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A Motive for this Villain?
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<blockquote data-quote="fba827" data-source="post: 5930520" data-attributes="member: 807"><p>several of the thoughts that came to my mind have already been said (and said much better than i could say it).... but here are my thoughts anyway.</p><p></p><p>* revenge... maybe similar to what you were tinkering with as an idea, but the idea of his crew abandoning him seems very off to illicit that sort of response. so either there is a major reason for that sort of mutinty, or maybe he wasn't abandoned so much as "dismissed from the fleet / forced into early retirement" (maybe because he was too busy tinkering with things back then. or maybe it was his dismissal that led him to start tinkering with things)</p><p></p><p>* salvage -- it's not the explosion and destruction that is his goal, but rather -something- on the ship(s) that he is after and the explosion is meant to get the item(s) to sink. and he has some artifice/construct/something at the bottom of the water by the docks that is walking around waiting to collect it</p><p></p><p>* delusions of grandeur -- he has been trying to convince people that his devices and such are needed (perhaps from the perspective of a merchant, or perhaps from the perspective of a prophet -- both have strong implications and could make it play dramatically different). So he was trying to cause the very catastrophe that he was warning people against. of course, he expected it to be a bigger thing. (if from the perspective of a merchant, he would have been trying to sell his own boat/underwater device; if from the perspective of a prophet think noah's ark)</p><p></p><p>* "the lesser evil" -- he knows (or at least believes) that something worse is going to happen and this is his way of stopping it. Maybe there is a kraken coming this way or that has made a home in the reef nearby and the artificer's thought process is that the disturbance in the water would be enough to cause the creature to go elsewhere</p><p></p><p>* power through death -- he wants people dead not for revenge's sake but he wants the spirits of the dead souls to power some device that he is working on. so he has a 'soul magnet'/collector of some sort that is waiting near the docks as well as catch spirits of people that die in the event. which he plans to use to augment some other creature of his.</p><p></p><p>* i don't know eberron -that- well, but i seem to recall taht the lightning rail has an elemental spirit bound to it. is that same sort of thing POSSIBLE for a boat or a new boat prototype? Maybe the artificer doesn't like that and is trying to detsroy a speicifc boat (or set of boats) that use that sort of elemental spirit, thus freeing said creature</p><p></p><p>* show of power / ransom - "look what i can do. pay me or the next one will be bigger and not half in the water like this one was"</p><p></p><p>* accident - maybe the machine was supposed to do something else (like calm the waters so that ships could more easily come in and out. But instead it explodes (this presumes the PCs are there to clean up rather than stop it). OR someone gets a prophecy/vision that it is going to explode OR there is suspect that someone tampered with the device to make it explode instead</p><p></p><p>* decoy - he wants something on the other end of town. this is a distraction in order to get that other thing.</p><p></p><p>* a favor - some sea creature or sea cult or sea goddess or some such wants the destruction (for food or tribute or to show that the artificer is worthy of some boon)</p><p></p><p></p><p>anyway, those are just random rambles off the top of my head. not all of them are great but maybe something in there will provide a nugget that sparks a better idea.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fba827, post: 5930520, member: 807"] several of the thoughts that came to my mind have already been said (and said much better than i could say it).... but here are my thoughts anyway. * revenge... maybe similar to what you were tinkering with as an idea, but the idea of his crew abandoning him seems very off to illicit that sort of response. so either there is a major reason for that sort of mutinty, or maybe he wasn't abandoned so much as "dismissed from the fleet / forced into early retirement" (maybe because he was too busy tinkering with things back then. or maybe it was his dismissal that led him to start tinkering with things) * salvage -- it's not the explosion and destruction that is his goal, but rather -something- on the ship(s) that he is after and the explosion is meant to get the item(s) to sink. and he has some artifice/construct/something at the bottom of the water by the docks that is walking around waiting to collect it * delusions of grandeur -- he has been trying to convince people that his devices and such are needed (perhaps from the perspective of a merchant, or perhaps from the perspective of a prophet -- both have strong implications and could make it play dramatically different). So he was trying to cause the very catastrophe that he was warning people against. of course, he expected it to be a bigger thing. (if from the perspective of a merchant, he would have been trying to sell his own boat/underwater device; if from the perspective of a prophet think noah's ark) * "the lesser evil" -- he knows (or at least believes) that something worse is going to happen and this is his way of stopping it. Maybe there is a kraken coming this way or that has made a home in the reef nearby and the artificer's thought process is that the disturbance in the water would be enough to cause the creature to go elsewhere * power through death -- he wants people dead not for revenge's sake but he wants the spirits of the dead souls to power some device that he is working on. so he has a 'soul magnet'/collector of some sort that is waiting near the docks as well as catch spirits of people that die in the event. which he plans to use to augment some other creature of his. * i don't know eberron -that- well, but i seem to recall taht the lightning rail has an elemental spirit bound to it. is that same sort of thing POSSIBLE for a boat or a new boat prototype? Maybe the artificer doesn't like that and is trying to detsroy a speicifc boat (or set of boats) that use that sort of elemental spirit, thus freeing said creature * show of power / ransom - "look what i can do. pay me or the next one will be bigger and not half in the water like this one was" * accident - maybe the machine was supposed to do something else (like calm the waters so that ships could more easily come in and out. But instead it explodes (this presumes the PCs are there to clean up rather than stop it). OR someone gets a prophecy/vision that it is going to explode OR there is suspect that someone tampered with the device to make it explode instead * decoy - he wants something on the other end of town. this is a distraction in order to get that other thing. * a favor - some sea creature or sea cult or sea goddess or some such wants the destruction (for food or tribute or to show that the artificer is worthy of some boon) anyway, those are just random rambles off the top of my head. not all of them are great but maybe something in there will provide a nugget that sparks a better idea. [/QUOTE]
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