endymion's page

How do they get to Salvator if not steered there by Laori, though?

The adventure suggests it's "through conversation with Laori, magical
divination, or DC 20 Gather Information checks."

If they don't make a deal with Laori, they're more likely to be really at a loss. I can try and suggest creative thinking, and they might have some solutions I'm not thinking of, but as written, if they don't like Laori, the investigation is at a dead end.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Preface: I'm using the old adventure path issues, not the revised Anniversary Edition, but if there are relevant changes in the Anniversary Edition that could help me, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Also I'm a DM looking for advice from other DMs, so the following includes **SPOILERS** for players of Curse of the Crimson Throne. I'm also running the AP in D&D 5e.

I'm a bit at a loss regarding how to run Laori Vaus in Escape from Old Korvosa. She's an intriguing NPC and though I haven't read past Chapter 3 I know she comes up later in the AP. I gather she's pretty popular here, but it just seems likely that my players will completely distrust her and write her off. In fact, I'm worried that my players will not want to deal with her at all, may fight her, and if the encounter devolves into combat, the party may have a hard time following leads to continue to the following step in the investigation.

Here's what I see when I look at her intro in Chapter 3: she probably aids the players in the Otyugh encounter outside Salvator Scream's house, which probably earns some trust. But when they talk to her, she's probably open about the fact that she's a devotee of Zon-Kuthon, and it's probably apparent to players who make the right knowledge checks. Laori isn't hiding that. The notes say she won't mention her cult, but on the other hand my players (who are mostly good) will be confronted with a woman devoted to an evil god talking to a bunch of skulls who says she "just wants to talk" to Salvator.

How did this initial encounter go in your games?

Do you have advice on playing Laori that 1) gives good-aligned parties reasons to deal with her and 2) gives Laori a solid chance to return later in the campaign?

The stakes for the encounter, as I see them, are this: Laori wants the players to bring Salvator back to talk with her. If the party agrees, she will guide them to where Salvator is being held, and will give them the clue about the Seneschal.

The problem: The players will probably see a chirpy cleric of a clearly evil god and presume that it is a bad bet to turn Salvator over to her, especially given the collection of skulls she's got. If they totally distrust Laori, as I suspect they will if I play her mostly as written, how to get them that information? How to retain her as a recurring character?