| darktemplar45 |
TLDR; running Signal of Screams. I have a PC with a prodigy younger brother, they're both really good to each other, but they're in their cursed and the brother has since been separated from the party. The other players have all had their moments in the AP, "reuniting" with their close friends/family. But I need an interesting encounter to act as their "reunion". However it's the end of the AP and I'm drawing in blank
So set up for this question. I'm running a online game (roll20) of the Signal of Screams AP. It's taken us 8 months but we're finally in the home stretch of the AP and we're playing our FINAL SESSION tomorrow (thursday night). Without getting into spoilers, i decided to add a little personal flair for each of my PC's.
I should also mention that at the beginning of this AP the Character Operations Manual Playtest had just started, so i allowed my PC's to use the content from that playtest to add a few extra options in terms of character creation.
During the AP hook, where the party gets invited to new luxury resort in the beginning of the adventure, i told each of the player's that they could each invite a "plus 1" to extend their invitation to include a close friend or family member. This was a glorious idea as each of the PC's "plus 1's" became integral plot devices through out the AP. Among these Companions were a Yandere waifu Dragonkin, a techno-dropout Witchwarper, ysoki Biohacker, and a Nuar (minotaur) Gladiator (which later became that player's PC because his previous one died).
Now fast forward to today. Most of the party has been separated from their companions and in these last few sessions they've been "reunited" with many of their companions through various means. I wanted to each PC to have 1 encounter dedicated to this "reunion". Some of their companions here raised as undead and the PC had to put them down, other's were "corrupted" through Modify Memory and similar mechanics/plot. And in one case my Shirren Operative (whom had ties to the Corperation involved with the AP) discovered his dead female mate, used the last bit of her life essence to save their unborn larva while it was still in it's Host Container.
But here's my problem. I have one PC (ysoki Mechanic), who's companion is his younger brother (ysoki Biohacker). I haven't had the time/patience to build a 13th level sheet/statblock for his brother and i've got a real case of creative writer's block for his "reunion" encounter.
- Minotaur Vanguard killed her undead and deformed father (whom was previously the famous gladiator "Charon the Charger" and inspired the PC to become one themselves).
- Shirren Operative obtained a host container with his offspring inside (plot twist they used a Host service that turned out to be a front in order to steal children/infants in order to be experimented on)
- a Vesk Soldier who finally came to terms with his emotions and confessed his love for his yandere waifu Dragonkin to break her free of her modify memory condition. (which was hilarious and tear jerking)
- And i have another encounter in mind for my Android Envoy Player that involves the Witchwarper that was killed earlier in the adventure. Basically imma pull a Deus Ex and bring her back, it's not the same witchwarper, it's a witchwarper from another parallel world.
I've asked this player several times what kind of relationship these ysoki brothers have. Frankly he hasn't given me a lot to work with. His PC is a Mechanic named Carl, with a Drone previously named "Junior"(get it?). Later his drone was remaned to "Jack in the Box" after he had a bad drivethru experience. But aside from the fast food joke, Carl is pretty bog standard from what you'd expect of a ysoki, rummages through scrap, doesn't shy away from the dirty jobs (but is still reluctant), occasionally tries to cheat while gambling (and fails), tries to outdrink the vesk (and fails).Just a scrapper with a record of mild criminal activities (pickpocketing, tresspassing, trying to make out with a ghost (don't ask) etc.) Nothing spectacular. To be fair if he's enjoying playing that type of character then that's great for him!
Here's the curveball. His Brother, named "Charboiled" (idk why, i just ran with it), is like a model citizen and is quote "better than Carl at everything". It' my understanding that his intention is for the younger brother (Charbroiled) to be a "favored/prodigy" child while the older brother (Carl) became the rebel acting out against everything. However he's also mentioned that Carl and Charbroiled have a pretty solid relationship as brothers. So what i'm taking away from this is that Carl was likely one of the few people that DIDN'T treat him like a prodigy child, and more like a brother. So his younger brother idolizes him quite dearly. I'm given basically no other context for why this is and equally so i've been given a great deal of creative freedom.
now the PC's are in the final "dungeon" called the Shadow Labs where they will eventually face the final BBEG and cure themselves and companions of the Curse. A lot of these "reunion encounters" revolve around how the curse has affected the various companions. charbroiled was last seen unconcious on the shadow version of their ship, which is currently undefended (because of poor planning on my part)
Considering what i've done for my other players i really want this to be just as impact-full but i have a huge case of writer's block and can't think of anything. In addition to that, i've given all the other player's some kinda of boon or item of personal significance (Shirren found his lost unborn offspring in a Host Container, Vesk got a Partner-bonded Dragonkin Mystic, Nuar got the satisfaction of defeating her father in combat.. bear-handed...). the best i've got is that the younger brother finally turns into a a mirror image of Carl (since it seems like he's always wanted to BE like him) and fights along side the BBEG. But that would basically require me to clone the PC's character sheet and just add an unnecessary combat/NPC. And i'm hesitant to just slap that on to the last encounter cause it would feel really tacted on and i'm already adding a lot of extra (unrelated) details to that encounter.
So i need some other ideas for a "reunion" encounter. Ideally i don't want to do the same thing twice, and i don't want to have it written in a predetermined fashion that Charbroiled dies, or he gives some kind of boon is otherwise useless during the final moments of the campaign.