So, it's me again. As my party is on the verge of starting adventure 7 and I'm not really sure where they will head first, I'm trying to figure out who's who in terms of groups in Ycengled. What is intriguing me most are the members of the "other fellowship" and the reason why certain people are in the forest (and for how long they've been there).
So, for the "power groups" in Ycengled (besides the assassins and the Taranesti who have both easy to determine reasons to be in the forest), we have the Shahalesti and (to a smaller extend) the Ragesians.
Now the Ragesians are there (in their Camp) because northern Shahalesti is a battlefield and they need reinforcements. Their camp is not *in* the forest (who would want to be there, anyway?) and I guess they heared rumours about Coaltongue's assassins only recently. If I read the visions in the temple correctly, Inquisitor Ursus is contacted by an East Wind spy and informed that the players are heading for Ycengled. He doesn't know about the torch, though. So I guess Ursus and Etienna are both from the same team and originally on their trails because the players are notorious troublemakers.
Now, what I don't fully understand is why Pilus (who has been spying on the party all the time because earrings) would want the Ragesians to be propably able to get the torch. He still hates the Ragesians the most (even if he's faking an alliance) and knows that the torch is the one thing that is the biggest threat to his airship. He also doesn't have any capable agents in Ycengled to retrieve it. I've been thinking about removing the whole Pilus contact and make Katrina the one who's putting off a bit of a gambit. She's trusted in the Lyceum now, so she knows about the torch being possibly hidden in Ycengled. She also knows a bit more about the forest due to my Taranesti PC. She knows that the Ragesians might still think she's a sleeper agent (she is on the player's side and has strong connections to both Torrent and Simeonne), so she can gain their trust if she hands them over precious info. In truth, she wants to get rid of their threat once and for all, claim the torch for herself should they find it and hand it over to Lyceum. She's not been training anti-Inquisitor tactics with Ogoth for naught.
So, right now the ragesian half of the "Other fellowship" makes perfect sense to me: Katrina (who's secretly on the Lyceum's side) and the two Inquisitors Ursus and Etienna (who are on Leska's/4th army side)
Now the other half is a bit tougher. First, we got Karedan, the Red Knight of Ragesia. Who is immortal. Sort of, as he doesn't age. Since he's tasted a bit of the blood of the Aquiline heart, we can assume that he's a special person to either Coaltongue or Leska. Now I would have thought he's more of a Coaltongue boy since Leska's blood donation seems to be linked to vampirism (see Aurana), but his tactics state that he's trying to protect Etienna. Hm. Now, besides the fact that I'd be really curious about how Karedan got the honour of being infused with the Aquiline Blessing, getting a feeling for where his loyalties lie isn't that easy.
My own idea (since I'm planning to make the fellowship fight an utter chaos on who's on who's side) would be that Karedan was originally with Coaltongue and the first army. So he'd be one of Ragesia's, Coaltongue's and now Magdus' biggest champions. As I'm planning on having Shalosha forming closer ties with Magdus, I've been thinking about sending Karedan with her as some sort of bodyguard (he doesn't exactly trust Rihalles to protect Shalosha on his own and wants to keep an eye on what his maybe-fiancee is doing).
Shalosha is following her own trails and might be the poor girl caught in the middle. She knows that the party may or may not have the torch (depending on what they will tell her during their upcoming meeting with Magdus) and wants to find the assassins. She has good resources on divination magic (her squad has mages and clerics and she's a wizard herself), plus she maybe can restore the palyer-erased prophecy of Darius, so she can propably find out they are in Ycengled. Plus, Rihalles, her bodyguard, knows about Rhuarc from his past ("The fall of the Taranesti" and I find it reasonable to have him present at the time of the torch's creation) and so he knows that the "shadowy figure" is a half-Taranesti. She doesn't want the Ragesians to have the torch, so her alliance with them is fake, but due to PC influence on her, she doesn't want her father to have it either. Preferably, she would claim it for herself, so she would have the biggest leverage in the (hopefully) forming anti-Leska alliance. She's still on both Magdus' and the PC's side, maybe a bit torn between them since they don't want exactly the same.
