The main reason why the Temple of Pelor can't help the Temple of St. Cuthbert recover the Wands of Control Water is because, "Last spring, it lost its two most powerful priests to a tragic accident." How? I consider myself a pretty good DM, but one of my weak spots is coming up with creative explanations where the situation seems significant but there is no hint given in the descriptive text I'm using. In this situation, I am torn between tossing the party an enormous red herring, and presenting a perfectly logical explanation. On the one hand, I don't want to make things too easy on the PCs, but on the other hand, I don't want them going off on a wild goose chase, trying to track down the veracity of a strange explanation for the clerics' demise. To those of you who are more creative than I am, please, put on your thinking caps: what would you say if the party asked Kristof Jurgensen (Clr4) how his two higher-level superiors died?
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There were several "accidents" that were caused by the Cathedral of Wee Jas.
I described it as two separate accidents -- the previous high priest was unfortunately crushed beneath a large stone block being winched into place during repairs to the town hall. The other high priestess accidentally drowned during a Flood Festival 2 years ago when she accidentally fell into the lake while wearing her armor. Conspicuously, Ike Iverson was present both times.
(PS - nice avatar!)
In my game I actually had the thief witness the assassination of the clerics by members of the Last Laugh lead by Jil during the first adventure. Soon after the party heard the sooriful tale of the two priests dying when they attempted to rescue a trapped family from a burning home.
In your case though it sounds like you are just about or are playing Flood Festival so that option may not be viable.
My advice is to have the party find out that they were murdered and not involved in some type of accident. Concrete proof is not available and besides a dubious Jenya, no one believes the party after all there were witnesses, they can show you where the 'accident' occured etc
Telling Tereson just rises his ire -
'I have no time for such investigations. The city gaurd is undermanned as is and looking into such an incident on the basis of someones hunch or word alone at present would be fansical. If you are convinced that the deaths were no accident, which I serverely doubt, return when you have stronger evidence or the murder in hand otherwise I have work to do.'
Good Luck
Delvesdeep
Character knowledge - When they asked Kristof in my campaign, he told them they were murdered in Sasserine by an unknow assailant. The PC Cleric of Pelor at the time was sent to check up on Kristof (from a larger Temple of Pelor in another city) and help him if he needed an assistant acolyte at times.
Kristof didnt need the help all that much as Pelor's followers in Cauldron werent numerous enough to warrant the PCs service.
DM knowledge - Embril Aloustinai murdered them in Sasserine. No one knows she did it though, she covered her tracks well enough.
There were several "accidents" that were caused by the Cathedral of Wee Jas.
I described it as two separate accidents -- the previous high priest was unfortunately crushed beneath a large stone block being winched into place during repairs to the town hall. The other high priestess accidentally drowned during a Flood Festival 2 years ago when she accidentally fell into the lake while wearing her armor. Conspicuously, Ike Iverson was present both times.
(PS - nice avatar!)
I really like the falling block explanation. Why not take it a bit further and have the block fall from the Cathedral of Wee Jas. When the party talk to the remaining cleric of Pelor he can tell them that his superiors were on their way to meet with Embril to complain about the construction when the accident occured. This will certainly raise suspicions towards Embril and Ike but not enough to act upon.
Great idea Archade. Sometimes I wish I could have my time again...
Delvesdeep
I changed it so that the high priest broke his neck falling down the front stairs of the temple - a "tragic" (and unlikely) accident.
I had the second in command be a member of an adventuring group that got wiped out in the Underdark, just before the high priest died. This helped to highlight the high attrition rate of adventurers in Cauldron.
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On a related note: I am certain that my players will probably question why one or both priests couldn’t be raised from the dead. Even though raise dead is quite expensive nowadays, and the church of Pelor is small in Cauldron, is there nowhere that Kristof could raise the funds or get help? There seem to be several possible places to get such help:
- A sympathetic noble in town. Surely the church and priests engendered some goodwill over past years of service, and given that one of the main resources in Cauldron is diamonds, I imagine there’s a few loose stones sitting around in some noble’s coffers.
- Help from the other good churches of Cauldron, even if the cost of the spell was given as a loan to be paid back later.
- Another branch of the church of Pelor in Sasserine or elsewhere, where more resources and money are available.
- Other possible sources in Cauldron or Sasserine that may loan money.
You could say that the bodies simply couldn’t be recovered, though that makes their deaths more suspicious (which can be confirmed with divinations). Archade’s ideas could possibly work – falling into the lake makes the body unrecoverable if it sinks all the way down, and a big enough stone could squash a body to the point where it is beyond what a raise dead can heal. Then we’re talking about a resurrection, which is twice as expensive, but still not impossible to get from some of the above-mentioned sources.
Has anyone else been confronted with this question, and how did you handle it?
Has anyone else been confronted with this question, and how did you handle it?
According to the hardcover, IIRC, the head clerics of pelor were killed by Embril and then their bodies plane shifted to the abyss somewhere.
The missing clerics merely vanished completely and utterly, and it is my assumption that already mentioned divinations pointed towards them being dead.
That's how I see it and am running it.
-c
...then their bodies plane shifted to the abyss somewhere.
That seems to ring a bell, and it would pretty well take care of anyone trying to raise them (25,000gp for a true resurrection is getting a bit steep for nearly anyone). I checked the entry for the Church of Pelor in the hardcover (page 24) and it says the following:
“The shrine of Pelor has always been fairly small and minor in Cauldron, especially since Kristof’s three superiors recently died under mysterious circumstances (they were murdered by Embril), leaving him in charge of the entire shrine.”
Yes, it does says three superiors – I guess that many of us are remembering something different from the magazine perhaps, which may also be where the reference is to the plane shift, unless that’s mentioned elsewhere in the hardcover.
But how do you then explain their deaths as an accident? Unless they fell into a planar rift that “accidentally” opened as they walked down the street, it’s hard to explain away the lack of bodies.
I had the clerics planeshifted to Occipitus where they were left on the Plain of Cysts by Embril. I reasoned that her plane shift went 'astray' (she was unconsciously influenced by Adimarchus dreams) and she decided to place them with the fallen angels as an ironic burial.
The players may find the bodies which would reveal the lies behind their deaths but still not pin point their actual killer/s.
Perhaps the meer face that they were not raised/resurrected by the Church of Wee Yas would further spark suspicion. If the party investigated their graves and found them empty the alarm bells would be defeatening...
Delvesdeep
Thanks to everyone for all your excellent and informative answers. You have given me lots of good ideas. I am running the campaign directly from the magazines, because I don't own the hardcover at all, and in the magazine it was indeed 2 clerics, and there was nothing about them being murdered.
I run my campaign only once a month. My PCs begin Flood Season on November 4. I'll try to remember to let you know if they even ask.