Hellknights Pursuing PC in RotRL

[Pasoguava]

Hey everyone, I have a pc who was in the employ of House Thrune in Cheliax as a weapons dealer. She loathes this position, as well as House Thrune, and has not been in contact with her employer since the events that begin the AP.

We're currently about to begin:

Plot:

Chp. 2, Part Five. They're on their way to Magnimar to follow up on the leads discovered after defeating The Skinsaw Man. I plan to have them encounter the knights on the road or outside an Inn.

I plan to have two Hellknights from the Order of the Chain attempt to arrest her while in the company of her party and take her back to Egorian. They will be hired bounty hunters in the employ of the arms trading division of House Thrune.

My questions are as follows:

1.) Assuming the party defeats the Hellknights, what would be the response of the Order of the Chain? How far will they go to arrest this pc in the future considering she has killed or bested two of their order? How many future Hellknights might they send or would they escalate the search and send in higher ranking officers?

2.) What would be the response of House Thrune? Too far below their concerns to pursue outside of Cheliax? As she continues to evade and embarrass them, would they send in another type of force to arrest or assassinate her?

I'm new to the world of Golarion so am trying estimate as best I can their response but could really use some thoughts.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

[Phntm888]

Honestly, unless she was incredibly prominent and well-known, it sounds like she's too far below House Thrune's notice. I don't even think the Order of the Chain would bother with her - she hasn't committed any crime apart from not communicating with her boss, which is hardly worth the time and expense of sending two Hellknights to Varisia to arrest one person.

The Order of the Chain also doesn't have much legal sway in Magnimar - it's not part of Cheliax, and it was founded when settlers left Korvosa because they didn't hold with Chelaxian devil worship.

Does her character know some secret that could potentially be either embarrassing to House Thrune or undermine their rule? In her capacity as a weapons dealer, was she a slave or indentured servant, or was she a paid employee?

[Pasoguava]

This is great info, Phntm888, thanks. The pc has worked her way into the position she has within House Thrune in order eventually to topple it, but no one on their end is aware of that fact yet. Maybe I’ll have her intentions discovered and see if I can justify her capture as a saboteur.

The info about the Hellknights rarely venturing outside of Cheliax, tho, is tough to work around.

Thanks again for the thoughts, a lot to chew on!

[Phntm888]

...She was trying to topple House Thrune solo? I'm...impressed that her character thought big like that, but at the same time, that wasn't likely to end well for her.

One of Queen Abrogail II's advisors is an Erinyes inquisitor. She could easily have discovered what the PC was planning, and told the Queen.

I don't know that sending Hellknights or having someone to try and capture her is necessarily the correct response. Since she was plotting treason (which is what the crime was, not sabotage), she'd be executed anyway. Assassins might be the more appropriate response.

If you want to use Hellknights, use the Order of the Gate. Part of their philosophy is the idea that criminal behavior must be quelled before the crime occurs. They use magic to accomplish this, which gives you another way for them to discover what she was planning.

[Pasoguava]

thanks again for the reply! Well, I had it somewhat wrong. She's an arms dealer for House Henderthane, not House Thrune. She supplies House Thrune with experimental weaponry regularly and is privy to numerous classified secrets where weaponry is concerned in House Henderthane.

As a result, she a risk to have as an AWOL agent in foreign territory. Sounds like the Order of the Gate might be just the thing. . . an assassination attempt upon her rather than having a mere bounty on her head. Thanks for the tip, Phntm888, I'll consider using them!

[Phntm888]

You're welcome. It also has the advantage of the fact that, since most of the Order of the Gate are spellcasters, they can teleport the Hellknights to where they need to go, which saves a bit of expense.

The Order of the Gate are also one of the more "evil" branches of Hellknights, in some respects, as opposed to the Order of the Chain, who aren't as bad.

[Yakman]

Yeah, I would keep it at being the Order of the Gate, and cut out the Thrunes entirely. Much more interesting and easy to tell a story with just the Hellknights on her tail.

Moreover, there's a few fun points along the AP where adding magic-wielding hellknights would be interesting, particularly in Books 3, 4, 5, and MAYBE 6, if you want to wrap up the storyline for that PC that late in your AP.

Gate Hellknights are probably interested in some of the interesting stuff which is going on throughout Rise, and could make an excellent recurring nemesis.