Beshvi - GM Advice Request

[Christopher Dudley]

What is she FOR? How did you use her in your campaign? Did the party befriend or offend her? Was she at all relevant? The party in my campaign just arrived to investigate where she's living, but I'm really not sure how to use her in the story.

[voodoo chili]

not ringing any bells. Which book is she in?

EDIT: ah found her in the hinterlands of Kelmarane, Book 1.
She may have been edited out for length, but I have a feeling she's just a prompt to use if you care to develop her. Otherwise ignore it.

Spoiler:

I'm thinking of making her a Miengu from bestiary in #22. She likely won't directly interact with the characters until they purge Kelmarane of gnolls, but might offer some anonymous aid. If we ever make it to the last book I might have them recruit her to help retake Kelmarane. Definitely the long view, but I like extreme foreshadowing : )

[Christopher Dudley]

voodoo chili wrote:

not ringing any bells. Which book is she in?

EDIT: ah found her in the hinterlands of Kelmarane, Book 1.
She may have been edited out for length, but I have a feeling she's just a prompt to use if you care to develop her. Otherwise ignore it.

** spoiler omitted **

Ah, you're right, of course. In trying to avoid spoilers, I left the entire question too vague.

So let me cover it with a spoiler tag and give more info.

Spoiler:

In the first volume of the AP is a section called "Six Days in the Kelmarane Hinterlands." This contains a sidebar called "Kelmarane Environs." This sidebar contains the only reference in the module to Beshvi: "This magnificent 80-foot waterfall ... is in fact the lair of a reclusive nixie sorcerer 4 named Beshvi who values her privacy."
The party examined the map and decided they would check out the waterfall. What I'm asking is how other GMs used the nixie in their campaigns. Did the party intrude and anger her? Does she see any difference between the party and the gnolls intruding on her waterfall? How strongly does she value that privacy? Does she attack all intruders? Does she hide and hope they leave? Did anyone map out the area? Did she offer any material or intelligence support to the party? I can wing it and probably offer the party support, because they've essentially hosed up the last five days of adventuring in the hills without actually going into the town at all. But I'm just wondering how other people ran it. Any suggestions or anecdotes will be good.

Thanks.

[voodoo chili]

take a gander at this thread : Conversions. Look for the Aug 23rd post. It's got a statted Beshvi and filled out encounter.

[Christopher Dudley]

That's something to consider. Thanks, I'll see if that works for my group.

[Akumamajin]

Hello, I made good use of her. When the party first arrived at her Waterfall she used Illusions to fend them off. They noticed some Gnoll sneaking around when suddenly some really awful tentacles burst out of the water and dragged the hapless Gnoll into a wet grave. All of this was an Illusion to send any Gnoll screaming home.

When one of them disbelieved the illusion they tried to talk to her and after some more faery enchantment magic she parleyed with them. I made the opposition in Kelmerane much bigger, so they needed allies. And she would be wiling to help a just cause, but couldn't leave the waters, because something upstream was polluting the river, and it took most of her powers to counter the effect.

So long story short: upstream they found an old temple dedicated to Rovaguk that got some new inhabitance: some cultists bent to unsavory ends. After some battle, and the near summoning of some really unpleasant monstrosity, they returned to Bechvi and she agreed to help them. I made her a druid and she summoned some beasts of nature and let it rain heavily. Some fog to conceal their approach wouldn't have been a bad idea, either.

And later I used her a second time: the end of the one year rebuild was celebrated with a big carnival -> the Carnival of Tears module with pugvampies instead of frost faeries :D And she was the good faery that warned the party that something was off and protected them from the evil illusion magic. Now they know, that the Cadaver King definitely is very alive and kicking and is still bend on destroying Kelmerane.

Well, that is my take on her. Maybe you can use something of this for your campaign.
Happy gameing

[Christopher Dudley]

Here's how I used her:

Spoiler:

The party violently f'ed up the diplomacy encounter with the harpy. The harpy ran into the Battle Market and got a couple dozen gnolls to come running out to the tannery to get the party.

A chase ensued during which I used the Chase Card deck (the "forest" cards worked fine for the low mountains in the area). They wanted to check out the falls anyway, so once they "won" the chase, I tied that into the narrative such that the party ran to the falls and the gnolls kept well back from the area.

I largely used John Mangrum's notes for the description, but altered the encounter. Thanks, John. Great work, and you literally saved me hours.

They spent some time swimming around under the falls, and I had one of them spy a small form diving into the water. Another party member swam in after her and proceded to badly fail two swim checks in a row (rough water near the falls) and go under. The Nixie swam up to her under the water and spoke (using a language that the PC didn't speak). Unable to respond, the PC continued slowly drowning with a third bad swim check. Beshvi granted water breathing to her.

The diplomacy-strong Druid character parleyed with her, through the witch interpreter, and the PC proposed to get rid of the gnolls. The Nixie said that was kind of the last thing she wanted, because if the gnolls were gone, commerce would increase and her pool would soon be overrun with travelers seeking a cool respite from the heat of the region. So they swore an oath to protect the falls by law once commerce is reestablished in the area. So they're kind of on the hook for that, though there's no magical compulsion binding them to the promise.

As a reward, Beshvi granted the party the use of a magical greatsword and a magical suit of studded leather, which were at the bottom of her pool left by a gnoll hero who wandered too close to the falls. I threw that in there because the barbarian's greatsword had been shattered by King Mokknok in the first part of the adventure. And I think they gave the +1 Studded Leather to Dashki.

So, thanks for the pointer to the other thread and your suggestions as well. I think the encounter went well.