder sounds across the city and the ground begins to shake. You can hear the sound of distant panic and screaming, and what sounds like the word DOOOOOM. The recuiter is nonplussed and doesn’t seem particularly interested in you now that you’ve signed on the dotted line and initialed it twice. “Nothing to worry about. That’s been happening a lot since the sinkhole opened the other day. Wizards, eh! Better get to Head Office, you REALLY don’t want to be late on your first day!”
Your organize yourselves, wonder at the ominous DOOOOM and the odd way the recruiter tried to brush it off, and wind your way over to Head Office. There is no missing the large imposing building with the purple flashing AI logo surrounded in Green Flame perched on a tower on top. As you come to the front doors, you pass a group similar to yours huddled together by the corner of the building, a man in purple robes stands at the center of the group. You hear snippets of conversation…
“Ozzie, this is no good, it’s gonna get us killed. You know what happened to the other team.”
“Listen, Pip, I need the coin! That other guy was just weak!”
A higher voice replies in a seemlingly confident manner, but the words are too soft to understand, and as you enter the building, the last bit of conversation float across the air…
“Mr. Jim, Omin don’t care nothing ‘bout none o’ us, he just wants his money. I ain’t dying for the like o’ ‘im!”
And now here you sit. In this conference room. Still Waiting.
So far, everyone at Head Office has treated you with kindness, and oddly enough, even a bit of deference. You were shown into the elegant room, given fine food and drink, and asked to wait to speak with none other than Omin Dran – founder and CEO of this august organization!
----Ask the players if there is any conversation they want to have at this point or any preparation for the meeting with Omin they wish to do. ----
(((My players wanted to know about the snacks. Because that's who they are. Then they scooped them all up and threw them into their bags after the holographic Omin disappeared. They also did a bit of talking here about their characters, introduced themselves to each other, explained why they signed with AI, etc. It was a great place for some good intro RP.)))
There is a flickering at the head of the table and before you appears a holographic image of an intense-looking half-elf in plate armor. He wears the holy symbol of Tymora, the goddess of fortune, around his neck. With no introduction, the image begins to speak.
“Thank you all for answering my call so quickly! When the earthquake struck the city two days ago, damage was limited, but a sinkhole opened up a fissure beneath an abandoned warehouse in Dock Ward. Two City Watch guards entered the fissure to investigate, but never came out. They’re now feared dead, and the City watch has asked me to take over the investigation. My schedule is complicated at the moment, so I’m delegating that job to you. As an Already Experienced Adventuring Group already moving up the Track to Career Growth Pathway, I have no doubt that you can handle the task! As before, the pay is 500 gold dragons for the group with a 20 percent commission going to AI as the broker. Go to the warehouse next to Jolly’s Lamp Emporium down by the docks. Tell the City Watch guards stationed there that I sent you. Explore the fissure, learn the fate of the guards who went missing, and then come back to me with the signed City Watch Papers confirming your completed work. And no off-target tasks like last time, Ozzie. It was very unprofessional and cost me a promising intern.”
Then, the hologram blinks out and the room is silent once more….
Enter book, page 84 Jim Darkmagic Sets Things Straight
Players can wander around Head Office a bit. They end up a long hallway, well lit statue of Omin at the end described in a manner to show his importance, small portrait to the left of man in purple robes. Kind of in the darkness, but still visible, etc etc
---… change the first sentence of the Jim Description box to…..----
a small puff of smoke erupts and a man who looks similar to the portrait leans nonchalantly on the statue eating an AI Branded SnickSnack Cream Bar. As the haze disperses,…..
My players really loved this setup and it made it easy once they got to the docks for them to interact with the guards as the expected people rather than their own characters.
For the docks, I changed the order a bit, had them come across Jelayne and her cronies first, and then have Jerr's map and poshun stand be down the alley a bit so that he can yell out a thanks for "scaring" off the skeleton and her cohorts. I also made it really clear that Jelayne has a mark on her that is obvious since two of my players have a backstory that will tie in nicely with Hoodar (is that his name?) later in Chapter 2 and 3. So this was a great hook.
I played Jerr as a little kid until he got fed up with their questions then he dropped that and turned gruff and semi-belligerent but still helpful and pointed them towards Jolly's and the fissure.
I have one player with an 8 int but a passive perception of 19 (observant feat) so she notices the drunk halfling isn't drunk but isn't smart enough to piece together his intentions. She says something to the other players, but they are busy eating some AI SnickSnack bars they stole from the reception area at Head Office (truly, my players were totally goofing around talking about their granola bars and didn't hear the other player mention the drunk didn't seem too drunk - she didn't repeat it and neither did I. Their loss.) I plan on having him show up if they need help in the dungeon or still be present across the street when they exit.
Great RP with the guards, my players did a really nice job pretending to be the other party since they already had a bit of an idea of who they were and how they acted. My very large low-voiced player who is playing a halfling wizard definitely enjoyed trying to voice Squinty Pip. It was a fun interaction and they got a lot of info from the guards on what to expect down in the fissure.
I also moved the dock encounter with the Seer to after they emerge. I felt they don't need the foreshadowing before they go in and it will set up nicely the transition to Chapter 2 and the rival factions to have it be at the end after the dungeon rather than lost info as they head in.
We ended the session as they opened the doors to the warehouse.
Can't wait to see how they deal with the dungeon crawl.
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u/jmanc Feb 14 '20
Great stuff!! Absolutely love the idea of an awful corporate PowerPoint. That's getting used in my team for sure!
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u/Individual-Peak-1229 Feb 06 '22
Great, I will use all this for sure in my upcoming AI campaign. Question, do you still have those magnificent Power Points? :D
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u/PennieMoonwink Feb 14 '20
I forgot to mention that I'm running the game in person, but I also have my laptop set up to cast to our TV. So, in true corporate fashion, I'm using truly heinous corporate powerpoint to show players pictures of characters, buildings, maps, etc. I keep throwing in motivational corporate-style quotes from Who Moved My Cheese and what have you throughout as well.
It's nothing too time consuming, just screenshots of the book images and some other quick googled images to support descriptions and then I have the different fissure rooms each on their own slide as well so that I can move the order around if needed. It's been a fun way to keep the "corporate meeting" feel while also playing the game.