D&D 5E I accidentally revealed all of my campaign plans and secrets to a PC.... what now?

[BookBarbarian]

He explicitlytold the player that the files were free game to reveal as his PC's personal knowledge. As a new player coming into an existing game they may have though it was things that already happened to get them up to speed, information the DM wanted to use the new PC to introduce, or some other reason why they are being sent this in-depth knowledge.



So, let's move past this antagonistic step 1 where the DM climbs down the new player's throat for following directions. Assuming that the answer is "I did what you told me to", what's step 2?

Yep. Sorry about that. I totally glossed over that part of the OP. /facepalm. I'll edit my post.

Ok... Step 2, but really Step 1 because my previous Step 1 was a bad idea. I would send the same info to everyone else in the group. Might as well let them all have the same info at this point. Next I would come up with a good reason why the Party could have found out this information. Perhaps they found a plan, uncoded it and now have this info,or maybe they interrogated somebody for it. Have fun with this part.

Then i would ask myself what would my BBEG do if he found out all his plans had been found out. Abandon them? Keep them but start implementing them faster to get the drop on the PCs? A little of both?

BBEGs are after all conniving types that are master manipulators and such. Decide how he would act to this happening.

 

[Mistwell]

This is where the trouble began. My new player then went on to tell my group not to trust this new NPC because it is "rumored" that he or possibly his father is an agent of Morvek himself.... That wasn't supposed to be revealed for a VERY long time. After the session was over I asked one of my particularly smart players to tell me what he thought of all the information that was inappropriately revealed and he guessed my plans to a "T".

My player guessed that the prince is likely unaware of his father's connection to Morvek and his father (the king) has probably made some deal with Morvek to sacrifice his son when the time comes in order to gain some sort of favor/power.

Ding* Ding* Ding* We have a winner!

The focus of my campaign was meant to be for my players to track down all the remaining descendants of the Quora Tal and decide how to prevent Morvek from accomplishing his goals. Gradually I would have revealed the details of Morvek's back story as well as what his likely plans/motivations are. I was hoping to make Morvek a fairly sympathetic villain and let that play out how it may. My problem now is that my player who already knows everything will not appreciate the reward of information over time. On the bright side, he didn't really reveal the back story to my players, just my plans for future plot twists.

I had wanted my players to befriend the prince and let the prince be a useful resource to them throughout the campaign when necessary. When the king eventually betrays the group by betraying his own son, I was hoping their friendship with the prince would make the event feel all the more personal. I wrote the prince to be a good man that any king would be proud of as a successor, but for some reason never seems to gain his father's approval. The dismissal would be obvious to most everyone though few understand the real reason why the prince cannot please his father; it is that his father sold his son out as a young child and therefore has never had any intentions of investing in him as an heir.

First, your campaign sounds awesome. I would love to play in your game, and bravo for putting so much excellent thought and effort into preparing such a welcome setting.

Second, on to the problem. My first impression is, it's not that bad. If the only real issue at hand here is the Son/Father reveal, and there is no additional information to be spoiled by the Bard's player, then it's a pretty manageable thing. Here I was imagining dozens of NPCs and locations and plot twists involve, and really we're just talking about two NPCs and a single plot twist in the timeline. You can handle this.

I am sure others will come up with some better ideas. But, my first idea would be to let this all come out in the game and advance the plot immediately to that point, leaving the future more open and the Bard player as informed as everyone else, in-game.

One way to do that is to let the son discover his father's plot, much earlier in the time line than expected. But add something to it - make the motivation behind the father's decision more sympathetic than just "gain power". Perhaps the father has become convinced, by the lies and manipulations of Morvek, that Morvek's escape is inevitable. Perhaps a prophecy that the King's line and the Kingdom itself will end with the King if Morvek is not released before the King's death. So it's up to the King to manage this now before that happens. So the King makes a deal to protect his entire future bloodline and kingdom, in exchange for the son's sacrifice now.

Now the son has a problem - his father is not evil, he's just desperate and has lived with this desperation since the son was born.

Now the quest becomes to beat the prophecy. Maybe there is a ritual magic which can alter the bloodline of people (maybe transforming their race), allowing for the "cessation" of the King's bloodline without anyone actually having to die. Or perhaps the prophecy was a lie all along. Or maybe the Kingdom can "die" by becoming a different form of government, with "bloodline" being "dynastic line" which ends when the land is no longer ruled by a dynasty or feudal system but is instead a theocracy or democracy.

Regardless, once the information is revealed in-game, it frees you up to take the campaign in a new direction without scrapping all your hard work. Though it will mean some additional hard work to advance that aspect of the plot so quickly of course.

 

[merwins]

Ain't that right!

