Foxglove's object of obesssion is dead; advice?

[TempusAvatar]

Alright; first things first: if my players stumble upon this, GET OUT! Oak and Nava, that means you!

So, some background information:

I'm GMing for a group of two. My two players were a female human gunslinger and a female elf rogue; I also have a female tiefling witch NPC following them around performing support casting. As the events of Burnt Offerings unfolded, I decided that the rogue would be the object of Foxglove's infatuation, as the rogue had a higher CHA, and the gunslinger is very much a tomboy.

Unfortunately, during the final fight at Thistletop, the rogue was slain by Nualia. The rest of the party brought her back to Sandpoint, and we are currently in the middle of a week's worth of downtime, during which I intend to hold a funeral service at the cathedral with a good attendance of townsfolk mourning the loss of one of the Local Heroes who died valiantly preventing a massive goblin uprising which would have sacked the town.

The player has created a new character; a Sylph Sorceress.

The question is, now what do I do with Foxglove heading into The Skinsaw Murders? I don't want to start over developing a new infatuation with the sorceress; that seems like backpedaling and retread. I played him as almost ignorant of the rest of the party members; impatient with their presence or any questions/conversation they might start up.

I did have an idea, but I would like the community's opinion/input:

Spoiler:

So I was going to have the rogue buried in the graveyard behind the cathedral. The same graveyard where father Tobyn's crypt was raided in Burnt Offerings. A day or two before the killing at the mill which kicks off The Skinsaw Murders, I was going to have Foxglove's ghoul cronies dig her corpse up and take her remains back to his lair underneath the Manor. That way, when they get to the Skinsaw Man encounter, in one corner of his room there will be a shrine to her, with her cadaver propped up in a corner in some pose and all her belongings lovingly placed around her with some candles, etc. I intend to make it fairly morbid, as to drive home that Foxglove is a sociopath. I'm thinking it should make for an interesting encounter.

Questions if I take this approach:

1) When should the graverobbing happen? If it happens before the mill murders, do you think it's too big and juicy a hook? I want to make sure they get invested in investigating the mill and then later, the farm. I don't want the graverobbing to take agency away from that.

2) What should I do about the letters that get left behind? Logically, they should be addressed to the Gunslinger, being the only surviving PC that Foxglove has had aquaintance with. What should the context of the letters be? Rage at the gunslinger, as in "You let her die; now you shall suffer too?"

3) Does anybody see any plot holes/problems with the scenario I outlined? Anything I can patch? Any adjustments or addendum?

Extra questions:

4) Have any other GMs dealt with this issue? What was your solution?

5) Does anybody have a better idea?

[zylphryx]

Spoiler:

Very creepy and disturbing idea re: the grave robbing ... Richard Pett would surely approve. For the timing, have it discovered the same day as the Mill murder, but have it occur the day before ... only being discovered the day after when the groundskeeper went to tend that area of the graveyard (you could have the news delivered once the PCs finish with the initial Mill investigation ... the groundskeeper waiting impatiently outside for the PCs, town guards keeping him outside). If she is buried with her gear, make sure all of the gear is gone as well. For the notes, switch over to wrath and run with the "you let her die" aspect filling in as the notes get more agitated ... probably work it in with the asylum prisoner dialogue if they indeed have a week of downtime (that way the death would be known to Foxglove and the real first murders would not yet have occurred), that should also freak out the PCs a bit.

Good luck!

[Cat-thulhu]

Seems like a fine idea.

:

Before the mill is fine, especially if clues are scarce and simply hint that bodysnatchers are in play. As unhinged as he is the letters could indeed be angry at times - "you let her die!" types, the other thing he could do is seek to "reunite" the party with their dead friend - sort of a "she misses her friends, they abandoned her to the ground, now I shall reunite that which is broken". He may have been largely ignorant of them but she clearly liked them and that should be all that matters to him. Their oain and suffering are irrelevant next to reuniting her with her frineds. Switching between the two (jealous and possessive, generous and giving) would help to really drive home foxgloves dual disturbed nature, remember sometimes skinsaw is in control at others it's foxglove. I left notes by foxglove and the skinsaw man, very different tones - skinsaws always promised grief, pain and death. Foxgloves were always warnings, fearfull warnings that "he" was coming. Highlighting the multiple personalities made the battle with foxglove realy creepy when he flipped between the two

[Tangent101]

The eldritch feline has the right idea here. In my case, I never had a problem with the "character of interest" dying. Instead, Aldern tried to go boar hunting, Tongs insulted Foxglove and the half-orc barbarian politefully said no... and so rather than being fascinated with the half-orc who did so well fighting goblins, he got a major hate-on against Tongs.

Though I had fun. After Tongs chopped off the Skinsaw Man's head and left it facing his own behind (after stripping the corpse), I had the mold crawl off the wall and possess it. Walked off on stumps (as they PCs chopped off the hands and feet, just in case). The new critter that is resulting will go after them later on. heh heh heh

[Richard Pett]

Ooooo...I like it:)