Hey there,
I've been thinking for quite a while about the possible motivations an whereabouts of Pilus in adventure 11, both generally and specifically to my campaign.
I know that the Pilus/New Eagle spirit arc is considered to be the weaker part of the campaign and I kind of understand why this is the case. Besides Leska as the obvious and the Trillith as the hidden threat, Pilus seems more like a side-character with a motivation that's not too easily discerned. So I thought about how to give Pilus a more stringent line of thought and action (he's quite insane, I know. But he is also intelligent and kind-of wise).
What I did so far was the following (which is not as much tailored to my campaign as other parts are, but still a bit different from the original text):
- Pilus is first introduced in adventure 5 as one of the leaders of the monastery of the two winds. Due to his past (the Ragesians killed everyone in Lsi Pu's /Lsi Nu Gon's village), he hates both the Ragesians and oppression/tyranny through unchecked military might with a passion. Everything he did until the Lsi Pu incident in the Tundra mountains was to become more powerful so that he can fight the Ragesians or any other oppressor on even ground. He realized he made a mistake, but found that he didn't care as much as he should have for the people of Rego. He meditated a lot on his future actions and founded the monastery to start a new life.
-He has been acting very friendly and as open as possible towards the party. He knew they both have the same goal (smash the Ragesians), so he tried to negotiate an alliance, convincing them that his brief "allying" with Leska was only to gather information. Considering his past, I decided that part was true. The Ragesians *are* the biggest threat to peace, so he wouldn't really be loyal to the Rags.
- With his brother's help, the party was able to get to Castle Korstull to try to retrieve the Torch. Both wanted to make sure that the Torch doesn't fall to Ragesian hands (Longinus knew that Magdus and his army were out there somewhere) and they succeeded. Yet the Torch was in another castle. Or so.
- Longinus kept a close eye on them until they got to Ycengled where his divinations failed. Here is where I changed the narrative. Usually, one of the Inquisitors gets her info on the party and the temple from a West Wind monk. But that'd make no sense to me unless Pilus was 100% sure that the party would kill the Ragesians in the temple. Having the Torch fall into Ragesian hands at such a crucial time would have been devastating to Pilus' goal (smashing the Rags and making sure no other Tyrant forms his army in the resulting power vaccum).
- Pilus then helped the party against the Ragesians in adventure 8. By giving witty advice and annihilating the upper scourge fortress with the Tempest (or, as they call it, the Big Floating Shark). At this time, Pilus has already fused with Tempest and is on the way to megalomany, realizing that his power is kind of limitless. Until he has to recharge his eye or so. Still he knows that the Threat of immortal Leska is still far from over.
So, this is the situation right now: Pilus' mask has been in the war council, so he knows what they are about. He knows that (until then) that the rebel army consists of Refugees, Dasseni military forces, Sindairese military forces, the Lyceans and Magdus' first army. He also knows that Coaltongue has designated Magdus to be his successor. And that Shaaladel refused to be part of an alliance because of not being made leader and some forest he doesn't want to hand over. By adventure 11, Shaaladel will have joined forces with the Resistance and be ready to march against Ragos. Still, Pilus does know from the party that the elf is not really that trustworthy. And that he's cruel as well.
Right now, story as written would have Pilus attack Seaquen with his airship while allying with Leska again. Which doesn't really make much sense to me. Pilus knows that Leska has become immortal due to the Aquiline heart. She'd be the bigger enemy and wiping off the Resistance would lessen his chances to kill off Leska and claim the heart for himself. Plus the Resistance never threatened him and the Rags are still his enemies of old. The only reason he *might* have to attack the resistance is the reason that he might have found out (via Longinus' divinations?) that the party really fears the Tempest and wants to get rid of it as soon as Ragesia poses no threat. But finding that out is hard as they tend to protect themselves by mind blank...
For my campaign, I figured out that Pilus would have three main goals:
1) Destroy those who killed his family & friends (The Ragesians / Leska)
2) Make sure no one is able to oppress the common people in the aftermath, even if that means eye-beaming whole armies
3) Find and claim the Aquiline Heart and renew/become the Eagle spirit
So, the first two logical sites to attack from this point of view are Ragos and Calanis.
Attacking Ragos would be most straight-forward, but cut away the first part of adventure 12. Plus I really don't want to do Under the Eye of the Tempest *after* The Beating of the Aquiline Heart's climax.
Attacking Calanis would make sense in a twisted kind of way: My Taranesti player convinced Pilus that Shaalael is a paranoid, genocidial supremacist who wants to be Ragesia's next Coaltongue. So naturally, Pilus would see a threat to peace in the elvish Lord. Plus he knows that the Resistance gets their
done even without the aid of the Shahalesti.
The other twisted (but a bit far-fetched) option would be to stick with attacking Seaquen when the Resistance army is en marche to Ragos to specifically kill the party. Because he maybe knows they'd want to kill "him" (he'd die without the Tempest), so it would be basically a "them vs me" decision. Still this might distract the Resistance and their plan to defeat Leska.
So... what would you say to these options? I really want to make sure that Pilus stays a consistent character without using cheap tricks like "oh he's insane, so he'd do anything".
