Tiryin Vonnarc, Memory of Darkness and a Shield Guardian walk into a bar...


Second Darkness


Okay, so... my PCs have totally ran SD off of it's carefully laid rails and I'm running to the forums for help.

My PCs were betrayed by Alicavniss, ransacked her tower (killed EVERYTHING INSIDE), stole Erdinneir's Shield Guardian (AND NOW THE PALADIN HAS A REDUCED CR CR8 IRON GOLEM IT AT HIS BECK AND CALL), escaped from the Vonnarc grounds no problem, fought Tiryin (THE PALADIN AND THE IRON GOLEM ONE-ROUNDED THE RETRIEVER), _captured_ Tiryin, and brought him through the elf gate into Iadara... !!!! ... This is where the problem starts...

The entirety of Memory of Darkness is written with nobody believing that the drow exist. Not even the queen! Not even the nobles! But the PCs have a living, breathing dark elf captive-- and a higher-echelon noble, of that! Why would anyone laugh at the PCs claims when they have a real, eligible piece of evidence of the drow's existence? Why would anyone hush them? The dark elves are real! Here's proof!

So... what should I do, about both Tiryin Vonnarc being a captive of the PCs, and the Shield Guardian? Any ideas?!


Ice Titan wrote:

Okay, so... my PCs have totally ran SD off of it's carefully laid rails and I'm running to the forums for help.

My PCs were betrayed by Alicavniss, ransacked her tower (killed EVERYTHING INSIDE), stole Erdinneir's Shield Guardian (AND NOW THE PALADIN HAS A REDUCED CR CR8 IRON GOLEM IT AT HIS BECK AND CALL), escaped from the Vonnarc grounds no problem, fought Tiryin (THE PALADIN AND THE IRON GOLEM ONE-ROUNDED THE RETRIEVER), _captured_ Tiryin, and brought him through the elf gate into Iadara... !!!! ... This is where the problem starts...

The entirety of Memory of Darkness is written with nobody believing that the drow exist. Not even the queen! Not even the nobles! But the PCs have a living, breathing dark elf captive-- and a higher-echelon noble, of that! Why would anyone laugh at the PCs claims when they have a real, eligible piece of evidence of the drow's existence? Why would anyone hush them? The dark elves are real! Here's proof!

So... what should I do, about both Tiryin Vonnarc being a captive of the PCs, and the Shield Guardian? Any ideas?!

Holy crap! In my game Tiryn dropped 2 characters, capturing him was not an option. I presume they managed to get the Shield Golem amulet from Erdinneir. Bummer.

Anyway, more important than the 'existence' of the drow is the plan of Alevrah to call down a new Starfall. As far as I can tell, the elite of the elves do know drow exist (although you are right, they pretend to disbelieve the PC's during the meeting with the Queen) but they are most skeptical of a drow plan to call down a star to crush Kyonin.

My advice is to focus on this idea, since having a drow prisoner does not prove the impending doom of the Elves from ancient Aboleth magic.


Neil Mansell wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:

Okay, so... my PCs have totally ran SD off of it's carefully laid rails and I'm running to the forums for help.

My PCs were betrayed by Alicavniss, ransacked her tower (killed EVERYTHING INSIDE), stole Erdinneir's Shield Guardian (AND NOW THE PALADIN HAS A REDUCED CR CR8 IRON GOLEM IT AT HIS BECK AND CALL), escaped from the Vonnarc grounds no problem, fought Tiryin (THE PALADIN AND THE IRON GOLEM ONE-ROUNDED THE RETRIEVER), _captured_ Tiryin, and brought him through the elf gate into Iadara... !!!! ... This is where the problem starts...

The entirety of Memory of Darkness is written with nobody believing that the drow exist. Not even the queen! Not even the nobles! But the PCs have a living, breathing dark elf captive-- and a higher-echelon noble, of that! Why would anyone laugh at the PCs claims when they have a real, eligible piece of evidence of the drow's existence? Why would anyone hush them? The dark elves are real! Here's proof!

So... what should I do, about both Tiryin Vonnarc being a captive of the PCs, and the Shield Guardian? Any ideas?!

Holy crap! In my game Tiryn dropped 2 characters, capturing him was not an option. I presume they managed to get the Shield Golem amulet from Erdinneir. Bummer.

