Arelith

Will there ever be enclaves or settings that is good. For example, a village made up of the various "good races" and "classes" that can be raided by the UD or evil surface characters?

It could be cool to have like a Black Archer outpost in the Upperdark or something, especially if they only turn hostile around monster races. Not sure how possible that is, though - which is probably why it hasn't been done yet.

Literally every settlement on the Surface, including the 'morally grey' Guldorand?

Inordinate wrote: Mon Jul 03, 2023 6:54 pm

Literally every settlement on the Surface, including the 'morally grey' Guldorand?

The agent would get lynched by the common mob. So probably just sencliff (which already has some evil writs) and Andunour (which could have evil writs in theory but everything in the UD is monstrous so there arent any goody populations to assault.

I like the idea of a good NPC area that can be a punching bag for evil but knowing Arelith the big problem is going to be big teams of bored "good" epic surfacers hanging around 24/7 to defend it from mid-level evils doing writs.

A way to do it might be to have a remote good area on the surface and the only way to reach it is going up from the underdark (and possibly by smugglers) so it would be a pain if not impossible for good surface PCs to reach.

Making it not human would probably be necessary too, like Radiant Heart paladins are going to hang around a good surface village that keeps getting attacked but may disregard a good ghostwise halfling and forest gnome area that has drow probems. Of if it is human they could be an isolated and xenophobic people who attack every outsider regardless of alignment.

Keep in mind the conceit of the writ agency is that someone with money sees a certain faction to be enough of a nuisance or hazard that they're willing to pay money to have it raided. Any such enclave would need to be a nuisance or hazard for the Evils in some way, and Goods are either a nuisance because they a) are posing a threat to people just trying to do their thing, or b) they stand between some entity with money and something it wants.

There's one writ that does this already in game if you read the writ description: the Singing Stones on Skal.

Give me something to use my LE divine smite on.

That is my contribution to this conversation thank u.

A deep gnome village could be such a site. Alternatively also a dwarven settlement, or a mongrelfolk one. Rebellious slaves or a base of rebellious slaves could also be another option, and a fitting one for the settlement of Andunor.

There can also be some surface npcs that can be targeted. Perhaps some spawn of npc adventurers that go below.

Going for epic levels there can be some planar writs in goodly (and non-goodly) planes. It would be nice to have planar writs in other planes than the shadow plane.

Options are certainly there.

There's a lawful good dungeon in Cordor.

As for dungeons where 'evil' can kill 'good' more generally, I'm not sure what there is to gain here, as it really just reinforces the Good V Evil aspect of the server, and would spawn a lot of PVP, as good characters go to defend the NPCS (and would also get attacked by them as we don't currently have spawns turning hostile to different PCs based on their alignment, which would cause all kinds of other problems...).

In the UD there are many equally evil enemies; it's a dangerous place, even for the drow.

On the surface? I'd kind of prefer if surface evil characters weren't of the 'I put whole towns to the sword. WHOLE TOWNS!' variety, or at least I don't want to encourage it too greatly.

That's the nice thing about evil, they don't need to seek out good. Being evil usually selfish beings they can justify killing evil and not caring when other evil beings go about attacking other evil things. Evil attacking a gnoll camp is no big deal, but if you put a good place to attack there would be many good characters that would be obligated to defend it. If paladins knew a camp of slaves or a paladin outpost were getting raided, could they ignore that? But if evil things want to fight other evil things, no one cares.

I agree with Irongron that such writs would have disastrous consequences if deployed on the surface.

In the UD, however, I wholeheartedly agree with these kinds of writs. Even just reprimanding rebellious slaves in the Pens could be one such writ. Hunting down escaped slaves could be another. Slaves that are so terrified they will attack anything at sight.

Delivery writs could also have an evil twist added to them. For example, you're to deliver poison to ... a well.

In terms of the Underdark, one of the things I have rarely seen is the "random encounters" like happen on the surface in numerous FOIG places with different FOIG spawns.

There is nothing stopping a "random encounter" of runaway slaves from appearing in different spots in the UD, who may then need to fight if there are hostile NPCs nearby; a player could save them, let them die, or kill them... if they survive, then they could have the option to speak with them and select a pathway (like with prisoners in dungeons on the surface), or they could "capture" them with a lasso (or a high enough persuade or intimidate check get them to come willingly) to return to the slavemaster for payment.

