My party has grown extemely suspicious that Prince Zeech is being magically controlled after touring Alhaster for five days, getting invitations to the party, and completing all the subplots. It's taken very subtle manipulation to keep them from storming the Angel's Aerie (they've already had an encounter with the Erinyes after the cleric of St.Cuthbert decided to reconsecrate the former church) For the most part, they are suspicious that either the Erinyes or Mother Maggot( who they haven't met, only heard of) is controlling Zeech. After SLOS (and near TPK at the hands of the corrupted celestials), the party is FREAKED out by the "great project" and anything having to do with Kyuss. They know they have to find Lashonna, but are already suspicious of her due to the fact that they can't get in contact with her yet and of her association with Zeech. My fear is that they are going to get TPK'd by A) assaulting the Aerie, B)try to fight it out with Mother Maggot-rather, FORCING her into a fight (there's already talk of going to the party with True Seeing and Dimensional Anchor Scrolls), or C) Not believing a word Lashonna says because someone who worships Kyuss is controlling Zeech and she is his closest associate. All three of these scenarios spell the end of the campaign, which I would prefer not to happen. Any advice on deceitful DM tricks to keep continuity for continuous (living) characters? Thanks
An interesting dilemma. Probably the easiest one to handle is Mahuudril (maggot woman). Simply have her not show up for the party. its a bit of a cheat, but if she's not around they can't expose her. If you still want her at the party then have the PCs screened with detect magic and/or arcane sight spells. Their magic items are confiscated for the party unless they can explain their presence. If this seems harsh then the presence of an overwhelming number of innocents might sway them from starting a fight even if they see through her disguise.
Assaulting the Aerie is difficult to handle. Remember that the Erinyes are the law enforcement officers in the city and that there are a lot of them. Its no shame to point that out to the players that assaulting the Aerie is suicidal. Of course, if they want to go through with it then let them, but give the PCs a chance to pull out if they realize they are over their heads. Remember that Lashonna controls the Erinyes and needs the PCs to kill Dragotha for her. She doesn't want them dead before she's ready.
Dealing with Lashonna may need a bit of clever manipulation. I'm sure that the adventure already points out several ways to do this, such as evidence that Lashonna plants (through an unwitting proxy) that reveals her as being a double agent or otherwise working against Prince Zeech and Kyuss. Maybe she reveals Mahuudril to the PCs without them needing to do anything, then arranges the avolakia's staged destruction/disappearance. She approaches the PCs and tells them that another spy of Kyuus has been dealt with.
Of course, you know your party and are in the best position to know what they will buy and what they wont buy.
Dealing with Lashonna may need a bit of clever manipulation. I'm sure that the adventure already points out several ways to do this, such as evidence that Lashonna plants (through an unwitting proxy) that reveals her as being a double agent or otherwise working against Prince Zeech and Kyuss. Maybe she reveals Mahuudril to the PCs without them needing to do anything, then arranges the avolakia's staged destruction/disappearance. She approaches the PCs and tells them that another spy of Kyuus has been dealt with.
Thanks for the advice.. This will probably work, provided I can disguise Lashonna's undead nature (hard to do since they're all former WhiteWolf players and will be suspicious of meeting her at night)I may try the pity card with her (" I can't help being a vampire, but if you killed my "sire" I would be free) if all else fails. The conclusion of Red Hand for us will be on Sunday, so I'll tell all what happens. (I hate having to pull out creatures that are supposed to appear three or four modules ahead, so we'll see if they rush to their dooms or actually try to talk their way through the banquet and head on to Tilagos)
I had an idea that might work. It requires changing one of Lashonna's 6th levels spells (or just giving her a scroll).
If you haven't already scheduled the meeting at night, eliminate that - have it during the day. You can even put the meeting in a room with windows that allow bright sunlight into the room.
On one wall of the room, among other wall decorations (and no need to mention it if people aren't studying the dozens of other wall ornaments, paintings, etc.) is a simple metal ring, about 18 inches in diameter, backed by black velvet. It's actually one of a pair of Ring Gates.
Lashonna is sitting somewhere else (it needn't even be in Alhaster), using the Project Image spell (with line-of-sight through the Ring Gate from a pitch-black room, so they won't notice the part of the wall behind the ring itself isn't really part of the velvet). The PC's entire conversation is with her projected image, through which she can perceive, and even cast spells.
If the PCs use True Seeing on the image, they'll see it's an illusion, but they won't learn anything more about Lashonna. Assuming they do realize it's an image they're conversing with, can claim she had to be out-of-town on urgent business but is projecting herself there for this conversation. If they actually go so far as to figure out how she's doing it, she can abandon her Ring Gate and they can find information in her house (planted by her for this contingency) that gets them on their way to the next phase of the adventure.
I had an idea that might work. It requires changing one of Lashonna's 6th levels spells (or just giving her a scroll)..
That's actually a really good idea. Since True Seeing is so expensive to cast, the PCs tend to do so in combat scenarios only (or in the case of the party, when they have reason to be suspicious. The Ring Gate trick is quite clever too..
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Well, it appears I got all worked up over nothing. Just completed Prince of Redhand an hour ago, and the only person with a decent Sense Motive score (+13) couldn't roll above a four the ENTIRE night. Mahuudril got away scott free with a lot of info about the party, and they completely trust Lashonna. To their credit, they were rolling yot on the Diplomacy checks, with all NPCs (except those who are unswayable) with the exception of Todin (gnome) becoming helpful in always one single check. (including Zeech) They received all but three of the possible authority points (One lost to repeating C.Bow, One to Perform skill not had, one to failing to interact with Todin (Gnome). I liked the different style that this module emulated. It was almost like playing a giant game of Diplomacy, with me plaing thirteen different people. It was quite a challenge to keep all attitudes and stats straight during the banquet, so I highly recommend that anyone who does this module create for themselves a cheat-sheet with everyone's name, attitude, stats, and ways to adjust the attitude. Having cooked for props helps too, it did in mine.