Help me tie in one of my player's backstory


Rise of the Runelords


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

We're currently in the middle of Skinsaw Murders.

I have one player who is a Half-orc Paladin Hellknight (interesting pedigree, I know). The long and short of his history is he was an orphaned babe left after a contingent of the Order of the Nail dispatched an Orc horde outside of Korvosa. He was adopted and raised by the commander of the hellknights that carried out the raid. His father was a good man who believed in the propriety of civilization and took it upon himself to show that an accident of birth does not determine the course of a life.

His father was also a member of a secret faction within the hellknight order - a Lawful Good group of adherents to Iomedae who felt the diabolic influences within the order were pulling the knights too far into the seductive evil of Hell. My player's character is also part of the faction.

Shortly before the path started, my character's father sent his son out into the world to spread the influence of civilization. After the PC left, his father was arrested, charged with treason against the order, and executed by higher ups within the Hellknights.

At this point, I haven't done much with this, but I think the order would be hunting down the PC as well. I'm thinking Magnimar would be a good place for them to catch up with the PC and I'd like to stage a confrontation. I'm planning to have a small force of Hellknights formally charge the PC and demand he submit to the law of the order. However, as well as the player has been role playing his character, he might just do it. I think this could be an interesting source of conflict and a real character defining moment for the player, but I don't want to derail the AP with a trip to Korvosa and a trial in a kangaroo court. Any thoughts out there?


Well, since they're in the middle of the adventure, and presumably have some nasty murderers to bring to justice, it might behoove the PC (and the rest of the party) to ask for the Hellknights to form a tribunal from their ranking members on site. That way they don't have to head back to Korvosa.

Then, if they can plead their case well enough, the sentence can be a form of community service, in that they must bring the murders to an end so order can be restored to Magnimar and the surrounding lands.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 4

Here are some stated up Hellknights to use, if you like.

Joren, the Hellknight Tracker will really put the fear into him with his Orc-bane halberd, "Tuskbreaker."


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hokey Smokes MillerHero! I had forgotten about this thread for a while and just came back to it. Those stat blocks are killer! I'm snagging those for later.

We're about half-way through Hook Mountain Massacre. They just cleared the fort and I think it's sinking in that they might have a new obligation/base of operations - either way, it will make it easier for the Order of the Nail to track the PC down to bring him to "justice." I could easily see these three (with maybe a few low level Armigers for good measure) showing up at the front gates of Fort Rannik demanding the paladin turn himself in for trial. Good stuff - thanks!

Liberty's Edge

If you have the trial happen in-between adventures it gives the non-magic-crafters something to do while the mages of that level are busy so it could also work out well if you wanted to do the trial online or something like that.


Sounds good, there are lots of LG Hellknights, and Magnimar has a contingent of the hellknights, so....

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