Connecting the dots: Trying to make a PC backstory fit the AP

[GoblinMaster]

A character in my game has died recently. The new character this player rolled up is a Dwarf Inquisitor of Torag from Janderhoff. This character has tracked a suspicious individual whom he believes committed sacrilege in the Torag Temple there. This wild goose chase has led him all the way from Janderhoff to Saindpoint,

The story so far: The PCs have successfully routed Nualia and are beating down ghouls in the hunt for Aldern Foxglove AKA Your Lordship. Given the sacrilegious nature of the Skinsaw murders this Dwarf now intends to assist the party in hopes that it will help him find his culprit.

Where I need help: I need to find a character within the contents of this book or otherwise who can serve as the runaway defiler so that justice may be served. As I have not read in depth beyond chapter two, I can't pinpoint a good villain to fill this role. Are there any characters in the later portions of this AP who may potentially fill this villainous role in order to keep the Inquisitor interested in sticking it out with the party?

[JohnHawkins]

There are the Lamia's in Book 2 and 3, or you could use Mokmurien the giant looking for some lost Thassalonian Lore there. Or if none of those are suitable and they are not a good fit make up a new NPC and have him working for Karzoug in Xin-Shalast

[Bellona]

Depending upon how much time you plan on elapsing between books 2 and 3, it could be Kaven Windstrike. If he's arrested in Magnimar's jurisdiction, the authorities there could demand that he be tried in Magnimar - and an Inquisitor of a lawful deity like Torag would most likely acquiesce. The sentence: life (or something just as long) with the Black Arrows at Fort Rannick.

Note: I'm AFB at the moment, so I can't remember what reason Kaven had for joining the Black Arrows. But if there's enough time to make Kaven's part of book 3 work (a few months at the very least), then that would be an interesting backstory/connection.

[tonyz]

How about having the assassin be someone else influenced by Karzoug (nothing says his reach has to be limited to Varisia) and using the Sihedron rune to mark his victims? That gives the character something to keep going, even after the lamias get killed.

[Karolina Dean]

So this is much, much later in the AP, so if you want this to be relevant RIGHT now you should use the other great suggestions here.

But in book 6, the Vekker brothers, whose notes lead the party to Xin Shalast, are dwarves from Janderhoff. If you haven't read that far ahead, they discovered Xin Shalast while setting up a gold mine in the area. They came back to Janderhoff and sought investors to help them start getting loots from Xin Shalast. Unfortunately, as outlined in the Spires of Xin Shalast, horrible disaster befell them and they died. Meanwhile, all the dwarves in Janderhoff hate them because their investments disappeared. Most people assume they were swindlers that got away with it.

One of the principle beliefs of Torag is that you must be true to your word, so you could construe this as sacrilege, especially if you tweak this so that the Vekker brothers borrowed directly from the Temple of Torag.

The main problem with this idea is that you might not want to be tipping your players towards Xin Shalast just yet. You can fix this by making it more vague, that the Vekkers only claimed to have found an "ancient Thassilonian dungeon filled with gold". This makes sense from their perspective since it would attract unwanted attention that they found a lost city. It also ensures your players don't get distracted from the main AP at hand to go seeking Xin Shalast prematurely.

The main problem here is keeping him on the trail AND with your PCs. Perhaps the Foxgloves (or Ironbriar) were investors too? Maybe... they even got a small trinket out of it? (A small Thassilonian vase or something, with the Rune of Greed inscribed on it.) You could then have the Foxglove lead branch off to a number of red herrings, to keep the PC as busy as necessary. Maybe get the PCs thinking the Vekkers worked for Karzoug, or Mokmurian.

When the time is right, you could set it up so that the Inquisitor pc is the one who finds the information from the handout from Redwing on their own, rather than getting it from Brodert Quink, through their investigation. This will reveal that the Vekkers didn't just find a Thassilonian dungeon, but Xin Shalast itself! Played right, it will feel almost like destiny, obviously this Torag inquisitor was meant to meet your party and get embroiled in all this conflict, because both roads lead... to the spires of Xin Shalast.[/dramatic]

[Misroi]

What was the sacrilegious act that the person committed in Janderhoff? That might give us some ideas as well.

[winddrake]

I would create a new NPC that has an association with one of the Lamia's in the end of the Skinsaw Murders or under the influence of the patron running the pleasure barge in the next module for Assault on Hook Mountain.

As the great threats to Sandpoint get revealed, the inquisitor should want to stick around. The early mods are dripping in Lamashtu cults and demon worship, and those are easy hooks to keep the character around. I would also work with the player to establish some sort of personal connection to the region, a source or contact that they've worked with in the past that you can leverage to keep the player around. Either Father Zanthus who heads up the Sandpoint Cathedral, or some other local, maybe the ranger?

[GoblinMaster]

Thank you all for your ideas! It seems that the player has established his own NPC for the sacrilegious act. A corrupted dwarven priest, and former love interest, named Gretchen. Seems that some sort of Duergar curse had her murder the clergy and defile the temple. Now she's on the run, so I'll just have to place her into the campaign somewhere.

[winddrake]

If your party ever needs xp to help round out their levels before starting a new mod, I would use this NPC to help with that. You could make one or two sessions about hunting her down and bringing her to justice.

I would use the duergar curse a mis-representation of a runewell. Work with the player to settle on some of the details, but I would say when Gretchen was off somewhere, perhaps some pilgrimage, the same surge of power that activated the Sandpoint Runewell, was invoked around the same time, or maybe it was another one feeding off the Catacombs of Wrath well.

I would use the ranger NPC introduced in Burnt Offerings to bring tidings of the NPCs activities to the PCs, and hopefully after concluding that plothook, the inquisitor will remain with the party.

[Ckorik]

Well you could take the really easy route...

Make his target Shaz "Redshift" Bilger (and make Bilger a dwarf for that matter) whose remains they find in the skaveling nest under the misgivings....