Age of Worms Spoilers ahead. Spoilered just in case, since this is in regards to a PbP I'm running on this very forum.
Only, I noticed something. This PC (a dwarf) was a runaway from Greysmere, the dwarven city a few days from Diamond Lake. She had big family issues. She left about thirty years ago. And she can't accept fault for anything, meaning she might not accept death "lying down".
Erip is an awful lot like Alastor. So then I got my idea: Why not replace them?
It's a Play-By-Post, so it'll be an easy matter to have the player play Erip's ghost when the time comes. She can request that her body be returned to her family, along with the body of the mad slasher she "slew".
Only, there's one problem. While the adventurers are in the chamber chatting with Ghost Erip, down below, some thieves (Kullen and his band) are making off with those very same corpses. They heard from Khellek, Tirra and Auric (who are in the area) about injured wolves near the Whispering Cairn, and decided, hey, probably some corpses to be had. They may assume the dwarf is an old corpse, since it'll have been a day or so and she got burned by acid.
The adventurers can then track the thieves to the farmhouse, where they find more robbed graves and the adventure pretty much goes normally after that.
I haven't asked the player yet, but I'm pretty sure he'll be happy for a chance to give Erip a chance to actually be important. Poor dwarf never got to shine.
TL;DR: I'm replacing Alastor with a dwarf.
My questions to you all are: Do you see any holes in this scenario? Will this switch have any consequences further down the road?
One potential issue I saw: Erip's body will take a few days to reach his family. My solution: The body being delivered to the Greysmere Covenant would be enough for Erip to rest in peace.
I'm also a little worried the party will take the body back to Allustan before they've lit all the lanterns, which would mean no chance of Kullen stealing it.
My plan is to prevent this issue by ensuring they have access to enough restorative magic to keep them from needing to just go home and refresh. It's a fine line I'll have to walk, but worth it if it works.
Other than missing out on the fun of the owlbears, that seems like a pretty good solution.
I think the owlbear encounter can still happen, since the bodysnatchers did still drop by the farmhouse to take the bodies there.
The nice side effect is an easy justification for encounters being scaled up at Filch's (since it's a six-man party).
Yeah, the player wasn't interested. I think he assumed I was just doing this to "go easy" on him by inserting an Erip-centric sidequest.
Oh well...