So one of my players turned around and asked why we were only fighting against women “bosses”’ in this AP. I had never stopped to think
(I did kind of ask if the same thing would have been asked had it been the other way around)
We are nearing the end of the street war in book 4 :
Scarplume
Nox
Sabo
Luculla
Tiarise
Kyrre
Vanases Trex
First Warden
Rivozair
Zella Zidli
The Gardener (?)
Aluceda Vhol
Hei Fen
Natsiel
Vs.
Barzillai
Corinstian
Lucien Thrune
Cizmekris
And pretty much all the hand picked lieutenants are women. Now I am pretty sure there is something in book 6 from his backstory that explains his relationship with women (especially strong ones)
So would I be right that this is a deliberate choice? And if so it actually makes me tempted to reverse my plan to end at book 4 so we can get that reveal
(But second editions calls so invitingly!)
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I'll try to answer that.
Indeed, the campaign sees a lot of women in a position of power which are either antagonistic to the pcs or can become such. I can also enumerate many female npc (Shersen, Laira, Lady Docur, Blodsoriette, the npcs from Vyre and the elf village). This trend goes however away in book 5 and 6, were we got female npcs but on a more even ratio (of the bosses of book 5, one group is of hags, and another is from slavers guided by a female half orc monk, while the others are monstrous beings).
This is probably due to author's intent, to better express the peculiar and progressive reality of Kintargo (and to be true, of the whole Cheliax) regarding female roles and power. This could also be a way to compensate for the heavy presence of "hell" in this adventure, since until recently Pathfinder's hell was presented as quite misogynistic, while nowadays we get a fair amount of female devils.
This, however, does not lead to a lac of male npc, both helpful and antagonistic. A better build Tombus could have been a long them foil for the Silver Ravens way more than any of Barxillai's underling, as written.
Regarding Barxillai's case, I believe that is also a choice (of the character, yet also from the writers) to have him assisted by an entourage of powerful women who all wear pants, or that cannot be seen by him as feminine. Barxillai got a strong grudge with his (unnamed) mother, and this is reflected on how much he despises what he, as a cheliaxian nobleman, perceive as feminine things, such as luxuries or fine clothing. A theory of mine is that he never went to the Ruby Masquerade in person because he didn't want to subject himself to such environment in the first place.
So, yes: lots of interesting female npcs in position of power. I see no reason to mitigate this, but if your pcs find the situation a bit stressing or repetitive, i would suggest to make Rivozair an entirely different, male dragon (a corrupted bronze dragon with a sad backstory that was becoming blue in my case), and to had a few more npcs, or switch focus over other elements.
For example, in my game I've almost not used Trex, since she was somewhat the same as Lucien, while I've introduced from book 2 a swashbuckler styled vampire from Shadowsquare who was basically Aluceda's first son and that during the first week of the revolutions was preying over the ladies at the school of Lady Docur, who basically was away from the city until book 3 just to keep her students save.
By getting this lad in Shadowsquare, not only the Pcs got an ally in Lady Docur, who otherwise justs shows up in book 3, but also made the conflict with Lady Aluceda quite personal.
I am not seeking to mitigate this more just sharing an observation from my players and cross checking one of the explanations I thought there was
Tombus was built a little more but they always saw his as just a bit of chump. Probably partly related to the fact his name is relatively similar to a U.K. “political figure” who would probably behave in exactly the same way as the character in the book
Also the female ones have been more competent / had chance to come back e.g. Nox teleporting, Sabo beat them up, Hei Fen teleported away...
Tombus just got cut up
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Barzillai is afraid of feminine women; it makes it fairly obvious in book 6. I agree with how Pnakotus Detsujin said it.
One of my players realized this so she had her character show up for the final fight against Thrune wearing an incredibly elaborate evening gown as a way to throw him off and to infuriate him. (It worked)
So Barzillai is clearly as misogynistic jerk. Why so many work for him is something I've had to think about, on both ends, but before I get into that I want to voice my appreciation for so many well-rounded, not overly sexualized powerful female villains. I'll admit that villains interest me more than heroes, but there's a plethora of heroic women in Kintargo too.
