"Monstrous" PC's in Ustalav


Advice


Currently, our party in comprised of 1) an elven-descended Aasimar Synthesist summoner[LG] whose eidolon appears as a translucent overlay of a winged, angelic figure; 2) a Half-Copper Dragon human [CG] bloodrager/cleric of Sinashakti; 3) an Undine gunslinger [CN] and 4) a Sylph rogue.

The thought that crosses my mind that in Caliphas, and Ustalav in general, ~85% of people are human, ~7-8% elf, ~7-8% dwarf and 1% other. Those people also tend to be superstitious and prejudiced against foreigners, let alone "monsters." I'm not sure how I should go about having common people respond to this particular group of characters.

The group thus far has been very polite and pleasant with those people they've interacted with, having a diplomancer in the party(synthesist), but, as the GM, I had become largely accustomed to the group interacting in Absalom and had forgotten about how the people in Ustalav would tend to be more cautious and insular.

Do any GM's out there have any advice or ideas on how they would have NPC's respond to/interact with these exceptionally unusual characters?

Liberty's Edge

Well,the Aasimar would definitely be fine. Elves are relatively accepted and aasimar (when recognized) tend to be viewed positively rather than as 'monstrous'.

Undines and sylphs are weird looking, but no more so than many Sorcerers with the right bloodlines, and not in any overtly monstrous ways, so I'd have them get some weird looks and maybe impolite questions, but nothing too horrible.

The Half-Dragon is gonna come in for some fairly serious prejudice, though. That's monster-looking and scary. Now, with the others vouching (especially the diplomancer) that's probably gonna be kept to ugly looks and mumbling for the most part, but people are definitely not gonna like the look of him or her.

Also, as a group, I'd expect them to be viewed as exotic curiosities. Since most of them don't look monstrous or dangerous, they won't be seen as threats, necessarily, but I'd definitely expect some attitudes and comments along the lines of 'Is the circus in town?'.


The frail Str 7, Dex 7, Con 10 aasimar is constantly(all waking hours) covered in a powerful, translucent angel with around Str 19, Dex 15, Con 14. Don't you think that would be at least a bit odd?

Liberty's Edge

Well, yes. But, again, angels are seldom seen as bad. Just weird. So...I'd expect some falling down and worshiping, some demands he fix all their problems, that sort of thing. Nothing someone with high social skills can't handle.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

A few things:
first of all, I would advise anything really dramatic and sudden like the instant formation of lynch mobs. I would also avoid antagonism that would be implausible for the people in question. Remember that even if the monsters WERE evil, they're carrying heavy weaponry and are also encountered with possibly equally as powerful and heavily armed potential professional killers. I would imagine most people would want to AVOID rather than cause trouble with these new strangers. Snide comments and jacking up prices are probably also right out- as that could inspire violence from these unknown walking WMDs. Remember, this is a society where politeness is reinforced by violence- insulting a person(ish)'s honor can get an early ticket to the grave, especially for a peasant.

Instead, I would suggest any hostile/unfriendly reactions would come in the form of (subtle) avoidance and misdirection. People might move to the other side of the street, granting them a wide berth- the streets might empty. Or perhaps coming up with excuses on why the accommodations wouldn't fit them- they might say that the rooms will surely not be up to the standards of a great dragon, for example. Questions from the PCs will be met with somewhat inaccurate or speculative answers that might vaguely give what the monstrous newcomers might want- but mostly just to nudge the characters on their way.

The most overt reactions I think you'd get would come from panicky peasants whom would call for help and run away. Hostile confrontations would mostly only occur when the PCs encounter Farmer Joe on his own property. And the main reason for Pig Farmer Joe to call for his pitchfork and his sons to back him up is mostly for deterrence- a demonstration of force to show the newcomers that there are probably more lucrative targets relative to the chore it might take the PCs to wipe the family defenders out. I doubt that Pig Farmer Joe would truly have the idea in his head that his family could wipe out a unit of seasoned man-killers with unknown supernatural allegiances. But if he can provide enough resistance to signal that massacring the lot of them would be more of a chore than his pigs would be worth, that might just be enough to save his family's lives.

Of course, if something horrible happens in the community, then things might change. As (monstrous) newcomers, they may take the blame. With official reason to organize, then this is where you'll be getting the torch wielding unruly mob. (Especially if you have "monster hunters" that can stoke the flames of villager wrath.) Otherwise, I think the most hostile things the peasantry might do is to silently watch and tell any well-loved monster/witch hunters that come along about these new freaks that came to town.

Of course, not all the reactions need be fear. There may be some awe- especially for the angel-blooded summoner. That could attract a fair amount of awe. Not that this will be entirely positive either- the summoner- especially one that's a diplomancer, may be deluged with requests for help, even for relatively petty things like removing Ma Posey's warts. Particularly superstitious locals may assume a cult of personality around the angel or misidentify the character as some sort of divine representative of the local religion. Besides the confusion and chaos such inaccurate assumptions might give, the attention your angel would receive could tip off the monsters that inhabit the so-called "civilized" communities. For example, I imagine the vampires that rule Caliphas would have some interesting things to say to (or do to) the angel summoner...

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