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I plan on writing up a journal, for my players to find. I like the motivations of Raknian, and would hate for his story to not be known by my players. They managed to find and kill the Apostle before the last fight, so I also would like them to know what they prevented. I think that knowing they saved that many lives will be more of a reward than the money. If y'all want, I'll post it here. I think it will be rather long, and I am not the best creative writer, but I'm gonna give it a go. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, especially Dungeon staff or Mr. Leati, I am all ears...I will not attempt this undertaking until I get home from work tonight, with a 6 pack of Smithwicks and a Large Pepperoni Pie. So, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Patrick
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I have a few ideas on introducing Raknian's motivations.
1. I may have him pay a visit to the PCs the night before the big fight, letting slip some of his bitterness. He's been trying to kill the PCs for weeks, and now he offers them one last scrap of insight. "You think you're heroes, don't you? You think you're champions, destined, fighting for glory and honor to protect the righteous. But what no one ever tells you is that one day, all that you have will go away. One day you won't be able to fight. The meanest spell will tax your withered body and slip from your failing mind. Your accomplishments will be forgotten as new heroes come along to push you off your pedestal. You value your strength, your good looks, your swift leaps? None of it will last. You think you're better than me, but one day you'll be nothing but a sad old trophy kept in a hutch, or mounted up on the wall. Assuming you survive tomorrow, that is."
2. The party finds in Raknian's home (or is granted by whoever searches the man's belongings after his flight) a young red dragon's talon, or the whole claw missing one digit. Give a fairly easy Wisdom/Intelligence check to remember that this talon is from the same beast that gave the talon Theldrick wore around his neck.
3. Bozal mocks Raknian during the fight, saying he knew Raknian's paranoia about the PCs would cause trouble.
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Good one, KC.
I went with the old, tired fighter, jealous of the younger generation, in my game.
Given that Raknian appears in other adventures, accompanied by pet magical beasts, and given that the only Greyhawk source I know for those beasts is a certain metal cylinder in the Barrier Peaks, I had him be one of the original generation of explorers to attempt that 1970s tournament adventure, getting at least as far as the garden, so he could make off with some golden pups and frogmonster eggs.
It also meant he had some surprise techno-items, which he gifted to Auric's Band, to swing the final fight against the PCs, one of which was a suit of malfunctioning power armor, which froze up while stood over the ulgustarsta's emerging, opening mouth...
Raknian wanted to fix the last fight and get Auric killed, because he was the crowd's favourite, and because Ekaym's sister had become attracted to him, for which he had strangled her.
One of my PCs left her door unlocked while snooping, so I had her corpse wander into the Royal Box during the contest, for added schadenfreude.