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One of my players developed a backstory for his halfling rogue that, in the words of a fellow player, is essentially "the Luke Skywalker scenario." Here's the meat of it:
*Raised on a farm (I'm thinking Harse) by his mother and father, who spoke of Caspar's fraternal uncle when teaching him how not to conduct himself; the uncle is an "infamous criminal"
*While still young, shadowy figures tried to take Caspar away, and his mother was killed while fighting off the attackers; Caspar and his father move to Korvosa in an attempt to live anonymously
*Caspar's father, though, despairs over the years and dies prematurely aged, on his deathbed revealing that he is actually Caspar's uncle, and that his father is the criminal who sought to reclaim him
*Taking solace for a time in shiver, Caspar is now clean from drugs but still harboring these dark secrets from the others with whom he brought Gaedren Lamm to justice and now travels
I'm seeking ideas and assistance in placing his father into the campaign. My first instinct was to make him the right-hand man of Boule, but seeing as "Escape from Old Korvosa" introduced us to Pilts Swastel's diminutive and dangerous cohort, that now seems repetitive. It would also be problematic to have his father a well-established criminal in Korvosa; why, then, would the uncle take Caspar to that very city?
My current line of thinking is to replace Cinnabar with his father--same stats, save that the leader of the Red Mantis stalking the group through the Cinderlands would be a male halfling rather than a female human. (There's an abundance of HOT EVIL ladies in "CotCT" already, right? Heheh.)
Off-topic, is Boule and his Cerulean Society going to have a role in the campaign? I thought I'd read in more than one place that'd be the case, but I'm guessing now that they were snipped from "EfOK" for space.
Thanks for all input and thoughts!
I'd have him be a white slaver who helps Ileosa recruit young, pretty, naive or desperate Chelish blooded women who migrate to Korvosa for a better life, but end up as the Gray Maidens. It would help explain where all these women came from, and I doubt the AP's future issues would invalidate any of that background. There can be evidence of his recent entry or stay in Korvosa, but he needn't return until you actually want to introduce him on stage.
You could introduce Blackjack's rogue's gallery, or maybe his arch-nemesis. I mean, Batman is fun but Batman vs. the Joker is really fun. We aren't given this sort of backdrop, but there's no reason you couldn't introduce it.
Cinnabar's not really on-screen for very long: one combat.
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Thanks for the thoughts, guys.
That player's character IS obsessive about Blackjack, having encountered him bringing down some thugs more than a decade ago. I do plan to include a limited "enlarge" ring in the Blackjack stash, as suggested in another thread, so that could be a fun encounter when ol' pops thinks he's fighting Blackjack, and it's instead his son. There are actually two characters, maybe three, who'd be fine Blackjacks. Two of them are skilled tailors. I'm getting images of the big finish of "Three Amigos", hahahaha!
I do like the idea about the slaver/recruiter, too; the idea of bringing down the Gray Maidens "training camp" has stuck with me since Mary mentioned that in another thread. Perhaps I'll start playing with both of these ideas. I'm thinking Dad will be an arcane trickster for the sake of sneakiness and access to some teleportation magic so he's not a one-encounter deal.
Others' ideas are still very welcome.
If you are going to be doing an Arcane Trickster, another possibility comes to mind. The dad could have been hired by Queen Ileosa (or more likely a proxy like Sabina or another NPC created by you who serves the Queen) to perform certain tasks in Korvosa.
Break into nobles' apartments and threaten them if they do not cooperate with certain tasks.
Blackmail certain nobles for the same above.
Steal known magic weapons possessed by the rich in Korvosa which the Queen does not want in hands she does not trust absolutely.
Steal treasure in general so the Queen has additional secret funds to fund her secret projects.
Leave false clues so that certain noble families or factions in Korvosa think another noble family or faction is doing it to them. This gets people within the city to fight amongst themselves instead of uniting against the Queen.
You can easily have some of these happen very early in the AP, and allow the PC's several opportunities to encounter your NPC then. It also fits in nicely with a villain for "Blackjack" to fight. In the beginning, this just seems like someone is taking advantage of the chaos in the city. Only after a long time might it seem that this is tied into the Queen's plots.
A good hook for this is that the Arcane Trickster's work violates the current make up of the city's criminal organizations, so you could even have criminals looking for this mysterious guy. Or he could even try to recruit certain low level criminals (like Lamm and the Spider King) to join him, and this you could show some evidence of him even very early on.
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Those are all excellent suggestions, and allows me to play with some of the other ideas already presented. They'll be meeting the King of Spiders very soon, and so now may be a good time to plant some mysterious recruitment-papers in his stash, and perhaps plant some other clues along the way. Thanks for sharing some more creative inspiration!
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Or he could even try to recruit certain low level criminals (like Lamm and the Spider King) to join him, and this you could show some evidence of him even very early on.
My PCs ended up killing Barvasi--great stuff, they agonized over whether or not to use nonlethal force, and when they opted to take off the gloves to start and see how things went, the fighter critted with his earthbreaker while Power Attacking and under the influence of the bard's inspire courage. He drew from the Critical Hit Deck hoping to somewhat mitigate the x3 damage of 60 (!), but instead caused only (heh) 40 and crushed him.
So... in his chest they found a rough, unsigned document that looked to have been folded and unfolded many times reading "The time is near, choose your side." It's a missive from dad, employed by Ileosa as suggested above. Dad will be using magic to assume Barvasi's guise using illusions, eventually gaining some interesting information on and about the Arkonas, I think.
Stats to come; I'm still in the midst of making scale maps and picking minis for Escape from Old Korvosa!
Looks like you have everything well under control. Glad some of my suggestions are working for you. Keep us informed how things turn out!