This leads us to... the Shahalesti. I know that some/many of them are Aurana's agents, some are sent by Shaaladel and some of them might be leftovers who hid from the 4th ragesian army. What I don't fully understand is why or how they are there at all (those hiding, okay, but it is ceratin that they have clues to where the assassins went and even captured a Taranesti to get the information on how to go to Phorros Irrendra). According to the adventure, Shaaladel and his advisors seems to perfectly know who and where the assassins could be. I'm just not certain how he could have possibly found out, since all of Ycengled is shielding off divination magic and the only other source of information would be the Magdus/Shalosha team in Sindaire. Who have gotten their clues only very recently and would not be that eager to share the intel with Shaaladel. Also, the Shahalesti seem to have quite an army in Ycengled (which is otherwise no place anyone would like to be, given the haunted, gloomy condition that Shalalesti elves would most vertainly loathe plus the angry spirits). So my questions regarding the Shahalesti in Ycengled are:
- How do Shaaladel and Aurana know where or who the assassins are? And for how long? (I've set Leska to be the one hiring Rhuarc, Quillaithe and Yvonnel)
- How long have the Shahalesti agents been in Ycengled already? Have they left the forest after the genocide? (Fayne would know that)
My own idea would be that the necromancer Nahrem (or Rihalles and another Shahalesti wizard) is secretly reporting Shalosha's deeds and information to her father. This would also mean that Nahrem was part of the Shahalesti division who went to Sindaire with Shalosha. And I guess Nahrem was meant to be more or less affiliated with "Team Aurana/Shaaladel" and sent from Shahalesti after they got the information on the assassins. Nahrem would want to claim the torch for Shaaladel, working together with Shalosha and Rihalles until they are victorious and then either convince her back to her father's side or betray her and steal the torch.
Looking up to the wall of text, I realize this is really... complicated matter. So my fellow DMs (or Ryan
) What is or was your take on the whole situation in Ycengled?
So, for the "power groups" in Ycengled (besides the assassins and the Taranesti who have both easy to determine reasons to be in the forest), we have the Shahalesti and (to a smaller extend) the Ragesians.
Now the Ragesians are there (in their Camp) because northern Shahalesti is a battlefield and they need reinforcements. Their camp is not *in* the forest (who would want to be there, anyway?) and I guess they heared rumours about Coaltongue's assassins only recently. If I read the visions in the temple correctly, Inquisitor Ursus is contacted by an East Wind spy and informed that the players are heading for Ycengled. He doesn't know about the torch, though. So I guess Ursus and Etienna are both from the same team and originally on their trails because the players are notorious troublemakers.
Now, what I don't fully understand is why Pilus (who has been spying on the party all the time because earrings) would want the Ragesians to be propably able to get the torch. He still hates the Ragesians the most (even if he's faking an alliance) and knows that the torch is the one thing that is the biggest threat to his airship. He also doesn't have any capable agents in Ycengled to retrieve it. I've been thinking about removing the whole Pilus contact and make Katrina the one who's putting off a bit of a gambit. She's trusted in the Lyceum now, so she knows about the torch being possibly hidden in Ycengled. She also knows a bit more about the forest due to my Taranesti PC. She knows that the Ragesians might still think she's a sleeper agent (she is on the player's side and has strong connections to both Torrent and Simeonne), so she can gain their trust if she hands them over precious info. In truth, she wants to get rid of their threat once and for all, claim the torch for herself should they find it and hand it over to Lyceum. She's not been training anti-Inquisitor tactics with Ogoth for naught.
