The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

6 posts / 0 new
Last post
BAAL the Goatlord's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2007-06-25
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

Greetings:

I had an idea to spice things up in Sigil. Simply put, the fiends are engaged in the drug trade. The Baatezu use there knowledge and power to form ruthless drug cartels. They also use their knowledge of Sigil's laws to find loop-holes to import their product into Sigil. I envision them getting some folks addicted and then using that as leverage for enlistment into the Blood war.

The Tanarri on the other hand might simply get as many people as addicted as possible so that their alignments shifts. The Tanarri essentially get their Blood war troops after some poor drug addicted Berk dies. Not to mention the fact that a few addicts could add a little chaos to the cage.

I imagine this would create a realistic interpretation of what the fiends influence on the streets would be. Especially if Sigils laws and the Harmonium in particular force them to lay a bit lower than they'd prefer.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Rhys's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2004-05-11
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

Every time I watch a mafia movie, it makes me want to do that in Planescape. Infiltrating a crime ring, the tense standoffs with the police, a sting operation on an import. It's all ripe for the gaming. This seems like a great idea for me.

Yugoloths seem especially like the types to be selling illicit substances in the Cage. How about an ultroloth who sells drugs, but not for the money? He's distributing the drugs, which carry a soul-corrupting effect (just about the only thing that'll scare PCs in a game where their characters can be cured of cancer with magic). Maybe his supplier is a pit fiend who is trying to lace the drugs with mind-controlling alchemy.

I feel like this is such a great source of adventure (as evidenced by the success of mafia movies) that publishers would have been all over it if drugs didn't immediately require a Mature Content label on sourcebooks.

BAAL the Goatlord's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2007-06-25
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

I didn't consider the Yugoloth angle, but the whole mafia thing seams to fit them. I'll have to pay a bit more attention to mafia movies/TV shows from now on.

The soul corrupting aspect seams to work well to. Especially if the drug has some very positive "enhancement" qualities. I can see PC's doping up their stats gleefully...until one day that nasty will save comes along... :twisted:

Thanks for the idea

The_Basilisk's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2008-01-04
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

My new favorite villains always seem to be Lawful Evil. I love using this angle in m games. I think the Baatezu would make great druglords, using law loopholes and a genius plan to enthrall unsuspecting people. So many adventures could come from fighting such an organization in Sigil. The Book of Vile Darkness has some good ideas on drugs, I especially like the one that could increase spellcaster's power. It would create a lot of interest and even temptation in the PCs. The more altrustic heroes would fight the drug trade with all they got, but some PCs could wonder if they could benefit from some of the more attractive substances, especially ones that increase stats or spellcasting. Of course, there may be side effects or addiction...

BAAL the Goatlord's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2007-06-25
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

I think the interesting angle here is role of the fiends. I see the Yugoloths as the quintessential drug lords. They would essentially be the drug cartels who would produce large quantities and then distribute it.

The Baatezu, would be the major crime families, or mafias in Sigil. They would control a lot of the distribution and such at the local level.

The Tanarri, would be like street gangs. There is a lot of them on the streets fighting over turf and selling drugs at the same time.

This is where we could have the interesting street battles by the organized crime factions (the Baatezu) and the chaotic, spralling and loosely organized street gangs (the Tanarri). These turf wars would be a side battle of the Blood war, but would also be legitimate fights over drug distribution, profits and the "druggy converts."

BAAL the Goatlord's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2007-06-25
The Blood War, fiends and the drug trade

A little adventure seed I thought would be appropriate:

A new drug has hit the streets of Sigil called "Elysium's kiss." The drug is highly euphoric, but also addictive. After a few doses though, the drug begins to take it's toll and the user begins to feel apathetic without it. Eventually no amount of the drug will cure this and the user suffers from "the glooms." The glooms would basically be the same effect suffered by folks who spend too much time on the Grey Waste.

Here the best part: Some of the ingredients for the drug actually come from Elysium. The Yugoloth's love the fact that something good could be used for great evil, the rest of the fiends love the addicting properties and use them for blood war recruitment, and the Celestials are outraged! Suddenly celestials have to deal with another front on the war against evil, and part of that front is on one of their planes! In addition, some fiends actually have a real motivation to venture into unwelcome territory (Elysium) for their diabolical schemes.

Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.