Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, fourth revision

“Those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”

- Nicolas Cage

Remember that information is as valuable as traditional treasure.  For example, imagine that within the Chaos Temple that the PCs find an important letter about a Chaos tax caravan that collects taxes for the regional Chaos Lord.  These taxes pay for Chaos soldiers and neutral mercenaries to wage a wider war against the forces of Law.  (Did you think that Chaos soldiers would risk their lives for free?)  Without this tax money, the Chaos Lord can’t recruit as many soldiers for important battles waged many miles away from the keep.

Note:  This tax caravan raid happened in my campaign.  The opposing Chaos Lord suffered several off-stage military defeats because of a shortage of soldiers and supplies; because my PCs raided their tax caravan.  Afterwards, the Chaos Lord was publicly reprimanded by her superior officers in the Chaos Army.

Also, to my surprise, my PCs didn’t talk to random people about their tax train raid.  Thus, the Chaos Lord never found out what group of heroes raided her tax caravan.

Imagine an adventure based upon Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191.  This happened during the Maryland campaign, before the Battle of Antietam. A copy of the order was lost.  It was recovered by Union soldiers of the 27th Indiana on the Best Farm in Maryland.  A Lawful general would pay much to buy these Chaos plans from the PCs.  Even a letter describing the strengths and weaknesses of the Chaos army in the Caves of Chaos would be worth money to a Lawful general.

Also, my PCs once impersonated Chaos message delivery soldiers to see the evil priest controlling the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos.  They gave him fake - yet believable orders to set up an ambush outside the caves.  They collected intelligence about the caves as they waited for the evil priest to write a reply, and after he gave them his letter, they walked away.  That evil priest along with his loyal acolytes and adepts would be either captured for information or killed in battle in a future ambush by Lawful fighters.