Where would you look for aid?

[Trit One-Ear]

Begin The Great Wall of Text

After an accidental hiatus, my players are finally making big steps towards discovering some key information in my campaign. Which means I need to decide wha information to give them, and figure out where they might go next!

As I've written about here before, ey have been investigating cultist activity in the city of Lesdon. They have strong reason to suspect the Duke (a supposed ally of theirs) or one of his top advisors have ties to the devil-worshiping cult, The Cult of the Twisted Horn. After uncovering some notes from an investigation ex-Mystic Advisor Gustav Willhelm had been pursuing earlier, they discovered the entrance to a cultist lair in the city sewers. As they fight their way through cultists, duergar and cambion, they come closer to learning exactly how wide a web the cult has woven.

In truth, the Duke himself is innocent. He has, however, been bewitched by a sucubus summoned by the cult. After convincing the Duke to remove Gustav from his position, she has taken over as Mystic and Religious Advisor to the Duke. Using her sway over him, and her new clout, she has accused many members of the city guard, military, and city council of "cultist sympathies", meanwhile replacing them with her real cultist allies.

The heroes are about to come upon the summoning used to summon our lovely sucubus, and using an item that can read magical residue, will gain a pretty good idea that -something- big was summoned here. Notes kept by the high-ranking cultists will tell them that this devil is posing as one of the Duke's advisors.

The question becomes:chow much more do I tell them? This information is not meant to spur the heroes to openly confront the Duke and his She-Devil, (I'm not sure I should even tell them it's a sucubus behind it all). My hope is for them to begin gathering their allies in the city to aid them against what essentially has become a corrupt ruling power. With the city guard mostly made up of cultist agents at this point, they're essentially starting a rebellion. If they choose to.

Possible directions/contacts:

The heroes already have friends in the underworld. Convincing the head of the Thieves Guild may take a little effort, but should be doable.

They ex-captain of the guard escaped the city before he could be "dealt with" by the cult. He has been replaced, but is currently hiding out amongst the various farms and towns surrounding Lesdon, gathering a militia of sorts to try and take back the city. The heroes could definitely use his help. But know nothing about him at this point (other that he escaped).

The heroes already know one noble/scholar who has given them support and information. Seeking more would lead them to the library, or possibly one of the many churches in Lesdon (they are fighting devils after all).

Do you see any other sensible courses they could take?

Also, how to get them to these points? My players like to be led a little, not left completely without clues or guidance. One thought I had was to include a list of "potential threats" amongst the cultist's papers. Heroes could treat it as a list of potential allies. Other ideas were the classic NPC advising, or forcing them into a situation in which they'd have to meet/ally with these other figures.

Wall o' text done. Please, any of you who have read this far, any and all advice is welcome. Where would your impulse as a player tell you to look next?

Trit

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well, without some more, I'm not sure what your PCs might do next. FOr example, it isn't clear why they should find that things points back to the duke.

Personally, I would give them more, but not knowing the full context, I'm not sure how much more.

For example, how have the PCs managed to remain alive and at cross purposes to their ally's true master? Is the succubus somehow unaware of them? Now that the PCs have stumbled onto and are fighting the actual cultists (rather than the fall guys) why is the succubus allowing the duke to keep them around?

Where does this fall in the game structure? Is it end-of-tier or some other point where you want to shake things up? I'm guessing not, as you don't want an immediate showdown.

I would think that the PCs next step would be to go to the authorities - of which the most likely result is the cult would turn its attention to elliminate the PCs. Indeed, provided the cult knows who the PCs are and what they have done, I would think that would happen anyways. Do the PCs have any idea of anyone they can turn to? You mentioned their allies, but do they have any means of suspecting who may have been turned and be a closet cultist?

Perhaps have them return to their boss only to be informed he no longer needs their services? Or assassins in the middle of the night coming for the PCs, on the duke's property, with the clues pointing to inside help and none of the duke's staff being willing to talk?

I think it might be helpful to consider not only what the PCs might do with the info you give them, but also think of what the cultists might do - have them be proactive against the PCs and consider letting that drive the plot for a bit, rather than it always being the PCs with the story initiative.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I read a lot of thrillers, and usually the villains are undone by mistakes, rather than anything else.

The succubus has been directing lots of cultists. However, she's new to town. She doesn't know who is competent and who isn't. There's no reason some incompetent cultists can't mess things up, accidentally leading the PCs to clues they had otherwise missed. For instance, a cultist might make several references to the succubus as a "great lady" with "great political power", which the PCs could use to figure out the new lady is a cultist.

Naturally, she can make mistakes as well, mainly due to her lack of knowledge of local culture. (She's essentially an alien trying to blend in. Imagine her trying to explain her fiendish accent as from some foreign nation a PC is familiar with. "No way that's Klatchian!" or what have you.

Of course, it's perfectly acceptable if the PCs do not know she's a demon, and proving it would be hard, as they'd have to beat her Bluff and Diplomacy checks in a skill challenge.

 

[S'mon]

The question becomes:chow much more do I tell them? This information is not meant to spur the heroes to openly confront the Duke and his She-Devil...

Well, if it were me I would let them have all the info; the interesting questions IMO are what you do with information, not how you get it. And I'd let them confront the Duke if they wanted, though that might be unwise.

A handy GMing hint is "Never put off the cool stuff to tomorrow. Cool stuff now. Tomorrow, make up more". So I would not want to prevent things coming to a PC-instigated climax.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

You've all given me a lot to think about. I think you're all mostly right.

Up to this point, the heroes have been working for the Duke on some less-suspicious jobs. She-Devil has been watching them, hoping to turn them to her cause, or at least beguile them to aid her. At this point, however, there is no doubt she will be gunning for them, after they've killed a large number of her minions and disrupted her plans.

This is fairly early on in the adventure, so a direct confrontation/show down isn't in the cards, though if the heroes are feeling head-strong or... stupid, I'll allow it. A confrontation goes poorly, the heroes are pursued through the city, and either escape or are jailed. All are fun opportunities.

I think [MENTION=81104]Dr_Ruminahui[/MENTION] is right, the next move will come from the cultists. They have agents throughout the city, so no matter who the heroes turn to, a cultist will not be far. I like the idea of using a "hit list" to tell them who some of the cult's enemies are, but those marks are probably being watched very carefully by cultist agents.
@S'mon , you've encouraged me to do what I had been leaning towards. There are two female advisors to the Duke. If I flat out give the players the information that a succubus has infiltrated the Duke's inner circle, that gives them a 50/50 chance to accuse the right woman. That's more than enough for them to go on. I've also jerked my players around enough lately, changing the focus of their adventure as new threats are revealed, it's time they had a clear foe to move against.

A list of a few potential allies, combined with attacks from cultists, and the freedom to share information with the other NPC's in the city should give me enough material to prepare for a few sessions, while the players make up their minds.

Thanks tons everyone. It helps a lot to get my plot out of my head to breathe every once in a while.

Trit