Introducing: Verbobonc Tales

I was thinking something along the lines of this when I started reading this thread. Only difference being that my thought entailed a man and his family.

Characters pop in unannounced, the wife and daughters are in a back bedroom (assumedly, the wife is tucking the girls into bed) and the husband is in the main room doing something (what exactly, I would assume is limited, I immediately thought cleaning up dinner)

Anyway, as soon as they pop in, there's dialogue, the man asks "Who are you and what do you think you are doing in my house? I'd recommend you leave now!"

Characters get two options, "No." and "Sorry [exit]".

--If they choose no, it turns out that the man is an old war vet who only wants to be left alone but is willing to destroy anyone who he feels threatens his family (as well as being a 19th level fighter or something along those lines).

--Choosing "No" also triggers a second dialogue box (ala the battle in the Temple Guardhouse) in which the man calls into the back room "Honey, get the girls out of the house, NOW" as he grabs a large butcher knife off of the dinner table. The characters choices are [Attack] (and more-than-likely nothing else depending on the desired simplicity of this encounter as well as my own ability to dialogue it within my schedule). Combat with a 19th level half-elf fighter wielding what amounts to a shortsword ensues.

--If they choose "Sorry [exit]", nothing changes immediately, though if they should pass by the mans house again that night, he will be standing guard at his front door in his Chain Shirt with his Morningstar (both +1)

I'm kindly distracted currently or I might be able to detail a little more, is this something like what you are looking for?

 

@ Gaear - Yeah, just in fog of war would be good. I also pinpointed exactly where and how Lhizeas will move about in the tunnels. The top of the map is the entrance to the Hextor group if you're lost as to where it is. I would like him to walk back and forth along the path shown in the attached picture. If/when you speak with him (he initiates dialogue the first time you meet) he will stand still until you have ended conversation with him, where he will continue pacing.

As to the item he has, I've decided that for flavour purposes, a staff/rod would not make much sense, and a wand would be pushing it. I'll choose one of three I've narrowed down to.

-Scarab of Protection; For flavor purposes it serves well, a tiny object that you could believe the NPC to keep about his person and even factoring in his survivability in the tunnels. My only concern is that spell resistance + death ward might be too powerful.

-Brooch of Shielding; Essentially the same as above, just a bit less powerful. I quite like shield however, that AC bonus is a tiny thing and could be pretty neat for fight buffing. Also, the magic missile blocking is cool, although maybe irrelevant due to the lack of MM users to fight.

-Cloak of Displacement (major/minor); I need some info on these. I can't create them in my current save, and am relying on d20srd for the descriptons. d20 says that major allows the full 50% evasion displacement spell, but only 15 rounds per day. While it says that minor allows a 20% chance evasion, but one that is permanant to the wearer of the cloak. I'm much more interested in the one that has a permanant effect (one that doesn't need to be continuously activated), despite it being lesser in power. Are these descriptions true?

Also, do you have any concerns with the effect any of these items may have if given in game as a gift, power wise?

@ TheLadiesOrge - I really like that NPC idea! There might be issues with getting verbobonc murderer rep from it, but for those neutral and evil parties it would be cool.

Edit: Woohoo, I've just about finished his background and build here so I'm starting to write up the conversations.

More options. The ability to show fear/disgust and attack Lhizeas. If you do so, you will not gain the item he carries and generally botch up a good NPC. Added for realism however as ToEE has many options such as this to treat NPC's. If attacking Lhizeas, I have some questions. Would it be possible to give him (the lizardman) a weapon different from whatever it is that lizardmen usually carry? Also, is it possible to buff him up to be a somewhat competant fighter against a party of level 10? Not looking to have a true challange, just wondering if you could make him strong enough to deal 30~ damage and have over 40 HP. Meatier than your average lizardman. I want a better lasting impression of him if you do attack than "just another cannon fodder lizardman, but this one happens to be able to talk".

 

That's fine.

Brooch of Shielding it is then.
edit: Although.. Ring of the Chameleon sounds cool flavour wise. And no problem about power, because it only increases hide skill.

I was thinking a heavy pick or a scythe. They already have picks though don't they?

I'm fine with that, as long as you can make him somewhat strong compared to your average lizardman. I think level 3 fighter sounds nice.

Edit: I've realized that making dialogue is complicated, with the many options and responses to everything. I'll have to send it by itself to you when I've finished. What text file could I save it in? I have microsoft word, not the 2010 works, so if I used that it may not be compatible with your word program.

 

@Winston

Keep up with the ideas man, it is definitely interesting to watch the process....

