your opinion about altering some npcs roles?

Hi,


i am still storytelling the Dying Skyseer. The main matter is that i want to find a way to reinstate the kings sister as a trustworthy ally and really would like to build her up as the next queen.


I have not yet read all the adventures but i have read/heard somewhere that the adventure path discusses that one of the players might rise as the next king of risur. I have some not so good experience about players being rulers of nations in several other campaigns and would like to avoid that if it is not necessary for the flow of things.


My players were deeply frustrated by Ethelyns betrayal and tried to console the kings grief. I fear there is little reason for the king to forgive her treason short of using a geas or something similarly drastic measures? How would the Risuri people react, if Ethlelyn would seek to regain their trust? Ethelyn is my choice because it would add some spicy twist to the adventure.


Last Session ended with my Players confronting Mayor Macbannin about him having ties to the incidents with the Embassy, the witch oil and his late associate Cillian Creed.


The did not buy into his bluff and Macbannin finally told them that he is doing secret research for the king and that it is important that they do not uncover the story. The players managed to persuade him, that his research is probably not sanctioned by the king. (i invented a story about a Project X (old war research about human alternation which the Danorians as well as the Risuri did during the last centuries) and how this Project was forbidden by the current king.


Macbannin agreed to discuss the matter with them and they found out that he is not able to speak about certain facts because of his geas. They actually found out that they can get clues by testing about which matters he can not speek. As an result my players suspect the governor Stanfield to be part of the conspiracy. They especially suspect him because the government has asked Heward Sechim to lower the prices for his products and they still think the conspiracy is building a warship in the bleak gate.


They actually really like the mayor because they think he is loyal to his king and risur and they loved the idea of him guarding the city from the magical hazards of cauldron hill.


My players went on and defended ole Nevard at the big meeting and last session ended with Nevard dying at their feet.


Now i have the problem of the governor Stanfield beeing under suspicion of beeing part of the conspiracy and as he probably has the same geas as the mayor had they will reveal his inability of not beeing able to speak about certain matters.


I can have Doro kill the governor and then the rebirth of the deva would delete all knowledge of the ob. And the ob probably has the ability to recruit Stanfield again. Macbannin is beloved by my players and deserves a heroic death as he prevents the nettles beeing drowned by witch oil.


Any sugestions? Especially about the next queen Duchess Ethelyn of Shale or any suitable other NPC for the job?

Actually, neither McBannin, nor Stanfield IMHO should have geas placed on them. McBannin is too low in Ob hierarchy and never visited complex-under-the-Hill. Stanfield is said to be proficient in shielding his mind from intrusions (even if he's never said to be a psion, his "manifestations" are definitely psionic in nature, so this is plausible) and, juat as you said, every geas could be detected if not broken, which would be extremely suspicious in his position.

His position as deva does offer a lot of possibilities. He can be killed and rerecruited as you said or he could have split personality (my own take in order to fool paranoid players), literally betraying Risur in one incarnation, but not another.

Considering king candidates, obvious ones are Harkover Lee (if somehow he's able to keep his identity secret), Nigel Price-Hill (BTW another tempting candidate for Ob recruitment, though it comes close to "Ob are everywhere") or current Green Knight of King, forgot his name. Bonus points if you somehow could make Rock Rackus a public hero suitable to be the king.

I'd really have liked to see Duchess Ethelyn of Shale come back into the story in a meaningful way. I guess the risk was always that the players or Asrabey could have offed her in adventure #1, so I can understand why the writers didn't take that option. (By Act Three they already have enough key NPCs who are possibly dead, possibly not.)

In my own campaign I'd like to arrange a moment where the PCs go and visit her in her cell to gain a crucial piece of information, but I need to think of something it could be. (Any ideas out there? At the risk of hijacking the thread.)

Your main problem, Tizbiz, will be - do the Ob know Macbannin was 'turned'? If so, what will you do to replace him in adventure #7? (They wouldn't ask him to join the Ghost Council if he was a turncoat.)

