So I doubt anyone else has had this issue, but I am curious for some potential advice.
Our moldspeaker/knight has embraced his role with Vardishal whole-heartedly. Sadly (or not, because I love this sort of off-the-rails improv), he has a Wisdom of 8 and it shows. I've had Vardishal appear to the PC while he was knocked out in battle, simply as a way to impart more of the great backstory to the PC's. During the rather harrowing battle with Ghartok, the knight went down and Vardishal appears to point at the throne, to hint at the secret passage underneath of course.
The PC (not the player mind you) interpreted this as meaning he must take the throne of Carrion King. Needless to say, this threw the other party members (and a Rokova disguised Zayfid) for a loop.
It may be a moot point, as the party turned on Zayfid shortly after the battle, having gotten enough info from the troglodytes not to trust him. At which point, Zayfid escaped with ethereal jaunt and is now fetching the entire rest of the house to pound them into next week. I'm not too worried about that, as the PC's went under the throne anyway and are about to grab the scroll after a rough battle with the sand kraken. They'll be healed right up thanks to the oasis and I'm fairly certain they'll be able to handle what Zayfid can throw at them. So there may not be many gnolls left in the House to rule anyway.
But how do you think a delusional lawful-good knight would manage trying to forcibly install himself as king of all the gnolls?
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Have Vardishal appear again and shake his head "No!" really emphatically.
Tell him he feels, down in his soul, that this is not his true path.
.
.
.
Stuff like that, really. I mean, he got the idea from misinterpreting what is now a part of him. That part should speak up and tell him that he's getting it wrong.
Have Vardishal appear again and shake his head "No!" really emphatically.
Tell him he feels, down in his soul, that this is not his true path.
.
.
.
Stuff like that, really. I mean, he got the idea from misinterpreting what is now a part of him. That part should speak up and tell him that he's getting it wrong.
The thing is, Gerber the knight knows deep down he's interpreting it wrong. He's deliberately turning a blind eye due to his own sense of self-inflated importance.
heh. This player loves playing damaged PC's.
From the player's PM
"He doesn't think he's lying. He's just choosing to interpret what he saw...liberally. So some part of him somewhere probably knows he's full of it, but on the surface he feels like it's right. Probably like most kings who claim divine right."
And actually, let me be clear. I'm willing to let the player run with it before he gets smacked down hard for his hubris and getting the AP back on track probably quickly. I'm mostly looking for suggestions on how to run with it, if it were to come to pass (Zayfid's got a brutal ambush planned once they get out of the Pit of Screaming Ghosts. They may not make it...)
So long as you're (collectively) having fun with it, run with it!
As long as you and the rest of the players are having fun, then give the knight his shot at the spotlight. Like you, I love when my players do this sort of stuff, and my philosophy has always been tto run with it as long as everyone's enjoying the game.
This immediately makes me think of Galadriel's monologue when offered the ring -
"In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"
- so saying I would go with a similar theme. Someone who will presumably try to do the right thing - turning the gnolls into a positive force, good deeds, yada - but being thwarted / corrupted by their inherently evil and amoral ways at every turn, until your knight has inevitably been lead down some dark and dubious path - which may have some insane and tenuous rationalisation as to his actions being 'good' but in reality becoming a fairly twisted manager of evil.
Personally I would run it so that a good intention usually had a bad outcome - and try to instil an angry, vengeful, increasingly rules bound attitude into your lawful knight as he tries to 'control' all outcomes. A tyrant - unwittingly evil, and increasingly all encompassing with his rules - even to outsiders. Probably with over zealous punishments to try to curb the gnolls ( and the rest of the world's ) tendencies.
Some willing innocent mooks to provide fuel is a good thing here - captured miners, travellers, traders, villagers from a remote and isolated mountain settlement - anything that provides a good backdrop for doing evil things to unwitting people in the name of Good Intentions.
Depends how much time you want to spend on the matter.
For a short stay he would perhaps have delusions of grandeur and attempt to sway any surviving gnolls to his cause ( you can have some crawl out of the woodwork to give him a few loyal minions to play with ) - you could have some gnolls follow his natural authority ( and frankly crazy levels of self belief ). This would perhaps set up an internecine skirmish/battle/war between Zayfid gnolls and his own gnolls when they turn back up. Perhaps some rousing speeches to try to sway the gnolls to one side or the other at the beginning of combat. A mass battle on the mountain side ? The PCs could be out of the battle, on the periphery or in the thick of it depending on how you want things to go.
For a longer stay you can have that battle as well as play out the slow corruption of his Good Intentions, or even have him slowly descend into some kind of madness - possibly the exit of the PC entirely and a reroll of a new one - and the creation of a new arch enemy for the rest of the player group. It could create a dilemma for the other PCs in so much as when does a former ally and colleague stop being a friend and start becoming an enemy. Where is the line that is crossed...
I think bottom line is you have an unstable low wisdom good player who is going to set himself up as ruler and believe he can do the impossible and simply change evil intentions and nature by some divine mandate of being the king. It all adds up to a train wreck and the descent of the good character ( or a highly unlikely happy la la transformation of the gnolls en masse into peaceful do-gooders )
If you don't want to be as brutal as sending the character down into an abyss of torment you can snap the PC out of it at some point and have him realise the error of his ways / current path. A lesson learned. Move along.
Ooooo. Liking your thoughts Jubbly.
Whatever gnolls are left after the stand-off with Zayfid may indeed follow gerber temporarily. His Intimidation score is maxed out and I'm pretty sure that's how Ghartok got in power in the first place...
But yeah, a lawful good knight is going to find it damned impossible to corral a lot of gnolls. I do think I'm going to make it more and more obvious as time goes on as they do more and more hideous things. It could also be a nice reason for the Sons of Carrion to exist, as they split off from the tribe right there and plot revenge.
Some mass combat ideas are interesting... I'll have to look over those rules. It'd be neat to see Three Jaws or even the other tribes take a shine to the new king (heck, There's even precedence... The Circle tribe has a human witch in their tribe... Hm...)
Thankfully, this is play by post, so I can likely have the knight go to gnoll town while the others travel to Katapesh to fetch a diviner on Almah's orders. That'll keep the XP levels even if the knight insists on staying while the other party bolts.