1. Why did Triel kill all those guards? If she's a worshipper of Bane (my game takes place in FR), she's probably Lawful Evil. "Just going nuts" isn't a common occurence for the cold, calculating murderousness of Lawful Evil.
Good question. Maybe the killing took place before she turned to Hextor/Bane or the guards offended her, or they discovered she revered an evil deity, who knows....
Right now my thinking is to create a tenuous link between her and Vhalantru, Thifirane Rhiavadi, Embril Aloustinai and other "secret lords" of Cauldron. This can provide both foreshadowing and a logical reason behind "executing traitorous dissadents".
She worked indirectly for the Cagewrights and thus Lord Vhalantru, the Ebon Triad was just hired to assist in the construction of the soulcages.
I let my players find a notebook belonging to Skaven, which gives a little background concerning the members of the Triad. Encrypted parts mention the cages and the involvement of Lord Vhalantru/Orbius.
2. Why do Cora Lathenmire and Triel Eldurast look so much alike? The resemblance is uncanny! There's also a little resemblance to the Lord Mayor...My response to this will probably be that Cora Lathenmire's mother was the older sister, or perhaps cousin, of Triel, thus explaining the familial resemblance. As for the Lord Mayor, perhaps the similarities there are just a regional trait. Any ideas?
Ha... my players also noticed that: I blamed the artist.
3. Why did she steal the wands in the first place?Though the stated answer of ransoming them back to Cauldron to fund her army is an acceptable one, it doesn't have the flair of the truly villainous. Money is rarely a good enough motive for criminal masterminds such as a Cleric of Bane. What I'm thinking about doing is making them part of a tyrannical plot to hold Cauldron hostage while sowing fear, strife and discontent, all things that her glorious God would desire.
Thoughts? Ideas? Interesting stories to tell about your own alterations? Please let me know.
That's actually a much better idea, something what my players feared in the first place: raise waters instead of lower waters.
Through Skaven's notebook they learned that Tarkilar created the spawn of Kyuss to protect the group's treasure. After Tarkilar blew himself into insanity, their hard earned money was unreachable and since all cults need money to fund their evil plots, Triel came up with this desperate plan.I was glad my PC's killed all the main characters, because Skaven and Triel know pretty much, too much maybe.
My players are currently investigating the Kopru Ruins and are asking some very tough questions about Triel Eldurast's background. So far, they've only been talking amongst one another rather than asking me (or any NPCs) questions directly, but its only a matter of time before some NPC gets the third degree here. Here are some of the questions they've been asking:
1. Why did Triel kill all those guards? If she's a worshipper of Bane (my game takes place in FR), she's probably Lawful Evil. "Just going nuts" isn't a common occurence for the cold, calculating murderousness of Lawful Evil.
In my game I have made Triel an Cultist of the Smoking Eye and cohort of Fetor from the Secrets of the Soul Pillars (who is a apprentice Cagewight in my game to Shebeleth). She has inflitrated the Ebony Triad to use them to find specific magical items which she believes lays beneath the Phantom Lake near the Kopru Ruins. Triel stole the wands to lower the Phantom Lake long enough for her search the caves she believes is hidden under its murky surface.
The problem lies in finding an opportunity when Shaven and, in the past, Tarkilar were not around.
The items are discs created by the Spellweavers long ago which may act as keys to unlock more secrets that are hidden in the Soul Pillars or may even reveal further powerful spellweaver pillars in other locations. Her master - Fetor desperately wishes these discs to be recovered and has placed Triel within this very enclave for that specific reason.
Before Triel killed her fellow gaurds Triel had been bethrothed to Skylar Krewis. Triel had secretly been a part of a strange cult which worshipped an enity only known as he Smoking Eye. When she was on patrol on fog shrouded night her patrol's investigations stubbled upon the cult house. On the command of the cult leader (Fetor) she slew the entire patrol and fled the city.
Skylar was devestated.He could not nor would not believe the story of her crazed attack and desperately sought to discover the truth and most importnatly where his beloved was. Until recently this investigation ahd proved nigh fruitless.
One night a rogue claiming to belong to a group called the Alleybashers came to him seeking the reward for an information. He stated that the very same women had recently hired his guild to assist her beneath the city and even gave him a map to its location.
After the party return to Cauldron Skylar decides to reveal this information to the group on the proviso that he accompanies them and theat nothing befalls Triel until he may learn the truth of her actions. As the search continues Skylar will reveal the truth that she was once, and still is, his bethothed.