I had a similar problem with characters getting wise to Stanfield, but I just killed the most nosey one. In your case, you could have him escape, and return in adventure #9. (The lighthouse will still get built in his absence.) In the original draft of the campaign, he was outed as the head of the Colossus Cell at the end of adventure #5, so I'm sure it's workable if you think it through.

Sorry for the late answer. Bringing back duchess Ethelyn of Shale is somethin i still want to try. I have a very good relationship with my players and when i asked them about their opinion they could not see how they could forgive her treason. They said that they could only agree if her brother the king would publicly forgive her in an meaningful way and that they would carefully judge if she repents her evil ways.

In the end the players got an assignment to travel to the island Elba at the border to Ber to audit the exiled Ethelyn because she had voiced her regrets about her rebellious treason in an interview she had given in a high society gossip rag.

After the audit they where called to present their opinon to the king Aodhan and his advisor Harkover Lee at a private breakfast and when they asked why the king cared to know about her Harkover Lee hinted that they where looking for a replacement for the late mayor Macbannin and where discussing powerful spellcasters. The players suggested to the king that he could announce a general amnesty at the day of his wedding and could assign Ethelyn as the mayor of the nettles as punishment to redeem her sins.

(my players never fail to amaze me. *grin*)

They even volunteered to prepare a list of appropriate candidates for the amnesty concerning the jurisdiction of the Flint RHC which would of cause include the island Elba which is near Flint.

As of Macbannin i felt inspired by the picture of a man being devoured by a witch oil monster at the beginning of the last chapter. When the Players got back to the mayors house they found the ground shaking and Macbannin was holding back the evils of the hill by magic. I reasoned that Macbannin caused the incident by doing nothing and because of this the witch oil tanks where not emptied into the hill anymore. The level of oil had risen out of control. The players did their thing and emptied the tanks and at some point they witnessed mayor Macbannin sacrificing himself to place a permanent protection on the hill and kill a resurrected Cillian Creed who came back from the dead as an witch oil monster.

Macbannings death was so quick, that the Ob never realised if he was turned. If they reason with him that they alter reality in a meaningful way they might still recruit him later.

As for governor Stanfield .... the players strongly suspect him to be involved with some kind of conspiracy but they could find no hard evidence and they know nobody would believe them at this stage. At the same time they were taken of the case and now have their hands full with the new events in the next adventure.

My female player who plays Auryn, an female noble eladrin, has her being a captive by a danorian archenemy as one of her defining moments. I am going to use Mr. Pemberton (changed his name to fit her Archenemy Fordren) as this danorian industrialist who bought her and kept her in a "golden cage". I think he saw her as his prized possesion and part of his "hoard". He was absent when she was freed by the now Admiral Dawkins.

Now Auryn has seen him from afar at the Kaybeau Arms and Tech thing and plans to confront him somewhere. She knows him to be at a wedding because he is going to wed his niece to Mr. Goodson soon. She reasons that she needs to stop living in fear of him.

What would this dragon do, if he finds his most prized and lost "possesion" is now a RHC agent and publicly or privatly accuses him to be a kidnapper? He is on foreign soil and wants to open new business contacts.

I have to options: Gradiax, the Steel Lord has only recently usurped Mr. Pembertons place. He knows nothing about Auryn which risks him being exposed as being very suspicious.

He has been Mr Pemberton from the beginning and recalls Auryn instantly as his play thing. He was playing mind games with her and she felt as if he was toying and repressing/altering her personality. He even never called her by her real name but used some kind of name that she found repulsive because it made her his possession. I tend to go with this option which has its own perils. How much would he risk in a foreign land?

My player assumes, that he still longs to have her back and that he would have gone to great lengths if she had not been under the risuri military forces protection when she was freed.

Secondly Admiral Dawkins, the old stag has taken a very important role in my campaign. He is a reincarnated storm fey who suffers to be reborn as a mortal as a punishment for loving the mortal world to much. He is a fairly powerful yet mysterious Mentor to Auryn who loves him like the father she never had. Actually she is really worried what will happen if Pemberton and Dawkins confront each other. She fears her Mentor would try to revenge her. What should i do, if a powerful Vekeshi strom fey lord and a disguised dragon ever meet?