Daggermark, and Assassinations

[Morrigan]

So my players have blindsided me.

Start of Book 4, two and a half years of real time into Kingmaker, and the Tiger Lords/Fort Drelev have just invaded. Rather than Tatzlford, the attack was on the tiny monastic settlement of the Temple of the Elk. There were a few reasons for this - it was a more personal site to the Erastil worshippers in the group, they had seriously fortified Tatzlford so it wasn't an easy mark anymore, and so on. No great change to the campaign there.

I've also made the Pitax involvement utterly secret, because otherwise my players would never go near the Rushlight Tournament. Instead, Drelev was not the incompetent that he is portrayed as in the books, just not up to the task of opening the Sellen in the face of Tiger Barbarians, Boggards, Orcs (I put Orcs in the southern Slough), etc. And he caved when Armag came calling. Rather than just going after the PCs, who are a powerhouse, the Gorum-worshipping Tiger Lords, prodded by the Black Sisters, have been raiding the Rostland, warring on the Boggards and Orcs, and generally being jerks. It's just the PCs time, as far as most people can see.

I also decided not to have Armag be sitting in the tomb, because after the Varnhold Vanishing, Hargulka's Fort and folding in the Fellnight Queen, I've done quite a few dungeons with the big bad just sitting waiting at the bottom for the heroes. If Armag is meant to be a badass, he's stomping around with his army, and the mass combat rules will be used to get the PCs close to him.

But he's also on the other side of the Slough, and so rather than spend the time, money & lives to march an army there, my players decided to hire assassins from Daggermark to do him in, and hope that without him the Tiger Lords will go back to being aimless.

Partially, this comes from the party having attended the Outlaw Council (held every 5 years in my game), and their druid, a CHA-lacking social nightmare, managing to Crit a Diplomacy roll and become buddies with Tragshi the Herbalist, head of the Poisoners Guild. They bonded over a love of growing toxic things.

So, I don't want to just have this not work, because I love rewarding creative thinking on the part of my players. Of course, Ovinrbaane will just twist the next most potent Tiger Lord into Armag in a month or so, so the campaign won't be totally derailed. But.... how to make it work? What would the Poisoners Guild charge for something like this? Would they even be the best choice, or should it fall to the Assassin's Guild? I can't get a clear idea of the line between the two from the Guide to the River Kingdoms.

Any wild ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Reverse]

Well, Daggermark might refuse. Assassinating the active general of an army - and the default ruler of the Tiger Lords - is a big deal, and one that might turn Armag's army Daggermark's way if the effort fails (or, frankly, even if it succeeds. In the absence of Armag, the next in command would step up - particular since Ovinrbaane will make the next guy essentially Armag anyway - to make way against Armag's murderers). So there's an easy out if you don't want to do it.

If you want to play something out on-screen rather than have it resolved in the background, you could hand the players a party of pre-generated Rogue types of level 9ish and send them on a one-shot mission to kill Armag.

I would think the Poisoner's Guild would either supply the Assassin's Guild, or team up directly with them. Simply assassinating a high level barbarian by putting poison in his food isn't a high success chance - knives in the dark will work better.

In terms of the charge for it, I'd call it a fairly high level quest for the Assassins and pay appropriately. The side quests from Book 6 that pay in direct cash are 40,000gp (that's around 10 BP, so not a big blink if paid for by the kingdom) - I'd call this a fair price, given the additional dangers and difficulties associated with killing a general in the midst of his army camp. Perhaps with the concept that the Assassin's Guild will refund half the money if unsuccessful, and could later be argued to return 10,000gp if a new Armag rises.

[Warped Savant]

You have a few options here... First, as Reverse said, Daggermark may refuse.
Alternatively, the poisoner could fail. Perhaps the poisoner couldn't make it through the cave complex. (In which case the group may find the poisoners body in the cave).
Personally, I'd go with option 3. The poisoner succeeds. Armag is dead, long live Armag. If the group immediately goes after the Tiger Lords they may find the new leader transforming into Armag. Or they find the new leader that saw through what the Black Sisters were doing and has therefore locked the sword away in the tomb.
Either way, the new leader can be just as powerful (or even more powerful if you wanted... possibly someone that's working with Zorek to protect Ovinrbaane from outsiders) with similar helpers as written in the AP.
IF your group is more effective in close combat you could have the new leader with a few melee people defending the exterior of the cave with archers and/or spellcasters spread out to make the fight more difficult for the group. If your group is better on an open field you could have the new leader and his people in any of the rooms from D9 - D13. Or have them hit and run as the group is making its way through the cave complex.

And hey, if the group thinks that them having the poisoner kill Armag made it easier for them because it took out one of the enemies, all the better. (They don't need to know you added/changed the enemies around.)

[Pryllin]

Hope I'm not too late to the party.
As above...
I'd let the assassins succeed. They bring the PCs the head of Armag.
And, as has been pointed out, "Armag" appears again a month later.
But this time, he's hiding out in the tomb, undergoing the quickening or whatever. This seems like the perfect reason to go back to the mod like it was written. This is why the baddie hides at the end of the dungeon :-)

[Morrigan]

Thanks all for the advice on this one! After reading your suggestions and having a bit of a think, I decided to let the players get away with it - kind of. I remembered that Drelev already has a visitor who's secretly from Daggermark in his household, so I re-purposed Quintessa to be a member of the Assassins Guild and had her wipe out Armagg.

Of course, the players weren't terribly subtle about hiring the guild, several of them travelling to Daggermark to discuss it. They brought Kisandra Numesti with them under the pretence that it was her who wanted to take out the hit, and they were just helping her. But no-one looking into it would be fooled. Especially not the kingdom's general, Akiros Ismort. I decided that no Paladin would be ok with the rulers hiring on assassins. Sneaking in and taking out the barbarian king themselves in order to save the lives of their people in battle, he could see that. Giving thousands of coins to hired killers, and giving tacit approval for the Guild to operate in their kingdom? Nope. So they General took off, cursing them as he went.

I have decided to give them benefits from getting engaged and considering their options, so the Tiger Lords are currently in disarray, and when the players gathered their armies and marched on Fort Drelev, there were no barbarians to back up the poorly-armed city. In this case, the meagre town guard surrendered straight away, and Drelev and her mercs/loyal knights/blackmailed knights have holed up in the keep, with a lot of the town's supplies. The players are currently doing a "strike team" through the secret passage to take him out without having to wait for him to starve, since they really want to get information on where the Tiger Lords are holding the hostages.

Meanwhile, Akiros and the handful of troops who followed him have gone off with Kisandra on their own to track down the hostages, the Black Sisters are trying to create a new Armag, and the overall plot seems on point.