D&D General Where has the antiquities dealer gone?

[NotAYakk]

So looking at the graph:
Benali is using some of the Sherriff's old criminals to help in some task.
That task involves the Lovecraftians, possibly tangentally. Like, what she is after is also what the Lovecraftians are after?
This might involve the patronage of someone who is a rival to the Sultana.
That someone might be the black dragon in disguise.
This task has the dual purpose of both distracting Benali from her current information gathering, and advancing the Black Dragon's interests.
Either the Lovecraftians, or agents of the Sultana, was used to spook Benali into fleeing her villa by the Black Dragon. Whichever wasn't used the spook Benali is also looking into Benali, but the BD doesn't know it.

...

I think that makes the web as insane as possible. And ties into every single PCs motivations/backstory and the current/past plots in implausible ways.

green is "going after".

I added a rivalry between the "Sultana Army" and "Royal Proxy" -- it is a secret police/state dept/etc and army has contempt for it.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

So looking at the graph:
Benali is using some of the Sherriff's old criminals to help in some task.
That task involves the Lovecraftians, possibly tangentally. Like, what she is after is also what the Lovecraftians are after?
This might involve the patronage of someone who is a rival to the Sultana.
That someone might be the black dragon in disguise.
This task has the dual purpose of both distracting Benali from her current information gathering, and advancing the Black Dragon's interests.
Either the Lovecraftians, or agents of the Sultana, was used to spook Benali into fleeing her villa by the Black Dragon. Whichever wasn't used the spook Benali is also looking into Benali, but the BD doesn't know it.

...

I think that makes the web as insane as possible. And ties into every single PCs motivations/backstory and the current/past plots in implausible ways. <image snop>
green is "going after".

Plausible option for the Royal Proxy: Zaid al-Ansari. He's a notoriously slimy (he would prefer shrewd) businessman, but has a reputation for loyalty to the city itself (similar to Wadji but somewhat more patriotic--e.g. "I do what's best for Al-Rakkah because that will, in the end, also be what's best for business.") He served as regent between the death of Sultan Iskandar (the one who went crazy in his old age) and Sultana Thuriya becoming a legal adult, roundabout 5 years served, and then became her Court Vizier after she assumed the throne formally (which was roughly 5 years ago.) Zaid is known to have some suspicious dealings, but the party has also learned people are trying to enhance the suspicion targeted at him, and they don't know why.

I've tried to avoid the usual tropes of the "wicked vizier" with him, so if he is up to something nefarious, he's either good at hiding it, or it's more "he thinks it's what's good for the city/the Sultana" when that might not be the case.

 

[NotAYakk]

Plausible option for the Royal Proxy: Zaid al-Ansari. He's a notoriously slimy (he would prefer shrewd) businessman, but has a reputation for loyalty to the city itself (similar to Wadji but somewhat more patriotic--e.g. "I do what's best for Al-Rakkah because that will, in the end, also be what's best for business.") He served as regent between the death of Sultan Iskandar (the one who went crazy in his old age) and Sultana Thuriya becoming a legal adult, roundabout 5 years served, and then became her Court Vizier after she assumed the throne formally (which was roughly 5 years ago.) Zaid is known to have some suspicious dealings, but the party has also learned people are trying to enhance the suspicion targeted at him, and they don't know why.

I've tried to avoid the usual tropes of the "wicked vizier" with him, so if he is up to something nefarious, he's either good at hiding it, or it's more "he thinks it's what's good for the city/the Sultana" when that might not be the case.

He could also be completely loyal, but appears disloyal in order to allow the Sultana to deny involvement in what he does, and allow ... shady ... people to be willing to approach him.

Like, maybe he's really the Sultana's father, and both of them know it. But nobody else does.

But, again, that is making the plot way too soap opera silly.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

He could also be completely loyal, but appears disloyal in order to allow the Sultana to deny involvement in what he does, and allow ... shady ... people to be willing to approach him.

Like, maybe he's really the Sultana's father, and both of them know it. But nobody else does.

But, again, that is making the plot way too soap opera silly.

She's definitely Sultan Iskandar's daughter. (Long story short, she was his youngest child, and although he drove away or...well, executed all of his other children, he genuinely couldn't believe she was conniving against him, probably one of his last shreds of sanity near the end. When his insanity finally went too far for even some members of the military and aristocracy/plutocracy, they staged a successful insurrection/coup and assassinated him. Zaid was already a prominent member of the royal court and possibly the richest man in the city, so he was a natural choice for Regent.)

But it's definitely worth considering whether he has any skeletons in his closet he's trying to keep hidden.