|
What is Embril’s motivation for being with the Cagewrights?
The way I see it, the Cagewrights have various motivations amongst them which just happen to run in parallel – free Adimarchus, open a permanent Gate to Carceri, lead an evil empire, spread chaos and evil, rule Cauldron etc. But what’s in it for Embril?
I don’t think the fact that “she’s evil” is enough. IRC she is also lawful, so random acts of evil and chaos don’t strike me as her style. She is the high priestess of a fairly powerful temple (albeit in a fairly backwater town) and is personally quite powerful too. Maybe she does like the idea of enslaving the area and ruling an empire, but doing so through rampaging hordes of Demodands and alongside the rest of the 13 doesn’t strike me as her style.
It would seem that her main motivation is to free Adimarchus – after all, while the rest of the Cagewrights fight to the death to defend the Tree of Shackled Souls, or escape (rather pointlessly) to Carceri, she actually has a backup plan in place to free Adimarchus (even if it doesn’t work).
But why? She worships Wee Jas (and later Nerull), she doesn’t seem to share Adimarchus’ alignment or goals. What’s in it for her?
Any good ideas, official or otherwise? At this stage I’m tending with either the old “touched by the madness of Adimarchus” or she has some hidden agenda that freeing Adimarchus will further (such as a vendetta against Grazzt or something? Not sure…)
Creative Director
|
The short version is: She's a little crazy. Insanity is a recurring theme in Shackled City, and Embril's descent into madness is one of many such events that take place in the campaign.
The somewhat less than short version is: she's out to gain more power, by whatever means necessary. When Embril first became a cleric of Wee Jas, she was obsessed by the aspects of magic and vanity. In particular, she was obsessed with using magic to become more powerful. She was already a wizard well before she became a cleric, and soon started taking mystic thurge levels so she could progess in both forms of magic (divine and arcane).
Embril's quest for power and her ambition more or less defaulted her into the position of high priestess in the Cauldron cathedral. She didn't necessarily want the position, since the political and logistical demands of the position took away from her research time. She leaves the majority of this work to her underlings, and never really did have a strong public presence in the church.
When the Cagewrights grew close to realizing their goal, they realized that their main opposition in Cauldron would be the churches. They began to study the churches and realized that the cathedral of Wee Jas was not only the most powerful in the city, but that its leader seemed to be more interested in personal power than in leading the flock. It was a lot easier than Dyr'ryd had anticipated to win her allegiance by tempting her with the lore the Cagewrights had accumulated from the Soul Pillars and elsewhere. In the Cagewrights, Embril found an organization that not only supported her drive to gain power, but encouraged it. Switchng to the worship of Nerull seemed like a logical choice for her at the time, and so she did.
By the time the PCs confront her, Embril is one of the most powerful NPCs in the region, and possibly the most powerful of the Cagewrights (with the possible exception of Dyr'ryd). She's certainly achieved her goal of becoming a master of divine and arcane magic, in no small part thanks to the aid of Dyr'ryd and the cagewrights. Of course, by this point the dreams of Adimarchus have long been working at her mind, which brings us back to the short answer. She's crazy!
James stole my thunder! I would just go with James explanation, it certainly makes sense and requires no changes.
Here is an alternative option though. Not quite as sensical nor anywhere near as offical but an alternative none the less -
It's funny you should say this Mothman because one of my party members was quite taken with Embril when they first met (completely based on the portrait presented in the Hard Cover) and then was completely smitten when she 'flirted' with him during the Demonskar Ball. He was visably disappointed when he saw through her pleasant facade and saw the contempt she had for the party and himself.
I have set Embril up to be an initiate of Adimarchus from the beginning, acting as the High Cleric of Wee Jas is only a clever mask to use to infiltrate Cauldron and apotential alley og good in the city.
I have written Embril up as one of the few Cagewrights that remain relatively untouched by his madness and is completely in control, motivated and driven to release Adimarchus.
I've used the motivation that Embril was 'spoken' to by Adimarchus when she first entered the region as an Inquistitor attempting to hunt down the Religious Zealot and cultist Shebelith.
Her hunt lead her to the Haunted Village and the Necropolis below the lake. In a strange temple her clerics were slain and she was corrupted by Shebelith and Adimarchus. When she approached the altar Adimarchus spoke to her telling the cleric that it was her role to secure his release and find a way to reach into his nightmares to draw the 'real' Adimarchus (read Inner Demon) out and into the world.
Shebeleth instructed her to continue to pose as a cleric of Wee Jas and return to Cauldron to run the church there until the Cagewrights needed her help. This also suited Embril for she knew that Adimarchus had his strongest connection to the region and therefore Cauldron would be the best location to start her search to release the dark angel from his Insane Nightmares.
Anyway just what I have planned
Delvesdeep
|
|
Thanks James, for the speedy and "official" answer. I wasn't expecting one quite THAT official... anyway, apologies if this was all outlined in the HC, running from the mags... So touched (or hit square in the face) by madness it is.
By the way, I'm halfway through running Flood Season at the moment (second time for me, first time for my current players) and my group is really liking it! They spent the better part of two sessions in the Lucky Monkey, almost got wiped out by Tongue Eater, but are really into the mystery of "who stole the wands?"
Thanks as well delvesdeep. I'm planning to run your Demonskar Ball after the main events of Flood Season, and will give my PC's a chance to meet Embril there - an important bit of foreshadowing i think!
Starting Assylum tonight, and I would have loved to have had this info on Embril from the get go. I dont recall it in the HC and it should have been.
IMC I have kept Embril alive by keeping her as an inigma. I got the part about her not being envolved in the day-to-day temple ops spot on, as Ike was the face of the temple until he fell.
IMC after Ike's fall the parties paranoia over retribution from the temple in Sasserine and from Embril directly was very high. I had the church excummunicate the wee jasian worshiper in the party and sanction all the other PC's. When Embril never appeared to challange the PC's raid on the temple the PC's began to wonder whay and developed several conspiracy theories.
In an effort to save cauldron from the volcanic eruption during foundation of flame, a party member teleported to the Temple of Wee Jas in Sasserine to negotiate magical aid. During the exchange he learned that the temple had removed the sanctions,and reinstated the excummunicated PC because Embril and Ike's administration and actions were not inline with the Wee Jasian faith (this reflects Embrils change of faith, and Ike's apparent greater degree of loyalty to the Cagewrights than Wee Jas).
In Strike on Shatterhorn one of the party fighters jumped on the alter and was teleported into the egg. She managed to bust her way out of the egg but was to baddly damaged to offer much resistance to the elf/drow and was captured and taken to Embril. Embril then jarred his soul and conducted business as written in the HC. The party set off to rescue her but arrived just as Embril plane shifted away her withdrawl covered by the spell weaver and friends.
The party was very intrigued by her presence since they had assumed she had exited the story ages ago.
Good luck with Asylum Walter, let us know how it goes - and if the group ever catches up with Embril and/or their missing PC
Well, last night was a bust as far as advancing the main plot of the campaign as party politics took over the entire evening. So hopefully the next session will prove more productive. I am going to start throwing lots of creatures (effected by adimarchus insanity) at the PC's until they take the hint and get off there butts.