adventure idea

[apeloverage]

The characters are hired by a local merchant, who has entered into a criminal scheme to transfer 10,000 gold pieces out of the distant kingdom of Girenia.

A scribe in this kingdom was given care of the gold by a local adventurer, as he obviously couldn't take it on expedition with him.

Sadly, the adventurer has been killed by evil cultists.

The scribe can't move the gold himself. He needs someone to pretend to be the adventurer's relative and thus have legal claim to the gold.

When the characters arrive in Girenia, they find that the scribe needs gold for various bribes, paperwork etc. They may begin to suspect that Scribe Thomas Nkembe isn't quite telling the whole truth...

Could they have fallen victim to the infamous Girenian Money Scam?

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

To bring this in line with the Nigerian scam, it would be funny to have players put up something as collateral; possibly that awesome magic item the GM is tired of dealing with. Great way to liberate the delvers of some hard earned treasure and remind them some opponents cannot be fought with TTYF and swords.

They get the gold out of the kingdom only to find themselves owners of 10,000 lead pieces...

Or for the more dastardly GMs, the 10,000 gold could really be 10,000 Gold Bumble Bees held in magic stasis until passing the kingdom's borders . i.e. MR 10,000

[apeloverage]

(also posted on dragonsfoot.org):

Perhaps the scam works like this: a messenger turns up at the house of a known thief or an unscrupulous merchant - "I don't know who it's for, I was just told to deliver this to the master of the house".

The house might be in Market Street, but the message is marked 'to the master of the house, Margate Street', or a similar plausible 'mistake'.

The messenger delivers a document which says words to the effect of "all is in readiness my dear friend. You have but to come to **. The man there won't know you, but simply say ++ as a password. This man will guide you to && and the 10,000 gold pieces will be ours. I will stay in %% until you come to deliver my share of the gold". The victim decides to cunningly take advantage of this 'mistake'.

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

This is a good teaser. This could also be a neat intro into a traditional dugeon-crawl or tomb raiding.

Get the valuable treasure out of the dangerous place. Once outside, the wealthy is 'secured' by the 'proper authorities'. The authorities could even be legit, and seeking to gain wealth and power without getting dirty or paying for henchmen to do the work.