Ercole Crawford/office + Arena @ Manticore

Echo

Character: Ercole Crawford :: Rogue :: Level 9 :: Neutral Evil
Applying For: Small side office + Arena area tacked onto the Manticore basement. We will pay for it; as per: https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/56975/letter-to-the-manticore-ownership
Bio: The Thorns of Arabel are a petty thieves guild who used to run spices from the Anauroch to Sembia. They have set up shop in Arabel and expanded their horizons..
Goals.
Firstly, we’re selling mushrooms, hosting dice games and ran the Masquerade Ball as money building enterprises. They’ve been and are proving successful and we’re beginning to build up some capital between us. We’d like to reinvest it back into ourselves through this addition to the basement area – to grow the faction and accommodate some lofty goals laid out below.

FIGHT NIGHTS
Once the arena is established – we’re going to dispense with the various pantomimes we’ve established – having served their purpose – building gold, intelligence, contacts etc. We can now commit fully to scrubby slumdwellers.

We’ll announce ourselves with the hosting of FIGHT NIGHTS. Come one, come all, compete with one another over an ale, share stories, enjoy each others company. We’re going to establish the ARABEL BRAWLERS LEAGUE. A running tournament and league table which charts entrants against one another with weekly and monthly prizes for the most points accrued.

All different forms of combat and challenges.

We have two rangers for instance who are going to bring in animal companions to fight against – we can pay non-affiliated rangers to do the same. We’ll host Tymoran twists where people roll dice and the number rolled correlates to a different spell to be cast on them before the fight – some for good, some for ill.

All fights will have betting attached to them to go hand in hand with gambling events. Expanding on the dice gambling events we made up for the Masquerade Ball which went over really well.

The idea is to just run events, loads of fun events which don’t require any DM oversight whatsoever and get people logging in.

We’re also going to use it as an opportunity to really push the Brandifox merchandise. Evens like a “SHROOM FOR ALL”, you can only use shrooms as boons, otherwise you’re left to your own devices.

THE LOWER HOUSE
The Fight Nights are the carrot for the Lower House. Arabel has the Grey Watch in the Plaza, it has the Precept in the Clover, we want to bring THE LOWER HOUSE for the Slums. The Lower House we envision being a sprawling PC Faction that represents the interests of the every man. Crooks, thieves? Yes, of course. But also people that feel they’re beneath the notice of the ruling elite. Its designed as a sort of mock-court of low lives and peasants.

Around each Fight Night we’re going to try and build an atmosphere and a vibe, a sort of “this is something for us”, not for the bigwigs, not for them. We want to create a sense of class separation. Feed in a sort of resentment for other organisations and the set-up, the status-quo. The Council of Twelve, for instance, they’re not elected – its a closed group, members vote in new members, its not representative of the people.

The Lower House isn’t strictly speaking a Thieves Guild or a Crime Group, its like a Social Club.

From it, we’re going to elect a THIRTEENTH COUNCILLOR. We want to drum up enough bitterness than we can segue into a sham election – where people can stand for office of the Lower House. It’ll be fixed, of course – Ercole will win, but it’ll be made to feel diplomatic.

The Thirteenth Councillor is a jab at the Twelve. It’s an elected representative of the people, voted to champion their interests. And that, ostensibly, is what the Lower House is.

Around the Thirteenth Councillor we’ll establish the Cabinet. Tongue in cheek ‘council’ positions taken from the Lower House, players will serve terms and have committed responsibilities. For example, a Minister of Coin charged with bringing in money for projects to promote the interests of the ‘people’ through the Lower House etc.

You’ll pay a 13gp tribute to arrange meetings with the Thirteenth Councillor, a token gesture seemingly for the Lower House coffers but it’ll all be directly tithed to Mask. This will be hosted in the small side office applied for that we envision affixed to the arena – we want to establish a mock feel of council and cheap politics.

From the Lower House, which we’re going to recruit aggressively for with very light requirements for entry, we’ll cherry pick ne’er-do-wells for the Thorns, who will remain the evil behind the curtain, the profiteering rogues at the heart of the group. The requirement ethos for the Lower House will be the “doors open unless you close it yourself.” Anyone and everyone can get involved in the goings on.

Arabel is set-up in such a way that power is there for those that can take it. The Lower House is our bid to wrestle control through player agency. We want to be active, fun and engaging. Running PC events every week through the arena, but using this as a platform to spring off in all directions and enforce the will of the people.

We want to rival the established DM Factions from the Slums. We’ll offer gold and favours in return for prestige as a means to try and build our own reputation. The Arena will be our base of operations, our USP, the garden bed from which all future ambitions will grow.

Voss_

This seems to be just sitting here, are we voting on this?

Echo

[7:16 AM] Echo: @ Knockknock not opposed to the application but making building changes/additions/renovations takes time. It might happen, not saying it wont, but it wont happen immediately
[7:16 AM] Echo: also these are my 2 cents, not that of the Team

Zool

We talked about adding fighting arenas to various inns anyway I think.

So it's kind of a case of when we can build it. Though this one also requires some persistant cages