Working on a backstory with one of my players, and he decided his stormborn sorceress was abandoned at age two due to the dangerous powers she was already manifesting when under distress. So, she was left in the care of Chask Haladan, and she knows her parents' names but not their whereabouts.
So, I was trying to figure out how I could weave this into the plot and started wondering, what if her true parents are actually Aldern and Iesha Foxglove?
Here are my ideas so far: Iesha was also a stormborn sorceress (which works well with the canonical meeting of Aldern and Iesha in a terrible storm,) although she was never in control of her powers. In fact, in a fit of uncontrolled magic Iesha accidentally killed her own mother. So, when Iesha's daughter (the PC) started manifesting the same "curse", Iesha was scared for her life, and insisted on giving away their daughter, over Aldern's objections.
After Iesha's death, he decides he can finally come back to Sandpoint to try and seek out his daughter. However, Aldern is still suspicious of Iesha's fidelity, so while he knows the PC is Iesha's, he isn't fully sure if she is his, so his probing during the boar hunt is mainly aimed towards trying to determine whether she is a true Foxglove.
Skipping forward, before the PC leaves for Thistletop, Chask Haladan gives her a surprise "present": a kapenia. Iesha left the kapenia with her as a baby, out of guilt about totally cutting the child off from her Varisian heritage. Chask reveals her parents weren't the Chelaxian merchants he told her they were. He doesn't know who her real parents are, but tells her the kapenia could give her the clues she needs to find out. Of course, since Aldern isn't Varisian the kapenia only gives details about Iesha's side of the family. Once the PCs reach Foxglove Manor, along with Vorel's stained glass windows is a newer window in a different style, depicting a child being born in the midst of a storm, with the border of the window matching the kapenia. They had it installed long ago, before giving the child away.
That's what I have so far. Any advice/ideas?
You've got some timeline problems. Iesha and Aldern are only recently married - within the past year. And they are in their twenties at best. So how old is the pc? 16 seems about the youngest it could be. That would mean Iesha and Aldern would have to be much older and have been together for quite some time.
It seems unlikely that a child of theirs could be raised in Sandpoint with Aldern and Iesha as known people - living at the Manor? Even if they spent all that time in Magnimar. Seems highly unlikely who they are and where they are would not have been brought to the girl's attention. If she'd been raised in some place like Korvosa perhaps that would work.
You could try something like this:
Perhaps Aldern and Iesha were married 15 years ago (or whatever makes sense for your timeline), had a daughter but when Iesha got pregnant a second time, Aldern freaked out in a jealous rage. Public story was she died in childbirth but some in town suspect Aldern had a role. He leaves town for Korvosa, leaving the daughter behind. No one talks much about Aldern - it's one of the town's dark secrets. Fifteen years later, he returns to Sandpoint wracked with guilt and begins refurbishing the Manor (a task he had started in the months before Iesha died) trying to get the courage up to reveal himself to his daughter - he tells himself he's rebuilding the manor for her, etc. He falls in with the Brotherhood of the Seven due to financial trouble, etc. etc. etc. The closest he comes to revealing himself is on the boar hunt but he chickens out. You'd have to think some about how to handle his obsession - simple answer might be: he blames the other pc's for taking his daughter away from him. When he turns undead and starts doing things that might harm his daughter it causes Iesha to rise as a revenant (doesn't make as much sense for her to have been a revenant for 15 years, chasing him down for that much time, etc.) You could give the daughter the same power to shut Iesha down as her own image. Or being confronted by her daughter gives Iesha a few minutes of lucidity before she succumbs to her rage at Aldern.
I wouldn't do anything along these lines without the full and knowing participation of the player - this is a pretty horrific "gotcha" reveal. Okay if the pc doesn't know, and other players don't know, but the sorceror player should be in on it.
You are right that I'll have to rework the timeline. The PC will be 18, so I'll have Aldern and Iesha meeting 19 years ago. I wasn't sure about when to place her death - whether it should be very recent, after decades of Foxglove Manor corrupting Aldern's mind, or if she died long ago. If I go with the "recent death" route, I'm also not sure if I want them living in the manor that whole time, or maybe they moved to Magnimar for a while and recently moved back in before her death.
As far as the PC knowing them, I'm not sure if that's such a problem - even if she has heard of the Foxgloves, she still would have no idea they were her parents. After all, she believes she knows her parents names, and is unaware Chask just used the names of random merchants he once met to get her to stop asking. Even if Aldern came to town, he would have taken pains to avoid the PC, out of fear of upsetting Iesha.
I like your idea about "rebuilding the manor for her." That's a nice touch.
About your last point, I am a little concerned about the "ethics" of surprising the player with this. On one hand, I feel like I'd be giving away too much of the plot and mystery if I did tell him. On the other hand, it is a lot to spring on someone.
I'd appreciate more opinions about whether it would be wrong to spring this on an unsuspecting player.
