Here’s my attempt to write an article, of sorts, expounding on the role of Terseon Skellerang, the Captain of the Town Guard. He is pretty much left as a blank page as the adventure path leads you to include Skylar Krewis as the contact for the Town Guard.
Terseon Skellerang… Friend or Foe?
As I see it, there are three basic things you, the DM, can do with Skellerang: use him as a good guy to help the party out, use him as a bad guy to make things difficult for the party, or leave him out of the direct story line, fading away behind the scenes as the party completes the adventure path. Additionally, there is a fourth alternative that could include parts of the three basic themes.
I have run two groups of players through the adventure path. In the first group, Skellerang was a good guy trying to make the best of a bad, and worsening situation. He knew that if he were to abandon his post, things would only get worse for the city. In my current game, however, he has remained mostly behind the scenes, only appearing to chastise the adventurers when they have over-stepped their boundaries in the city, or to reward them with gifts, money or magic items, when they provided clear and public service to the people of Cauldron.
But, which one is the “right one” to have in your game? Perhaps we can find out what we know about the Captain of the Town Guard by breaking down the references to him during the adventure path.
In Life’s Bazaar, we find out in the Background information that Vhalantru “charms various nobles, merchants, and members of the town guard” as well as “pokes his eyestalks into various legitimate and illegal ventures with Cauldron’s walls, and no one—not even the Lord Mayor or the captain of the town guard—is the wiser.”
This introduction gives the DM the leeway to make the captain a good guy, unaware of the political intrigue going on around the city. It could also be argued that Skellerang has been charmed, or otherwise magically induced, to participate unwillingly. However, the last sentence could simply mean that the captain of the town guard isn’t aware that Vhalantru is a beholder, or isn’t aware of all of Vhalantru’s dealings and plans, but is part of the corruption in the city in one way or another.
Later, in Chapter One, we find that three off-duty town guards are working for a member of The Last Laugh.
We know that there is corruption in the town guard, but we don’t know how far up it goes.
We don’t see any more on Skellerang until The Demonskar Legacy. In the Background information we find that he “recently announced special security measures against a sect of dangerous anarchists believed to be plotting to overthrow the city government.”
This sentence can also be sneaky. Is Skellerang a good guy reacting to the real threats that have occurred in the previous adventures, namely Triel and the Ebon Triad, or the sudden umberhulk attack in the city? Is he a bad guy using these events, or making claims of other existing anarchists, to put more guards on the street and tighten control of the populace? Is this a rouse intended to find out who is controlling the efforts of the Striders of Fharlanghn, and an excuse to attack the Chisel? Or are these orders simply an echo of Vhalantru’s will through an otherwise empty shell?
Within the information on the Chisel, we find that “Vhalantru has been rallying the lord mayor and Terseon Skellerang against Maavu and his associates,” and that Skellerang was preparing a large-scale police action in Redgorge even before the tax riot started.
Again we see that Vhalantru is calling the shots and pulling the strings. But how hard does he have to pull Skellerang’s strings? He may be a puppet, but he may be a willing puppet at that. As for Skellereang’s plans to raid Redgorge, he may be acting on good faith that Maavu and the Chisel were responsible for the umberhulk attack. He may have already known about the challenge to his position and that Tercival was being encouraged by the Chisel. If Skellerang is a good guy trying to keep hold on an increasingly bad situation, a challenge to his authority only weakens the security to Cauldron. If Skellerang is a bad guy, then any challenge to his authority robs him the power that the position holds, and that Vhalantru promises.
Through the Chisel’s plan to have Alek challenge Terseon for title of Captain of the Town Guard, we find that Skellerang isn’t one of the “noblest” houses in Cauldron, and we may surmise that he has no nobility other than what the title of Captain. However, the Chisel’s motives in replacing Skellerang may have less to do with Skellerang himself and more with the hope that they could use Tercival to help their needs. In other words, the fact that the Chisel wants to replace Skellerang isn’t necessarily proof of his being a bad guy at all.
Under the subject of the Typical Guard Patrol, it says “Vhalantru made town patrols bigger and meaner with the introduction of the half-orc mercenaries.”
Perhaps the edict on the town patrols being increased came from the office of the Lord Mayor, signed by Lord Vhalantru. Perhaps Vhalantru, in his disguised form, ordered Skellerang to increase the patrols. Skellerang would have no choice but to comply. He could be a good guy following the orders of bad people. Perhaps Skellerang resisted the idea of making the change to the guard, forcing Vhalantru to give the order himself.
Later, during the tax riot, Krewis invokes the name of Terseon Skellerang, and states the he “must” arrest Maavu.
The arrest warrant could have been issued by Skellerang to defuse a tense situation. Or his motives could have been sinister, meant to provoke the rioters and create an excuse to attack the Chisel directly with force. Or, the arrest warrant could have been ordered by Vhalantru to continue his attacks against Maavu and the Chisel.
Krewis is also described as “a loyal and brave young man, and although he serves under Terseon Skellerang, he is a fair-minded and understanding soldier.”
