The Object of My Affections - Spoilers!

[Sand Von Glokta]

So, Aldern Foxglove fell for the Varisian bellydancing rogue. Thing is - now she's a goblin! Ghoulish Aldern doesn't know this, and I'm worried it's going to lessen the impact of some scenes in the Skinsaw Murders...

She *was* a dead ringer for his late wife. In the first adventure she earned a rep in town for putting on dance shows at the Rusty Dragon, accompanied by songs from Aimeko. Aldern fell head over heels. He brought her an expensive dress, wined her and dined her, and promised to consumate their relationship once his business in Magnimar was complete. So far, so perfect.

Then she caught a fatal critical from the Sinspawn in the tunnels. We're playing a fairly hardcore game that involves rolling dice in full view, so I couldn't fudge it...

The player was really attached to the character, and didn't want to roll up a new one. So (somewhat cruelly) I gave Father Zanthus a level of Druid and a stack of reincarnation scrolls, and she was reincarnated as a half-orc. The very next day, Elyrium stabbed her through the heart, killing her a second time. So she was reincarnated again, and the dice came up with goblin.

I couldn't believe it, but the player's done brilliantly roleplaying the whole affair. First she pretended to be a goblin shaman sent by Nualia to rescue the captured Tsuto, (which ultimately earned the party a breakdown of the Thistletop defences), then she performed numerous acts of trickery to infiltrate the goblins and distract them from ambush by the rest of the group. She's earned her xp well, and has recovered the level loss.

Nobody in town knows she's a goblin apart from the mayor, Hemlock and Father Zanthus (everyone else thinks she's dead). It doesn't seem right to change the object of Aldern's affections to somebody else in the party, so I'm thinking around the following options:

1) Just raise her back to her true self through divine intervention, probably as a reward for saving the town from Nualia. Very cheesy.
2) Aldern finds out she's a goblin, and somehow hatches a plan to turn her back to her true self. God only knows how... I like the idea of him trying to kidnap her, but I don't want her missing out on the haunted house by being tied up in the caves throughout.
3) Aldern finds out she's now a goblin, and switches from "lust" to just wanting to kill her for ruining his chances. Seems a bit lame.

Any thoughts? It was weird chance occurances like the goblin reincarnation that made Burnt Offering so memorable for us - I'd love to tie it all together cleverly in some way (weirdly, the same player has always wanted to prestige his rogue into master of masks, which ties into the Skinsaw Murders so much I'm actually quite scared).

Thanks for reading!

[Warforged Goblin]

How about, as thanks from the "town", Mayor Deverin presents her with a hat of disguise?

"I know we can't ever get you back to how you once were, but perhaps this will make things a bit easier..."

[Kevin A Turner]

First off let me say that wow...defently some amazing role-playing there.

Your third option works well in my opinion of him just changing from lust to say...wrath. Or maybe she can still be his affection of Lust, as he truely does want her the way she was, and he blames another of the PCs for her current state, making him the target of Wrath. Just some thoughts to work with.

Oh, there is also a hat of disguise in the second adventure...heh my halfling found it.

[Majuba]

Seems simple enough.

Aldern thinks she's dead. So he digs her up, thinking to reanimate her somehow. Perhaps he even succeeds, but her body is mindless/soulless.

Enraged his obsession turns to wrath against the pc-as-goblin, needing to kill her to perfect his beautiful pc-as-self animate.

This is chancy, and might have quite a bit less impact, but if you have the animate body be in good condition it could allow for the possibility of the character returning to it. Such as if she were knocked unconcious, you could pass a note saying, "You feel like you're floating, hanging in the air, watching the battle around you. You see yourself as you were, and as you have become... you feel tethered to both - which do you return to?"

[Sand Von Glokta]

Thanks for the quick replies, guys. So, there's a hat of diguise in the adventure... I'll take that out of its present location and give it to the rogue as a gift from the mayor.

I honestly hadn't thought of Aldern trying to dig up her body! Hmm, the way I've played it is that the old body is consumed upon creation of the new, so it's an empty grave.

So I'm thinking that Aldern digs up the grave after questioning the miller about the rogue, and is disturbed in doing so by the crazy old gravekeeper (who'll probably know about the reincarnation). Aldern interrogates and then murders the gravekeeper (who comes back as a dread ghoul to trouble the party), then hatches a plan to lure the goblin to his den so he can capture her and - with the help of the Skinsaw Men - bring her back as his bride. I'll just have to modify some of the notes a little...

...and of course, seeing her in the hat of disguise will throw him completely, and he'll roughly return to the behaviours listed in the adventure.

I feel an evil laugh coming.