Quinley as party ally

[ckdragons]

I'm currently running the Carrion Crown campaign and we are currently Ashes at Dawn. I'm having a hard time with Quinley Basdel becoming an ally of the PCs, not necessarily being friendly with them, but wondering if the book was designed to have him adventure with the party? My party is already 5 characters and adding a 6th, it seems to me, will overbalance the remaining encounters in the book.

Is Quinley meant to be an ally, showing up periodically to assist the party or he is mean to join the party while tracking the vampire killer?

I'm running the campaign close to how its written with little modifications. Any advice regarding this would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

[Zhangar]

He joins the party for tracking the vampire killer, and leaves once Radvir is dealt with. Quinley's the party's guide through the vampire underground.

[Windspirit]

The PC's do NOT need him necessarily. If he dosnt come along the PC's are on their own and have to either fight or charm the Vamps.

They can use him as a source of information or just have him as a guide down to the Vamps. He dosnt need to come along to fight at the Tailor or the "Winery"

[Nails]

My party immediately began calling him Blade and doing Wesley Snipes impressions.

He suffered from 'Forgotten NPC syndrome' and was immediately abandoned as soon as he introduced the PCs to Luivc.

[mogwen]

I am going to run "Carrion crown" in september and I,too, have found Quinley not particularly charismatic.
So I changed him!
Welcome "Lady" Talia Bertram ( Talia as an hommage to the Batman character, as a girl with a lot of alleagance problems and Bertram cuz I heard the name in a "Poirot" and thought it would fit), daughteur of Lady Elianna Bertram and Lord Valerius Bertam, former prestigious members of the order of the Palatine Eye.

Lord and Lady Bertram were head of the order 25 years ago and as such had to deal for the king a reconduction of the armistice treaty between Ustalav and the Vampiric court of Caliphas.
Unfortunately for them, King Ludvick Siervage when he set his eyes on Elianna found in her the portrait of his long lost lover(remember Dracula!).
Obsessed with the beautiful and skilled diplomat,he built a plan to abduct her and make her his promise,but as he embraced her,Elianna who was pregnant and about to give birth entered labor,the result being Talia.
Elianna's first meal was her husband, as after the embrace she was in a blood frenzy and when she came back to her senses she had lost everything, her beloved husband, her status, her family.
All she had left was a baby that was half-vampire and a new lover she hated but couldn't resist, this and dark urges she couldn't comprehend.

Years passed and Talia, raised by the vampires of Caliphas, grew into a skilled investigator for the Vampire court, seeking future threats to the court and Ustalav alike and signs of the dreaded return of Tar-Baphon and Malyas, Siervage's personal enemies.
Elianna asked her to seek Charest,the archivist, a former friend of her( and a former soupirant!) who recognized her as Lady Elianna's daughter but kept it secret for her own protection.
He trained her in esoteric knowledges, and under his tutelage,she became the perfect blending of human and vampiric education, able to travel between both worlds with ease yet not pertaining to any of them.

Which brings us to now, with the death of her mother three months ago, as a way to deal a psychological blow to Siervage, talia is left with a desire of revenge unmatched,and will seek the help of whoever she can to bring ruin to her enemies, enlisting the help of Maester Charest and maybe reclaiming her hereditary(in my campaign some places in the order of the Palatine eye are hereditary, such as Kendra Lorimmor's !) place in the order if it can help her in doing so, even if it puts her at risk!

Hope you like the character and the backstory, I think this campaign, as I have more male players than female,needed a few more talented female characters, and that Talia fills such a niche!

[captain yesterday]

I will be running Carrion Crown for my daughter and her friends, with more of a Harry Potter vibe. what i'm doing is what the campaign outline in book 1 originally said, which is having Ramoska awaiting the PCs in the WW hideout with Quinley as his bodyguard. the plan is for Ramoska to recruit them because he's being framed for the murders, i'm also spreading out and expanding the vampire underground (making it more grand and less claustrophobic. they are super old and well established vampires in a large and also old city, seems to me their could be old cathedrals and halls and such.