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My players are in Book 5, and just finished dealing with the vampires and the witches. I've taken a lot of suggestions from other GMs in this forum over the years we've been playing, so in our game, Kendra is Auren's twin sister, and there are three potential characters with the Whispering Tyrant bloodline that Adivion can use as the vessel: Kendra, Auren, and Count Galdana.
I've been playing Adivion as an omnipresent background figure who has been there since session one (as a mourner at Lorrimor's funeral), who has been slowly revealed to be a mastermind pulling the strings. In Book 2, after the events in Lepidstadt, Kendra took up his invitation to come to Caliphas, where he'd offered to look after her, with overtures of a potential marriage down the line. The players were a bit suspicious, but it wasn't until Book 3 & 4 that they confirmed that Adivion was evil and behind all of this. By the time they arrived in Caliphas, they learned that Kendra had become engaged to Adivion, and that the engagement is to be announced at one of the Countess' galas coming up soon. They sent her a message, asking if they could see her (obviously concerned about her well-being) and received a message back from her inviting them to come to dinner at Adivion's manor so that she could see them again. They learned from the Palatine Eye, however, that Kendra is a potential vessel, and they've figured out Adivion's game.
We're playing that session tomorrow, and I'm working on prepping it right now, but would welcome some suggestions. Currently, what I'm planning is that Adivion himself paid to have a simulacrum of himself created, and he has already departed from Caliphas to put his Book 6 plans in motion, having arranged the abduction of Count Galdana. He and Professor Lorrimor were very close (they were once both members of the Palatine Eye and close friends until their views took them in opposite directions), and he would actually prefer to use Kendra as his LAST resort, so he has trained up this simulacrum to pass off as himself and keep an eye on her. He has no actual romantic interest in Kendra, and the 'marriage' is ostensibly just a way to keep her there and locked down at his beck and call. Kendra, however, isn't stupid, and she noticed a 'change' take place in Adivion when he swapped with the simulacrum (he's grown colder/more distant/seems "empty"). She is hoping to speak with the party's cleric for advice, as he's a cleric of Bolka (dwarven goddess of marriage) who had previously offered to officiate the wedding for her, and that is her real intention behind calling them there.
In Book 3, my players suffered a near TPK from Auren Vrood, and he managed to escape. In their vision from Desna when they reconsecrated the Temple, they saw that they would face off against him again, so I've leveled him up and been waiting for a good chance to have him recur. I thought that this might be a good place for it: "Adivion" has agreed to let the party come to dinner as a trap that will work in his favor in one of two ways. Either the simulacrum will be able to put on a convincing front, and this will put Kendra's growing fears at ease, in which case, after they leave, he will send Auren after them to finish them off, or they will try to openly "rescue" Kendra. If they do, "Adivion" will try to abduct Kendra out of there while Auren appears to try and destroy them for good.
My questions are 1) It's likely they'll try to explore his manor if it boils down to some kind of fight and the simulacrum is destroyed. What might be some good loot to drop in there, or information they could find? Or other generally weird things that might exist in Adivion's house...
2) Given that simulacra replicate their original (arguably, I know), I think it might be interesting to have this version of Adivion be a LESSER simulacrum instead of a full version, with his own 'free will' and resent being used in this manner and have plans or a goal of his own in mind. Adivion is an arrogant mastermind and even a lower level version of himself would be much the same. I'm wondering if there's something interesting I could do with that to complicate matters slightly, or if that's just an unnecessary addition.
3) Does anyone have any feedback or interesting ideas that could complement all of this? Or fun things to come up during this really awkward dinner?
Big thanks to the many people over the years who have come up with great suggestions about Kendra/Auren/Adivion's role and expanding those things in the storyline. My players have loved all of it and it's made for great reveals.
Not even on that note, but my players are planning on attending the Countess' gala (and managed to get invitations procured for them through a vampire ally), and I've still got to figure out what I want to do with any of that. Has anyone explored the Elizabeth Bathory angle with the Countess a little more? Or done anything interesting with adding in a gala?