When the party finally confront Triel Skylar steps in to ask her the truth of that night and she laughs at his stupidity and love that she no longer feels before striking him down. The party will most likely respond with anger at this and consider Skylar a valued friend from this point on making future events where he is involved more meaningful.
A letter is found on her person to Fetor stating the truth and motivations of her actions.
2. Why do Cora Lathenmire and Triel Eldurast look so much alike? The resemblance is uncanny! There's also a little resemblance to the Lord Mayor...
My response to this will probably be that Cora Lathenmire's mother was the older sister, or perhaps cousin, of Triel, thus explaining the familial resemblance. As for the Lord Mayor, perhaps the similarities there are just a regional trait. Any ideas?
This would be a great twist to say that the Lord Mayor had a delience with Cora's mother and that Triel had initially come to the city looking for her real father and found him in the lord mayor. Before she revealed her origins to him she thought she would prove herself t him and get closer to him by joining the gaurd.
Cora is ignorant to her true parentage but her mother may reveal this when the Lord Mayor goes missing.
3. Why did she steal the wands in the first place?
Again in my campaign the wands were stolen to lower the Phantom Lake but she used the excuse of randsome to sell the idea to Shaven.
Hidden in the Kopru cave the discs can be found if the party plunge into the lakes depths...
Just a few of my ideas
Delvesdeep
I bid thee greetings, DM in trouble, let´s see, which dirty secrets we can dig up ...
The Triel Eldurast File
As long as anybody could remember, young Triel wanted to be a city-guard. But it wasn´t for the shiny breastplates, the lightning-blue plume on the helmets, or the great parade on the second day of flood festival, which held a never ending fascination for the small,skinny girl she was, it was the idea of upholding the law, which captured her heart.
She idolized the city watchmen for being the symbol of safety – these people patrolled the jungles, roads and city streets to make sure that no wild beast, thug, or other menance had the chance to prey on unsuspecting merchants, travellers or citizens – they were all that stood between the chaos outside and the innocents, who they had sworn to protect .
Triel has always been determined – some would rather say stubborn and unflinching, but Triel never gave much about what other people thought about her, and even less about their idle gossip – and having a goal without reaching it has never ever been her thing.
So Cauldrons biggest boy club had no chance, except to welcome sooner or later one of the first female guardsmen within their ranks – but first a whole lot of people had to be convinced, that this was a good idea. Being born as a merchants granddaughter and having no martial tutoring whatsoever didn´t help, either, but obstacles are here to overcome and to grow in the process …
Soon Triel excelled in weapon training, her knowledge of the local law became impressive to encyclopaedical and her attitude never to back away from any kind of challenge led to a formidable reputation for being capable of handling almost any situation. That and a few called favors ( granddaddys name and financial influence didn´t hurt here ) were enough to get her into basic training.
Being better than any male applicant at any task at hand didn´t help Triel in the task of making friends within the force, which led to Triels reputation as a loner. Only Sgt. Instructor Naelan Crispwood and the only other trainee with a similar attitude to hers, a guy named Skylar Krewis, were the only important persons in Triels life during the training year.
The first one as mentor – a role, that the longest serving, halfelven veteran of the force already filled for several generations of trainees - the second one at first to share a friendly rivalry with, friendship later, and even love, Skylar and Triel were betrothed in the same week they finished training and became full fledged members of the city guard.
Her first months with the force were all that Trielhad ever dreamt of, for now it was her, protecting the innocents and punishing the guilty, she was the person, who stood for the law, the visible, acting part, who took care, that law was no longer just an abstract term, or concept, but something visible, something the innocents can trust and feel safe because of.
Then, a new threat raised its ugly, painted head.
Cauldron always had its share of thugs with painted faces, indulging in petty theft and scaring elderly citicens, but when Thavalar the Crooked, most influential fence of the city, was assasinated – not only he, but his entourage of four bodyguards, too – in bright daylight, midday, on the steps to Shurefoots Livery, by two men with painted faces and dressed up as jesters, everybody knew that the times had changed, and none for the better.
The two assailants escaped, and a crime-spree began to haunt the city watch in the following days, influencial nobles were robbed – everybody in Cauldron remembers the famous Rhiavadi Mansion heist - , warehouses plundered and the hired guards killed without mercy. Nobody seemed safe, even the movers and shakers of the local branch of the underworld sooner or later had to decide if they accepted the offer to become member in the so called Guild of the Last Laugh under the leadership of the so called Jesters, cruel twins, who guaranteed that everyone, turning down their offer, met an untimely demise.
