re-using final bosses of book 1

[JankInTheTank]

spoilers of course

Any good stories of using the two captured and mind-controlled people from the end of book 1? they escaped in the final confrontation with the PCs, but I'm having trouble thinking of interesting ways to have them stir up trouble in book 2.

I'm thinking of three options, but I think they are mostly mutually exclusive so i need to choose one now.

1. the party finds Eliza while wandering in the island. either as a random encounter replacement or inside one of the ruins. I'm considering toning down the blast shadow encounters (especially the trap) and putting her in there. she acts friendly in this case, claiming to have hidden from her controller long enough to shake free from the compulsion. she acts as another source tryign to nudge the PCs towards killing off the hag. assuming she wins back their trust, I may have to fin a way to use her in book 3 as well.

2. the party finds both of them in the woods, and they are hostile. likely set up as an ambush after the PCs start acting suspicious of the other goings on in the village. this is the elast interesting option but involves a combat and wraps it up tightly.

3. Eliza ditches or kills Rayland, uses Alter Self to hide the skin condition and tries to worm her way back into the colony. happens while the PCs are busy on a side quest and when they return they find that Eliza is in town and has been accepted back in by many townsfolk with open arms. she helps sow seeds of distrust in the village, and joins in the fighting in the finale of book 2. this seems harder to pull off, as the PCs might just kill her on sight, bu could end upw ith some really fun RP as they try to convince the town not to trust the woman, while several well-liked and influential people in town argue very strongly for giving her a second chance at letting her prove herself.

Would love to hear about other games where the dou survived and what you did with them

[MadProphetDakar]

My players absolutely wrecked that encounter and managed to catch both Eliza and Rayland alive- but I had a group of Skum ambush them while carrying the unconscious bodies down the coast, and the Skum managed to carry off Eliza. That left Rayland, who I played as knowing nothing about what had happened to him, the group consensus ended up being that Eliza had mind controlled him, either for her own ends or in service to some other master (they didn't really click about how important the "prisoner" recordings were).

So now Rayland is a friendly NPC, the domination having worn off. He's not very well trusted in the colony, due to his appearance and his attacks on the party. But Ramona trusts and looks to him as an advisor, while the PCs sympathise with him after helping him break the holds on his mind.

As for Eliza, I'm thinking of bringing her back for the big Talmandor's Bounty fight at the end of Book 2. My players just last session exposed the very early stages of the Faceless Stalker infiltration, killing the ones posing as the fisherman and Alba the alchemist, while Thanaldhu got away. I did manage to have one Faceless Stalker point the finger of blame at Helektherie before he died, ominously naming her with the implication she sent him and his kind. So my hope is that the PCs will hunt down Helektherie and the Faceless Stalker attack will still be something of a shock when I run it as an all out assault. Putting Eliza in there as part of the attack should tie up the loose end and confirm that they're all serving the same master.

I like your idea of having her be quietly in league with the faceless stalkers and messing with the colony up til the big reveal, for the same reasons, I think it would give the same ah-hah.....oh f+~& feeling that I'm going for haha