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Referring to the overall story arc as written:
I don't think Rowyn is wretched enough to suffer Vanthus' ultimate fate, plus she didn't make any deal with an outsider to gain power, which significantly nudges Vanthus in that direction.
Similarly, I doubt Vanthus' turn of luck to get picked up by the Fleet would also bow to Rowyn's favor, since Vanthus' luck isn't really actual, per se.
Her place is the story really is different from Vanthus. She represents an initial threat and revenge (the parade) in Sasserine, and this last vendetta is basically her goodbye from the story. Vanthus really has no more use for her than he did with Brissa in the end. His place in the Fleet offers him more than Rowyn could dream to give him. Seeking her out and saving her would almost be against his character.
...
That said, there is always Rule #0. If you think it will add to the story in some way and give the PC's another thrill rather than a groan, then go for it.
I can't really come up with anything to do with her, sorry. Unless maybe she has some spell that can save her from the ocean depths. Maybe she charms a fast animal that gets her to shore, but that depends on where she was dumped.
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I'd call it a day at this point. Recurring villains are good and well. But keeping her around after a second sound defeat, when we already pull each and every trick to show Vanthus several times, it just robs the party of the success to close the chapter on one enemy.
Personally, if you want to keep her around, she can be taken to farshore for a proper trial (she is a minor noble, after all) rather than a miraculous survival.
I thought up two options.
1.
If you wish to be done with it but..,
Option;
2.
I personally will go with option 2, because i'm a lazy DM. After defeating her three time and killing her twice (Once under Sassarine and once in the galley of "The Sea Wyvern"), I'm pretty sure my players would love this.
I'd be partial to something that's been suggested before in other threads. Have her show up in Scuttlecove running a Diner or something.
I am and was toying with Rowyn turning up in Scuttlecove (she was only marooned in the Mist Archipelagoe by the mostly good players ) or perhaps in EoE as one of Malacateth's retinue ( we played up the lusty aspect of her character to the point of it becoming a trademark... ), but given that she should actually have drowned after having been forced to walk the plank ?
Perhaps consider her coming back as a vengeance seeking free-willed undead or having made a last-seconds deal with a demonic power while drowning. Dagon or Malcanteth come to mind, but that is hardly an exclusive list...
One problem I see - having recurring villains return from "sure-fire" deaths onyl leads to characters making very sure of killing off the BBEG with extreme prejudice to prevent his from happening. Which will really make life hard once you need them....
After all, my players actually secretly exhumed Vanthus's corpse and dissolved it in acid to stop him returning as an undead... AND they performed a shamanic exorcism to boot, just to make sure... I guess they will be really cheezed off next session when they return to Farshore and find Lavinia kidnapped and Vanthus returned from the dead...
I have changed Vanthus' Demonic Ire version accordingly, making him a demon possessing another corpse from the gaveyard but... oh well... not a really satisfying solution to my mind.
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Having Vanthus return after they take such drastic measures might be showing the tracks a little too clearly in this happy little railroad ;)
I'd either swap Vanthus out (replacing him by the leader of the Crimson Fleet, maybe?), or have him become a "Ghost Death Knight". Might be a little reward for the players forethought.
Having Vanthus return after they take such drastic measures might be showing the tracks a little too clearly in this happy little railroad ;)
I'd either swap Vanthus out (replacing him by the leader of the Crimson Fleet, maybe?), or have him become a "Ghost Death Knight". Might be a little reward for the players forethought.
That is why I go the "demonic possession" road... the Death Knight angle always had me worried anyway, with his low HP.... and I somehow found an undead Vanthus still lusting after Lavinia a bit ... off.
Already wrote a 'foreshadowing' vision/impulse that the revivified characters had during their short stay in the afterlife, giving a clue that Vanthus made a bargain with some great abyssmal power. I really hate it, if the players don't get to share in the fun background material, evn if it is too late for them to do any immediate good for them..
Let it be. Your players defeated her fair and square, let them have this win. The campaign already has one bad guy who returns.
Personally, I'd let her go. Let the players enjoy the fruits of their labors, and make the recurring villain that much more memorable.
That said, if there's a strong tie between Rowyn (or the Kellani family) and one of the PCs, I'd consider keeping her around in some fashion, even if it's not as an antagonist.
(In my campaign, after being captured by the PCs on the Sea Wyvern, she was hanged after a summary trial. Captain Venkalie was quite bitter about this; she didn't like ordering someone's death, but felt she had no other choice. It put a bit of a pall over the ship and over the gaming group, which as a DM I was happy with.)
One problem I see - having recurring villains return from "sure-fire" deaths onyl leads to characters making very sure of killing off the BBEG with extreme prejudice to prevent his from happening. ....
** spoiler omitted **
After killing Rowyn in the Lotus dragon lair the first time, my players were real bitter to hear she had been raised from the dead. When she appeared on the Sea Wyvern, the party showed no mercy. She was surrounded by three PCs (The others were on deck watching for a giant sea monster that never returned), they just run her threw. Then the Samurai in the group, procedede to chop up her body and boil the remains in sea water until they dissolved.
Oddly, my players decided to leave Rowyn alive after both confrontations, even though she killed one of the PCs on the Sea Wyvern. I'm still not quite sure why; they're often gratuitously violent and I don't know why Rowyn is an exception. They ripped Rowyn's tongue out, tried to sell her as a slave in an elven port, and then released her on the outskirts of that port city when that didn't work out. So she's alive and perfectly capable of writing notes in Common to explain her situation (from a certain point of view, anyway) to the locals.