Maybe Krewis didn’t agree with the order to arrest Maavu and felt that he was only doing it because he was ordered to. This could indicate the beginning of seeds of doubt in his trust of the guard’s leadership. But perhaps it is simply that he was afraid to go out into the riot to make the arrest. The last sentence may suggest that Krewis doesn’t just follow orders blindly, hence his acting on behalf of Skellerang could be proof that he does indeed trust the judgment of the captain of the town guard.
In Secrets of the Soul Pillars, we find that Krewis is suspicious about possible corruption in the city, and goes as far to tell the party members “to avoid too much contact with more powerful members of the guard and government.”
Again… there is no direct accusation of guilt. There is no indication of Skellerang’s motives or allegiances.
Although Skellerang isn’t mentioned in Lords of Oblivion, Foundation of Flame, or Thirteen Cages, it may be interesting to note that Skellerang isn’t specifically mentioned as attending the “meeting of minds” in Foundation of Flame. It’s easy to think that Jenya doesn’t trust Skellerang. It’s possible to conceive that Skellerang was too busy tending to his own devices, be they evil or good.
Or perhaps he simply faded away behind the scenes, just another pretty statue in Vhalantru’s lair…
Big Jake, that is one hell of an expose on the good captain. Excelent work indeed. I would love to see more of these kinds of npc spotlights.
As to the captain:
Lets assume Skellerang is indeed an innocent dupe, helpless at the hands of his inconspicuous 'adviser', Lord Vhalantru. How would this so called lord control Skellerang? Charms alone seem a bit risky. They are fine for short term control of a subject, but when used over a longer period, there is a chance the subject makes its save. And even then, a charmed subject is not going to follow every order to the letter.
So what other means does Vhalantru have at his disposal? I'll take a look at some of the more mundane.
Blackmail springs to mind. Perhaps some vice that might hurt the captain's position, where it to become common knowledge? But that sort of rules out the innocent dupe angle. Perhaps threats. A loved one taken hostage, or threatened might convince the captain to be more cooperative. Or maybe Skellerang realises that where he to refuse too many of the lord's requests, he would be replaced by someone more willing to do Vhalantru's bidding. And that would leave the citizens of Cauldron in an even worse position.
The Captain may find himself on a slippery slope. Giving in to a few minor questionable requests to save himself and his family from harm or humiliation. Unfortunately, this leaves him more vulnerable to blackmail and more requests by Vhalantru. Unfortunately, whatever rationale Skellerang uses to justify his actions, the actions remain are morally questionable to say the least. In my opinion, even though Skellerang may have started out an inncent dupe, the fact that he remained in his position for so long means he is innocent no more.
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My 2 cents...
The identity of the top figures of the Last Laugh is unknown...
The other thing has to do with explaining the development in the city watch.
Cauldron lies in the middle of nowhere and in order to reason why a city of 4500 people would have a reason to be where it is, I introduced mining "Red" malachite (a unique form of malachite only available here) and diamonds into the fray. (This was confirmed in the actual AP in a later part, wehre it is stated, that many of the Nobles' families own mining businesses.)
So basically everything to eat and tools and wood for securing mining shaftes would have to be imported into the city, and the malachite and diamonds would have to be moved to the coast to be shipped wherever it can be sold... the wood enterprise would be centered at the "Lucky Monkey" and be manned by the caravan guards, while they would wait for the caravan to be escorted to the coast. (Basically the last part of the journey from the Licky Monkey to Cauldron would be nearly unptorected, but tools and food aren't things worth guarding anyway.)
Lord Vhalantru organizes raids on these caravans to the coast. With this he has a reason for enlarging the guards and for raising the taxes and the loot also furthers his financing the BIG project... (well two BIG projects - the first being his support for the Cagewrights - the second his own transformation...).
Another side effect is, that the wood cutting enterprise explains the size of the Lucky Monkey (it always was a tad big for a tavern just to stop by while travelling in the middle of nowhere...
Thanks for reading it, guys! It's a bonus that anyone actually likes it :)
Dryder, thanks for the pat on the back... I love those. I really like to post my stories and ideas, hoping to help anyone who's starting out. I think I enjoying other people's stories even better. There are so many good ideas that I've seen, it makes me wish I could go back in time to include it in my campaign. Maybe next time through...
C's Slaad, you hit on the subject that I was really afraid to even guess at: how far can you charm person a person? If he isn't using charm person or charm monster, then I suppose he must rely on Lady Rhiavadi's spellcasting ability...? You are absolutely correct that Vhalantru has the ability to manipulate Skellerang without using magic. That could be an important subject for anyone running the adventure path as a "low-magic" campaign, or a "pulp" adventure. (Certainly no one in The Maltese Falcon was under any type of magical influence... they all had their reasons to act the way they did.)
Oliver... are you suggesting that Skellerang may be a Jester in the Last Laugh? That could be brilliant!
I had some time away from the gaming table, and I was able to think through how I've been using Terseon in my current game, and how different he is from my first game. You'd think that I would run the NPCs the same way each time I ran the adventures, but my players reacted to him differently, and really hooked up with other characters instead. The fact that *one* person can run Skellerang differently made me realize that there was more to him than I had at first accounted for.
I think what I hoped to accomplish with the article was to present information to support all sides of the "potential" Terseon Skellerang, so that each DM can put together some pieces here and there and have it make sense in their campaign.