Creative Director
|
Some answers to your four questions:
2) A copied psyche isn't the same as the source, but for all intents and purposes, they're a real physical presence in the mindscape capable of creating objects. The silver collars are as real as any piece of loot the PCs discover in the mindscape and then carry with them into the modern world.
3) The goal is to show that at the start of the Age of Lost Omens she was unpleasant like most jorogumo, but that when the PCs meet her in book 4, 115 years later, she's changed. The PCs should be receptive to all sorts of changes over the course of the century the were "out," and Ren Mei Li's personality change after that period is intended to be potentially jarring. If your PCs are having trust issues with her, consider having her gift them some minor magic items as an attempt to broker peace or at least a truce, but coming to terms with the changed world is part of the challenge.
4) The duplicate of her formed in the mindscape as a result of the real-world version of her visiting Willowshore several months after the village died. She arrived in the Winter, at the same time in the original year after that event as her duplicate does in every cycle of the mindscape, a psychic reflection of a powerful personality manifesting without the real living version's knowledge. Her arrival is as much a part of the "program" of the year long mindscape as is any sort of event that takes place during that year.
Of course, the PCs won't realize the strangeness of this until book 4, when with the benefit of hindsight they can look back over things, so it shouldn't be until the real one visits Willowshore in that fourth adventure that their curiosity should be aroused. As detailed on page 25 of book four, if she learns about her duplicate, she treats that as a chance to not only learn/remember how much she's changed but also is intrigued by the manifestation; she has theories about all of this after all, so you can use her as a GM voice to help explain to the PCs what's been going on and answer questions.
|
Creative Director
|
One other bit of general advice to consider—if your players don't raise a concern or topic about something you might find confusing, then don't worry about it. Trying to over-explain things when the players are already comfortable with the information creates confusion.
And if your players ARE confused about any sort of mystery or plot, listen to their confusion and consider their theories. There's always multiple ways to explain and answer mysteries, and if your players come up with theories and explanations that feel plausible or even better than what you or the author of the adventure came up with, change things so that the players' theories ARE correct. This helps to make the players feel like they're figuring out the story and makes it look like you or the adventure writer was very elegant about how they set up the hints for the solution.
If a player later reads the adventure and realizes things change, tell the truth—"Your solution seemed better so I went with that; thank you for improving the story and making the game more fun for us all!"