This chapter presents a complete Acquisitions lncorporated adventure divided into six episodes. Episode 1 is for players using shiny new 1st-level characters. They’re ready to take on the world and hoping to become part-owners of a share in a valuable, prestigious Acquisitions Incorporated franchise — or at least gain a coveted internship with the organization.
At the end of each episode, characters gain a level. Each episode is an appropriate challenge for a party of four characters of the indicated level, but that challenge can be modified to accommodate your group. At the end of the sixth and final episode, the characters attain 7th level. But even more importantly, they will be fully vested in an operational and maybe even profitable Acquisitions Incorporated franchise. After that, the players and characters can take their treasure-hunting activities in any direction that you and they desire.
Between episodes, characters will use downtime to undertake a variety of activities to better themselves or their franchise. By later episodes, choices of downtime activities might alter the flow and challenge of the story. After all, there’s no rest for the wicked, so there shouldn’t be rest for heroes either. (Logically then, wicked heroes would need to work twice as hard. Budget the time.) Familiarize yourself with the new activities presented in «Franchise Tasks and Downtime» in chapter 2 of this book, and with the standard D&D downtime activities discussed in that section.
The Monster Manual contains stat blocks for most of the creatures found in this adventure. All the necessary stat blocks are included there or in appendix B. When a creature’s name appears in bold type, that’s a visual cue for you to look up the creature’s stat block in the Monster Manual or the monster appendix in this book.
Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventure are described in the Player’s Handbook. Magic items are described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, except for the Orrery of the Wanderer and its components, described in appendix D.
No Players Allowed
This part of the book is for the DM only. If you’re planning to run through the adventure as a player, stop reading now! Unless you want to keep going, that is. Because seriously, it’s not like anyone’s going to stop you. After all, information is power — in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign, and in life. Maybe you having a bit of an inside track is just what this adventure needs to make it really pop, and to keep the DM from getting all, «O-oh , look at me! I’m the one with the secrets!» I mean, can you believe how smug they are? It’s like they’re just begging you to turn the page…
¶ Running an Acquisitions Incorporated Campaign
The grand buffet that is an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign features plenty of the exciting locations and high adventure common to all great fantasy campaigns. But an Acq Inc game adds a unique helping of humor and corporate intrigue to the mix, creating a rich narrative familiar to anyone who’s watched an Acquisitions Incorporated livestream game. To take full advantage of the potential of an Acq Inc campaign, keep the following concepts in mind.
¶ Familiar Faces
This campaign provides many NPCs for you to do with as you please. They all have roles to play in the encounters and events of the adventure, but what happens to them after that is up to you. Every NPC could be a potential ally, enemy, or foil later in the campaign. If the players take a shine to one, bring that character back — or better yet, make the NPC an integral part of the ongoing plot. All franchises need servants and hirelings to do mundane jobs, and NPCs the characters already know are a great fit for these roles. Employ these NPCs to make the world feel more familiar and real to the players and characters alike.
¶ Right and Wrong
Even the most heroic heroes sometimes fall short. And in many cases, adventurers aren’t even within longbow range of «virtuous» in their motivations. As such, what the characters fail to do, do poorly, or do wrongly can be just as important as what they accomplish. Don’t let fai lure and setbacks derail an adventure or a campaign. Rather, look for ways that failure or partial success might lead to new ways to reach a campaign goal.
You might be absolutely confident that the characters will save those townsfolk and earn their trust, letting you use the townsfolk to reveal an important quest goal. But if the town burns down despite the heroes’ best intentions — or because they had better things to do — let them be mistaken for local authorities come to lend a hand in the aftermath. Or let them be unexpectedly arrested after being mistaken for the evil forces that burned the town down, and given the dangerous quest out of animosity. Humor plays a big part in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign, so make use of unheroic irony whenever the players and characters provide it.
¶ Life Goes On
By its most basic nature, a roleplaying game campaign focuses on the actions of the characters. However, it’s important to remember that the world goes on without them. The heroes can’t be everywhere at once. If they establish a base in one town but spend a lot of time away, anything could happen to that base. Hirelings might grow disenchanted in the characters’ service if abused, neglected, or left to their own devices for too long. Ramp up the drama and the humor of a campaign by occasionally focusing on what the characters ne- glected or left behind.
¶ Let the Franchise Shine
An Acquisitions Incorporated franchise is like a newborn baby that the characters all had a hand in conceiving, delivering, and raising. lt needs constant care and feeding as it grows to its full potential, but there’ll be a lot of risks, drama, and dirty diapers along the way. (Okay, that might be taking the analogy too far. but you get the idea.) Running a franchise can be difficult, but the potential rewards for the characters are tremendous. And for the players, making the franchise the focal point of the campaign provides a joint goal and a shared vessel of creative input.
Adjusting the Adventure
Wow. Can you believe the advice your players are getting in that sidebar on the last page? And after all the time you’re going to put in getting ready to run this adventure? Outra- geous! Someone needs to teach these people a lesson.
If you’re running the adventure for larger or smaller groups, you can adjust the encounters using the guidelines given in chapter 3, «Creating Adventures,» in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Or maybe you’ll adjust them anyway to keep things interesting. And never forget that you can change up any aspects of the adventure to make them a better fit for your campaign. Swap monsters around to keep the players guessing, or make use of the adventure’s many suggestions for side treks and additional encounters. That’ll keep these so-called heroes in line.
¶ Story Overview
