As stated in the title, spoilers abound here, so if you're a player, go away now :)
*
*
*
*
*
Okay, so my players are wonderfully obliging about giving me family and friends when they create their PCs, and I am using several to populate the guests at the Carrowyn Manor Party. One player is going to be losing Mum and Step-Dad, as well as an older sister and her husband. Another is losing an aunt and uncle :) And if that wasn't bad enough, the later player is my Sable Marine, and I'm making sure that he gets to get one more close relations with the Commandant during Seven Days to increase the lovely impact of his death at the hands of the queen in the next chapter.
So, was wondering what other GMs have planted around that they risk death at the hands of their own players? <eg>
|
Well my players are going to see some friends and family go as well. The wizard (from one of the minor noble families in the city) will see his last living relative, his uncle, perish from the plague. The fighter who was raised and then almost murdered by Lamm will see his mentor, A Sargent of the watch possibly die at the hands of a bunch of thugs during the riots. We will see next game session if they save him in time. He also will be losing his neighbors to the plague, a nice halfling family that live in the shingles next to his shack. I have a Shoanti who is the adopted son of Thousand Bones so he is going to lose his cousin to the mob, and have to get his pieces back. The rouge has already discovered that Lamm killed his best friend growing up because the rogue wouldn't stay away from the boy in question. He will be losing a priest that he is close to during the plague. those are the for sure deaths that I know of for now. I will keep an eye here, and post anything interesting that developes on the npc front.
Can't kill too many of my PCs' relatives, since they already set them up as "mostly orphaned"...
But here is some other nasty stuff dangling over my players' heads
- the party's cleric is in fact a ghaele, using an altered monstrous progression (just don't ask), incarnated in the body of a female elf - in order so that she actually is a native outsider for the course of the campaign. Incidentally, the player insisted on the elf's body being one of a set of identical twins, her sister having disappeared while being "rented" out by Ghaeden. Yeah, mature game...
Given the Zon-Kuthon priests appearing later in the AP, I decided for one that "Laori" was in fact the lost twin sister.... re-formed to serve as the host body/shell of a pleasure devil (from Fiendish Codex II), sent to Korvosa to determine the truth of some rumours regarding the fangs of Karzavon. Said devil/elf is currently weeding out the true and less-than-true followers of the god of pain in Korvosa, besides doing fun stuff in the less than organized underworld to gather information. Incidentally leading to a number of unpleasant cases of confused identity with the PC.... who by now is working for the city guards.
The final confrontation and possible forced cooperation of the two sisters is going to be.... epic, I hope^^
- same player.... different sub-plot. After having found a "magics" shop (of my own devising) and its less-than-law-abiding owner, who quickly got wise to the fact that said Elf was actually a Ghaele, they started selling her blood (!) for hefty amounts of cash.
They haven't started asking themselves who might pay a lot of money for an Eladrin's blood... but there will be some painful discoveries once they have fully investigated the hospital. Outsider blood does prove potent in making a normal....malady more than it could ever have dreamt to be ! I mean, what were they thinking when someone offered them thousands of sails for a pint of blood ?
- a minor NPC which they asked to garner information about the necromancer-at-large, Rolth has disappeared without trace. She will return as one of the vampire spawn in Seven Days. Just a short lession in "don't have the NPCs do all the risky stuff"
- a priestess of Sarenrae, rather infatuated with the group's silent and melancholy swordsage (who finally saw a slim chance to get some coochy despite an atrocious charisma) , has gone to the great beyond at the hands of the Red Mantis in a preliminary conflict with the city guard (who's captain and head of "special branch" she was asked to detox after he had suddenly become bedridden) ----> a direct result of less than discreet footwork by the PCs revealed that some foreign assassins had appeared in town.
- another player's Varisian sorceress has her sights set on social advancement and marrying into the "ruling set". She already has her hooks in a minor Jeggare sibbling (momentarily sixth in line of succession of the House), and I do have some of the nobles as possible victims of the plague but then again, House Jegarre is headed for a fall when Marcus Endrin, an up until than, close ally, will confront Ileosa. Besies all teh obvious problems for a varisian charlatan ( the character worked as a palm-reading fake before the AP) marrying into chelaxian nobility.
There are moments when I am a nice and generous GM though. Really *grin*
One dead relative is a good idea. Many dead relatives is going overboard. Besides, you want to save a few of them for later events, especially to induce guilt when they are off-screen getting the mystic sword.
I've had a couple of relatives join the Gray Maidens. One of them was found immediately unsuitable and dumped into the basement of the Longacre Building. One was successfully brainwashed, and they'll be fighting her later. A PC's fiancee was brainwashed, but she kept struggling against it so she was also dumped into the Longacre basement and her family was given a "killed in the line of duty" letter.
As to the original post, one of my PCs was a Carowyn. :D
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
Well coming from the opposite direction...
My character, Shadrach, has befriended a NPC rogue. He'd asked her to scout out some properties in Greyhawk for purchase. She disappeared (some kind of plant monster caught her) and it fell to him to get the party to rescue her. He explained, "She was doing this for me. This makes it my duty to rescue her." Dragging the party along, he was able to save her. But he (and I) would have been very upset if she'd been killed working for him.
And yes, this is the LE character of mine I talk about.
One dead relative is a good idea. Many dead relatives is going overboard. Besides, you want to save a few of them for later events, especially to induce guilt when they are off-screen getting the mystic sword.
Unfortunately for the players, but luckily for me, they've given me LOTS of relatives and friends to play with :) The one that is losing parents and one sibling, still has another six siblings, variours in-laws and neices and nephews as well as friends left alive :)
In Edge of Anarchy I got to pick on a different player, whose son was in Lamm's grasp. They rescued him, but that developed enough angst for that player as he was making sure the kid was okay throughout the rest of the adventure and such, that he got a bye this time ::chuckle::
There will be plenty of friends and family left around for the threat when the players are forced to flee Korvosa <eg>
There will be plenty of friends and family left around for the threat when the players are forced to flee Korvosa <eg>
this might actually make them loath to flee - leaving known associates and dependents behind to suffer royal and maidenly wrath... Jars heavily with any heroic self-image they ought to have developed by than.
For extra angst, have the mum and the step-dad slow-dancing naked zombies!
|
Well, in my second running of the AP, the ranger in the party is a Sable marine and I have worked up a relationship between him and Endrin, the commandant on par with Cressida's. He kind of looks to both of them for advice, information on an equal basis. My first party had few relatives to work with and I am saving them for later use. This newer second party, however, have a few people to work with. The Shoanti cleric started hoping to look for a lost Shoanti, so I gave him Gaekhen. I even gave some leads here and there before they found out what happened during the riots to the poor lad.