It feels ironic to me that the more detailed an NPC is, the more I become attached to them and the less I want them to die. By the time I finish reading an adventure path, I'm more attached to the villains whose behind-the-scenes lives I've been following than my PCs. (I suppose it might help if I ever had players who could create interesting PCs) In RotRL my heart went out to folks like Nualia and Orik Vankaskerkin, who were really the victims of poor choices more than anything else. I'm starting to get that feeling with Ileosa, who doesn't seem like she was much more than a stupid, spoiled teenager before she opened "the wrong box" under Castle Korvosa. Oh well, just sharing thoughts.
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Now Orik and especially Nualia on the other hand? Man... Talk about your raw deals.
Yeah, it really does get hard to just let the PCs kill them. Not without letting some PCs in on the tragedy at least.
Was she planning to murder the king before she became possessed? I thought she was just going to wait for him to die of old age, a la Anna Nicole. I'd like to know more about the nature of her possession, but I expect that will all be detailed when the PCs actually have to face her (I'm just reading Pathfinder 7 now).
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Ileosa was petty, spiteful, ambitious, and evil right from the start. She is in no way the victim here. She is, however, a really, really unique BBEG.
Oddly, CotCT seems to have far less sympathetic villians. Gone is the heartbreaking tale of nualia. Now, we have a mean old man who feeds orphans to his gator, a poxy sicko mortician, an eteranl eathbound devil who would sell out his own sister, a fundie death-cultist goth, a sadistic perkigoth that looks like Lime from SMJ in a chainmail catsuit, a deviant play director with acne and a guillotine, and a "doctor" that looks like Nicholas cage. The only halfway sympathetic villian yet to be seen is the addled elf harlequin, and only because she reminds everyone of Harley Quinn (and yes, she's going to refer to Rolth as "Mistah R" when I run her) rather than any redeeming qualities she herself possesses. It's an impressive gallery of evil, evil people, dont get me wrong. I can also see the Lesbo bodyguard as tragic, since she's only doing what she sees as her duty to her queen, but she's not a villain yet. Arkminos might also be sympathetic, or at least pitiable
But, on the other hand, we do have an aged Batman/Zorro, a failed boozing batman, a hottie that's a dab hand at fleeing over rooftops, A very, very tired but pretty field marshal, a lawyery cleric, a dead lady that lives in a pack of playing cards, and a guy named "Thousand Bones" who I really hope to see again (such an awesome name). That is a nice selection of buddy NPCs. Oh, wait, we also may have...a sadistic perkigoth that looks like Lime from SMJ in a chainmail catsuit. Huh. She made both lists. Despite her lack of spine. quite a feat. Still cute, though.
Note-irreverent jockular names used for comic effect, rather than disrespect. this is a great cast of NPCs.
Creative Director
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Was she planning to murder the king before she became possessed? I thought she was just going to wait for him to die of old age, a la Anna Nicole. I'd like to know more about the nature of her possession, but I expect that will all be detailed when the PCs actually have to face her (I'm just reading Pathfinder 7 now).
Yeah... more details will indeed be coming along in Pathfinder 12, but she's not really possessed. It's more like an enhancement. Think of the Fangs of Kazavon as a magnifying glass; they don't create evil, but the magnify it. The evil Ileosa performs during the AP is her own doing, but before she got the fangs, she didn't have the skill or imagination or drive to see it all through.
It's like that bit that Bill Cosby did:
Bill Cosby: I said to a guy, "Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful," and he said, "Because it intensifies your personality." I said, "Yes, but what if you're an *$$h0l3?"
Even if Queen Ileosa was evil from the start, simply being inside her head (as a DM) for so long creates a sense of attachment. A lot moreso than I had with, say, Karzoug, who was absent for most of the adventure path. I'm not saying that Ileosa shouldn't die a horrible and well-deserved death at the hands of the PCs, just that every now and then I find myself secretly thinking to myself "if someone just took away her weapons and made her stand in the corner, she'd get better." And then moments later I snap back to reality.
I know what you mean. My player gives me no shortage of interesting PCs, but I still get attached to the NPCs as well.
