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As a reminder from the title there will be spoilers for Book 3 of Mummy's Mask so please stop reading if you don't want them.
Also if you're my player's and have discovered this thread, get out! This is to make things more fun, your impending demise is scheduled for later.
So here's the situation. I've done a remarkable job of having Deka An-Keret foil their attempts at getting access to the point the player's have jokingly talked about removing her. My player's are heading to the Dark Depository (third library). They were trying to find it, and ended up asking the curators when I mentioned it as a possibility (also to my surprise). They were going to ignore access, but when asked why they would even needed it I mentioned things like the Ceustodaemon just to inspire some paranoia. So they ended up trying to talk to Deka again, who of course declined and resulted in them asking Muminofrah. One dire crocodile hunt (and murder attempt by the Cult) and they're in.
Now here's where things get tricky. I had Deka readily provide access to the PCs this time at Muminofrah's order as a sign of how well they've done with Muminofrah, hinting that she had a talk with Deka. They had some really good rolls and have gone out of their way to support her. I was trying to reward good roleplaying. This fell out because, not putting 2 and 2 together myself, I had the assassins strike that night as they were leaving the library. DOH!!
Simply put they surmised that Deka hired the assassins before they even started questioning the one they took alive. Also they are seeking revenge a little more zealously than I thought. They interrogated the assassin and I winged it, they found out who the intermediary that hired him was and through some more rolls managed to have the ninja disguise himself as the assassin and collect the payment for their own kill (hey, I was in a panic here!). They are now watching the seedy tavern he used as a base and I had Deka's aide be the one who arranged the assassination and meet with the intermediary for completion of the task. The PCs themselves are currently hiding out in town.
The PCs plans are being discussed, but mostly seems either to blackmail Deka, spy on Deka using the Aide, or simply kill her and hope they can get away with it. I believe they are leaning on the converting the aide to their side right now. I'm looking for ideas on how to proceed. My current thought was to make the aid a high level bard/rogue type with bluff and try to bluff their bluff (too many bluffs there), though I've kind of established her as a cleric already at this point. Any other ideas on how to work this one out?
What do you want to be the outcome? Continuity of gameplay, or continuing repercussions for the players?
If Deka was assassinated, it could either make it very difficult to obtain permission to enter the Vault of Hidden Wisdom (because with no mayor, the city is in an uproar and no administrative decisions are being made), or easier because a quickly appointed replacement may not have the same motive she does to prevent access. You could play it either way.
The same with an aide--they could be pro or con the PCs at your whim. It just depends on what your chosen path is.
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Continuity of gameplay out of those two. Though ultimately I'm trying to get to part 2 of book 3. The players haven't enjoyed the research rules and the only reason I haven't scrapped the system is that they've devoted resources to it and that would actually make them a bit angrier at this point.
Honestly, I didn't consider a successor to Deka. That could indeed give me some ideas on how to proceed and the dice know they would love an opportunity to rig an election (which I'm sure they would if they got away with assassination). Thank you for that idea if nothing else to work with!