WotBS Trial of Echoed Souls: Unclear motivation of antagonists (Spoilers!)

Hi all, Grateful for any ideas,

Ragesia wasn't actively attacking Shahalesti before Coaltongue died, at least not as I recall (I wrote the thing 8 years ago). Coaltongue had once been closely allied with Shaaladel, and while they had a falling out, their two nations weren't at war.

Ah, then I did misunderstand! Many thanks for clearing this up. I will change the background of my campaign appropriately and pass the appropriate explanations to the players before they start Trial. So far, they haven't looked at the background with great scrutiny (but are having a good time, nonetheless).

And in response to item #2... yes, the idea is to get the Shahalesti into the fight for real, but cripple Ragesia from being able to defeat them easily and gaining more power. The intended end state leaves both nations damaged.

Its been a while, but that module was one of my favorites to run

The motivations of coaltounge's assassins are a bit vague - the introduction actually mentions this:
Who Hired the Assassins?
There is no clear answer to who recruited the assassins to kill Drakus Coaltongue, or if they did it of their own free will. You can generally assume Leska, the new emperor of Ragesia who ascended after Coaltongue’s fall, is responsible, and that the assassins simply betrayed her in the aftermath, but feel free to change this based on whomever the heroes seem to dislike the most. If they particularly loathe the Shahalesti, for instance, perhaps it was Lord Shaaladel who recruited the drow, ironic certainly given the man’s calls for purity of the elvish people.

I personally like the idea of the assassins wanting to take down both Shaaladel and his bestie Coaltounge. They kill Coaltongue and take his torch, then hide it in Shahalesti, coaxxing his replacement to come and start a war with Shaaladel over it - and to reveal his genocide should the Elve's own interest in the long-dead forest is questioned.

Cyclone Duke said:

I personally like the idea of the assassins wanting to take down both Shaaladel and his bestie Coaltounge. They kill Coaltongue and take his torch, then hide it in Shahalesti, coaxxing his replacement to come and start a war with Shaaladel over it - and to reveal his genocide should the Elve's own interest in the long-dead forest is questioned.

Click to expand...

I like to think that Leska did hire them to do the dirty deed, but they did not deliver on their part of the deal, being handing over the torch to her. Thereby forcing Shahalesti and Ragesia, the two empires that ruined Rhuarc's people, into a conflict in the hope that they will destroy eachother