subverting the "captured damsel" trope

[birdchili]

So my group is going through Against the Cult of the Reptile God and will (likely) soon embark on an investigation of the corrupted temple full of evil cultists. Near the end of the area is a fairly critical NPC woman imprisioned and abused by the head (male) cleric. It's rightfully creepy and the adventure definitely suggests she'll take any opportunity given to attack her captor.

Problem is... The party recently rescued a young halfling girl from a yucky, obsessive, hugging, shaving-her-head-and-blood-painting-her-face kobold (the party let her loose on him later and she face-stabbed him).

So... while rescuing captured damsels is fine and all, it's already overused everywhere and I'd prefer to not start (continue) (over)doing it in my campaign. Easy solution would be to just make her a dude and keep the general obsessive creepiness of the situation, but any other ideas?

 

[Alzrius]

Subverting tropes has itself become a trope. I say subvert the subversion, and leave the captured damsel as she is. Even better, if your PCs become suspicious of the apparent stereotype and think that she's a vampire or a doppelganger or a succubus or some other monster just waiting for them to let their guard down, you can have all sorts of fun playing on their fears.

 

[birdchili]

true. I am certainly considering leaving things as-is (I'm not adverse to using the trope, obviously).

Trolling for ideas though. I feel this has the ability to play-out very-similarly to the last damsel situation.

 

[cmad1977]

Maybe make the 'damsel' a creature or monster. Perhaps one that isn't usually sympathetic. Will it be grateful for rescue or bite the hands that freed it?(heyooo!) perhaps it becomes obsessed with its rescuers or feels such a debt that it trails them or joins them?

 

[gamerprinter]

Well in Dim Spirit, the second module of The Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy for the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG), the merchant who accompanies the PCs to Kaidan is retrieving his daughter who was held in ransom for his misadventures in Kaidan on a previous visit, and this visit to Kaidan was to bring an artifact to the local lord as the paid ransom. The daughter as it turns out was tortured and murdered by the local lord, and is now a unique ghost that has the physical manifestations of being alive for 23 hours of the day - she has physical form, not being ethereal, and she has no knowledge that she is dead. So while indeed, this is defying the "maiden in distress" trope, the PCs may be induced to want to lay her spirit to rest, thus truly saving her and returning to the original trope.

 

[was]

Make her a were-crocodile and the manacles silvered. Let her take full croc form against the BBEG. It should make the 'revenge' scene a lot more interesting.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

What about the damsel being in jail for a reason? That her captors are evil doesn't mean that any inmate is innocent. Jut have her being grateful to the characters - only to steal from them shortly after.

 

[birdchili]

The damsel is a captive because the evil cleric "saved" her after she wasn't charmed into becoming a member of the cult.

It's somewhat important that she provide some information to the players, but having her be not entirely "good" isn't a terrible idea. Her not be grateful for being rescued I don't think works very well with the setup.

 

[amerigoV]

What about the damsel being in jail for a reason? That her captors are evil doesn't mean that any inmate is innocent. Jut have her being grateful to the characters - only to steal from them shortly after.

I was thinking along the same lines. Sure, "she" is a doppleganger. But she is also a captured doppleganger. Evil folk are not just evil to good people.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Go intelligent weapon or item