The Kraken's Fist Manifesto

[Ao]

The Kraken's fist. A network of thieves, scallywags, and sea captains united under a common aim. Profit, peace, and freedom from the tyrannic clutches of the Merchant of Death - Verdi DiVicci of the Shadow Thieves. Founded by Captain Artimus DeLonde, it is a humble assembly of a dozen traders and privateers, and a few key accomplices in significant ports of call. After his betrayal at Verdi's hands, DeLonde swore he would create a new network of control over the Sword Coast.

And though The Kraken's Fist is but a stone in a river of blackmail, deceit, and murder...even Verdi DiVicci has been unable to uproot it.

So far.  

The Kraken's Fist is a supplementary system running parallel to our campaign. It is an opportunity to exact some change over the Sword Coast through the network, and to create valuable connections and resources for your adventuring company.

While in the canon, Artimus is the founder of the Kraken's Fist - I want everyone to participate as much as possible. So, please feel free to banter with one another about your choices, because they will impact your party and your options long term.

The System

You will communicate with members of The Kraken's Fist through your pendants, which provide a telepathic link to the network. Depending on how far away you are from your intended patron of conversation, it may take you hours or days, or even weeks to relay a message.

The system will be reliant on relaying comprehensive messages to connections throughout the network, to help them deal with Kraken's Fist business, or to resolve myriad problems plaguing their cities or coasts.

You might assist a sea captain in eradicating a group of pirates, by connecting him with privateers, or by negotiating with a local militia. You might help hide a political partner in danger from the shadow thieves, by assisting them in finding a safe house, or by paying for his protection.
You might facilitate a trade contract, assigning resources to help ensure its safe arrival through several ports of call.

The emphasis will be on managing your resources and assets, building relationships with valuable political partners, and creating influence in the important cities of the Sword Coast.

How does it work?

Members or contacts of The Kraken's Fist will contact you with missions, requesting your assistance in important matters. It's up to you to weigh the risks of the mission, delegate resources, and to advise on an appropriate course of action for its completion.

Completing missions will create profits, build relationships, and create more influence.

As the executors of The Kraken's Fist, you have access to a warchest of gold that can be used for important affairs. It's important to know that these are contributions paid for by your contacts and members of the organization, to ensure that The Kraken's Fist can take care of business and grow in abundance. So the warchest is not to be used for adventuring affairs - doing so would be fraudulent, and would undoubtedly weaken or dissolve the alliance.

That said, you'll be able to create some nice profits from missions undertaken.

In addition to the warchest, you can call upon influence you have in ports of call to help with your missions. Every port of call, and even your contacts, will have an Influence Rating - a number from 1 to 100 - that will act as a modifier against a target number for success. For example, Baldur's Gate might start with an Influence of 30, which reflects your connections in that city and your ability to help get things done.

Finally, roleplay will be a huge part of this. You'll be free to propose contacts you might have, or create solutions for missions from your own thoughts and ideas about what might be neat. You might talk about an alchemist you know ten miles outside of Baldur's Gate, that might be able to manufacture enough healing potions to supply the ragtag militia intent on retaking a keep on the border lands of the necromancer's sanctuary.

I'll be giving bonuses for imaginative solutions and stuff that makes me say... 'cool'.

The nitty gritty

In the main thread "The Kraken's Fist Warchest", there will be a summary of your warchest resources, all contacts, their level of influence, and the influence of the ports of call.

These are the resources you can call upon to complete missions.

In The Kraken's Fist forum, threads will open up, representing missions. There will be multiple avenues you can take to complete the mission in the thread, with accompanying risks and required die rolls.

Let me know if you have questions