I think Barzillai is fine with working with females as long as they are his subordinates. He's no genius, but he's wise enough to know that he wouldn't succeed without them (even if he would never admit it).
As for these dangerous ladies, they've joined his cause for the same reason anyone works with a clear egomaniac. Wealth, power, and freedom to act workout consequences. They're aware Barzillai is a total psychopath but know how to play his ego to get what they want.
If I ran Hell's again I wouldn't change a thing in this regard, especially Rivozair.
There's a lot of women in power in this campaign--from the ex-Mayor, to the old guard Silver Ravens, to important allies (Laria, Lady Docur, the sea elves, Shea Vestori), to female heads to the noble houses (Sarinis, Jarvis, Aulamaxas, Delronge), to the Queen and her negotiator.
I've not had this problem since my table's "Calistria and the Jolly Time Girls representation are sexist" incident, perhaps because I made Tombus into a dojo leader antagonist to the PC monk and had the Queensmen be led by two male Sarinis. That's balanced out the scales sufficiently for my table. It may help that I've ditched most of the Hei Fen stuff, and didn't give much table time to Sabo, Nox, or Luculla Gens, with each just being in a single combat.
Also, Tiarise Izoni and Zella Zdilli being possibly the two best villains I've done at my table was probably important. Aluceda Zhol is going to be a standout one as well.
Tell me more about that last paragraph. :)
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Zella is basically Dolores Umbridge. She took over as Chancellor of Schools for Lady Docur's and Alabaster Academy. The rationale was to restore order after a student protest was turned into a riot by a coordinated attack by the Sarini-led Queensmen. She not only tightened the rules, but also used the spell Mage's Decree to announce them when students were taking tests or giving presentations. (Also, she did a wide variety of pronouncements for the regime, as that spell had a range of 11 miles.) And, as the noted diviner of the regime, she was a threat to the entire Ravens movement. The Magical Child Vigilante with the faerie dragon familiar then institute a campaign of pranks to undermine her authority--think the Weaseley Twins. When she flunked her final exam in Intermediate Elven (a language the character spoke, mind you!), she tried to blackmail her noble parents in return for giving her the passing grade she had barely earned. The Magical Child escalated her tactics, culminating in breaking into her house and replacing her shampoo with hair removal gel. That led to more repression, including interfering with date selection for prom, The Ruby Masquerade. Then the Magical Child investigated her office for information on the use of psychological experimentation on vulnerable students, leading to a one on one fight with Zella in which the office was set on fire. A scandal erupted and Zella got benched by the administration with the PC getting grounded. Then the PCs (sans Magical Child) ambushed her and her bodyguards, capturing, trying her, and imprisoning her.
Tiarise was just a one-off RP in her role at the Records Hall when the monk needed to get legal documents and proper zoning for their monk dojo. She would interrupt herself to talk to entities no one could see in the fifth dimension and have sudden shifts into piercing lucidity. It was off-putting and such a weird contrast of the LE regime that the party is very wary of her. I'm hoping that her next acts--providing documentation to seize lots of property in Old Kintaro through eminent domain and to retaliate against PC businesses by losing their paperwork and seizing them--will complete the journey.
Aluceda Zhol's been interesting thus far. She failed to dominate the party inquisitor at the Ruby Masquerade as she danced with him. She interviewed him, as he's started a heretical Cult of Dubral, a Zon Kuthon Reform movement. She peaced-out for the big event that ends book three, but called various rat swarms as she left by gaseous form. Those were extremely difficult for NPCs to deal with--nobody brings alchemist's fire to a formal occasion! She previously showed up at a Theater of the Real play at the Sarinis during a PC heist that same night, establishing her as a vampire and as the lover of Grivenner. And the party now assumes correctly that she was behind the Soul-bound Doll Summoner 9 that used a manacle swarm to try to take out the cult leaders.
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Thanks, interesting stuff. :) I'll see if I can use any of this.
I'll be looking forward to any posts you might have recounting your table's experiences. I've liked your writing in the past.
Thanks, I'll see what I can do. Running a campaign journal (which I've done privately in German for another group where I am a player) is actually a good bit of time investment. Especially if other people than your friends get to look at it. ^^