Gellos Thran's page

As things stand right now, I am having a bit of a conflict with our parties Paladin who is trying to convince the GM that my alignment should shift from Lawful Neutral to Lawful Evil. Allow me to give a little background as to how this conflict has arisen.

I am playing a 9th level wizard based in and around Magnimar. I learned (for me at least) a long time ago that the best characters are not the ones with the maxed out stats but the ones designed around a good concept or theme. As such, I have been working several angles with this character since I first started playing him. Very early on I took baking as a profession and put a few points into Craft: Baked Goods. That got a few funny looks from the other players. When the party started to acquire some treasure I bought a small one room building and set it up as a bake shop. These days the gold just flows into my pockets. Not because of the bakery itself (I don't think it even makes a profit) but because of what I do with it.

I have hired a man and his wife to work for me and for the most part they just bake and sell my wares. I do routinely place various enchantments and whatnot on most of the baked goods. Most of them are pretty harmless. They just make the patron want more. I'm not talking about a drug addiction kind of thing. The last thing I want is people stabbing each other in back alleys because they are desperate for a doughnut. It's more like they walk down the street and see the bake shop and say "I know the wife wants me to loose a few pounds but their pastries are SO GOOD! Just one won't hurt". A slightly less benign spell makes the patron a little more chatty (and truthful)than they might want to be. These are usually given to town guards and other notable passersby for free. A lot of my goods are given away to the poor. Many times along with small amounts of coin. Between the enchantments and the charity everyone from the highest noble to the lowest urchin tells me all the secrets worth knowing in town.

I am like a giant spider sitting at the center of a vast information web. Many times information important to the campaign finds it's way to me. I also know a lot of tidbits that, while unimportant to me, are of the highest importance to others. That's when my other "employee" comes into play. I have a low level rogue I use as an information broker. He never meets me personally (I mentioned I know magic, right?) but I pass along all the info I think can be useful to others and he sells it. Many times for a high price.

And thus, our Paladin has his panties in a bunch. Out of game, I think the player is just a little jealous of how easy I make money. (I also do a good bit of crafting but that's a whole other thing) He is trying to argue that it's evil to addict people and steal information from them. I point out that its no more evil than using a charm spell.

Anyone have any thoughts on the morality of my businesses?

I am playing PF for the first time soon and I will be running a mix of experienced and inexperienced players. Some of us have many years gaming experience but none of us have played PF yet. I plan to use the modules Crypt of the Everflame and it's sequels, Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death to break everyone in to the PF system.

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

The problem is none of them seem to fit together very well and the later ones have some issues all of their own.Reading over all the modules it feels like each one was written after the last and no thought was put into laying plot lines for following modules. For example, Crypt has the tomb disturbed by grave robbers who were hired via a handbill when Masks has them as members of the Razmir cult. An easy fix since I know about it but still.

Anyway, here are a few of the problems not so easily fixed.

1. Motivation. Roleplaying is like trying to solve a murder in that you always have to ask "Who benefits"? Why are the players doing this? In Crypt it's obvious as they are on a quest and want to make a name for themselves but what about Masks? Cygar wants the PC's to track down the grave robbers and bring them to justice. Why? Really, what does he care? I thought Pathfinders were all about exploring tombs, crypts and ruins. This seems a tad hypocritical. Reginar wants them to infiltrate the cult but again, WHY? I don't see the angle that makes this Pathfinder business. Since when did a group of explorers become the world police? And lets not Forget about City of Golden Death. No player in their right mind would do this. Go to a city that Reginar as good as tells them to their face is going to leave them mentally scared at the very least, just to track down a woman they have never met and has certainly never done anything to them personally to warrant the PC's to take this level of personal risk? That seems unlikely.

2. Loot. Kassen and crew made their fortunes in the city of golden death. Kassen hauled away enough to found his own settlement. The characters are going to get what? Next to nothing. Everything is rigged so that this fabulous city of gold is all a sham. It's all look but don't take. This seems like a cruel bait and switch that is sure to really piss my players off. If it worked for Kassen and friends why not them? About the best answer I can think of so far is just to let them haul off as much as they can carry. If this is the case I am going to have to make sure no one has any magical means of hauling large amounts of loot and I hate to "cheat" like that. Anyone have a solution to this?

3. The cult. The world Guide states that Acolytes are sent to the Exalted Wood for training and come back changed, acting in league with the faith despite any previous misgivings. This makes sense. You should always brainwash new members of your cult. Otherwise, you get people who join under false pretenses just to get enough inside information on your misdeeds to expose you for what you are and ruin the fun for everyone. People just like the PC's. This is a cult that can not afford to have it's secrets exposed and yet it seems that their screening process goes as far as asking the PC's "Hey, wanna join our club"? Really? They just leave them locked up for a day and then keep an eye on them so a few more days. I am going to have to change this, otherwise the whole cult of Razmir is just a joke that the averge five year old could expose. I hate to make this just a surveilance job followed by a straight up assault but what else is there? Anyone know a good way for the PC's to infiltrate the temple without making the cultist seem totally inept? Maybe a failsafe that snaps them out of whatever is done to them? That seems like it would have already been used if it were that esay. I plan to use the Church of Razmir later in the campaign so I want them to come out of this as a serious menace that the PC's don't scoff at or take lightly. Any ideas are welcome.