Needless to say, big spoilers for upcoming modules that I have gleaned from reading the summaries.
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Boop. Still here?
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Paizo seems to be hitting the correct spots in making HV their version of Way of the Wicked, from just the short blurbs about what happens in later modules, The Moral Event Horizon has been excruciated and with this, Thrune has pretty much become, imo, the Golorian version of North Korea merged with Hell. This being the case I believe that this is a clear sign that it will be time to shut the lights off, put the chairs on the tables and lock the door behind you as any chance of Thrune held Cheliax becoming 'better' is over.
Something that has been brought up in regards to Council of Thieves is that the PCs need to be heros and save Westcrown from itself instead of high tailing it for Andorian and if you give up, then 'they win.' While this works for superhero stories, where sticking to your beliefs will cause the bad guys to blink, this isn't that kind of story. I'll use Dragonlance as an example
In the Dragons/Twins series, MC Tanis Half-Elven has an old lover named Kitaria who has thrown in her lot with the Dragon Highlords and her right hand is the Death Knight Lord Soth. Soth makes it clear to Kitaria that he desires her which freaks her our. In the Twins trilogy, Kitaria is mortally wounded by Raistlin's apprentice and she knows Soth is coming to claim her, so she begs Tanis to protect her by asking the gods a favor(Tanis is owed from what is implied) Soth comes and tells Tanis he will kill him if he doesn't step aside. Tanis says Soth won't have Kitaria. Soth and Dalamar(Raistlin's apprentice) tell Tanis that Kitaria only loved herself and made her choice long ago. Would Tanis throw away his entire life and new love for that? Tanis stepped aside.
Now, no doubt many people would say that Tanis gave up and abandoned her and he'll now abandon anyone. In a comic series, this would be true, but in Dragonlance, staying put would see Tanis dead and losing everything while Kitaria escapes over his corpse.
So, considering what will be going down later in the AP, this looks to be that situation. Her Highness is Kitaria and has said 'No.' to you know, not doing all of that. So it is time for even the Heroes of Westcrown, if they made their effort to save Westcrown from itself, to pack up and leave, bringing those they can with them because now that Thrune's eye is turn to them, it will be bad times all over.
What?
TL;DR
Thrune can be written off of any attempts to 'save'. The only way Cheliax can be made better is by rooting Thrune out root and branch.
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You can always move to Kintargo. ;)
Thrune getting redeemed was never really in the cards as intended, from what I can tell.
Frankly, I don't see anything we could've done differently.
Rather obvious. More like 'Thrune stops being so crazy pants like Kim Song Il from North Korea and at least pretends to care.'
Abby: Really, Thrune controlled Cheliax reminds me of N.Korea, read up on fun stuff like 'Let thousands starve and perhaps even turn to cannibalism so His Lordship can watch American horror movies.'
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You can always move to Kintargo. ;)
please see eighth proclamation.
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Rather obvious. More like 'Thrune stops being so crazy pants like Kim Song Il from North Korea and at least pretends to care.'
Abby: Really, Thrune controlled Cheliax reminds me of N.Korea, read up on fun stuff like 'Let thousands starve and perhaps even turn to cannibalism so His Lordship can watch American horror movies.'
I'm honestly not letting real world problems invade escapism. I'm just here to make jokes, you're certainly more than welcome to, and I'm sure you have fun.
Just not my cup of tea. :-)
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You can always move to Kintargo. ;)please see eighth proclamation.
...okay, I just NOW realized how silly that proclamation is.
I mean, really? REALLY?
How else am I going to get my mint fix?! It's things like these that drive one to take levels in Rogue!
I kinda see N. Korea more in Razmiran than in Cheliax. Granted, I haven't read yet Hells Vengeance, but for me Cheliax is just an evil Monarchy with an evil god as patron. And I think, Cheliax before Thrune for a lot of persons wasn't any better. Because you know, almost Theocratical humancentric Empire with colonialism intentions. Imagine how intolerant and zealous certain people in Cheliax probably were, waiting for their god to come and rule them, and push the empire in the Golden Age. Which could mean in their minds "conquer in holy crusades all the world!" and "God of humankind! Humans First!". It's is understandable why they went mad when Aroden just instead died.
I think you underestimate Cheliax. Its not like North Korea, a small xenophobe country with restricted borders. Its more like Russia. It lost much power, when the USSR broke apart and communism failed. But its still the biggest country, it still controls many ressources and trade routes, it still has a large standing army, with modern weapons and its still very rich.
And with Putin it has an ambitious leader, who is probably cunning enough to expand Russia's influence again.
All of this also applies for Cheliax. When Arodens prophecy failed, they lost much territory and influence. But they are still bigger than any other country in the Inner Sea. They still control the Arch of Aroden, one of the most important strategic point in the region. They still have a large standing army, reinforced by infernal allies.
And Abrogail Thrune II might just be the leader capable enough to make Cheliax as powerful as it was before the civil war.
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In addition to these arguments, let's assume what happens if the Glorious Reclamation somehow wins without Thrune pulling a ragequit button or something. You have a whole bureaucratic system that will collapse because most of the people involved have made deals with devils, are in alliance with them, or probably ping evil hard enough for the paladins not to incarcerate.
Granted, there's a couple well-standing Chelish noblemen that are good aligned, but otherwise Cheliax will collapse, because not only the bureaucracy (and likely communications) will fall, but the resistance pockets will actively make things worse.
You have noblemen that have gotten in so deep with devils that they won't be able to bluff their way out, Hellknights that will be likely angry at the fact that their orders will either suffer a strong decline in influence, slowly pushed out of society if not outright sieged.
And then all the Asmodean demon hunters need to go into hiding because they no longer have a powerful country behind their backs to cover for them from overtly zealous members on the other end of the alignment spectrum. The couple Hellknight orders outside of Cheliax will aim their weapons at the Glorious Reclamation because even if they do not necessarily have a brotherhood pact with other orders, without the main strongholds in Cheliax they will lose influence as well. Stuff happens in Nidal because they can very well figure out that if Cheliax falls, so can Nidal.
To boot, you'll have hundreds of Asmodean priesthood-sponsored orphanages that will either fail or heavily drop in quality of service provided because apparently they are the only orphanages that work effectively.
Yeah, if you take down Thrunes, you open a can of worms. After Thrunes something must be done with Church of Asmodeus, who will certainly try to fill the power vacuum. They at least would try to secure their position in falling country. If GR would try to push against them too, simple war will transform in religious one. And this probably will be fought all across Inner Sea. GR really will make situation worse if they win.
You can always move to Kintargo. ;)please see eighth proclamation....okay, I just NOW realized how silly that proclamation is.
I mean, really? REALLY?
How else am I going to get my mint fix?! It's things like these that drive one to take levels in Rogue!
Be not the Cretin! No mint for you!
Yeah, if you take down Thrunes, you open a can of worms. After Thrunes something must be done with Church of Asmodeus, who will certainly try to fill the power vacuum. They at least would try to secure their position in falling country. If GR would try to push against them too, simple war will transform in religious one. And this probably will be fought all across Inner Sea. GR really will make situation worse if they win.
THat is the problem, the whole place becomes something like the Riverkingdoms with little states all fighting each other.
Orphanages? That is a 'If you kill me, you'll be just as bad as me!" comicbook thing which can be ignored since Joker immunity doesn't apply when adventurers come around(KInda weak as well, 'buy this magazine or I'll kill this dog)
THe whole place is something that can't be solved.