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I know there have been tons of discussions about what to do with Tsuto and Nualia should they live...I've gleefully borrowed from LOTS of them. But I've had something of a unique opportunity come up, and I'm curious as to how you guys would handle it.
One of my players wanted to be from Sandpoint, and he ate up the backstory for the town. His PC is Andrezi Valdemar, an inquisitor of Shelyn. Without telling him more than "what everybody knows" about the Late Unpleasantness, he decided that as a boy, Andrezi had something of a crush on Nualia. He stood up for her once or twice, but never got up the nerve to pursue a friendship or romance with her, and when she "died in the fire" that opportunity was lost forever. He's since moved on and is pursuing another NPC, but that whole situation shaped a lot of who he is.
Tsuto escaped at the Glassworks, and Andrezi's reaction to Tsuto's journal was absolutely priceless. Between that, Gogmurt's comment about Tsuto and Nualia "going at it like donkey rats," and the 10 page monstrosity of a journal I left in Nualia's room, Andrezi was an absolute mess by the time the party faced her. He kept trying to reach out to her, to trigger some tiny bit of remorse in her for what she'd done, but he doesn't believe he made any headway (he did, actually, and Nualia might very well be on the path to redemption, depending on how the rest of this plays out). It was pretty obvious to all of them that she'd completely snapped, and that she only barely recognized Andrezi.
The PCs managed to subdue and arrest Orik, Lyrie, Tsuto, AND Nualia. I've had them all sent off to Magnimar for trial, and will have news of their verdicts make it back to Sandpoint midway through book #2.
I'm sending Orik to Fort Rannick, and Lyrie to the Hells. Tsuto is going to be found "not guilty" by Justice Ironbriar (who is in fact his father) and will be encountered a final time as a skinsaw cultist.
But...what do I do with Nualia?
If she had no connection to the events in book 2, I'd have her locked away as criminally insane. I'm tempted to send her to Habe's, even...I think that opens up some interesting possibilities later on.
But would Ironbriar let that happen? She got caught, true...but not before proving herself to be a fairly valuable asset. Would she be sentenced, but then sprung by the cultists?
Because I only have two players (with two pcs each) I have the luxury of really tailoring hunks of the AP to their characters. That said, this isn't the Andrezi AP, and that player's done almost too good of a job integrating his backstory into the material...between being a Valdemar, the thing with Nualia, and the way he's made himself into the perfect scapegoat for the murders in book 2, I run the risk of boring my other player to death if I do too much more with Nualia.
Ideas? Pretty please?
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Maybe, and especially if you take their advice and put a bit of time between Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw, you could possibly have Nualia retrained as something else, OR, replace X with the 're-educated' Nualia. It could give you an excuse to have X just watching, perhaps she is sneaky on the roof, listening to how things go within, and if things start to go towards the turning of Nualia to the Good, then you can reward the PCs with her helping them with an enraged/frustrated X.
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I'm going to go a different path than I normally do. Because this would make for a fascinating concept due to what you've said about their encounter in Thistletop.
Have her sent to Habe's Sanatorium.
What's more, have Habe be performing experiments on her. She's not allowed to sleep, she's prevented from prayer, she's being starved... basically have Habe as a greater villain. And this allows the PC to actually be there and save her once more.
You could even have her spit at him and accuse him of having sent her here, just to drive the knife in a little and twist it. But then if the PC continues to try and "save" Nualia... perhaps have there be signs of redemption ongoing.
Finally, if the PC shows signs of believing her... have Tsuto reappear and kidnap her. And the PCs have to save her. If they do? Then let her become a cohort... and have her slowly redeem herself. It would be a most fascinating twist from the usual tellings of Nualia's tale that I think it's well worth taking. :)
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I would only have that happen if you are going to decide that after all of the investment that X put into her, X was truly done with her.
There are a few ways to make it believable, depending on how much information you make known about how she got certain things, learned certain things.
But it is a nice way to really twist things with the PC. But you have to decide how far you want to take this...
I'm a sucker for redeemed villains, so I like tangent's idea, especially if you went into some amount of detail about what the journals reveal about her backstory to the players.
