In my Seven Days to the Grave game yesterday, Sergeant Soldado needed to talk to one of the PCs who had helped him out when he was drunk. She was busy prepping to go diving to search for Yvicca's home, but she was willing to take a bit of time to talk to him.
He started to explain about his niece being sick, and how he was hoping that she could help her out. The PC replied that she was kind of in the middle of something, but gave the sergeant a hundred and fifty gold sails to get the temple to look after the kid. The PC said to let her know how his niece turned out, and the guard stood there flabbergasted while she went to begin diving operations.
So the first obvious repercussion is that everybody and their dog is going to start approaching this PC with stories about sick nieces.
Second, I need to figure out how to introduce Ishani Dhatri and when to do the second Harrowing. (The player with the Harrow deck won't be there next game, so it'll probably wait until after the Trinia bit.) Has anyone dealt with this before?
This makes no real difference to the plot, and it meant I had a chance to show the players just how tough Small and Medium reefclaws are (which should really freak them out when they see the Large one beneath Arkona Manor). I also had a couple of crabmen (from Tome of Horrors) housesitting for Yvicca, one of whom had a wand of Dispel Magic, so the game wasn't the cakewalk they seemed to be expecting.
Is it actually important to introduce Ishani Dhatri? I (very) quickly reviewed the adventure, and it seems like his only purpose is that after meeting the PCs due to Soldado, he later invites them to see him and then asks them to introduce him to Cressida Kroft. As they escort him, they overhear Kroft introduce Dr Davalaus. You can easily run a scene to introduce the PCs to Davalus and the Queen's Physicians without Ishani Dhatri. If you absolutely DO need to introduce him, simply have him invite the PCs and tell them that Grau Soldado said they gave him the money to buy the cure disease spell, and he wanted to meet such charitable individuals, and then ...blah, blah, blah... he asks for their help in meeting with Kroft.
As for the second Harrowing - well it seems that Zellara urges the PC with the deck to perform a reading once she is near someone with the plague. I'd simply wait to do the reading until the PC with the deck meets someone who is infected. There will be plenty of candidates soon enough.
Excellent suggestions as always. Thank-you!
I think I'll just leave Ishani in the background, and have the Field Marshal introduce Dr Davaulus and his staff to the Korvosan Guard on the day when Ishani would have asked for the escort. The PCs have enough informants and contacts that they'll hear about the scene afterward. It's better to show than to tell, but it's better to make things natural than to force the PCs to witness a scene they have no reason to see. It also justifies the big expense of maintaining informants. :)
I also like the way you've isolated the trigger event for the Harrowing. I'll go with that.
In the meanwhile, it's almost time for Vudran Day at the host club! It's their first theme day, so there's a lot of preparation to do! I expect that they'll talk it up at the Carowyn party, too.
Speaking of which, I might have Jolistina stage her attack on the host club instead of Carowyn Manor. The presence of the PCs as idle guests significantly increases the difficulty of her mission in the latter location, and if she starts the attempt and is spotted then she could achieve the same objective at Vudran Day two days later. That time around the PCs will be distracted by their hosting duties and might not be so quick to stop the elf.
That's a really great idea, Charles. Thanks!
In the end I decided that he wasn't necessary, particularly since they went to such great lengths to help the queen with everything. :D