So, right now the ragesian half of the "Other fellowship" makes perfect sense to me: Katrina (who's secretly on the Lyceum's side) and the two Inquisitors Ursus and Etienna (who are on Leska's/4th army side)
Now the other half is a bit tougher. First, we got Karedan, the Red Knight of Ragesia. Who is immortal. Sort of, as he doesn't age. Since he's tasted a bit of the blood of the Aquiline heart, we can assume that he's a special person to either Coaltongue or Leska. Now I would have thought he's more of a Coaltongue boy since Leska's blood donation seems to be linked to vampirism (see Aurana), but his tactics state that he's trying to protect Etienna. Hm. Now, besides the fact that I'd be really curious about how Karedan got the honour of being infused with the Aquiline Blessing, getting a feeling for where his loyalties lie isn't that easy.
My own idea (since I'm planning to make the fellowship fight an utter chaos on who's on who's side) would be that Karedan was originally with Coaltongue and the first army. So he'd be one of Ragesia's, Coaltongue's and now Magdus' biggest champions. As I'm planning on having Shalosha forming closer ties with Magdus, I've been thinking about sending Karedan with her as some sort of bodyguard (he doesn't exactly trust Rihalles to protect Shalosha on his own and wants to keep an eye on what his maybe-fiancee is doing).
Shalosha is following her own trails and might be the poor girl caught in the middle. She knows that the party may or may not have the torch (depending on what they will tell her during their upcoming meeting with Magdus) and wants to find the assassins. She has good resources on divination magic (her squad has mages and clerics and she's a wizard herself), plus she maybe can restore the palyer-erased prophecy of Darius, so she can propably find out they are in Ycengled. Plus, Rihalles, her bodyguard, knows about Rhuarc from his past ("The fall of the Taranesti" and I find it reasonable to have him present at the time of the torch's creation) and so he knows that the "shadowy figure" is a half-Taranesti. She doesn't want the Ragesians to have the torch, so her alliance with them is fake, but due to PC influence on her, she doesn't want her father to have it either. Preferably, she would claim it for herself, so she would have the biggest leverage in the (hopefully) forming anti-Leska alliance. She's still on both Magdus' and the PC's side, maybe a bit torn between them since they don't want exactly the same.
This leads us to... the Shahalesti. I know that some/many of them are Aurana's agents, some are sent by Shaaladel and some of them might be leftovers who hid from the 4th ragesian army. What I don't fully understand is why or how they are there at all (those hiding, okay, but it is ceratin that they have clues to where the assassins went and even captured a Taranesti to get the information on how to go to Phorros Irrendra). According to the adventure, Shaaladel and his advisors seems to perfectly know who and where the assassins could be. I'm just not certain how he could have possibly found out, since all of Ycengled is shielding off divination magic and the only other source of information would be the Magdus/Shalosha team in Sindaire. Who have gotten their clues only very recently and would not be that eager to share the intel with Shaaladel. Also, the Shahalesti seem to have quite an army in Ycengled (which is otherwise no place anyone would like to be, given the haunted, gloomy condition that Shalalesti elves would most vertainly loathe plus the angry spirits). So my questions regarding the Shahalesti in Ycengled are:
- How do Shaaladel and Aurana know where or who the assassins are? And for how long? (I've set Leska to be the one hiring Rhuarc, Quillaithe and Yvonnel)
- How long have the Shahalesti agents been in Ycengled already? Have they left the forest after the genocide? (Fayne would know that)
My own idea would be that the necromancer Nahrem (or Rihalles and another Shahalesti wizard) is secretly reporting Shalosha's deeds and information to her father. This would also mean that Nahrem was part of the Shahalesti division who went to Sindaire with Shalosha. And I guess Nahrem was meant to be more or less affiliated with "Team Aurana/Shaaladel" and sent from Shahalesti after they got the information on the assassins. Nahrem would want to claim the torch for Shaaladel, working together with Shalosha and Rihalles until they are victorious and then either convince her back to her father's side or betray her and steal the torch.
Looking up to the wall of text, I realize this is really... complicated matter. So my fellow DMs (or Ryan
) What is or was your take on the whole situation in Ycengled?