That said, the PCs are heading to the Isle of Dread. Even though Rowyn is likely to get some sympathy from the locals, she's still not likely to be able to assemble a posse of elven locals willing to brave such a stupidly dangerous location just to take out some mainlanders. And without the tongue that gives her most of her class abilities, she's really not capable of taking them on herself anymore. If they ever go back to that port, she'll probably still be there, but quite frankly running off with a head start is a more than adequate way of eliminating her as a threat.
That said, I'm still planning to sub in some customized undead into the confrontation with Death Knight Vanthus to compensate for his physical frailty. I'm thinking he'd want to collect all the women he ever had in life as a macabre collection of undead "princesses", with Lavinia as his queen. Just because he's dead doesn't make them any less his property, in his mind.
I'm thinking [Death Knight Vanthus would] want to collect all the women he ever had in life as a macabre collection of undead "princesses", with Lavinia as his queen. Just because he's dead doesn't make them any less his property, in his mind.
Oh, I really like that.
That said, I'm still planning to sub in some customized undead into the confrontation with Death Knight Vanthus to compensate for his physical frailty. I'm thinking he'd want to collect all the women he ever had in life as a macabre collection of undead "princesses", with Lavinia as his queen. Just because he's dead doesn't make them any less his property, in his mind.
I agree with Sben, that's a really nice touch.
Of course, if my little 'party favors' to the current male PCs go off as intended, he'll view any of them that die as such potential property ^_^.
Maybe she charms a fast animal that gets her to shore, but that depends on where she was dumped.
she lashes herself to sea turtles with rope made of human hair-from her back!
... I'm thinking he'd want to collect all the women he ever had in life as a macabre collection of undead "princesses", with Lavinia as his queen. Just because he's dead doesn't make them any less his property, in his mind.
Yoink. Brissa is only (acid resistant) bones at this point, but an incorporeal undead will also work.
Well, if you go to the very end...
Well, if you go to the very end...
** spoiler omitted **
Cool thanks James
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Interestingly, my players did something similar.
Only, instead of making her walk the plank, they marooned her. Stuck her on an island in the middle of nowhere, left her with some food, and then sailed on.
She's effectively out of the story for good. There's not many ways off that island for her that don't involve either pirates or the Scarlet Brotherhood, and neither is likely to just let her be.
Her day is done - it's time for Vanthus and the Crimson Fleet to rise up.
Well, if you go to the very end...
** spoiler omitted **
That's exactly right.
This is suggested in the adventure.It's pretty a effective suggestion, too.
My players marooned her in the Amedio. I ruled that she got picked up by the Crimson Fleet and was on the raid of Farshore, where she was defeated again but survived. She is now leading a band of renegade pirates on Temute.
I used her as an example on how much the players have improved. They had all kinds of trouble with her before; now they handily defeated her. Some of my players groan about how nothing really happens as you level up. You gain levels, the opposition gains levels, but things remain fundamentally the same. I used her as an example that this isn't true. I think the later part of the Savage Tide will show them more of this.
Further news: On the way to the Isle of Dread, I used Dragon Hunters (Dungeon #104). That left the players to deal with a colony of renegades from the Great Kingdom, led by a Prince Henri. Their solution was to pack them into the Blue Nixie and take them to Farshore.
Once on Temute, these people have been trying to start a plantation, but stringent anti-slavery laws has made this difficult. The pirate attack solved all that, and now a lot of pirate prisoners serve as "indentured servants" on this plantation.
Rowyn used this situation; she betrayed the group of pirates she was hiding with in return for a pardon, and now is a "respected" citizen of Fort Alkor (the name of the plantation). She flirted with Prince Henri to get the deal stuck, and this flirtation is turning into a genuine romance. much to my player's chargin.
I'm not really planning to have her do much more in the campaign, but she is now fleshing out the Farshore setting and can be a resource for future plots if I need one. At the same time, this is a reasonably happy ending for everyone involved.
the group came across hints of Rowyn's new nature ( among the succubic followers of Malcanteth ) in the bordello district of Scuttlecove this weekened, glimpsing her delivering some contraband to a non-relevant ( for the main plot ) local contact.
Made the characters cringe with anticipation and rattling their cage some, since they, having witnessed her new demonic endowments, thnink she made the same deal for "lemorian powers" as Vanthus....
Gotta see if they get sidetracked by this red herring too much, but it looks promising
damnation,we were far too nice to her.....
First time around - after capturing her via suggestion - we let her go (!), handing her over to her parents in order not to incur her clan's wrath. Heavy pressure by Lavinia (aka GM ) was involved, since we originally had planned to hand her over to Sasserine's judicial system.
Next time around, after a rather incompetent poisonning attempt of the crew's porridge aboard the "Wyvern" (the ever-hungry halfling noted an odd smell about the concotion, leading to a ship wide search ), she jumped overboard in an attempt to escape/suicide, and was actually rescued from drowning by us..... an impromptu ship-board court was sabotaged by the GM through the NPC bard, who acted as the devil's advocat (gotta get rid of her, too, one of these days ) and basically made everyone agree to a plead-guilty verdict.
We then marooned her of the coast of Chult, with a single cutlass and a week's supply of water.
Guess we are going to see her again *sigh*
The leader of the group in the game I am running, had Roweyn walk the plank. I had decided already that the ixitxachitls from "There is No Honoer" were still owed money by Rowyn, and she had promised them some from the spoils of the PCs. Unfortunatly, her plank walking was the last straw for them. They rescured her, took her to a near by island, while one of thier kind went off to find a Scarlet Brotherhood ship, and sold her to them. I have some plans for her to show up at a later date, perhaps in Scuttlecove, or maybe even this whole "princess" collection idea I have been reading.