Faction Friday: Quinder and the Crystal Ball

RPG faction

This is a seasonal faction; one that's only dangerous or notable at a particular time of the year.

Quinder directs a wealthy halfling merchant family that specializes in the ice trade. His large extended family cuts out large chunks of ice from lakes in the frozen north and carts them south to the big cities. Associates describe him as fair to both creditors and customers, cautious in his business, and a little peculiar.

Every year, he holds his Crystal Ball. He invites friends and business associates to an out-of-the-way cave, where a wizard has covered practically every surface in ice. Even the tables are frosted with ice and all the food is chilled. Hovering driftglobes cast antiseptic magic light that glitters off the cave's stalactites and stalagmites. Ice-themed treasures dot the room.

Ice cave at Vatnajokull, Iceland

As a friendly faction, Quinder's business has grown dramatically in the past year, and this year he plans to dramatically scale up his Crystal Ball. He needs a variety of ice-themed magic items, such as frost brand weapons for decorations and a brazier of commanding ice elementals. He'll pay the PCs handsomely for recovering these from various dungeons in the area.

As a foe faction, Quinder's family owns the only ice lake convenient for ice, and he charges exorbitant prices for his services. They're almost universally disliked.

Worse, he invites a variety of shady individuals to the Crystal Ball, where they indulge in shady entertainments, like animal fights and high-risk acrobatics. Some whisper of secret chambers deep in the cave where even creepier amusements are made available to a select few guests.

Plot hooks:

  • (Friend) Quinder hears of the PCs and asks them to recover a brazier of commanding ice elementals from an old mine that has become overrun with kobolds.
  • (Foe) The head of the nearby city's Watch, Valfire the tiefling, hires the adventurers to infiltrate the Crystal Ball as his bodyguards. They're instructed to separate from the main party and look for any secret rooms that mask illegal activity. Depending on your group, this can be as simple as illicit drug use, or as extreme as torturing innocent victims. This can provide an interesting scenario for justice-oriented/good-aligned PCs who may want to intervene immediately, especially if you establish that the Ball is patrolled by a large number of guards and that other guests have brought bodyguards sympathetic to Quinder.

View the photo for this faction here

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