In today's episode of Play my NPC we have a Hound Archon with an ethical dilemma.
This Hound Archon was traveling through the dangerous wilderness with his Lantern Archon companion on an Important Mission, when out of the blue he was waylaid by a group of PCs determined to prevent the success of the important mission.
After quite a scuffle the PCs lay unconscious and the Lantern Archon is dead. Understandably the Hound Archon is upset about the death of his companion, but it is not in his nature to kill anything less than irredeemablely evil. He would like to take them to a more powerful Archon for judgement, but the Important Mission is to important to wait and he can not waste to much time on these random thugs that waylaid him.
So, play my NPC. You are a LG Hound Archon with unconscious wounded prisoners (that killed your companion) in the hostile wilderness and you have an Important Mission that prevents you from wasting to much time on them. What do you do?
Straight Hound Archon? No class levels?
No levels, 700g worth of gear/wealth (excluding MW greatsword).
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Tie up the party using the party's own rope (they are adventurers, they GOTTA have rope). If they have any manacles, even better. Use Aid on the party member LEAST likely to have any healing powers; he should be able to guess reasonably well from their gear and fighting skills. Everyone else is still out.
Look the fighter in the eye, growling a bit, and say, "I could have killed you all, you realize this. As it is, I can see that you and your companions are misguided rather than truly wicked. Had I the time, I would take you bound and humble to a priest for atonement, for you have slain a noble spirit in your fumbling. Instead, I offer you this small chance for redemption.
"You will find your arms in one of these trees. When I am gone, you will be free to retrieve them, and to travel on to [name of local town/city]. Go there to the priest of [LG god] and confess your rash deed. Do what he bids you, and we will be done with each other.
"If you do not..." Lean in close, exaggerating a canine sniff. "Know that there is no place you can go where I cannot follow. And I do not sleep."
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Remember that the lantern archon is an outsider, and unless he was "killed" on his plane of origin, he's not really dead, just banished from that plane for quite a while (Unless those rules have changed from D&D to Pathfinder, in which case, eep!) so his anger at his fallen companion should really just be annoyance that he no longer has the lantern archon's assistance.
Really, I have to ask how on Golarion this guy was waylaid in the first place? I took a cursory look at Hound Archons and, yep, Greater Teleport AT WILL. The lantern archon's got that too! How did they not go "I ain't got time for this mess. Peace, losers," and then blip out away from these guys?
If the mission is that important for the Hound Archon, he should be interested in why the PCs attempted to stop him. If it is in his power to do so, he should attempt to find out why. He would interrogate one of the PCs, or if he did not have time to do so, arrange for that possibility (such as binding and taking one with him as hostage, or binding them all so that they will be stuck until he returns).
It begs the king of holy plots, but if he has any other allies or ways to communicate, he would attempt to summon them to find the information out for him while he attends to his mission (but why they aren't helping with the mission itself is left as an exercise for the student).
-cs
Thanks for the great input everyone! I have some great ideas here that both fresh out directions I wanted to go and challenge my assumptions on what an Archon would do.
I'm left with one question. How would you, a Hound Archon, whom is held to the highest LG standards, interrogate a prisoner?
P.S. To answer why he was walking. His Important Mission was prisoner transfer, the PCs mission was to kill/capture said prisoner. Why is an Archon doing a mundane prisoner transfer? Plot hook!
Thanks for the great input everyone! I have some great ideas here that both fresh out directions I wanted to go and challenge my assumptions on what an Archon would do.
I'm left with one question. How would you, a Hound Archon, whom is held to the highest LG standards, interrogate a prisoner?
P.S. To answer why he was walking. His Important Mission was prisoner transfer, the PCs mission was to kill/capture said prisoner. Why is an Archon doing a mundane prisoner transfer? Plot hook!
Since he knows the party isn't evil (Detect Evil at will), he will assume they have consciences that can be played on. He will use that grand old standard, guilt, to get a confession. As a holy being (so-to-speak), he probably believes in the uplifting power of honesty and contrition, so he will go that route. If the party gets belligerent or stroppy, he is perfectly capable of slapping a little sense into them, just nothing permanent or scarring. Sometimes, a little pain is a perfectly good reminder of the wages of sin.