Hey! Am running this AP for my regulars and I am having a blast! We just started book 3 and finished event 3 yesterday.
I have not yet read book 4.
For the last event of book 2, I had De-Ge be the one to get banished, and I had it happen before the PCs eyes as the were unarmed and wearing only towels.
Now, the text says he goes to the boneyard, which to me sounds like he is gone forever, but I'm not one to deny my players the chance to earn a perfect victory.
So I made an sfx edit where De-Ge is ripped out of this world by a broken arm, and I was considering having him show up screaming mad in Heh's mindscape, so as to give the PCs a way to save him.
So, my question is: Would this disrupt anything in book 4? Are there already plans made for the character that got banished?
Bonus question: If not, is there an even a better place to bring them back?
My thoughts:
The people in town who get exorcised don't have any further on-screen role in the adventure path as-written, so you likely could in theory make them 'rescueable' without it causing any major plot issues or the like.
Thematically, the challenge might more be... why, in this scenario, do people who get exorcised end up in Heh Shan-Bao's mindscape, but people who die in the Willowshore mindscape do not? The way I see it, people who die in the mindscape kind of have their spirits 'held onto' for the next cycle of the 'time loop', whereas (as-written in the books) the exorcisms are removing a spirit from the time loop permanently. If in your campaign, the spirits in the latter scenario are still around enough to be rescued, I'd think that spirits who just died normally in the mindscape might also be rescueable.
The other big consideration is that, in book 4, several murders happen in town and then the PCs, although they can't rescue the murdered people, do encounter their spirits in a mindscape and can bring them peace. If you have PCs rescuing the exorcised during book 3, that part of book 4 may end up feeling like its re-treading similar ground (or it might lead the players to wonder why they could rescue people in book 3 but can't in book 4).
So I personally probably wouldn't take the approach of having the exorcised by rescueable for those reasons, but no, they don't play any particular role later on that would be undermined by making them rescueable.
This whole discussion though does lead me to the idea that maybe any NPCs who died in book 1 or 2 might still have simulacrums of a sort existing in Heh Shan-Bao's nested mindscape (not rescuable, more just as an echo) which could be a fun way to twist the knife further on any friends or loved ones of the PCs who may not have survived summer or fall.
My memory is hazy right now, but I feel like there was a thread asking about whether you could rescue any lost NPCs and James Jacobs weighed in with an answer of one way you could do it, if you wished. Might be worth checking around if you haven't already.
Creative Director
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The idea of these vanishings is:
Once a spirit goes to the Boneyard, it takes a variable amount of time to be judged. That amount of time is left entirely to the GM. Could happen instantly, or it could take centuries. The game effect is that once someone is judged, they can't be brought back to life via spells like raise dead or rituals like resurrection. This helps to explain why high level villains don't just resurrect other villians slain by PCs all the time (and thus cheapening PC victories), but leaves it open enough so that the GM can let any PC get resurrected if the situation warrants and to also resurrect whatever NPC they want for story reasons.
If you want to allow the PCs a "perfect victory" where no one in Willowshore dies, keep in mind that this might undermine the seriousness and horror themes of the campaign. That might be fine with your group though, and in such a case, I suggest that instead you have NPCs who get exorcised out of the mindscape instead get trapped "in between" the mindscape and the living modern world, and that if the PCs manage at the start of "To Bloom Below the Web" to have accrued 13 or more Preparation Points, then "all of Willowshore's people... are restored to life" should include those who got exorcised.
Thanks for the insightful responses everybody!
Lots of food for thought.
I'm still considering it, but might also skip it.
I guess its because the PCs had successfully stopped every preventable death of NPCs up to this point, and here I made them witness one that was non-preventable, it makes me feel like I need to fix it.
Possibly my players expect an opportunity to rescue him too, especially since I used the vanishing as a session cliffhanger.
But you are right. If there are more non-preventable deaths coming, then De-Ge may as well be the first to normalize the idea.
Not to mention the scores of non-preventable deaths that already happened off-screen in chapter 1 of book 1. Those spirits are waiting for a next cycle and will be doomed if they are not restored with the rest of Willowshore. If they are restored then there is suddenly a lot of things running around that rob death of meaning. Although... the dead also include two PCs, I think my players would be overjoyed to see their fallen PCs get a happy ending.
Finally, if this all wasn't a time-loop and the PCs weren't kinda-sorta ghosts, like if this was about the casualties from when Sandpoint was attacked, then I wouldn't have given it a second thought, dead is dead.
Also, I still need to figure out a way for the PCs to get De-Ge out of there since De-Ge is not projecting like the PCs.
Perhaps I should just go get book 4, I was gonna do it anyway.
Thanks again!
Thought I might tell you how it is going down.
I opted to leave it to the players, I placed De-Ge is in Heh's mindscape, hiding in the locker room of the bathhouse, same place he was hiding in when he was introduced back in book 1. He is screaming mad from being eaten alive every night for the last few weeks. The PCs may find him if they go looking or they may not.
I plan to use him in a tragic sense, such that it is very hard to succeed, they are likely to lose him a second time and this time it is permanent. The PCs can only save him if they go the extra mile. If they find him, they need to have crit the ritual to have a doorway to send him back through. Or he needs to be safe and sound if and when the PCs win the big fight later.
No hints.
I told my PCs they need a building to enact their ritual in. So they considered the Teahouse, because it was theirs. They considered borrowing some random house, in case there is risk to the building involved. Perhaps one of the abandoned lumber lord manors. Then one of them thought of the bathhouse, because it is now abandoned and "perhaps De-Ge is in that mindscape too"
That was their words, I did not prompt anything.
Then they enacted the ritual in the locker rooms...
Well! The stars seem to be aligning. So the first thing that happens post ritual is that they find a terrified De-Ge screaming at them from the corner, they calm him down and they promise to get him back safely.
Rest of the visit goes to plan. The players seem very creeped out by all the evil stuff happening, they are hesitant to speak with anyone or to even go across the town square, preferring long detours to avoid people.
They get the truth bomb and are vehemently against that notion, their hesitance was not what I expected but I can work with this!
The citizens of Willowshore start to break in like a zombie horde and we ended last session mid-fight.
The plan now is to have some citizens get involved in the fight, piling in from all directions, but those citizens are single mindedly going after De-Ge, trying to grab and pull him away to eat. The horde includes family members of the PCs of course! Every turn, if no PC spends any actions to keep De-Ge close and safe, he will be lost to the horde and gone forever when the fight ends.
This is the fate that awaits you if you get banished. I want this image in my players heads for when the exorcists come calling.