Hello again, Paizonians! I've been away from the boards for a while, but come back now as I prepare to finally launch a RotRL campaign (it takes me a while to get around to these kinds of things, obviously). A player of mine plans to run a paladin, which he recently declared would be an aasimar. That's wonderful as far as I'm concerned: it opens up all kinds of role-playing goodness potential with Nualia. Every time I've read Burnt Offerings, I've thought there would be a very good chance Nualia herself could go almost completely undeveloped and unappreciated by the players because they would lack any real connection to her. This is obviously a way to solve that problem.
I plan to have the townsfolk react in a variety of ways to the aasimar paladin. He himself doesn't have any connection to Nualia (at least that he knows of or that I've thought of yet): the paladin has been exiled from Cheliax for political reasons (namely his refusal to accept their devil-worship). The way I'm going to run things, this paladin is the first in Sandpoint since Nualia's disappearance, and his presence is immediately distinct and noticeable. I'd like some help thinking of ways to highlight his racial choice within the context of Sandpoint's recent history, as well as draw Nualia's history even more closely into the story. Here are some thoughts I've had so far:
1. Banny Harker. Harker runs the local lumber mill and is (correctly) rumored to be in a somewhat scandalous relationship with one of the townsgirls. Harker is also slated to be one of the Skinsaw Man's victims in the second chapter of RotRL. As written, there is little foreshadowing to this event and little involvement for Harker. My thought is that Harker secretly admired and even loved Nualia, and could have been the one true friend for her which could have prevented disaster. Harker never had the nerve to express himself, however, and therefore history proceeded as the adventure background details.
Harker could meet this aasimar paladin at the Swallowtail Festival. Meeting another aasimar could still be too painful for him and cause Harker to experience sorrow and depression, which would of course interest the player and draw him into Harker's story, and also Nualia's, and set up the impending murder to be even more dramatic.
2. Sheriff Belor Hemlock. I cite Hemlock because I figure it would be a good way to help initiate contact between the sheriff and the party, but really it could be anyone who might be a good further addition to the campaign's cast of characters. Anyway, my thought is simply to have Hemlock express a kind of sad joy at seeing another aasimar come to Sandpoint, which would help further establish the recent history and Nualia's story, perhaps allowing for some back-and-forth between Hemlock and Harker as the paladin's player tries to figure out what has taken place in Sandpoint that makes these people react so strangely to him.
3. Aldern Foxglove. This depends largely on how things play out in the course of the campaign, of course, but since Aldern obsesses over one of the PCs in a secret desire for some kind of redemption, a paladin seems like a good choice. Also, just as Harker's murder would be even more powerfully foreshadowed by his involvement with the aasimar, so would the revelation of the murderer.
I don't want to focus on the paladin so much that it detracts from the "screen time" of the other PCs (I have some other thoughts to counteract this, such as having Shayliss Vinder target the charismatic sorcerer for seduction, which the player would buy right into). However, I'm still interested to hear what other suggestions you might come up with centered around this paladin to help him interact with Sandpoint and make the townsfolk really come alive in the campaign. Also, further developments of what I've outlined above (how the conversation between Hemlock and Harker revealing Nualia might play out; specific ways to adapt Aldern's obsessions, etc.) would be great as well. Thanks, all!
Do you allow Tian schoolgirls? i'm just curious. specifically ones with the "Aberration loved" trait.