Can someone help me with this question? It is probably answered in the module, but I either forgot or completely missed it.
Why don't the Frozen Shadows or Kimandatsu just kill Ameiko? Instead she is kidnapped. Is this to ensure she is the last heir or to get information from her?
Thanks for the help.
Yea I hit the same question.
I ended up tweaking some things to have it make more sense.
Details below.
Basically I had a number of different caravans arrive at the same general time (over 2 weeks). The Frozen shadows have no idea which caravan has the heir in it, and with Karlsgard being a huge trade town they just can't kill all the caravans when they get to town.
Obviously the caravans all got hit on their way in, (the first combat encounter) but that has just been attributed to raiders.
The frozen shadows end up trailing all the caravan crews trying to figure out which is the heir.
Also I didn't both with the kidnapping of Ameiko as the players never pushed the notoriety high enough to get to that event.
That is a great idea, but my problem is:
Ameiko is already kidnapped and in the custody of the Frozen Shadows!
Some options:
They don't know who she is; they've got bad information. Maybe they are under the impression that one of the PCs is the heir to the throne.
They're more interested in getting hold of the seal than they are in Ameiko, since the seal can create new scions.
They want to get all the scions in one go - they're using Ameiko to get to the PCs.
They're planning a complicated death for her which will turn her into an undead creature and make her impossible to resurrect.
Some options:
They don't know who she is; they've got bad information. Maybe they are under the impression that one of the PCs is the heir to the throne.
They're more interested in getting hold of the seal than they are in Ameiko, since the seal can create new scions.
They want to get all the scions in one go - they're using Ameiko to get to the PCs.
They're planning a complicated death for her which will turn her into an undead creature and make her impossible to resurrect.
Nice, thanks Matthew.
what i did
A few thoughts:
- They don't know precisely if Ameiko is the true heir, or if she's an innocent Varisian. If they were prepared to bring down the heat by murdering a lot of innocent people in Kalsguard, they'd have already done so. If Ameiko turns out to be the innocent daughter of rich Tien Lord Such-and-Such who can hire dangerous assassins to take revenge, oops!
- For all the oni know, the PCs have access to True Resurrection (in fact, they have access to Resurrection through the Seal, so it's not very far fetched.) Killing Ameiko makes it easier to rescue her for the PCs!
- She's to be sent back to Minkai for a public execution as a traitor to further establish the Jade Regent's rule and crush rebel hopes.
- They're torturing her for information to find out who all the scions are and what their plans are (including their crossing of the Crown of the World). If you want to add some impact to this, you can have Ameiko have an eye taken out or a hand removed for some semi-permanent consequences. Better, you could have her lose a body part each day the players invade and flee Ravenscraeg, creating a sense of urgency. This sort of depends how gritty you want your game - for a non-gritty option, they've simply being interrogating her with Zone of Truth spells and the like.
Or just have them kill her. The body is left in Kimandatsu's prisons - they're planning to feed it to the wolf but he ate one of the ninjas and isn't currently hungry. The PCs have to find her remains and use the seal to bring her back.
Or just have them kill her. The body is left in Kimandatsu's prisons - they're planning to feed it to the wolf but he ate one of the ninjas and isn't currently hungry. The PCs have to find her remains and use the seal to bring her back.
Is there anything you can do that prevents an NPC from being eligible for resurrection?
Render their body unrecognisable by cremating it and then scattering the ashes?
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- They're torturing her for information to find out who all the scions are and what their plans are (including their crossing of the Crown of the World).
Likewise, Kimandatsu might know that Ameiko is a true heir of Amatatsu, but she doesn't know Ameiko's family history as the daughter of Lonjiku, who miraculously survived the shipwreck that the Frozen Shadows thought had killed him. No, their best guess about Ameiko would be that she is from a second unnoticed branch of the Amatatsu family. Does she have parents, brothers, sisters, or cousins that the Frozen Shadows need to wipe out, too? Kimandatsu will want to torture or bespell that information out of Ameiko.
On the other hand, in my game Kimandatsu would have been more interested in keeping the Amatatsu heir alive for her own plans. (I say "would have" because the party stopped the Frozen Shadows' attempt to kidnap her. The party went to Ravenscraeg to rescue Ukshakka and Ulf.)
The ogre mage Kimandatsu was sent by the Five Storms to lead an insignificant outpost of ninjas far from the main events in Minkai. If she kills the Amatatsu, how will her situation improve? Instead, she would want to keep the Amatatsu heir as a bargaining chip with the leaders of the Five Storms.