Hello all,
I'm starting up a new campaign this week based in Sigil. The PCs are inheriting a Dead Letter Office in Sigil - an institution founded right after the Great Upheaval. With so many portals closed, packages were unable to get to their destinations and it was the job of the DLO to get parcels to where they needed. The DLO is currently defunct for about 30 years and seen as a relic/joke institution. The PCs were not chosen because they are the best of the best. People want and expect them to fail.
There will always be three parcels for the players to choose from, letting them have some agency on which 'missions' they want to go on. I have the system acting a bit wonky - the backlog of parcels is huge and comes out in a seemingly random order - some parcels might be newer, some might be hundreds of years old and technically 'undeliverable'. The parcels will be anything from simple letters/packages to residents in Sigil, to longer missions - having to investigate where something is meant to go, finding the correct portal/portal key, and trapsing the planes/prime worlds to deliver the packages. There is, of course, more to that - but that's the basis without the overarching mystery and story behind why it all exists.
I've run a Planescape oriented campaign before, but this is the first time putting my players in Sigil. I'm having a lot of fun incorporating NPCs from Uncaged: Faces of Sigil into the story. The vibe is sort of episodic sitcom-ish pulp-noir so far.
I figured I'd post here - anyone get any fun ideas for parcels that have to be investigated and delivered somewhere in Sigil or anywhere else in the D&D mythos? I'm happy to hear suggestions if anyone is feeling creative!
I don't think any of my players read this forum so I'll throw out some examples I have so far for the starter missions:
- A resident of a bleaker hospice sent a package with his dead wife's dentures so she could 'smile in the afterlife' but the package got lost. PCs will have to investigate records and find where the wife's corpse ended up to return her dentures. This lets me introduce the Hall of Information possibly, the Bleakers, and the Mortuary.
- The package is old, meant for a rival of a bitter wizard. Upon reading the gift tag on the box to determine who the package is meant for, the command word is triggered and a group of quasits burst out of the box and wreaks havoc in the DLO - a pure fun, combat encounter. Package undeliverable.
- A lich who repented in life's ashes have made their way into the undeliverable packages.. with a note requesting that his ashes be spread in his homeland on Krynn, in Solamnia. This one is longer and involves PCs finding a portal to Krynn, some travel, and possibly some Knight/Draconian encounters. Should be fun since Krynn tends to not have too many outsiders and some of the players are very unique races. (This is me tying up a loose end from my last campaign that ended prematurely).
Other than that, the Dead Letter Office is in serious disrepair. If the PCs are unable to earn jink to fix it up and bring it up to code, hostile takeovers could be triggered from the various factions who want to own it (and anything powerful potentially inside). Players will balance spending money on repairs (materials are unique, as the building is old, must be sourced along with tradesmen) and equipping themselves. Plus a certain NPC courier who runs the only courier company in Sigil is going to be none-too-happy about a new delivery service popping up and might demand they pay 'protection money'.