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Hi all,
So, I'm taking my first foray into GM'ing. I figured since the anniversary edition existed for RotR was out, that it would be a good, thorough path to run. After the roughly 4 days it took to read through the book (wow), and skimming the forums, I think I have a sort of handle on things.
The first player sent in his backstory, and looking at it, they wrote something up that sounds scarily like Nualia's backstory. A Sandpoint orphan and an unusual appearance. Part of Nualia's past is that she felt so alone, that she desperately sought love. This being the case, would it make any sense for the PC to have been friends with Nualia? Not to mention the meta-concern of giving the PC a strangely thorough description of a childhood friend who died 5 years ago.
Oh wait, I just realized this player owns the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. He probably already knows the name of the villain of the first act. Hmm.
The backstory:
Name: Melina Veskina
Race: Changeling
Alignment: CN
Born: 4687 AR
Class: Sorcerer (Shadow Bloodline)
Hair: black
Eyes: Amber, Violet (heterochromatic)
Height: 5'
Weight: 115 lbs
Appearance: Melina is a short young woman with strange bright eyes and unusually pale skin. Shadows drift and stretch as she leaves them and her own seems to move of its own accord in the corner of the eye. Her nature gives her a compelling, but otherwordly quality. She wears a light purple coat with an amber butterfly embroidered on the hem, a long slit skirt, leather leggings, and a white blouse. When outdoors during the day she prefers to wear a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off her pale skin.
Background:
Melina is the daughter of Heartless Gretchen, an annis hag who dwells in the Mushfens. Her mother left her with a passing Varisian caravan where she lived for her early childhood. When she heard her mother's call she wandered away from the camp and was snatched up by the hag's coven. When Melina proved unwilling to complete the ritual to become a hag, the hags began performing other spells on her, hoping to use her as a vessel for an otherworldly creature.
After days of ritual, Melina was able to escape and was led out of the camp by a strange butterfly who delivered her to Shalelu Andosana. The elven ranger brought her to safety in Sandpoint where she was fostered and schooled at the academy there.
The rituals unlocked a sorcerous talent and Melina has developed a talent for manipulating shadows and illusions. She's been making ends meet since graduation working as an illusionist. She's become friends with Ameiko at the Rusty Dragon after providing decorations there a few times, as Ameiko's one of the few people in town who doesn't give her odd looks for her strange appearance.
Melina devotes her time and money to learning more about what her mother did to her and what this strange power is. Knowing her birth and what they might have been trying to do, she's terrified of becoming a monster. She resents physical contact and becomes enraged if anyone tries to restrain her or control her, flashing back to her captivity. She considers the butterfly that saved her a sign from Desna and has become a devoted follower of the goddess of luck and travelers. She's venerates Desna for her aspects of freedom and self-discovery, but ignores most of the teachings about generosity and altruism; she's too caught up in her own problems to worry much about anyone who's not a personal friend.
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I first read the title as "Nutella-like PC". I was really looking forward to that conversation. :-)
I can see the conundrum. Being a follower of Desna, it is likely she met Father Tobyn when he was there. I would start with how old is she at the start of game? It could be the two knew of each other but ran in separate circles, as I imagine Nualia being around 17 or 18 at the late unpleasantness five years ago. This way, they would know of the other, but Nualia being mostly shy and perhaps even a bit cold due to her treatment over the years she likely was hard to make friends with herself (just my interpretation of how she would have shut the world out for being cruel to her) and therefore wasn't close with the PC.
I would however play up quite a bit of superstition from the townsfolk (growing up and even today) in how they treat her in town. Make her feel like she's never quite fit in, but that she has enough allies/friends she doesn't ask herself why she hasn't just left for magnimar, or joined an evil cult. Play up the dichotomy of how her reaction to her upbringing is so different from how Nualia reacted to hers. Makes Nualia a sympathetic character later for sure.
Keep in mind that Nualia's history is of being treated as a freak because she was angelic. The PC described here isn't angelic - she's shadow-touched, something the superstitious townsfolk are likely to have viewed quite negatively. Even Father Tobyn might have given in to superstition and wanted her nowhere near his foster daughter; he seems the sort to have derided her supposed connection to Desna, and left her to be raised at the orphanage.