@Gaear

TBH, that is pretty much the conclusion I was drawing as well after thinking about it more. I had the thought that perhaps the wife and daughters could escape through a backdoor, but then it only made sense to me for her to pretty much go straight to the nearest guardhouse and be like "home invaders ---->". All in all, it would probably not be the best thing to have even if I could make it an interesting encounter.

I will, however, keep thinking and let you gentlemen know if I have any other ideas that may perhaps be appropriate.

 

A possibility that comes to mind is a halfling cook in the Gnome district has heard about rumors of large spiders in the tunnels below Zook's home. She knows some really unique recipes for preparing parts of spiders for her special customers. She would like to hire the party to retrieve them for her, for which she would reward with scrolls/potions she has stored from her adventuring days. Nothing special, but could add some flavor to a mission the party will be going on anyways.

 

Dude, i think Ring of Chameleon sounds PERFECT for this!!! you could say something along the lines of "Take thisss. Now i have FRIENDSSSss and i don't need to HIDE anymore! come back and visssit any timesssss in my cavern" It would make sense that he was skulking in shadows with the ring, it's not game changing, and a chameleon IS a lizard after all! Maybe that is also how he has escaped attention so far. he is a rogue lizard, hiding out for years ... and... maybe the city of Verb could notice in some way that he is there, once he makes the gift. Maybe you get the option to introduce him to the City Guard.

Also, maybe the ring itself is hard to discern, and unless a evil party has a accomplished magic user the item is not seen if a party takes the hostile route... losing out on the NPC interaction AND the treasure.

It's your character so i don't want to intrude on your creativity, but that's just my thoughts on your ideas! good luck!

 

OK, here's a dialogue for a guard just outside of the Viscount's office.

There are no conditions or actions tied to this dialogue, it's merely to add flavor.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think flavor purposes given, a ring of chameleon (a reptile) would be very fitting for a lizardman to hold. The story on his item though (he will explain in dialogue) is that he stole it off one of the hextor priests nearby. And if/when you are given his item, to make you feel better about him possibly losing what's helping him survive, he will explain that he can just find another one from the priests.

There are three main ways to treat Lhizeas.
1. You are kind and are rewarded.
2. You are a jerk and bully him out of his item.
3. MONSTER! Fear/disgust brings you to attack immediately and lose out on everything. (for realism purposes)

Besides these, of which one is decided how to treat him in the initial encounter, there will be 1 or 2 more lines of repeating dialogue asking him questions about how he lives here and what does he do/ backstory. An extra mile I'm taking is doing dual dialogues for PC replies to reflect the intelligence level. Like there are "stupid" PC comments if your character is a half orc barbarian that you can see in the game other places, that will be here as well.

Spoiler, here's Lhizeas's very first line of dialogue when you initially meet him. This is to give a general idea of what he speaks like and my writing style:

Spoiler

*A barely perceptible slithering noise commands your attention. Scales rasp across the tunnel floors and you glimpse a stout Lizardman moving into the werelight. His head is topped with auburn crests, his limbs are scarred, and his eyes piercing and prying.* "Hwy are you here, sssmooth ssskinned one? Hwat possessed you to venture down in the dark and damp as hwe do?"

edit: I didn't mean it but there may be comparisons to gollum from lord of the rings with this character inadvertantly. (ring of chameleon is my final decision for the item) Is that bad, Gaear, I didn't mean for this to happen :/

sirchet, I thought it was "arrow in the knee" not "to the knee".

Woohoo, I figured out how to make a document on skydrive so I'll be able to share the link so you can see the whole thing when I've finished. I'd put a tentative guess for within two weeks I'll finish.

 

john_rambo is a bot, but no spam? :shrug:

 

I'm absolutely sure there will not be any problem with us using it.
It is spread all across the web by many many different people doing their version of the line and Bethesda's comment was they were just happy the community liked it.

I did write the extra parts in the dialogue to make sure it wasn't word for word anyway.

And yeah ... I DO love that line.

 

@ Gaear - I directly avoided that line

edit: Since Lhizeas will have 3 character levels, I assume he will need base stats as well? I have provided my interpretation of his stats if it can be so.

 

I have completed nearly all of the dialogue. There are four options in the concurrent approaches talking to Lhizeas, and I have to write the last two now, both of which are repeating paths that you can keep talking to him about. One of them will be asking how he got here and he will tell you his story of a lizardman. (I'm thinking of making an Imerdys run reference, like he was a deserter from the lizardmen there.) The other repeating path I haven't had an idea for. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts what I could have Lhizeas talk about in one option.

Gaear did you see my last post edit?

edit: Just got an idea. Would I be able to have Lhizeas tell you rumors that could go in your logbook? The rumors tab is barely used as it is, and I think it would be cool to give a few more rumors to it.