Jwer's page

Thanks for the quick responses!

He's definitely going to die. It doesn't matter what incentive I offer for him to not die, he will die. He fits too good into one of the PC's revenge stories for it to be anyone else, unfortunately.

My major problem isn't their access to his knowledge, it's his wealth. The Baron is paranoid and with the arrival of the PCs he's more paranoid and that's not the kind of guy who isn't prepared for a quick getaway if need be which means a substantial amount of his cash on hand is likely to be with him rather than in a bank.

Farholde's total assets (using 3.5 maths) should be in the ballpark of 7,125,000gp (7500 [half the gp limit of a small city]*950 (10% of Farholde's population)

Assuming 50% of the wealth is held by the noble population that's 3,562,500gp

There are 5 Nobles listed in the gazetteer so I'm willing to bet those are the richest dudes in town. I'm assuming a 30/25/20/15/10 split for no real reason other than the math worked out. 30 is the guy that's gone, leaving the Baron at 25% of the noble wealth - 890,625. Assuming 90% of his assets are tied up in land and property that still leaves him 89,062.5gp in cash/jewels.

And I feel like that's a conservative estimate.

My party is plotting their destruction of Balentyne so I'm starting to look forward to Farholde to get ready for that. There's about a 1000% chance that my PCs are going to [at least attempt to] straight up kill the Baron. The book mentions it as an option but advises against it.

Quoting from Book 2, if they ally with him:
"Having the Baron Arkov Vandermir as an ally in Farholde is incredibly useful. The Baron Vandermir is the richest, most well connected man in town since the Duke departed for the war. That said, his generosity does have limits. After all, he has agreed to help the PCs, not give them the full run of his family fortune."

If they murder and take his place not only do they have him as an ally but they probably have run of his fortune which the book leaves out, because no one is going to kill the baron, right?

I haven't found a party who has decided to kill him yet but I was hoping someone would have some advice.