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My players are in Book 5, and just finished dealing with the vampires and the witches. I've taken a lot of suggestions from other GMs in this forum over the years we've been playing, so in our game, Kendra is Auren's twin sister, and there are three potential characters with the Whispering Tyrant bloodline that Adivion can use as the vessel: Kendra, Auren, and Count Galdana.
I've been playing Adivion as an omnipresent background figure who has been there since session one (as a mourner at Lorrimor's funeral), who has been slowly revealed to be a mastermind pulling the strings. In Book 2, after the events in Lepidstadt, Kendra took up his invitation to come to Caliphas, where he'd offered to look after her, with overtures of a potential marriage down the line. The players were a bit suspicious, but it wasn't until Book 3 & 4 that they confirmed that Adivion was evil and behind all of this. By the time they arrived in Caliphas, they learned that Kendra had become engaged to Adivion, and that the engagement is to be announced at one of the Countess' galas coming up soon. They sent her a message, asking if they could see her (obviously concerned about her well-being) and received a message back from her inviting them to come to dinner at Adivion's manor so that she could see them again. They learned from the Palatine Eye, however, that Kendra is a potential vessel, and they've figured out Adivion's game.
We're playing that session tomorrow, and I'm working on prepping it right now, but would welcome some suggestions. Currently, what I'm planning is that Adivion himself paid to have a simulacrum of himself created, and he has already departed from Caliphas to put his Book 6 plans in motion, having arranged the abduction of Count Galdana. He and Professor Lorrimor were very close (they were once both members of the Palatine Eye and close friends until their views took them in opposite directions), and he would actually prefer to use Kendra as his LAST resort, so he has trained up this simulacrum to pass off as himself and keep an eye on her. He has no actual romantic interest in Kendra, and the 'marriage' is ostensibly just a way to keep her there and locked down at his beck and call. Kendra, however, isn't stupid, and she noticed a 'change' take place in Adivion when he swapped with the simulacrum (he's grown colder/more distant/seems "empty"). She is hoping to speak with the party's cleric for advice, as he's a cleric of Bolka (dwarven goddess of marriage) who had previously offered to officiate the wedding for her, and that is her real intention behind calling them there.
In Book 3, my players suffered a near TPK from Auren Vrood, and he managed to escape. In their vision from Desna when they reconsecrated the Temple, they saw that they would face off against him again, so I've leveled him up and been waiting for a good chance to have him recur. I thought that this might be a good place for it: "Adivion" has agreed to let the party come to dinner as a trap that will work in his favor in one of two ways. Either the simulacrum will be able to put on a convincing front, and this will put Kendra's growing fears at ease, in which case, after they leave, he will send Auren after them to finish them off, or they will try to openly "rescue" Kendra. If they do, "Adivion" will try to abduct Kendra out of there while Auren appears to try and destroy them for good.
My questions are 1) It's likely they'll try to explore his manor if it boils down to some kind of fight and the simulacrum is destroyed. What might be some good loot to drop in there, or information they could find? Or other generally weird things that might exist in Adivion's house...
2) Given that simulacra replicate their original (arguably, I know), I think it might be interesting to have this version of Adivion be a LESSER simulacrum instead of a full version, with his own 'free will' and resent being used in this manner and have plans or a goal of his own in mind. Adivion is an arrogant mastermind and even a lower level version of himself would be much the same. I'm wondering if there's something interesting I could do with that to complicate matters slightly, or if that's just an unnecessary addition.
3) Does anyone have any feedback or interesting ideas that could complement all of this? Or fun things to come up during this really awkward dinner?
Big thanks to the many people over the years who have come up with great suggestions about Kendra/Auren/Adivion's role and expanding those things in the storyline. My players have loved all of it and it's made for great reveals.
Not even on that note, but my players are planning on attending the Countess' gala (and managed to get invitations procured for them through a vampire ally), and I've still got to figure out what I want to do with any of that. Has anyone explored the Elizabeth Bathory angle with the Countess a little more? Or done anything interesting with adding in a gala?
Oh man, I'm also having Adivion spring his reveal on the party at a dinner after the Abbey.
In my game, he was a close comrade and adventuring partner with Petros, but they briefly had an adventure with Vrood in the olden days which is how Adivion got in touch with the Way; otherwise he's been a friend and ally to the party, but knowing he's going to betray them. ALl part of his little game.
For loot... Some kind of cool necromantic toys. In my game he's a historian and I've rebuilt him to be a Glory Seeker Occultist using Spheres, so he's got a whole Cabinet of Curiosities thing going on that can have neat toys in it (especially with how devoid of loot book 5 is!)
For 2... I feel like it just complicates things. I love it, but they don't really have time to mess around with him - gotta go gunch the real dude at Gallowspire. Maybe the simulacrum could help them out of spite?
