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Hi, like many others, I have been a long time stalker of this Messageboard as I plan my KM campaign to hopefully start early next year.
I am going to be running kingmaker with a slight change to the start. I feel the whole random group of unknowns gets a charter to explore was a bit too forced. My PC’s will be hired on as members of the exploration group with a NPC leader that is in charge of the expedition (shamelessly stolen from another post).
However, I want him to be working secretly against the best interests of the Brevoy Swordlords, perhaps even working for the Surtova House. I am thinking his motivations will actually be centered on making an alliance of some sort with the bandits in the green belt. I plan to play him as an administrator type sending the PC’s out to do tasks (i.e. explore hexs) while he makes secret meetings with the stag lord’s officers.
Eventually I hope to have the PC’s discover this and take action upon themselves to rise up and lead this exploration, thereby making a name for themselves and earning the right to settle the land.
Some concerns I have.
1.) One PC has a backstory that will play into this a bit. He will be suspicious of the leader from the start. So I need to keep it played down a bit early.
2.) If the party fails to recognize the NPC’s plan, should I just have him killed in a meeting gone bad and let the plot develop from there?
3.) While this will involve some degree of Brevoy politics, I don’t want it to divert the plot back to Brevoy too much.
Any suggestions on how to play this up without being too obvious?
To what end is he making these plans?
Any obvious pitfalls to avoid?
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If you want to give a more cohesive feel to the group, check out the awesome "party origin" concept from Dudemeister here.
Also, I would personally keep the all "NPC boss is a double agent" thing relatively obvious. I know most of my players would respect the implicit contract that the NPC is there to guide them, and would not oppose him if it's not clear he is not on their side.
Have Kressle's group have something that hints toward his involvement. When they raid her camp and go through the bandits' loot, they find their first hint.
Any other bandits they encounter (random encounters, the two dead bandits, etc.) might have more such clues on them as well.
In my campaign the group got a lot of their funding from Brevoy and had links through a non Aldori duelling school there. Varnhold was funded primarily by Aldori Nobles - But Fort Drelev was funded by a bunch of Brevic Nobles who wanted The Slough open for business again. Too much of their profit was being siphoned off when their trade goods passed through Port Ice ....
Now, they are just pleased to have that river trade route reopened, and a bunch of good aligned characters controlling Wyvernstone.
However, your NPC leader could have some Brevic funding, in the hope of protecting the Wyvernstone Bridge area from Aldrori control.
You could have him push the party towards the Varnhold side of the Green Belt, away from the Gnarlewood and the 'treasure ' of Wyvernstone Bridge. Because, if ever there was a place for a town controlling the river - it is Wyvernstone Bridge ....
It needn't be too obvious - and it needn't have too much 'bad' for Restov in it - Just so long as they stay on their side of the Gnarlewood ...
He might push, for example, to use the Old Dwarven Mine (Kobolds) as a place to start building - or even Nettles Crossing (because that bridge controls access across the Shrike River ...
He might even have a deal with Kressle (and any Stag Lord Escapees) that he won't pursue them into the Gnarlewood