Ileosa, but not in Korvosa


Curse of the Crimson Throne


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I plan to run parts of this AP, but there's a problem: I want to use the main city of my campaign world, and it's not Korvosa. Most importantly, it doesn't have royalty (being a Venice-like oligarchic republic).

I have the impression that for much of this AP, half the fun is being covertly or openly opposed to the executive power. So I'm not sure how to deal with this.

My tentative first idea is to have an Ileosa, Queen of Korvosa -- but she's a refugee, albeit a very wealthy one. In my campaign world, the Big Bad Evil Empire conquered a bunch of small kingdoms a decade ago, then fought to a stalemate with the Alliance of Everyone Else, and now both sides are recovering and maneuvering for position. So, I could have the Queen be royalty who escaped (with the kingdom's treasury) and came to the city. She's a welcome guest (see: kingdom's treasury, above) and politically very powerful, but she's not in charge.

(Possible wrinkle: she's switched sides and is now working for the BBEE, which has promised that she can have her kingdom back, albeit as a tributary monarch subordinate to them.)

I don't know if that will work, though. Can the rest of the AP be molded to fit?

Doug M.

Scarab Sages

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:
Can the rest of the AP be molded to fit?

Yes, if you can arrange for Ileosa to have autonomy over the city. If her bosses would interfere with her control of the city, then she wouldn't be able to (a) impose curfews, (b) dismantle existing statues, (c) build new statues depicting herself, (d) obtain blood donations from the populace, or a variety of other things. Most of the above are not critical to the AP but they provide a lot of atmosphere in terms of how Korvosa was under Ileosa's thumb. She does disband the Korvosan Guard and the Sable Company and install her own Gray Maidens instead, so she would need that authority as well.

But if the party can simply petition her bosses to have her removed, that kills the whole AP doesn't it? :)

(Hm. Unless her bosses also want her removed, but as NPCs with few class levels they couldn't do it themselves so the BBEE hires the party to do the dirty work! That might make for some interesting situations if there's a pally in the party. :))

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Unless she has ultimate authority I just don't see it working honestly.

Now you could change it to the city council or ruling body doing all the changes and make them as a group the big bad and just have her as one of the members.


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I would probably work best if you spread her coming to power over a couple of the APs.

If you're going for a Republican form of government then there's still going to be a council head (mayor, prince, etc...) running things. Say he's the one Ileosa murders, framing the most popular candidate to replace him, and the riots in Edge of Anarchy are caused by the politicking over who's going to be elected the new Head. Ileosa's personal guard is a major factor in quelling the riots, earning her much goodwill.

Then in when the plague breaks out in Seven Days to the Grave, Ileosa maneuvers another council member into bringing in Dr. Davaulus. Only to "humbly" take credit when her agents (the PCs) discover the horrifying truth about the Doctor and destroy him. Ileosa and her guards confront and kill the "evil" council member who brought Davaulus in.

With this, Ileosa has so much public acclaim that she "reluctantly" responds the the "spontaneous" calls for her to be the next Council Head, declare a state of emergency, etc....


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I like the idea of Ileona seizing (or trying to seize) power. Okay, it's no longer a "fight the power - liberate the city" thing, but it does give lots of opportunity for political intrigue: the city is split in two factions, and they don't necessarily align with good/evil or with the PCs own allies or enemies.

Thanks!

Doug M.

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