My PCs have just spent a month running around outside of Farshore gathering resources for the upcoming battle at the end of ToD. They have approximately a month left in-town to tidy up before the invasion.
I am looking for ideas for events in-town to showcase and resolve the power struggle between Manthalay and Lavinia. I thought I'd fish for ideas from other DMs.
If Avner survived, make sure to include a scandal involving him that critically damages his uncle's bid for leadership. A little reward for keeping the jerk alive instead of letting him die. If you can figure out a way for his horse to make the scandal worse, so much the better; the harder it is to keep everybody alive the better the scene at the end of the subplot should be.
I'm sure everybody can think of the real obvious way for the scandal to be worse if it involves the horse, but I'd probably go with something more subtle, because that's pretty disgusting.
If I'm on board with what you're asking, I will tell you that I was planning on using Lefty as the poster child of the political struggle (as I think he was mentioned in the article).
It may be too late along your timeline for this to suddenly pop up, but I'm going to have Lavinia and Manthalay's disagreement about what to do with him spark the debate on who will be the leader. That should make my players/PCs aware of the potential for campaigning for their leader of choice.
Are you looking for more events than just the "campaigning for votes" aspect included in the backdrop? I really like the idea of Avner blowing his uncle's campaign like that. It would make not stabbing him in the jungle worth while.
Other events could include a militia who are almost entirely loyal to Merivanchi (since, truth is, he's been their leader for the past two years. "Lavinia who?") and once the party starts trying to organize a defense the militia can tell them that they won't follow them because they're not backing Manthalay as leader. That would really show your players the direct connection between the political campaign and the town's ability to defend itself. It's especially ironic because we all know that, if Manthalay wins, the party will actually lose victory points, suggesting that his loyal militia will be completely mis-managed with him in charge.
If I'm on board with what you're asking, I will tell you that I was planning on using Lefty as the poster child of the political struggle (as I think he was mentioned in the article).
It may be too late along your timeline for this to suddenly pop up, but I'm going to have Lavinia and Manthalay's disagreement about what to do with him spark the debate on who will be the leader. That should make my players/PCs aware of the potential for campaigning for their leader of choice.
Just to encourage the players come down on Lefty and Lavinia's side, I'm planning to play up Lefty as a mental invalid taken advantage of by the pirates as cheap labor and soft cover. "This man is an excellent example of a character who has dump-statted intelligence. And charisma. And wisdom. Dexterity not so hot, either." Basically, he'll be an abused child in an adult's body.
Farshore is a frontier community, and as such it is natural for the locals to care little for such niceties as modern justice. Lefty was with the bad guys, and so Lefty must die. Lavinia is a new arrival, and more inclined to mercy and rehabilitation toward somebody who is entirely redeemable. Trouble is, mercy makes Lavinia look soft, and if the PCs can't convince the community to spare Lefty she'll look like she's soft AND a weak leader to boot.
I had Manthalay, as a way to undercut Latvina's authority, make a real strong campaign to get Avner appointed as the head of the militia.
Of course, such a notion didn't sit well with the PCs, who had come to know Avner during the journey to Farshore and didn't like him one whit.
That got the party heavily involved in the Manthalay / Latvina power struggle.