Anyway, more important than the 'existence' of the drow is the plan of Alevrah to call down a new Starfall. As far as I can tell, the elite of the elves do know drow exist (although you are right, they pretend to disbelieve the PC's during the meeting with the Queen) but they are most skeptical of a drow plan to call down a star to crush Kyonin.

My advice is to focus on this idea, since having a drow prisoner does not prove the impending doom of the Elves from ancient Aboleth magic.

1) They have a paladin in the group, so he always takes people captive when he can

2) The cleric and sorceror made stellar checks, so I let her tell that the iron golem was a shield guardian-- and what a shield guardian generally was. Knowing the amulet worked for anyone, they went and focused the second son down and took his amulet immediately...

That's a decent idea but I'm still unsure of how to run it. Why _wouldn't_ they believe the PCs? I'm thinking maybe the Shin'Rakorath hides Tiryin's existence, claiming to have never received him for interrogation, but I wanted to present the elves as more... personable than as written, and this falls really close to just frustrating my players!

Dark Archive

Had a similar thing happen in my game

Spoiler:
The way I solved it is to have the shin rakkorath men that show up kill the drow whilst trying to rough up the pc's


I like Kevin Mack's thinking. At the very least the Elves would insist that the drow captive needed to be turned over to the authorities. Of course, Tiryn wouldn't live out the hour after that.

Ice Titan wrote:
That's a decent idea but I'm still unsure of how to run it. Why _wouldn't_ they believe the PCs? I'm thinking maybe the Shin'Rakorath hides Tiryin's existence, claiming to have never received him for interrogation, but I wanted to present the elves as more... personable than as written, and this falls really close to just frustrating my players!

The existance of the drow cannot be denied of course, but Tiryn (noble or not) has no connection whatsoever with Alevrah or any plan to call down Earthfall. He knows nothing about such a plot (only his older sister does) so I can't see it mattering what happens to him at this point.

Ice Titan wrote:
That's a decent idea but I'm still unsure of how to run it. Why _wouldn't_ they believe the PCs?

Well, the Queen does believe the PC's of course, she simply has to pretend she doesn't.

The Queen's advisors are either in complete denial (never underestimate the power of denial), or are trying to convince the Queen it's all a hoax to protect the authority of the Winter Council. Most people loyal to the Winter Council are sure that they can handle the drow threat, and certainly don't need the help of outsiders.

Think of this from an Elvish point of view:

Spoiler:
A gang of unknown outsiders (not all of them elvish I'll bet) suddenly 'appear' without warning or invitation in Iadara via the portal from the drow city. They preach some bizzare apocolyptic tale about the end of the world (or Kyonin at least) from a falling star. This star is to be pulled from the sky by the use of 10,000 year old Aboleth magic. And who is behind such a plot? Only Kyonin's greatest and most respected general, Alevrah. [Slander!] Does sound sort of far fetched.
I believe Alevrah's betrayal is not common knowledge, and even the PC's shouldn't be aware of her change into a drow just yet.

And what proof do the PC's have? Virtually none. Tiryn knows next to nothing, and the name of Alevrah is fairly well known in Kyonin, so mentioning her achieves little (aside from scorn, Alevrah is well respected).
It could be a trick by the drow to divert Elvish resouces. Maybe these 'heroes' are mind controled, or well disguised drow. (the drow captive may buy the PC's credibility, but it doesn't prove their story.)
Many 'traditional' elves are very insular and will not, out of stubborn pride, heed any such warning from outsiders. After all the Winter Council knows what's best! :)

(Yes, I am aware the Elves sound like total jerks, but that's sort of the point. That's why the Queen needs the PC's help so badly.)

I suppose the bottom line is, why would the elves believe them?

Frog God Games

Sounds like you need a sniper with a disintegrate spell.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I like Greg's idea, but in my game they had drow bodies (if not living/breathing) and it just didn't matter. In a world like Golarion, "evidence" can be manufactured very very easily - the elves showed no sign of believing any of it, though of course they would 'look into it'. Helped make the PCs even more infuriated. I did give them a hint about the Queen though.

Play it up! It'll confuse your players more :)


Thats one hell of a Sniper but man that would be cool

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