Yep, cuz my eyes glazed over halfway through the first section. I forced myself to read through it patiently, as if I was a player, so I could offer some cogent direction.

"He convinced the gods that the mortal races, now enlightened with arcana, would eventually turn their strength against the gods themselves. Fearing for themselves, the gods made Morvek into a deity in his own right and blessed him with the power to keep the mortal races in check. Bent on revenge, Morvek began a reign of terror upon all mortals that showed no sign of abatement. "

Yeah, right. This is disinformation spread by the gods to keep the mortal races pious and pliant. Try this twist...

The Armaranthine are egalitarian. They shared their arcana with the mortal races, after all. Morvek was granted godhood through arcana, the same power that gives men magic, with the assistance of a cabal of close companions. When he (as an Armaranthine) realized this was possible, he planned to share the knowledge of this transformation with the mortal races, giving them the hope and spiritual aspiration ever creature deserves.

The other gods destroyed his people and his minions and corrupted his message and rewrote as many of the history books as they could, as victors often do.

The Quora Tal were not killed, but the gods duped them into consolidating their magic into a gestalt entity that imprisons Morvek and keeps him from influencing world events as directly as other gods can. Once they'd given up their magic this way, they were easily picked off/manipulated by other minions into obscurity.

Only another gestalt entity formed of the Quora Tal's decendants can counter the original and free Morvek. Again, sacrifice isn't death. It's the surrender of your magic to create the gestalt entity. Of course, some magic users may consider this a fate worse than death.

Thus the quest for these descendants, though your players and the general public may be duped as to the real reason.

Your players will still have a choice if they figure out the truth of it all.
Be pawns of the gods, and help search out and eliminate the descendants of the Quora Tal. They may choose to believe that the so-called lesser races (which includes them) are not worthy of goodhood and should never have such knowledge.
Ignore the threat, which will lead to different adventures.
Try to rescue Morvek and open up the potential of true enlightenment to all the mortal races, with all of the headaches that will incur. Or maybe some massive godwar with Morvek + mortals on one side and gods and their minions on the other. Think of Morvek as the "Good Sauron."

I hope I understood your plotline well enough that this is a viable option. Or at least a possibility that gives you ideas.

 

[Denalz]

One way to do that is to let the son discover his father's plot, much earlier in the time line than expected. But add something to it - make the motivation behind the father's decision more sympathetic than just "gain power". Perhaps the father has become convinced, by the lies and manipulations of Morvek, that Morvek's escape is inevitable. Perhaps a prophecy that the King's line and the Kingdom itself will end with the King if Morvek is not released before the King's death. So it's up to the King to manage this now before that happens. So the King makes a deal to protect his entire future bloodline and kingdom, in exchange for the son's sacrifice now.

Now the son has a problem - his father is not evil, he's just desperate and has lived with this desperation since the son was born.

Now the quest becomes to beat the prophecy. Maybe there is a ritual magic which can alter the bloodline of people (maybe transforming their race), allowing for the "cessation" of the King's bloodline without anyone actually having to die. Or perhaps the prophecy was a lie all along. Or maybe the Kingdom can "die" by becoming a different form of government, with "bloodline" being "dynastic line" which ends when the land is no longer ruled by a dynasty or feudal system but is instead a theocracy or democracy.

Thanks for reading that huge post and thank you for the compliments! And yeah, I've probably been a bit over-dramatic about all of this. It's just felt like a gigantic curve ball to work around and I haven't been sure I'm up to the task until now. People like you give me much needed encouragement.

You've got some really great ideas and I feel like I'll likely borrow "The King Has His Reasons" for my story. Sympathetic villains are more interesting. As far as the whole prophecy thing goes, I feel like that could work, but I'd have to be really careful what additional conditions I set up because I don't want my players to get confused. Then again, I'm probably underestimating them.

I'm curious about your idea on using a spell to essentially work around the whole blood line thing. I wonder if that could be fleshed out. I feel like my PC's are going to want more ways to solve the problem of Morvek rounding up the Quora Tal outside of either murdering every living heir, rounding them up and playing babysitter for the rest of their lives, sterilizing them, and straight up finding a way to kill Morvek. Some of those sound fun.... others less so.

Your players will still have a choice if they figure out the truth of it all.
Be pawns of the gods, and help search out and eliminate the descendants of the Quora Tal. They may choose to believe that the so-called lesser races (which includes them) are not worthy of goodhood and should never have such knowledge.
Ignore the threat, which will lead to different adventures.
Try to rescue Morvek and open up the potential of true enlightenment to all the mortal races, with all of the headaches that will incur. Or maybe some massive godwar with Morvek + mortals on one side and gods and their minions on the other. Think of Morvek as the "Good Sauron."