Even if you don't go with that - when I ran this adventure path, one of the PCs was a young paladin of Desna, and protégé of Father Tobyn, who had been one of Nualia's only friends. To explain the gap in time and the end of their friendship, I had him sent off to Magnimar to school as a teen, so he was away from Sandpoint for the 6 years or so prior to the campaign start. (I think most or all the other PCs also went to school in Magnimar, whether their background had them originally from Sandpoint or not. So I could make the town somewhat familiar, but have a reason why none of them knew every facet of the townsfolk.)
One crazy idea would be to remake Nualia into a normal human or even a half-elf. She could be the awkward child of the over-protective town priest (the whole minister's daughter thing) who through neglect, teenage angst and suffering falls into Darkness. Her unusual race is interesting but not all that critical to the key points of the plot. That way the pc's unusual background is more unique to her.
Even without this character's background, you're going to have to face some challenge for any pc who has grown up in Sandpoint. If they are of the right age, such pc's should know both Nualia and Tsuto (in your example, especially Tsuto since he lived in the same orphanage at the same time.)
I'd encourage you to share the history of both characters with your pc's of the right background (meaning the history up until the events of 5 years ago.) This is information any resident of Sandpoint in that timeframe would know - Sandpoint is just not that big. This is a good way to build connections to the world. In other words, don't view that information as secrets the players have to discover or shouldn't know.
This is a good opportunity for a "There but for the grace of the Gods goes I" kind of situation. Play that up a little bit. Have the character try to grab Nualia back but to fail when she declares her ultimate faith in Lamashtu and desire to shed both her human blood as well as her celestial taint, because from her perspective what good are humans or human like creatures?
This being the case, would it make any sense for the PC to have been friends with Nualia?
I don't think Nualia is a very nice person - hence all the murdering... it would make sense to me that Nualia was far too wrapped up in her own 'woe is me, I am too beautiful' thing to think of being friends with another, younger, girl. You could also do it that Tobyn is Chelish, this PC is Varisian and they occupied very different social circles and wouldn't come into contact much; although Nualia did have that Varisian bad-boy...
Wow, thanks for the replies, folks.
His character is 20 when the game starts, and he said they were 12 when they escaped from the hags and came to Sandpoint. Going by CaroRose's estimate, they'd be 5 years apart, so entirely plausible they wouldn't be friends. I'm going to say she heard whispers along the lines of "...a freak like that Nualia girl..."
I'm currently using this timeline: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l1og?Rise-of-the-Runelords-Timeline
Any other NPCs from the Orphanage/Academy? Thanks for the heads-up about Tsuto.
Do Sandpoint locals know that Aldern's manor is named The Misgivings? It looked like that was supposed to be a reveal in the 2nd chapter.
The thread has drifted into some topics that should really come with a spoiler tag in the subject or be behind a spoiler button.
Now, just because it's local knowledge doesn't mean the pc's should be specifically told about it as part of any background or back story (if that's why you're asking.)
If a player is in here reading about Nualia, shame! Shame!
I've seen the Misgivings question before. I plan to treat it as a don't ask don't tell kind of issue that won't appear until 2nd chapter. "You didn't ask, I didn't tell!" They have other things to think about at the time so it's entirely plausible they won't care. Or if they only ask people like the Sheriff or Ameiko, they call it by its proper name vs the nickname.
I planned on whenever someone mentioned the Misgivings for locals to make a sign for Desna to protect them and ward off evil spirits. Sandpoint is often described as a superstitious lot, and I figure that you can get away without spilling the beans yet, while still foreshadowing. I also figured that while someone who grew up in Sandpoint would assuredly know about the haunted house, and the running bet for some brave teen to spend the night in the Misgivings: Aldern had only just returned after spending more than 20 years being brought up in Korvosa, it would be a higher check to figure out that it was also the name for Foxglove manor.
Re the Misgivings, a PC IMC is local, the nephew of Kendra Deverin. I didn't say anything when he met Aldern. On reflection I'm going to do it that only the Varisians know about the haunting rumours or call the old manor that.