Hi !
Sorry if this one has already been answered. I've been looking up in the archives but haven't found it. My question is : why the faceless one gives a crypted message to Theldrick if in that messages he says he want Theldrick to kill Balabar Smenk ? According to my understanding, Theldrick doesn't have the ability to decode the text. And how could the faceless one expect him to kill Balabar then ?
Maybe there should be three notes ? The first one is Theldrick's diary, second one the crypted text, and a third one a simple message containing the one but last paragraph from handout #1...
Thanks for clarifying that one.
Dan
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Daniel,
I was assuming that Theldrick could read the code, and that the message was given to him by the FO as an order to kill smenk. I was going to go so far as to have the town buzzing because of smenk's assassination as the pcs emerge from 3FOE (I'm not really interested in portraying smenk's trial, and I don't think my pcs would dig it either). I guess I was assuming that once the codebook was read, you could basically decode the message without it.
Not sure how much that helps.
Hi Daniel,
The first paragraph ends with the words:"If you read this, Theldrick, you have either slain me and doomed our cause, or the time is nigh for our final victory."
This would mean that the faceless one would give Theldrick the encryption-code whenever the time was right. At that time Smenk would be unnecessary and should be killed.
This suggests that when the time was right the faceless one would not be around any more. It might even suggest that the faceless-one planned to be dead at that time (a self-sacrifice to call the Ebon Aspect?) and that he either foresay his death, beleives to play a role after death or that he has such a commitment to the Ebon Triad that this means more to him than death. We're talking about a devotee of Vecna here, death, even the death of oneself, has has a different meaning for these people! (That's a lot of "death" in paragraph, ah well; Vecna)
I would say, leave it. Your players might not see it or better be as puzzled as you and be paranoid as a result (they don't see the whole picture). Not everything has to be logical within an adventure especially when there are different antagonists with different convictions, mindsets and religions
involved.
Greetings, Arjen
Thanks for the answers. I like particularly the answer you give Arjen ! It's true that it could be a trigger event. As you pointed out, once the FO decides it's time for Theldrick to know the content of the crypted message, it's also time for Smenk to die. I didn't see it that way initially, and I was really puzzled. I even thought it was a flaw of the scenario. But now it all makes sense. Thanks a lot. I'll sure leave it like this. :)
Dan.