I hope I understood your plotline well enough that this is a viable option. Or at least a possibility that gives you ideas.

Wow! You certainly have the ability to think creatively and quickly. If I were you then last night's blunder would have been no big deal at all. I feel like your ideas would certainly give my players a host of extra options and ways to lead the story. That being said I feel like the "Good Sauron" vibe is a bit too alternative for me personally. I'm still really impressed though. If you DM you should totally run a campaign like that.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my mess and offering me some of your talent

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

I think your fine. The players will forget 90% of this stuff in a month or two. It'll go from "Molvek of the Armaranthine" To "Was it Molvey, or Mortey? From the what? Armageddon, Armament, or something?"

Just have everyone delete whatever copy of the document they have and the players will naturally forget most everything.

And even the stuff they remember wont be a problem, just change at least one thing and your good. It's like the reverse version of the 'trap door trope'. You know how Players never check for traps on doors untill they fall for one, and then they check every single door in the whole game. Once one of the twist they read in the document has changed then they'll start to second guess every single thing they remember from the document. Don't under estimate Player paranoia, instead use it.

Oh, and if you have NPCs in the document just change a combination of Name/Race/Sex and the Players will do the "wait is this Jane from the document but with just a name change? Maybe...idk. So does that mean he changed her plot too? Maybe...idk."

As for Plot Twists that also shouldn't be a big issue. Either untwist it, leave it, or just give the little plot one extra twist.

A great example is the King/Prince thing. The group thinks the King is the bad guy and will betray and kill the Prince. Well just have the Prince be the bad guy and betray and kill the King. Maybe the reason the King is so mean to the Prince is because there was a prophecy/vision of the Prince killing the King. And when the Prince was little he used to kill kittens and was a little terror, he grew out of it but the King can't help it, he doesn't totally trust his son so he acts mean towards him. And in the end, it turns out he was right. which then makes it a betrayal to the Party as well because the Party helped him, and they'll also feel a little responsible "If we hadn't of saved the Prince none of this would have happend."
Maybe one of the reasons the Prince kills the King was specifically because the King was so cold and mean towards him, Which brings up that Matrix broken vase dilemma of "would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?" which then becomes a meta-wink at your players.

Or maybe just have the Queen/Chancellor be the mastermind, maybe she sowed the seeds in both the King and Prince, that would bring them to kill each other.

As for the backstory I think you should keep what you have but then reveal that there's "More to the story."

The Armaranthine did give the Races magic but it was for their own benefit. The way a Slaver teachers their slaves how to grow and harvest food or fish. The Armaranthine was oppressive. But not all of them.

So the Races with the help of Good Armaranthine kill off the Bad Armaranthine. But then betray the Good Armaranthine just to make sure that they will never be oppressed again.

Then Molvek doesn't convince the Gods that maybe the Races will eventually try to kill the Gods. But instead, the Races DO try to kill the Gods, so they juice up Molvek to protect themselves. And Molvek damages the Races enough to stop their pursuit of God Killing, or actually he negotiated a peace treaty, But is later betrayed by the Quora Tal and sealed away. Now you can truly Sympathize with Molvek, His people murdered by the Races, gets blessed by the Gods to protect them, he takes the peaceful route, and he's betrayed by the Races.

I love it in stories when you learn the 'History' of a thing, but then later learn the REAL history. And it always turns out to be less cut and dry.

Nice story btw

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

I'm curious about your idea on using a spell to essentially work around the whole blood line thing. I wonder if that could be fleshed out. I feel like my PC's are going to want more ways to solve the problem of Morvek rounding up the Quora Tal outside of either murdering every living heir, rounding them up and playing babysitter for the rest of their lives, sterilizing them, and straight up finding a way to kill Morvek. Some of those sound fun.... others less so.

Maybe you can make it so that it's more then just finding the Blood Guardian descendants and sacrificing them on the alter. Maybe first the Kids need to 'corrupt the bloodline' by killing another one of the Quora Tal.

So for the King/Prince thing. First the King has to kill the Prince, now the bloodline is corrupted, and only then can Molvek kill the King on the alter to undo part of the spell.

So maybe Molveks minions arn't going around just trying to capture all of the Quora. but just the corrupted ones. and maybe he has a second set of minions who are infiltrating the pure bloodlines and trying to corrupt them by convincing them, or putting them in situations where they have to kill another Quora.

This means that the Players will either run into a 'pure blood' Quora whos in the middle of trying to kill another Quora. Which means the Players will have to either kill one or both of them so the bloodline doesn't get corrupted, or convince both parties not to kill each other.