Spoilers for RotRL:
I became quite fond of Aldern Foxglove from RotRL, but alas, he's dead before the PCs can really get to know him. --Except that my player apparently felt the same way, as he said to me flatly, "We're going to Foxglove Manor to save Aldern, and I really want that to be possible."
I decided that Aldern had found a way to save his life using Vorel's magic--but not to prevent his transformation into something ghoul-like, not to mention insane. The PCs had a tense confrontation with him and convinced him to help them destroy Vorel's revenant spirit. Okay, I thought: at least I got to play him through some cool interactions.
The PCs then said, "Okay, Aldern, we don't trust you on your own yet so you're coming with us!"
I ended up playing him through the entire campaign, all the way to the showdown in Xin-Shalast. One of my favorite NPCs ever. We got a lot of mileage out of the ghoul-creation shtick, even though the other PCs very seldom let him actually make ghouls.
Mary
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I know what you mean. My player gives me no shortage of interesting PCs, but I still get attached to the NPCs as well.
Spoilers for RotRL:
** spoiler omitted **
Mary
I have so many questions about how this worked out throughout the campaign, but I'll have to cut it down to one:
How did they deal with the smell?
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The very interesting NPC's is one of the best part of most of Paizo's stuff. That and interesting stories well done interesting locations. I just started RotR. We do a slower xp and I wanted to start things off a bit different. The PC's started off living in a small farming village a bit from Sandpoint, dreaming of becoming adventures like the local Shalelu. Who i interduced in a few flashback preludes, more seeing her pass thru town, hearing about her exploits or when a bit older maybe sitting in the tavern one of the evenings she stays in town to pass along information. The group is already very taken with the NPC. They are already planning to ask her to join them next time they see her.
So already one of the NPC's is popular and they haven't even offical meet her IC really and haven't even got to Sandpoint yet. I do like a lot of the villains in the Pathfinder series so far.
Speaking of NPCs, a quick question:
In my RotRL campaign, Orik Vancaskerkin survived, and the PCs sent him on his way after only taking all his stuff. Has anyone else considered using him in CotCT, instead of his brother. The new PCs won't recognize him, of course, but the players might.
Also, IMC, Justice Ironbriar survived his encounter with the PCs, and I had ruled that he fled to Korvosa to start a new life.
Do you think it would be too much to have both pop up in this campaign?
O
I know what you mean. My player gives me no shortage of interesting PCs, but I still get attached to the NPCs as well.
Spoilers for RotRL:
** spoiler omitted **
Mary
I have so many questions about how this worked out throughout the campaign, but I'll have to cut it down to one:
How did they deal with the smell?
Oh! I'd forgotten about that: I made him a ghoul, not a ghast. I have found that ghasts tend to break the mood: being defeated by a bad smell causes a lot of players to slide into bad-joke mode rather than horror mode.
He was still creepy and dubiously sane, and I was astonished that it worked out the way he did.
Mary
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a poxy sicko mortician a sadistic perkigoth that looks like Lime from SMJ in a chainmail catsuit, a deviant play director with acne and a guillotine,I've only thumbed through both adventures thus far. Can you tell me who these guys are?
Also, you forgot the King of Spiders. Although, he's not exactly a villain yet. :)
I assume Mortician = Rolth (pictured in 7DttG), Perkigoth = Laori Vaus (Escape from Old Korvosa) and Play Director = Emperor of Old Korvosa whose name escapes me (EfOK)
I know Rolth is the new Bargle for me. Eminently defeatable, but seemingly unkillable. Always back for more, and he'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids and their psuedodragon too!
I know Rolth is the new Bargle for me. Eminently defeatable, but seemingly unkillable. Always back for more, and he'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids and their psuedodragon too!
That is bizarre--we just *had* the encounter between Bargle and the pesty kids with pseudodragon(s) three sessions ago. (But he didn't get away.)
Mary
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There's going to be even more Vancaskerkin fun in "Shadow in the Sky" in Pathfinder 13.
If I ever get to run all the Pathfinder APs for my group, I know I will have a player who will absolutely love the continuity (or lack thereof) of the Vancaskerkins. Three paths, three dead Vancaskerkins in the first Chapter, all killed by different parties in different regions.
What an unlucky family. They're just begging to be killed by adventurers.