I have found myself with a really hard decision as a DM.
Background - My players asked that the current campaign be more role play intensive, part of doing this was laying down some table rules that everyone agreed on. the primary one being, if you say something at the table it is considered in character, unless otherwise indicated. As part of allowing more versitle roleplaying and opportunities I have allowed Lawful Evil to be on the table as a possible alignment. One person, decided that this alignment would fit an idea they had brewing... They decided to be a necromancer and that the characters endgame is to subtly take over the town politically/economically, and that he would use his companion's (and his own of course) heroics to gain trust, power, and influence. So far, to me, it sounds intriguing and something I'm more than willing to role with and provide ample RP opportunities for.
Provocation - 3/4 of the way through the first adventure, no problems, everyone is RPing well, and having a lot of fun. As part of the adventure, the towns most prominent and influential noble woman goes missing. Seeing this as an opportunity to gain prestige and favor of both the noble woman and the towns folk, this player convinces the rest of the party that it is in everyones best interests to rescue her. Long story short, they find her bound and gaged in the bad guys lair, and after defeating the bad guy - the following then proceeds. Two player move to cut loose the bindings and comfort/console the noble woman. The player in question then shouts out (in character, even worse in character's voice [so I know it wasn't just a slip of the brain]), "Wait! Don't untie her! We can use her to make a sacrifice and use her animated body as a pawn!" Party (in character) argument ensues, noble woman is cut loose and escorted by the savvy rouge back to town while the rest of the party fights with each other.
Issue - I have already decided that this noble woman now fears and distrusts this player's character because of his actions, and while she has nothing personally against those who stood up for her, she doesn't understand why they continue to associate with them. Her attitude towards the necromancer is now openly hostile. and she is unfriendly with the rest of the party. She has flat out asked the rouge (who did the most to mitigate the damage done here) to cease relations with the necromancer. Now the rouge and another player had an in character discussion about this, and have spoken to me privately. Their characters at this point would not be comfortable associating with the necromancer. They never saw him using enemy corpses to fight their enemies as a bad thing, and new he was "power hungry." However, they now think that he has cold blooded murder in his heart and consider him a liability, and are worried about the possibility of him turning on them. While I think these two players would love to confront his character about it, their characters are far more passive agressive. They are contemplating leaving the town without him.
Furthermore, I'm pretty sure at this point, the noble woman, who is close friends with the town sheriff is ready to have the necromancer (and his associates), run out of town, jailed, or otherwise disposed of. If I proceed with this and allow the logical progression to unfold, I think our campaign and story line is over, and I'm sure the rest of the party at that point would either turn on the necromancer, or shun him completely.
When this player was asked by another character (out of character) why he said what he said, his response was, "it's my character, it's what he would say."
As a DM, "I asked is this going to represent an alignment shift towards Neutral Evil?"
He said, "No."
I warned him that any further actions like that run the possibility of an alignment shift and that his character would then become an NPC due to alignment restriction set down before the campaign. I'm concerned that he has sabotaged the campaign and story lines; that without major oversite (wich would irritate the rest of the group) on my part from the NPCs in town that this campaign (entirely dependent upon being at least somewhat liked and trusted by the town's folk) is no longer salvable. I'm concerned that if the party breaks up or if they are run out of town, the players might get upset at the instigating player for "ruining" what was turning out to be one of the most fun campaigns in years.
Any advice on how to salvage this, or should I just call this a loss and wrap this one up? Maybe have them roll new characters and try to tie them into the story line so they can proceed with it just with characters that are not hated?
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