Or they Players will run into a 'corrupted' Quora and need to protect him from the minions, and need to find a way to 'purify' the corrupted bloodline. Maybe with a special ritual, or maybe a good deed, maybe self sacrifice, or maybe a corrupt needs to fall in love/have a baby with a 'pure blood'. Keep in mind that just because the bloodline is corrupted it doesn't mean the person is corrupted or bad. So the Players will run into a kid who is corrupted but only because his father killed his grandfather before he was born, and maybe hes in love with this noble girl who just so happens to be a pure blood. but the families hate each other and wont allow it.

Also you can say that there is a sudo-curse on the bloodlines that makes them more likely be in conflict with each other, and be drawn to each other. Maybe the Original Quora Tal had a cetrain party dynamic that runs in the bloodline, so the Paladin always disliked the Rogue, but liked the Cleric. so now when a Paladin descendant meets a Rogue descendant there is mistrust no matter what, but if he meets a Cleric descendant there is trust. But that doesn't mean that a Cleric descendant won't kill a Paladin descendant with a little nudge from Molveks minions.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the first thing you have to answer is

How does the character know those things?

That should also set you up to answer

What does the character not know?
What else does the character know?
and
What is the character trying to achieve?

I mean, given the set up, the character could be an avatar of Molvek himself, a surviving Amaranthine, a member of a cult who worship the Amaranthine, Molvek or any other god, an apprentice to a powerful diviner etc etc.

Each of those would have reasons for knowing what they know, and therefore limitations on what they know. They also all have different ulterior motivations for being on this adventure that do not necessarily line up with the rest of the party, and revealing all of the 'facts' they have may or may not help that agenda.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Great plot!

You could give it a twist by making the royal bloodline a decoy. Perhaps a secret society exists among the elves who realized the descendants of the Quora Tal are the key to releasing Morvek. They seeded the story that the royals were descendants of the elven sorcerer, while keeping the true bloodline hidden. Even the King would not know the truth of this (thus making the potential sacrifice of his son even more tragic). Eventually the PCs somehow discover the truth of the matter and now have to deal with the secret society, which might be less than cooperative.

 

[Schmoe]

So, I ran a campaign using a somewhat similar premise, with an evil god banished by the sacrifice of a legendary band of heroes, although in my case those heroes became gods. At any rate, for the vast majority of the campaign the players thought that they were acting to thwart the plans of the evil god, but in actuality they were unwittingly carrying out the plans of one of the patron gods who had become corrupted and was trying to ascend to greater power by eliminating the hero gods and finally destroying the evil god.

For reasons tied to the mythology of my campaign world, it made a lot of sense in my campaign, and it might not make as much sense in yours, but you could do something similar. Perhaps one of the other gods in your pantheon, normally seen as a force for good, has secretly turned power-hungry and evil. Maybe the Quora Tal actually serve a different purpose. Instead of their blood needing to be spilled to release Morvek, all of the living descendants need to come together and willingly partake of some ritual to free Morvek. If, instead, the last of the descendants were to die, then Morvek would be utterly and forever destroyed. Furthermore, when Morvek is destroyed, his divine power would then transfer to the corrupted god, elevating his power above all of the others and making him nigh all-powerful. When the party saved the first descendant of the Quora Tal, they were actually thwarting the plans of this corrupted god. However, the corrupted god has the benefit of duplicity on his side, and instead can step in to guide the party to "save" the rest of the Quora Tal and bring them under his protection. There can be a big "reveal" to the whole party about Morvek's supposed plans, led by an oracle of the corrupted god who has been given these false visions. Once the party has tracked all of the Quora Tal down, then this other god plans to slay them all in one fell swoop and ascend.

Along the way, the party may get some clues that something is off. If at some point they show that they no longer believe the lies, then the corrupted god immediately acts to slay all of the Quora Tal that were placed under his protection, and the race is on to find the last of them. But in this case the decision is more difficult! Do they preserve the last of the Quora Tal and thus maintain the possibility that Morvek can still be released from his banishment, or do they allow the corrupted god to reach the last of the Quora Tal and ascend to what unknown heights his fevered mind has imagined?

As for the prince, you might consider making having his father instead call in the priests of this corrupt god, whereby the priests can perform divinations that then reveal the lies that the god wants the party to believe.

You might ask, why doesn't the corrupt god just have his priesthood declare the Quora Tal as heretics to be destroyed? That would first be messy, as some may be in positions of where it leads to wars, etc., and there's no guarantee his priesthood could carry out the orders. But second it could tip his hand to the rest of the gods that something is up, and that is the last thing the god would want.

Without knowing more about the mythology of your world it's hard to come up with anything better, but maybe that gives you some ideas you can take and make your own.

 

[Nevvur]

Just curious, what happens if one (or all) of the Quora Tal bloodline dies or becomes otherwise inaccessible (Sequester)? Does it become impossible for Morvek to realize his plans, or...?