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I love that we're both doing a dinner party at the same point in the book! And yes, my players ended up cooperating with the vampires so the amount of loot that they got was really sad this chapter ... I'm hoping to make up for that here, because I can't imagine they won't want to snoop around the place. Necromantic things are a good call. I'll see what I can dredge up.
I felt that the lesser simulacrum would overly complicate things too, because I'm not sure where to go with it in the end. But I just really liked the idea of Adivion conspiring against himself because he was so annoyed at being used as a tool. I think it might slow things down too much, however. And he's probably smart enough to guess that would happen anyway :P
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So, we had to stop in the middle of their evening with Kendra and Adivion, so I've got a week to hammer out more details! Below is the summary from that part of the session yesterday. I was kind of delighted that our Mesmerist (Mortimer), one of the only party members still alive from the beginning of the game who actually MET Adivion before, got a nat 20 on his perception check to notice something weird about the simulacrum! I had a lot of fun playing "Adivion" here, and had a lot of chances to rub in how arrogant he is, which maybe they'll be able to use against him in the next book. Next time, they'll have their confrontation with Vrood...
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SUMMARY-
They reconvened and took the carriage to Adivion's manor, where they were brought in to meet Kendra. She was delighted to see them all, and when she hugged Seraphina, the tiefling mindlinked with her and told her everything they'd learned about Adivion and how she was meant to be used as a vessel. Kendra stiffened at this, but Adivion entered almost immediately after. Mortimer noticed something off about the man's appearance from the last time he'd seen him and shared that telepathically with Morgrim (our cleric), who used true seeing to try to get to the heart of what was going on. It only raised more questions, however, when he saw that something about the man was an illusion.
They took to dinner, where mainly Morgrim and Mortimer made 'polite' conversation with Adivion, that was riddled with double meanings on both sides. While the nobleman was a gracious host, he also seemed quite arrogant, openly discussing his belief in vampires being behind things in Caliphas, and his own knowledge of the Whispering Way, which he said was gathered from hunting down cabals of them with Petros when they were in the Palatine Eye together. He did not sound as if he had much love for the Way, describing them contemptuously as 'sloppy'. He seemed to greatly mourn the Professor's death, calling it a deep shame what had happened to him and speaking of him with much admiration. Morgrim got Mortimer to ask Adivion about a Professor he'd had in college, whose name Mortimer made up on the spot, and Adivion stepped into the trap, speaking of the man as if he did indeed know him. Adivion openly questioned Morgrim about the Raven's Head mace that he carries, and about their journey so far. He claimed to have remained here in Caliphas with Kendra since the funeral, preparing for the wedding, helping teach her further divination magic. He also hailed the party as possibly being 'his equals', the reason he'd wished to meet them, and offered a dismissive, smug rejoinder when Mortimer pointed out that he seemed to be equating their combined worth to his own singular, and therefore calling them 'lesser' still than himself. Adivion even offered to finance their remaining quest, hailing them as "Petros' champions" and offering to secure any gear they might need.
At one point, Kendra asked Morgrim if he would speak with her privately after dinner about wedding arrangements. Adivion offered to speak to Mortimer about his magical research in more detail in his office. Adivion asked Kendra to entertain Morgrim in the upstairs study, which she did, not wishing to draw suspicion by insisting they stay downstairs.
In private, Kendra spoke to Morgrim openly about how she had been nursing her own suspicions about Adivion, and that he had changed since their engagement, growing colder, distant, and seeming 'empty' in some way. She said that he had seemed to grow almost bored with her. At first, she entreated them to kill Adivion that night, but then began to grow concerned for the party about the legal implications if they murdered him, given they did not have any solid evidence to prove that he had done anything. She was also concerned that the servants here might be loyal to him and implicate the party if he was killed, and she pointed out that if she didn't go to the gala the next day where she was expected to announce their engagement, it would draw attention as well. Kendra was also clearly shocked to learn she had a brother, and inquired about where he was, seeming quite interested in his fate. Morgrim speculated with her about what change Adivion might have undergone, but they ruled out that he was some kind of vampire now or undead, based on what Kendra had seen of him, although she did remark that he seemed cold even to the touch.
Meanwhile, in Adivion's office, they saw his collection of Ustalavic historical artifacts. When prompted, he openly spoke of his studies in necromancy and in the veil between life and death, purporting that in his eyes, necromancy was more of a study of the essence of life than death. Mortimer disputed that theory, but Adivion held firm on his interpretation. He also claimed, when questioned, that he was here to take care of Kendra, and that after the wedding, he hoped to travel with her to historic sites of Ustalav. He spoke of his great interest in figures from history who transcended lines of being mortal or immortal through their genius and ambition but weren't gods, those who had reshaped Golarion into 'an existence worth experiencing'. He seemed to be intellectually bored with the world as a whole, and signs of his arrogance slipped out on several occasions.
Man, I definitely probably made Adivion too nice - but I know at least one party member, the oracle Nairi, suspects him of SOMETHING.
Your stuff rules. Glad it's going great. I still need to plan that far ahead...