Shackled City: Terrem Kharatys

SOME IMPLIED SPOILERS FOR SHACKLED CITY FOLLOW:



So we're going to finish "Life's Bazaar" tonight. Been having a blast with SCAP so far, though I've tweaked a few things to make them more to my taste (Yuathyb has a level or three of warlock, for example, since things worked out in such a way that he will be recurring for a time).

Anyway, I really dislike the appearance of "Orbius" at the end of the chapter. It's nice that the PC's get a look at him, so that the later reveal is a bigger deal, but I can honestly think of no plausible reason at this point why Orbius doesn't just whisk Terrem out of the Malachite Fortress and turn him over to the 'wrights. And even if I liked the appearance of Orbius, I can then think of no real reason (other than metagaming/plotting reasons) why he doesn't just kill every PC then and there. He gains nothing by allowing them to live. Instead, he piques their curiosity and arms them with at least some information that they did not have previous to their encounter with him.

So...I'm planning to lose the encounter with Orbius (though questioning of Kazmojen, if it occurs, will result in the slaver dropping Orbius's name) and have Terrem nowhere to be found. He has already been turned over to the 'wrights. The PCs can save the rest of the children and the other slaves, but TErrem is a mystery they will not solve. THey learned that his parents were fiend-touched, but nothing more.

Does anyone who's played further along foresee a problem here? Is a second kidnapping of Terrem (or something similar) an integral plot point for a later chapter? I've only read through Flood Season at this point.

Thoughts greatly appreciated.

PaulKemp said:

So...I'm planning to lose the encounter with Orbius (though questioning of Kazmojen, if it occurs, will result in the slaver dropping Orbius's name) and have Terrem nowhere to be found. He has already been turned over to the 'wrights. The PCs can save the rest of the children and the other slaves, but TErrem is a mystery they will not solve. THey learned that his parents were fiend-touched, but nothing more.

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That sounds like a good idea. I was wandering how to go about that encounter, now that I'm preparing to run it. I can't say I remember the plotline though - I've read it once, but it was like 2 years ago...

We just ran through the encounter with Orbius on Sunday. The main drawbacks I see to dropping the encounter and having Terrem already in the hands of the cagewrights are two-fold:
1) They lose out on some of the award for rescuing the kids
2) They lose the foreshadowing of something really weird happening with that kid and Cauldron

My players are now wondering "What the heck was that beholder doing there?!? And why was is rescuing a kid? What's going on with that kid?!? Why's he so important?"

I suppose you do then have the possibility of PCs becoming obsessed with Terrem and that can be a drawback in and of itself. Whereas if he's just already gone, they'll probably let the issue just drop. Perhaps the other kids can tell the tale that Terrem was purchased from Kazmojen by a beholder. That might be enough to foreshadow problems ahead but not channel them into Terrem-obsession.

billd91 said:

1) They lose out on some of the award for rescuing the kids
2) They lose the foreshadowing of something really weird happening with that kid and Cauldron

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Agreed on point 1, but I think that's okay.

On point 2, I've laid some additional groundwork to highlight Terrem's uniqueness. First, we have the fact that Patch was asked to watch over him by Revus and that it "had something to do with his parents." The PC's did track Revus down and found him dead of a slit throat. THey are wondering why, and sense large events afoot.

Strangely, the adventure does not anticipate the PCs looking further into the thread of Terrem's parents. So I invented some additional facts to set Terrem apart from the rest of the victims. The PCs learned that Terrem's parents came to Cauldron from afar and that they confessed to Gretchyn that Terrem's father's grandfather was fiend-touched, but that (fortunately) Terrem's father showed no sign of fiendish blood. But they feared that Terrem would show such a sign and thus betray the father's taint. Hence the turnover of the child to the orphanage. Turns out, Terrem never showed any such fiend sign, and the parents vanished long ago.

Knowing all that, my PCs are convinced there is something unique about him. They just don't know what. But that's a good thing.

billd91 said:

Perhaps the other kids can tell the tale that Terrem was purchased from Kazmojen by a beholder.

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I like that idea!

I have to say that the appearance of the beholder does make a difference. My players were exhausted from the fight with Kazmojen and about to be decimated by his minions. They were surrounded, out of healing and valiantly keeping the monsters from killing the rescued kids when the beholder appeared out of nowhere, disintegrated some of the offending goblins (they were trying to attack Terrem) and demanded the boy. It worked quite well.

I can understand how the scene appears clunky, and your ideas are sound, but I like the setup as written - it gives a sense of 'WTF?' to the whole encounter, and acknowledges that Orbius likes to get his hands dirty himself.

I'd hate to loose that as a role-playing encounter. I loved dropping that beholder mini on the map and everyone freaking out.

~Qualidar~

My players' jaws were dropping, when "he" arrived. Two said "Disbelief!" in unison... one really good "holy $%$%" moment....

Good counter points

Well, I have a week to decide...