I thought I would split this out from the Book 4 GM thread as it is a bit of a tangent
I am hoping to add a side mission tied to one of my characters into book 4. However I came up with this before properly reading book 5 and am worried about some of the overlap.
So, the context:
One of my players made an Ex-Red Mantis assassin who was sent to kill someone from Kintargo but in the process of going to kill this person at the Opera House the individual saw him, knew what was going to happen and just invited him to watch the opera before killing him. After the opera the character had fallen in love with both the opera and the mark
So this story does not address:
- why the mark was the target of the Red Mantis (who took out the contract and why)
- why upon non-completion of the mission someone else wasn't sent to kill him
- why upon non-completion of the mission someone wasn't sent to kill the PC who failed to carry out his contract
Now I wanted to make this guy secretly a villain. He is professor at the academy and I wanted to make him a vivisectionist.
(My original idea was also to make him a Mantis member with the archetype that turns you into a mantis but I have dropped this idea)
So the idea would be that he is an anathema to the Red Mantis due the non acceptance of death thing (I would have him make Flesh Golems and perhaps Necrocrafts etc.)
Now the problem comes is that when I thought of this I hadn't read far enough ahead to know that Mangvhune comes back in Book 5. I worry that things could get a bit repetitive.
That said I did kind of think that between Wex and my NPC you have the two main aspects of the professor - Experimentation and serial killing.
What do people think? Would it be a bit much to have another shady professor in the same AP?
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As to the actual mission - that is kind of why I have been trying to find something to use as an Alabaster Academy map. I don't want it to be obvious that this is completely homebrew.
My initial thought is that early encounters would be in the main Academy where I will put Hell Knights on the door, higher level redactor monks inside and perhaps some murderous plants due to the nature of the university (but most plants seem to be too low CR for Book 4)
Then underneath I would have my NPC professor and allies. I like trying to tie characters to deities but I wasn't sure if a Vivisectionist would be Norgorber, Urgathoa or Zon Kuthon. Leaning towards one of the first two
(I think curse of the crimson throne Urgathoa temple could work as an underground map)
As to non deity specific things I was thinking:
- Flesh Golems (although their vulnerabilities to fire and ice are crippling at this kind of level)
- Necrocrafts (but I might need to make some unique ones because the ones in the rules are very low CR and rubbish)
- Grave Robbers : brothers from the Book 2 gangs. Amazingly the player who this revolves around is obsessed with trying to impress these guys for some weird reason so I kind of want to run this mission just for that. I came up with some Cad Fighters using shovels as improvised weapons and specializing on dirty tricks that are amazing de-buffers (and not far off of something I have wanted to play myself)
- (Someone elsewhere on this board suggested having Red Caps as murderous assistants which could be fun)
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So that is my current idea. There is scope that I could also put Hetamon here and remove that mission for this
I would be interested to know people's thoughts and opinions - primarily on the potential clash with Book 5 and the actual Professor
Not sure I 100% understand here, but here's my initial thoughts:
1) Having this side mission take place in book 4 seems a little strange considering the Song of Silver is focused on liberating Kintargo and battling Barzillai Thrune and co. But it's not that much different than the whole Silver Star escapade.
2) This still seems really similar to the end of book 5. And also as best I can tell kind of comes out of nowhere unless you've done more setup than you've mentioned.
3) Personally I'm not a huge fan of making NPC's that my PC's care about secretly murderous psychopath villians, but you know your group better than mine.
4) As for a murderous deity, introducing Urgathoa out of nowhere seems weird. Also there being a secret undeath laboratory beneath the Academy and an unrelated serial killer demon lair is... kind of crowded?
5) In regards to the Red Mantis questions:
They'll take out a contract on anyone who isn't a rightful monarch. So the reason can be anything you want, but if this guy is as nasty as you've described he'd clearly have made some enemies. But it really depends on who the mark is.
As for their tenacity, I copied from the wiki:
"Once the Red Mantis have accepted a contract, they will stop at nothing until their target is dead."
Unless they believed that the contract was fulfilled (and they have access to divination magic) they'd keep sending more and more powerful assassins. And if they realized that your PC had abandoned his brethren, they'd no doubt come after him too with the same determination. The fact that this hasn't happened means they must not know.
That's my two cp anyway.
Thanks. I appreciate this was a little confusing without full context and tried to touch on too many areas!
Yeah my player kind of boxed me in with an unrealistic story to justify playing a blood Kineticist (as he wanted to play an assassin that wasn’t a rogue type - allegedly)
I agree it kind of seems like the silver star side escpade
My thoughts that it was accidentally too similar to the end of book 5 means I will probably drop it. I will not make the NPC evil as it will probably be more surprising
I had this NPC elevated to head of Alabaster with the idea that he commissioned it but it can instead be some plot to force him into the public eye and therefore have the mantis finally find out he is not dead and send assassins after him
Instead I might just have a thing where he is held in there by some redactors as I think those guys should come back and not be book 1 only
(Perhaps I will keep the vivisectionist part but just make him misguided and only using bodies recovered by the body snatcher brothers rather than a full cult)
Further - Your steer on the red mantis not officially knowing helps me with my other dilemma of repetitive skinsaw cultists
I can now have skinsaw cultists and red mantis assassins after the group / rebellion for some variety
I hope my post didn't come off as too critical, I was pretty tired when I wrote it.
Having some time to think on it, I like the idea that the mark character is sort of gray morality wise, doing research that a lot of people would find distasteful and unethical. Maybe he fled from another more prestigious institution to the Alabaster Academy after he realized there was a price on his head?
I'd have the Red Mantis assassins focus on the PC and the mark, and only attack the other party members if they interfere. Also to further differentiate them from the skinsaw cultists I'd send only one or two powerful assassins at a time. You might even send a blood kineticist that mirrors your PC.
As for the redactors, there's two mentions in book 4 of redaction: one in the temple and one in the records hall. You might replace the standard priests and inquisitor troop with redactors of some kind.
Personally the fact they were monks made no sense to me. If I ran the AP again I'd make them inquisitors.