Making sense of Nyrissa (Spoilers Abound and Long Post)

[The Baim]

I'm trying to see if I can flesh out Nyrissa a little bit more as well as the overarching arc so that I can begin seeding these ideas from the very get go. This is one of four "story-lines" that I wanted to get some input and ideas on. See what you think and please GIVE me advice.

I am very lucky in that I know in advance I am the next GM for our group and I have close to 8-10 months to prep and think out ideas. :) I tend to "free-think" so excuse that...

Nyrissa:

So Nyrissa wants to return to the First World with the Stolen Lands as an offering to the Eldest? Expanding on that concept, it would make sense that the closer the Stolen Lands are to the First World, ie. untamed, wild, chaotic, the easier the capture. That puts her in direct conflict with the PCs, especially when the begin city-building. Creating a "civilized nation" pulls the Stolen Lands away from the First World and into Golarion. This is unacceptable and Nyrissa will be, through her intermediaries, causing strife and chaos early on.

If we look at previous examples of Nyrissa's behavior it seems to make sense. This is why she "slept" with the Stag Lord influencing him to become a bandit-king and keep the land lawless. Same thing with the Trolls and Eirikk in Book 2.

So, how come after all this time, she can't start the "Bloom" and take over the Stolen Lands? Because she forgot one concept of the planes...it is about the ideas, berk (sorry, have to do some Planescape here).

It is not a civilized place or a wild place that keeps a land here or there, it is how people think about the state of the land. When Pitax goes to war with the Stolen Lands and inflicts all sorts of devastation, that will be what triggers the Bloom.

It is the descent from an organized, civil, and structured kingdom into total anarchy and chaos that fuels the Bloom. Children are crying, people are dying,etc.

Anyway, that's my explanation to begin the framework to explain and incorporate Nyrissa more firmly into the campaign. What does everyone think?

[blargney the second]

Here's my plan:

Spoiler:

Fey are chaotic and strongly tied to nature. The summer court represents the chaos of unrestricted growth. The winter court is the chaos of death and decay. The factions war with each other constantly, and the seasons match the fortunes of the winning court.

Nyrissa is one of the summer queens. She wants to win her war, so she kills the unicorn in book one to incite the summer fey to fight harder. The winter court fights back, so the summer fey enlist the aid of mortals to take down the region's winter queen. When they succeed, summer will reign ascendant over the Stolen Lands, and unprecedented growth will begin. Enter the blooms.

I'll be using Carnival of Tears for the first incursion of the winter fey and Realm of the Fellnight Queen refluffed all wintery for the final confrontation with the winter queen.

[GM_Solspiral]

DUDE... seriously you put the BBE's name in the topic thread. IF I didn't expressly tell my players to stay out of these forums I'd be PISSED. Seriously dude...

Also there's like 5 topics on this, aside from my own I'd highly recommend Ortho's thread on the topic ect...

[The Baim]

Whoops. I'm new to posting and didn't think about it. My bad.

Though, looking at the posts I see various Vordakai, Beating Irovetti, and other names abound as well...but anyway, I'll watch it.

[GM_Solspiral]

none are the secret BBE behind everything...

[CalebTGordan]

Nyrissa honestly shouldn't be a secret. Why would she work to be such a secret for hundreds if not thousands of years? Why should she? She is the queen of the Stolen Lands, and none can stand against her there.

The Stag Lord, Hargulka, and the owlbear bandit all met her in person and could have easily talked about her to people or left clues that point towards her. And we are just talking about the first third of the AP. At her age, she would be a legend amount the fey and bandits of the River Nations. And nothing would happen without her noticing,

In my game, she is pulling even more strings. The PCs will find that their actions actually help her, as in my game she needs a more united Stolen Lands to get what she wants. The PCs will think they are just pushing her back, ruining her plans, and taking away her power. In reality, they unite the lands for her and allow her to snatch it up.

What should be secret is why now she is acting aggressively against the PCs. Also, the sword Briar and what it really is. Those secrets should be kept locked away until book 6.

Read Book 6 and pay attention to her history.
The short of it is that she fell in love with one of the Eldest and in the affair she started thinking herself as one of them. She even commanded people around like one. To punish her, they ripped out the emotion love from her and banished her and her kingdom to the Stolen Lands. Her lover was punished by being sent to the Shadow Plane. She has been working for a long time to have a gift the Eldest could accept. A gift that would grant her their forgiveness and allow her to return back.

That gift is the stolen lands in a bottle.

Read about the First World to gain additional understanding as to why such a gift would be sufficient.

[redcelt32]

I added the Fey Courts (Summer, Winter, Shadow, and exiles like the Fellnight Queen) to my game specifically to get my players involved in tracking down and investigating Fey secrets. I am going to make it very obvious that the courts are up to several somethings, many of which have negative impacts on the PCs Kingdom (like having a winter that lasts for two solid years). The fact that they Fey are secretive and like to keep things that way should give them a big hint that many of the unexplained string pulling in the Stolen Lands has a Fey origin.

Besides, I have several players who abhor it when an NPC has a secret that they don't know and lords it over them. Having a smug, arrogant Fey lord tell them to "stay out of things that don't concern you mortals" is almost a guarantee that they will do the exact opposite.

This way, they can uncover information and details about Nyrissa for themselves and pursue the threads until they find the rope coming to hang them :)

[The Baim]

Thanks for the info and the hooks, this is what I'm looking for...