I've been thinking for quite a while about the possible motivations an whereabouts of Pilus in adventure 11, both generally and specifically to my campaign.
I know that the Pilus/New Eagle spirit arc is considered to be the weaker part of the campaign and I kind of understand why this is the case. Besides Leska as the obvious and the Trillith as the hidden threat, Pilus seems more like a side-character with a motivation that's not too easily discerned. So I thought about how to give Pilus a more stringent line of thought and action (he's quite insane, I know. But he is also intelligent and kind-of wise).
What I did so far was the following (which is not as much tailored to my campaign as other parts are, but still a bit different from the original text):
- Pilus is first introduced in adventure 5 as one of the leaders of the monastery of the two winds. Due to his past (the Ragesians killed everyone in Lsi Pu's /Lsi Nu Gon's village), he hates both the Ragesians and oppression/tyranny through unchecked military might with a passion. Everything he did until the Lsi Pu incident in the Tundra mountains was to become more powerful so that he can fight the Ragesians or any other oppressor on even ground. He realized he made a mistake, but found that he didn't care as much as he should have for the people of Rego. He meditated a lot on his future actions and founded the monastery to start a new life.
-He has been acting very friendly and as open as possible towards the party. He knew they both have the same goal (smash the Ragesians), so he tried to negotiate an alliance, convincing them that his brief "allying" with Leska was only to gather information. Considering his past, I decided that part was true. The Ragesians *are* the biggest threat to peace, so he wouldn't really be loyal to the Rags.
- With his brother's help, the party was able to get to Castle Korstull to try to retrieve the Torch. Both wanted to make sure that the Torch doesn't fall to Ragesian hands (Longinus knew that Magdus and his army were out there somewhere) and they succeeded. Yet the Torch was in another castle. Or so.
- Longinus kept a close eye on them until they got to Ycengled where his divinations failed. Here is where I changed the narrative. Usually, one of the Inquisitors gets her info on the party and the temple from a West Wind monk. But that'd make no sense to me unless Pilus was 100% sure that the party would kill the Ragesians in the temple. Having the Torch fall into Ragesian hands at such a crucial time would have been devastating to Pilus' goal (smashing the Rags and making sure no other Tyrant forms his army in the resulting power vaccum).
- Pilus then helped the party against the Ragesians in adventure 8. By giving witty advice and annihilating the upper scourge fortress with the Tempest (or, as they call it, the Big Floating Shark). At this time, Pilus has already fused with Tempest and is on the way to megalomany, realizing that his power is kind of limitless. Until he has to recharge his eye or so. Still he knows that the Threat of immortal Leska is still far from over.
So, this is the situation right now: Pilus' mask has been in the war council, so he knows what they are about. He knows that (until then) that the rebel army consists of Refugees, Dasseni military forces, Sindairese military forces, the Lyceans and Magdus' first army. He also knows that Coaltongue has designated Magdus to be his successor. And that Shaaladel refused to be part of an alliance because of not being made leader and some forest he doesn't want to hand over. By adventure 11, Shaaladel will have joined forces with the Resistance and be ready to march against Ragos. Still, Pilus does know from the party that the elf is not really that trustworthy. And that he's cruel as well.
Right now, story as written would have Pilus attack Seaquen with his airship while allying with Leska again. Which doesn't really make much sense to me. Pilus knows that Leska has become immortal due to the Aquiline heart. She'd be the bigger enemy and wiping off the Resistance would lessen his chances to kill off Leska and claim the heart for himself. Plus the Resistance never threatened him and the Rags are still his enemies of old. The only reason he *might* have to attack the resistance is the reason that he might have found out (via Longinus' divinations?) that the party really fears the Tempest and wants to get rid of it as soon as Ragesia poses no threat. But finding that out is hard as they tend to protect themselves by mind blank...
For my campaign, I figured out that Pilus would have three main goals:
1) Destroy those who killed his family & friends (The Ragesians / Leska)
2) Make sure no one is able to oppress the common people in the aftermath, even if that means eye-beaming whole armies
3) Find and claim the Aquiline Heart and renew/become the Eagle spirit
So, the first two logical sites to attack from this point of view are Ragos and Calanis.
Attacking Ragos would be most straight-forward, but cut away the first part of adventure 12. Plus I really don't want to do Under the Eye of the Tempest *after* The Beating of the Aquiline Heart's climax.
Attacking Calanis would make sense in a twisted kind of way: My Taranesti player convinced Pilus that Shaalael is a paranoid, genocidial supremacist who wants to be Ragesia's next Coaltongue. So naturally, Pilus would see a threat to peace in the elvish Lord. Plus he knows that the Resistance gets their
done even without the aid of the Shahalesti. The other twisted (but a bit far-fetched) option would be to stick with attacking Seaquen when the Resistance army is en marche to Ragos to specifically kill the party. Because he maybe knows they'd want to kill "him" (he'd die without the Tempest), so it would be basically a "them vs me" decision. Still this might distract the Resistance and their plan to defeat Leska.
So... what would you say to these options? I really want to make sure that Pilus stays a consistent character without using cheap tricks like "oh he's insane, so he'd do anything".