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ooooh...that's an awesome idea! Cruel to the PC, but awesome. I agree that I'd need X to have a reason for sending her to Habe. Hm...I suppose from X's perspective, that could kill two birds with one stone. It keeps her out of the way while plans are readjusted to account for her failure at Thistletop, and it punishes her incompetence at the same time.
The PCs have the full backstory up to the fire...I took the journal someone else posted on the boards, tweaked and added to it, and created a 10 page handout which resulted in Andrezi's player saying "Oh...man. You realize he's going to blame himself for all of this now?" The whole party feels horrible for her, and they want to see her get the help she clearly needs. I'm sure they'll be happy about the fact that she's being sent to an asylum and not prison...until they see the conditions there for themselves.
I don't think I'll let her become a cohort, just because I've already worked with Andrezi's player to create an NPC for that express purpose. But I love the idea of her eventually being redeemed and (maybe) even ending up at Windsong Abbey, after all.
I love it when an evil plan comes together. =^-^=
The PCs have the full backstory up to the fire...I took the journal someone else posted on the boards, tweaked and added to it, and created a 10 page handout.
Do you have a link to that handout or would you mind posting yours? Because that sounds awesome, and my PC's are on the bottom level of Thisseltop right now.
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I have quite a bit of “future” fun planned for Tsuto and Nualia.
Tsuto was arrested by the party and sent to Magnimar for trial. From the infamous tbug, I stole the idea that Justice Ironbriar is Tsuto’s father. Ironbriar is aware of this. He sentenced Tsuto to the Hells for his crimes. Tsuto’s sentence was remitted to transportation to Fort Rannick and service in the Black Arrows. Tsuto will be one of the survivors of the attack on Fort Rannick encountered by the PCs in Chapter 3.
After escaping Thistletop, Nualia and Lyrie went back to Magnimar. They parted ways. Nualia once again made contact with Xanesha who sent her back north to put Sihedron runes on goblins.
Nualia has secretly returned to Thistletop with some new minions. Xanesha loaned her a couple of Faceless Stalkers who are currently working to infiltrate Sandpoint and facilitate resupply of Thistletop. Nualia’s dedication to Lamashtu impressed some bugbears that have also joined her cause.
As the PC’s stole most of her gear and Xanesha didn’t re-equip her (trust and failure issues) – Nualia is on the lookout for a dungeon, ruin, or tomb to raid to get more stuff. Nualia’s transmogrification into a half-fiend has progressed giving her some spell-like abilities and physical changes that help to make up for her lack of equipment.
Nualia is working actively to free Malfeshkenor. She is also swollen and pregnant with his child and accordingly calls herself the Beast Mother of Lamashtu.
Nualia’s hooded acolytes walk among the goblins of the Wilds, bringing likely candidates back to Thistletop by boat (the rope bridge has not been rebuilt) to be branded with the Sihedron rune. Though this happens in secret, being branded with the Sihedron is now the latest fashion among the goblins of the Wilds. They seek to outdo one another with the complexity (number of points, etc.) and number of stars on their bellies. Only a very few have actually been given the Sihedron rune properly. This has led to some consternation on Nualia's part and the usual pummelings among the goblins.
Presumably the PCs will deal with Nualia at some point between chapters – if not her forces will be added to the army that comes to destroy Sandpoint in Chapter 4.
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Do you have a link to that handout or would you mind posting yours? Because that sounds awesome, and my PC's are on the bottom level of Thisseltop right now.
I'm so sorry I missed this earlier! I know you're probably past that point already, but just in case, here's the original:
And here's my tweaked/expanded version, as a word file for easy printing:
thelesuit, your ideas are awesome!
My plan is unfolding nicely, with only one little hiccup. Things at Habe's went downhill fast, so all of the fighting was front and center and the party didn't have to explore the whole place. Andrezi, the pc with the most history with Nualia, decided he couldn't face her. After dealing with Habe, the orderlies, and the necromancer, the other PCs stayed in the foyer to make sure nothing happened, and Andrezi went to notify Hemlock of the developments there. Nualia and the other patients were taken to a facility in Magnimar, and Andrezi is trying to work up the courage to write her a letter.
What would ya'll do with that?