Another possible "random encounter" is a group of holy warriors; again, a player could fight alongside them, let them die, or kill them, and if the holy warriors survive, they could wish them well (if not a monstrous race or outcast), plead for aid (if a slave), or capture them with a lasso (or a high enough intimidate check or bluff check to get them to come willingly) to get collared by the slavemaster for payment.

A travelling group of myconids could be encountered (They are lawful neutral and tend to the natural balance of the UD and its plants and animals), or a group of slave hunters... a purple worm or a shadow dragon; the possibilities are endless.

Whilst I get that it could be "fun" for there to be a good enclave for team evil to go to for writs, it wouldn't end well for the reasons listed above. Instead, having random encounters where evil characters can get their malevolence on, or a hidden good character has their will tested, or a slave might get lured to try to go to safety... this would add a LOT of flavour to the Underdark without the same issues.

Andunor has at least two writs where you have to kill spiders. With the same logic, most drow would have started a civil war against those who take those writs.

In reality nothing significant ever happened because of this, so I doubt having good enclaves should attract any do gooders to protect them. Not anymore than do gooders would have to actually remove some evils, which sometimes they do in fact.

I think that potential for conflict is unavoidable in a setting with strong oppositions with good and evil, but I do not think that a dungeon would impact or affect this aspect in any significant matter. If anything, it would probably decrease slightly the need felt by some evil characters to actively seek out pvp, since their opposite enemies exist only as player character. In fact it would be nice to have also npc alternatives to this at least some times. At worst, anyway, there will not be any less potential for PvP than it currently exist.

Irongron wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 10:35 pm

There's a lawful good dungeon in Cordor.

This is something I want to reiterate - when doing some writ rewrites for background and fluff, I wanted to clarify that you are doing contract freelance mercenary work for an organisation paid by potentially shady trading costers, colonists & land speculators, and local authorities.

The fact that they're so entrenched as just part of the server's levelling system means it's hard to meaningfully engage with the Trackless Sea Adventurers' Registry Association from a narrative level, but it's worth remembering that at least one writ explicitly has you commit graverobbery against an actively used mausoleum, and even asks you to "be discrete".

Debatably, you're already engaging in evil, albeit a fairly mundane and realistic one. Just imagine the guild renamed as Blackwater.

One thing to keep in mind about these sorts of writs too, is there's a possibility of them being less taken anyway just because of the In Game consequences of them. Like - it's of course up to the players how much they want to enforce, and this certainly isn't a reason not to add them (perhaps it's a compelling reason for the opposite in fact!) But if you have a writ in Cordor like 'Hunt down 50 small kittens, kill them, and sell them to the glue making factory.' you might get a fair bit of IC kickback (understandable) which in turn will make most folk less likely to take the writ (also understandable) which means a writ that may not see much useage, which means coding in something for very little purpose ultimatly.
Which isn't to say again that I think it's a bad idea - just that its something to keep in mind. Perhaps a good reason not to have dozens and dozens and dozens of them.

Kuma wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 4:04 am

The fact that they're so entrenched as just part of the server's levelling system means it's hard to meaningfully engage with the Trackless Sea Adventurers' Registry Association from a narrative level, but it's worth remembering that at least one writ explicitly has you commit graverobbery against an actively used mausoleum, and even asks you to "be discrete".

Irongron has informed me I used the wrong "discreet", and now I hand over the keys to the writing department to ChatGPT, and will leap into traffic tomorrow.

Kuma wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 8:12 am

Kuma wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 4:04 am

The fact that they're so entrenched as just part of the server's levelling system means it's hard to meaningfully engage with the Trackless Sea Adventurers' Registry Association from a narrative level, but it's worth remembering that at least one writ explicitly has you commit graverobbery against an actively used mausoleum, and even asks you to "be discrete".

Irongron has informed me I used the wrong "discreet", and now I hand over the keys to the writing department to ChatGPT, and will leap into traffic tomorrow.

Thank you for you're service.