Rocinante |
I recently ran the Fort Drelev encounter from Blood for Blood. The party (aka the Greenlords, rulers of the Duchy of Zelenoy) handily defeated Hannis Drelev and his retinue of hill giants and Pitax mercenaries.
Quintessa Maray saw the writing on the wall and basically stayed out of the fight altogether. Amazingly, her status as a Daggermark spy has not been uncovered, despite the Greenlords' initial skepticism regarding her cover story and soft interrogation of Maray. They know that she is not an exiled noble from Galt, but she managed to come up with an alternate cover story on the spot that the group found more believable. They've even gone so far as to offer her a position in their capital city once they've completed building a bard college there!
So, beyond my wildest dreams I've got a smart, skilled River Kingdoms spy well-positioned in my group's young kingdom. Any suggestions on how Daggermark might make use of Quintessa Maray? Or suggestions for changing her back story? I noticed in another thread that someone made her an agent of Nyrissa, instead of Daggermark.
Touc |
I kept her Daggermark and she actually charmed her way into the party's graces, having intimate relations with the Spymaster of the kingdom. The party eventually subjected all former employees of the Baron to some Zone of Truth style discussions to weed out any spies, and our Lady Maray took off. The party actually caught her after an elaborate chase but allowed her to live in a gracious motion to Daggermark.
Right now she'd be unlikely to do more than observe the fledgling kingdom grow. She's a spy, not saboteur. Discovering that other nations have spies should be no surprise and adds to the reality that their little kingdrom is growing up. You may wish to add some encounters in which spies are caught. Lady Maray, if given enough power, might even root some foreign spies (from other cities) out to strengthen her appearance of loyalty.
pennywit |
A couple things come to mind:
1) As Touc said, she might be a spy from Daggermark, but she doesn't necessarily have to do anything hostile to the players or their kingdom. She might just be there to keep an eye on things. She be there to assess whether the players' kingdom should be offered a spot on the Outlaw Council. Or maybe she's there to scope out kingdom resources. Or she might be trying to find out what's up with all the flippin' fairies doing evil things in the Stolen Lands.
If players expose her, this creates a potentially delicate situation for them. Assuming she hasn't sabotaged anything or actively hurt the kingdom, should the execute her? If they do, will Daggermark disavow her or turn things into an international incident? And what would the PCs' patrons, the Swordlords, want with her?
2) If you want to reskin her as an agent of Nyrissa, her first step should be to expose a couple other agents of Nyrissa -- real agents. This cements her loyalty to the group. Then ... later on down the line, while the PCs are assaulting Thousandsbreath ... Lady Maray opens a second front in the war. Or she could be an agent of Irovetti, and do much the same thing.