Alternatively how about Alderns sibling - would that have the same effect? it would obviate the need to mess with timelines. an unwanted bastard?
I would be reluctant to spring this entirely out of the blue on the player -but a "how would you feel about a very dark secret (with potentially incestuous overtones) as part of your background?" should cover it without needing spoilery details.
About your last point, I am a little concerned about the "ethics" of surprising the player with this. On one hand, I feel like I'd be giving away too much of the plot and mystery if I did tell him. On the other hand, it is a lot to spring on someone.
I'd appreciate more opinions about whether it would be wrong to spring this on an unsuspecting player.
That's going to be very situational. I've had players who would love to have this kind of surprise dropped on them - and I've had players who would hate it.
You know your players better than any of us would.
But you could always probe without giving the details. "I've got some ideas about your character's history that would tie it in nicely to the campaign. It may involve some surprises, and may change some of what you believe you know about your own history - how open to that are you?"
It might even be worth doing a survey of your entire party, just so it doesn't leave the one player looking for the specific hooks.
I've had pretty bad luck with secretly reworking the campaign to include hidden backstory stuff about PCs. You don't know the sorcerer will survive until then, and you don't know if the player will have to drop out for real life reasons. Or even just miss the session where you planned to do the big reveal.
Your players might be more reliable than some of the groups I've played with, but I've seen it done pretty clumsily. Stuff like that works well in the Adventure Zone or radio drama. Not as well in a game.
You are right that I'll have to rework the timeline. The PC will be 18, so I'll have Aldern and Iesha meeting 19 years ago. I wasn't sure about when to place her death - whether it should be very recent, after decades of Foxglove Manor corrupting Aldern's mind, or if she died long ago. If I go with the "recent death" route, I'm also not sure if I want them living in the manor that whole time, or maybe they moved to Magnimar for a while and recently moved back in before her death.
As far as the PC knowing them, I'm not sure if that's such a problem - even if she has heard of the Foxgloves, she still would have no idea they were her parents. After all, she believes she knows her parents names, and is unaware Chask just used the names of random merchants he once met to get her to stop asking. Even if Aldern came to town, he would have taken pains to avoid the PC, out of fear of upsetting Iesha.
I like your idea about "rebuilding the manor for her." That's a nice touch.
About your last point, I am a little concerned about the "ethics" of surprising the player with this. On one hand, I feel like I'd be giving away too much of the plot and mystery if I did tell him. On the other hand, it is a lot to spring on someone.
I'd appreciate more opinions about whether it would be wrong to spring this on an unsuspecting player.
Ah, I had not understood the pc would have false names for her parents and would have no clue that they were Aldern and Iesha. That Aldern and Iesha continue to live in the area or visit or are otherwise known in Sandpoint without so much as a "how's it going?" is just wicked cold. Yet, your idea is entirely in keeping with one of the subtexts of the 1st four books of the AP: Horrible Parenting 101.
Father Tobyn may have been a good priest but he was a lousy father. If your adopted daughter carries on with a Varisian ne'er-do-well, gives birth to a Lamashtu perversion and comes to hate herself and you so much she locks you in your temple and burns it to the ground and then goes on be a cleric of Lamashtu who seeks to burn the entire town in sacrifice to become a succubus... Yea, you get an F- on the parental grade sheet.
Lonjiku Kaijitsu - has a stepson who he brutally ostracized and a daughter who can't stand his overbearing crap. They both either hate or seriously despise him (perhaps because he killed their mother a fit of jealous rage!) The stepson goes out of his way to kill Lonjiku in a Mansonesque slaughterfest that costs several of Lonjiku's employees their lives as collateral damage.
Foxglove family - each generation here appears to be in a competition to see who can do more psychological damage to their children.
Vorel: wants to be a lich, builds a manor to publicly and visibly celebrate that process and moves his family right in. Because really, what could possibly go wrong?
Traver: family owns a dilapidated and haunted manor house with creepy crap visible in literally every room. Moves his family right in and promptly triggers a murder-suicide for his kids parents. That they get to watch.
Aldern: originally just a homicidal husband who falls in with the wrong crowd, becomes an undead monster that spreads a ghoul contagion among the farmers of Sandpoint and sacrifices people to bring the most powerful and evil wizard Golarion has ever seen back to life. And now, Iesha previously just an innocent bystander has become a callous self-absorbed witch who cast her daughter aside when she demonstrated the same innate magical aptitude she possesses. And did nothing about it for 18 years. Congratulations, Aldern and Iesha, you win!
But it doesn't stop at Book 2:
Mammy Graul: I'm not the best parent but I'm pretty sure incest and raising your dead sons as zombies to decorate your bedroom is not ok.
Jaagrath Kreeg: Neither is deliberately maiming your in-bred son because he's better looking than you are.
