Monsters and Manuals: Major Investigating Powers

Sunday, 29 March 2015

Major Investigating Powers

In There is Therefore a Strange Land, going through portals may draw the attention of other investigators in the city - attention which is likely to be unwanted. These investigators are typically rich and powerful individuals from the upper echelons of society, who have considerable resources - both supernatural and mundane - to draw from.

Whenever a PC returns from the Strange Land and either consults an expert or fence about an item, or sells an item, there is a 1 in 6 chance of drawing the attention of an investigating power with the relevant specialism. How he/she acts depends on the DM: it may be making contact, sending spies to observe, or simply an assassination attempt.

Dice	Appearance	Personality	Quirks, Motives	Class (level 2d6+1)	Specialism
1	Grossly fat	Pompous and pretentious	Believes him/herself to be made of glass	Cleric/Satanist	Coins
2	Skeletally thin	Lascivious and suggestive	Addicted to opium eating	Cleric/Satanist	Art
3	Strikingly handsome or beautiful	Blunt and dismissive	Believes the real world is a dream and hopes to someday dispel it	Cleric/Satanist	Furniture
4	Goitred and deformed	Boorishly talkative	Has a pet which he/she dotes on	Alchemist	Weapons
5	Decrepit and old	Quiet and reserved	Intends to dispose of all rivals	Alchemist	Coins
6	Wiry and sinuous	Hateful and suspicious	Secretly works for a member of the royal family	Alchemist	Art
7	Muscular and powerful	Flies into impotent rages	Plans to summon beings from the Strange Land to do his/her bidding	Tarot reader	Furniture
8	Missing an eye, ear, nose or tongue	Friendly and welcoming	Is a serial killer	Tarot reader	Weapons
9	Youthful and fresh-faced	Nervous and constantly sweating	Has an identical twin; nobody else knows	Tarot reader	Coins
10	Red-nosed and consumptive	Shifty, never making eye contact	Was long ago possessed by a spirit from the Strange Land	Dilettante	Art
11	Warty and ugly	Aggressive and confrontational	Is a spiritualist who can communicate with the dead	Dilettante	Furniture
12	A small person	Painfully shy	Is an important celebrity (artist, poet, opera singer, etc.)	Dilettante	Weapons

2 comments:

Jim30 March 2015 at 03:57
This is starting to sound really interesting. I especially like the idea here, that after an adventure the characters may find themselves on the hook once they've returned to the "safety" of the city. I always liked campaigns that mixed city intrigue with dungeon crawls.

The GM might consider randomly generating one of these investigators and re-using them later. In other words, the Tarot reader who specializes in art might return after another adventure if the PCs return with a haul containing a curious art piece.

I could see negotiation being a major strategy for these investigators, even sending the PCs back through another portal to fetch more treasures the investigator has an eye for.
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