CoT was engrossing enough that my players did not want it to end, ever. I'm running a followon campaign in which Lord Mhartis is Mayor Pro Tem, elections are scheduled in about two months, and Chammady Drovenge survived and aided the party. The PC's managed to convince Admiral Vourne that they had thwarted a threat not only to Westcrown, but a potential plot against the queen. Why? Because the Church of Asmodeus is entirely silent in the AP.
My question is - why? The plausible theory my players came up with is that the church is in league with Mammon's forces, since Mammon is a servant of Asmodeus. Otherwise, why wouldn't they aid the party against the usurper? The PC's figured this was a first step for a total church takeover of Cheliax, with deniability on the part of the Church of Asmodeus if it failed. They convinced Vourne of this as well, and have been summoned to Egorian to Abrogail's court to receive some sort of honors/reward. [You should have seen their faces when they read the imperial summons, heh heh heh.]
I find their logic rather convincing. Has anybody else played it differently? Is there an official explanation I've missed? Any other good theories?
It might be in keeping with asmodean doctrine to maintain a society where the strong rule and the weak are crushed, where bribery and treachery abound.
If I understand Cheliax correctly, Asmodeus and the House of Thrune have a deal, which means his church should be supporting the government. But they seemed content to let Westcrown's rule be threatened.
But they're all about following the letter of the law. Maybe if Aberian had gone to them and asked for help then they would have jumped in, but without a specific request to interfere the sit on the sidelines and observe?
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The lack of Asmodean elements in CoT is one of the major downers of this AP, in my view. I really wish the whole AP was more "guerilla liberation warfare against corrupt government, devilish Asmodeans and omnipresent Hellknights" and less "prancing around with some spoiled tiefling kids". Oh well.
I'm taking the sequel adventures into the liberation of Cheliax, so the devils and church will be much more involved. It should be fun!
We are running this but the PCs are actually giving the Church almost no choice - they have made it a guerrilla war against them and are discrediting the church at every turn possible - including disrupting church activities like public torture and executions. Two of the players have joined the Order of the Scourge and are working to expose the corruption of the Wiscrani Asmodean Church and the Order of the Rack.
Further our Inquisitor of Iomedae has gone so far as to set up shadow courts where the common people can come for fair arbitration and they are working with a couple of the Dotari Leaders to help keep the streets quiet.
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The lack of Asmodean elements in CoT is one of the major downers of this AP, in my view. I really wish the whole AP was more "guerilla liberation warfare against corrupt government, devilish Asmodeans and omnipresent Hellknights" and less "prancing around with some spoiled tiefling kids". Oh well.
This.
I once asked a friend what this AP was like. He said it was fine except that it felt like you were stopping the Mafia on behalf of the Nazis.
That's the issue with it. For me the elephant in the room was that the evil devil worshipping House of Thrune should have been the bad guys. Instead we were fobbed off with the least interesting BBEG's of any AP. Frankly it felt like a huge opportunity was lost in order to maintain the Golarion status quo.
(Sorry for potentially Godwinning the thread)
Further our Inquisitor of Iomedae has gone so far as to set up shadow courts where the common people can come for fair arbitration and they are working with a couple of the Dotari Leaders to help keep the streets quiet.
+1 that's excellent!
Crossposting this to another thread if you don't mind.
The lack of Asmodean elements in CoT is one of the major downers of this AP, in my view. I really wish the whole AP was more "guerilla liberation warfare against corrupt government, devilish Asmodeans and omnipresent Hellknights" and less "prancing around with some spoiled tiefling kids". Oh well.
But that is really why the Church of Asmodeus is so quiet in the AP. The AP is not about "le resistance" so the Church has relatively little reason to even "officially" notice the activities of the heroes.
I believe that the Asmoden Church – or even the “police state” elements of Cheliax - has been deliberately downplayed to avoid the AP becoming more “freedom fighter” oriented. That does not appear to have been Mr. Jacobs’s intent with the Metaplot of this AP.
I asked this in Paizo chat one Tuesday. The gist of the conversation, IIRC, was that Westcrown is neglected by both Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus. They are focused on Egorian. Westcrown is where the incompetent and out of favor are 'exiled'.
This agrees very well with Lord Fyre's info above. Even the Hellknights, who are strong, are hobbled in the AP so the incompetent mayor, corrupt dottari, and two factions of the Council of Thieves have a clear field. The PC's are the hope of the city.