And lastly, the Kavarvatti clan of Stone Giants: because if a child of yours is born with physical limitations, the right thing to do is to exile him into the barren wastes where the only thing he'll find are ancient, corrupting ruins of a time when your people were slaves of Runelords and Rune Giants. Yea, that's going to work out for you big time.
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Ah, I had not understood the pc would have false names for her parents and would have no clue that they were Aldern and Iesha. That Aldern and Iesha continue to live in the area or visit or are otherwise known in Sandpoint without so much as a "how's it going?" is just wicked cold. Yet, your idea is entirely in keeping with one of the subtexts of the 1st four books of the AP: Horrible Parenting 101.Spoiler:{. . .}{. . .}
Vorel: wants to be a lich, builds a manor to publicly and visibly celebrate that process and moves his family right in. Because really, what could possibly go wrong?
My new thought is that Iesha is still alive and held captive by Ironbriar in order to extort Aldern. So Aldern is doing the bidding of the Brothers of the Seven not because he's broke and in debt to them, but rather because they are threatening Iesha's life.
Having the mother still alive will hopefully soften the blow of learning her father is Aldern. But, it will be interesting, because the mother is also the one who originally sent her away, so the reconciliation could go many different ways.
I'll have Iesha be a cousin to Risa Magravi, as Risa is the one who placed the PC under Chask's care originally. Risa is the only one who knows the PC's parentage, and swore a blood oath to her cousin Iesha that she would never tell.
Here's a letter from Aldern to the PC. He'll be holding the letter when they originally meet and during the fox hunt, but he won't deliver it - they'll only find it on his body once they kill him at Foxglove Manor.
Dear Reisa,
If you are reading this, then I haven’t had the courage to tell you in person. I know you have probably heard stories about who your parents are… none of them are true. The truth is that you are my daughter, a noblewoman by birth and by right, Lady Reisa Foxglove. I know this must come as quite a shock. I can’t count the number of times I’ve wanted to tell you, but I was bound by a promise I made to your mother. But please, do not judge her too harshly for this - although I know those words must ring shallow to your injured heart.
You see, you and your mother share a common condition. Like you, the magic of the storms and skies runs deep through her veins. Like you, these powers were unpredictable, out of her ken and control. Like you, her rages could have ruinous arcane effects… and there lies the root of the problem. You see, when your mother, Iesha, was just 9 years old, she flew into a rage against her own mother, your grandmama Minditsa. Your grandmama died that day from the wounds your mother inflicted on her, a terrible accident, a tragedy that haunts her every day of her life. And all of that row was over a broken toy, something so stupid, with consequences that last a lifetime, if not well longer.
So you may now have started to gather on why we sent you away. It was too great a risk to your mother, too perilous to hold you too close when you might, on some unknown hour of some unknown day, wreak the same tragedy on Iesha that she wrought on your grandmama. And so we made the hardest decision of either of our lives. I can’t for the life of me tell you it was the right decision, but it was the decision that we made, and once made that we stood by with granite steadfastness. For we reasoned it was better for you as well - better to live with someone who may teach you to control your magic, and make peace with it. Your mother’s gifts were always repressed, buried away in the deep recesses of her soul, and there lay in wait to explode in violent fits of temper. Your mother was always honest with herself, and she knew she could never model to you a healthy cooperation with the stormblood that rages inside you. She knew she could never look upon your use of the powers and not see the dying gasps of her mother. She knew she could never see the stormblood as anything but a curse. So it goes.
We missed you. We missed you so dearly. I beg you, never think we made this decision lightly. We knew we would never have the strength to make this decision again and continue to live, which is why we never bore another child. You are the sole heir to the Sandpoint Foxglove estate.
Now, you must wonder why I am revealing all of this, finally. It pains me to spring on you now that your mother is in grave danger. There is a secret society whose association with our family goes back longer than your grandfather’s grandfather. They are known as the Brothers of the Seven, and they are powerful and cruel. They need a task of me, a task which I refused, and so they took her. They say they’ll kill her should I not follow through. I fear what will happen if I succumb to their extortion, and fear even greater what will happen should I vex them. Should I bring them the horrible specimen they desire, I fear for all of Golarion. Should I not, I fear for Iesha, and for myself… and for you, should they find out of your existence. Gods be cursed, I don’t think there is any despicable action they wouldn’t sink to should I defy them. It tortures me to even think that they could wrap up an innocent in this vile business, but that is how the Brothers operate.
Gods, I know how brutal this all must sound. Your parents who abandoned you show up a decade and a half later to tell you that your life may be in mortal jeopardy because of their dubious associations. Gods be cursed.
Lastly, there is a bit of business you should know about. Should you discover that Iesha and I have passed on, travel to the Estate Office in Magnimar. You are registered there, Lady Reisa Foxglove, as our trueborn heir. They will see to your inheritance. Despite the ceaseless costs of trying to keep up the manor house, I hope you will find enough there to keep you quite comfortable.
I wish I knew how to end this. I’m sorry.
Yours,
Aldern Foxglove