All efforts of the guard to keep the peace, failed, some most horribly, the members of the new guild seemed exactly to know where and when a guardpatrol was on the way. Soon accusations began to fly, rumors about at least one inside man within the ranks of the guard begun to circulate, and suspision rose.
It was terrible for Triel, because the neat categories, in which she used to think, crumbled to nothingness, there were no longer the innocents, the protectors, and the bad guys … criminals approached the cityguard, offering information about the Guild of the Last Laugh in exchange for personal safety and dropping all charges against them, watchmen openly accepted bribes to guarantee the safety of civillians, and “innocent citizens” sold out watchpatrols for a quicj buck.
Triel realized, that the innocents were few in numbers, but those, who deserved punishment, became more and more. In a rather desperate moment she volunteered for a secret mission, given by Khyron Sedgewick, one of the trusted lieutnant of the Captain of the Guard, Terseon Skellerang, himself – to track down the inside man within the guards own ranks.
She never told anybody else, not ever Skylar, what she was about to do, and a clever deception was devised: Triel losing her temper when interrogating a small-time information broker named Atus Shemwick – and nearly breking his leg in the process – she had to be held back by Krewis, her partner, to prevent further nastiness. Some other acts of releasing pumped up anger followed, making her prime candidate for being kicked out of the watch.
When one of Triels touts, the head-bouncer at the Green Eel Tavern, named Keoghan Kharatys, told her, that he overheard something important, Triel was on her way, but, alas, too late.
She only met two fellow guardsmen, Hemon Dresker and Mihel Callagher, cleaning their weapons after a “particularly unfortunate case of domestic violence” and stepping back from the bodies of Keoghan and Elisabeth Karathys, whom “they were too late to protect from unknown assaulters, probably halforcs from Shantytown”, who “were unfortunately able to escape, after they coldblooded struck down an officer of the guard”, as the official report puts it.
Triel signed the report, took care that the newly orphaned baby-boy Terrem found his way to the Lanternstreet Orphanage ( more about him in the “Who is(t) Terrem Karathys”-thread by the same author ) , didn´t ask any questions and shadowed her fellow guardsmen Dresker and Callagher to find out more.
She did, and in the resulting battle Triel Eldurast killed several guardsmen, all of them bought by the Guild of the Last Laugh, and no other than Khyron Sedgewick among them.
He taunted her – What will you do? Kill the only person who knows about your mission? The only one who can offer redemption? Are sure that you want that?
Triel was.
But unfortunately for her, she didn´t get all bought guardsmen of Cauldron … and one of them left had the reputation of being a paragon of justice, truth and the Cauldronite way, and he saw his chance – if he could arrest Triel for slaughtering the watchmen he could also use her as a scapegoat for other incidents, and eventually present her as the inside man. But first, he had to arrest her …
Triel, severely wounded, left the city after having a message delivered to Krewis, the only man left she could trust now, in which she asked him to meet her.
And Skylar came, but he wasn´t alone, there were other guards with him, guards who were enraged, guards who wanted her head for the slaughter – and Triel realized in a strange calm, that there were no innocents any more, nobody she could protect, only herself.
She doesn´t know why she spared Skylars life, maybe for the sake of the old, better times, but one thing she knows for sure – there are no more innocents, everyone is guilty of something and therefore deserves to be punished , a whole city , and they will be punished…
Hopefully this was of assistance and worth reading, let me know, if those revelations pleased you, my dear audience - yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley
This is good; Really good. Do you have any ideas how any of this is learned by the PCs? or how much of it?
Robert
Dear Robert,
it depends on whom your PCs are on friendly terms with, Skylar is, of course, the best source and will, if the PCs earned his trust and respect, tell everything he knows, bit by bit. A disgruntled Shemwick will also not hesitate to tell his (heavily biased) version of what has happened, and there is also the possibility of talking to Triels old mentor, if the PCs are somehow connected to the cityguard.
But beware, whoever has sold Triel out in the past - he is still in the force, and a now major player for the Guild of the last Laugh - inquiries about Triels past will surely get his attention and may spark a sidetrek-adventure during the winter - involving the insideman, the Guild and the cityguard.
I´m planning to start a new thread in the immidiate future dealing with such sidetrek adventures, it will be called "straying from the path - the sidetreks" - watch out for it ...
with dearest regards, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley