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I'm just in the middle of Seven Days at the moment, but I can see a problem coming up. Namely, how does the paladin (forbidden from associating with known evil people) work with Lauri and the Shadowcount. Even if he doesn't detect them as evil, the calling on the deity of darkness, pain and sadism is likely to be a bit obvious (and for the Shadowcount, the chain DEVIL is likely to be a bit of a stumbling block).
Any suggestions gratefully received.
I asked a similar question not too long ago.
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Ok, so post monster got the first one…(draws his +4 Holy Post Monster Bane Longsword and declares a smite against the evil fiend…D’oh a 1 again!)
I believe that how a Paladin interacts with the story is quite a bit up to the DM and that it is up to the DM to lay the ground work with the Player to explain expectations. A good conversation with the player and/or some good old fashion Roleplay will go a long way in influencing the play of the Paladin.
Personally I don’t hold Paladin’s in my game to the standard a lot of other DM’s do, for several reasons. Mostly, because the strict interpretations that most DM’s enforce tend to promote Shining C/E Paladins in my opinion. Is it truly Lawful or even Good to just pull your sword and kill someone because you decided they were evil? Most civilizations have law’s against such actions called Murder. Yes we play a game where we invade dungeons and castles and we kill what’s inside and take what we need/want from it, but a good story places reasons for these actions. Just up and Detecting Evil, getting a nice glowwy around someone (that unless someone else is using Detect Evil they can’t see) and declaring them evil is not usually the way the Law works. Usually you have to prove to someone, a Judge, a Noble, a Jury, that the person has committed some act that goes against a law and it is the rare place that the law says Glowing evil when a Paladin Detects evil is a crime punishable by death.
Back to the OP’s question, the Zon-Kuthonites, as written do not necessarily commit any truly evil acts in the presence of the Party. If anything they tend towards good when the party is around. They assist the party with their quest to rid the City of an evil Tyrant. Now, it is true they will glow evil if Detect evil is used upon them, and even if it is not, a basic Knowledge Religion check will reveal a lot about Zon-Kuthon that is not savory to most people and a priest of Zon-Kuthon is not exactly the first person you think to have over for dinner. But (see the above paragraph) where is the reason to drop the gloves and begin fighting?
It won’t hurt the story if the PC’s decide to try to wipe either of the Cleric’s off the face of the world, but it will deprive them of resources and perhaps information, not to mention that Laori is a rather fun play from my view point. How often do you get to play a bubbly priestess of pain? A paladin in my game would, I hope, just refuse to work with them instead of going to war with them. But a truly motivated Paladin, one who understood the stakes, should want to find out what the cleric’s of Zon-Kuthon are up to and make sure that they are not against the principles of the Law, of Good and, if the paladin is dedicated to a specific god, whatever god they worship. In short, they should be willing to hold their noses, work with these cleric’s, perhaps attempt to persuade them the errors of their ways, make sure that they don’t cause any trouble (much easier to do if you are sitting on top of them than if they are running around loose) and use them for all of the help and information that they can.
I hope that my Short form answer (j/k) helps you out.