ZEITGEIST Cillian Creed reveal

[Crispy120286]

Hey all,
A bit of back story, My players hate "Roger Porter". I mean they absolutely loathe him and remind me of this at least once a session. They know that Roger Porter was at the Consulate when Nilasa died, They know he was probably the one who shot her, and they know he was pursuing the Doctor. They assume he is a master of disguise as no one they talked to could give a great description of him other than he's average looking.

They have been to Macbannin's once and came face to face with Cillian Creed but i'm not sure i played it right. i never shown his portrait or brought any attention to him. They only know him as the head butler of the Macbannin estate.

Now here's where my thoughts come in. They will be either going to the top of Cauldron Hill or they will be reaching the Old Church and the Doctor next session and will come face to face with Creed in battle. I want the reveal to be epic of who he is. I want them to see the Shadow Man and immediately think of Roger Porter. I think they would want to see the downfall of Creed before they would want the downfall of Macbannin (He isn't even on the radar yet).

There is also the smell of burnt engine grease. I assume that is just his blood? The smell wouldn't follow him as he is the Butler Cillian Creed would it?

Please help me brain storm ideas on how and when to best reveal that this shadow man / roger porter is in fact Cillian Creed and they have met him before.

Also as an ex RHC overseas operative, would he have ever come in contact with a Yerasol Veterain before?

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I believe the smell is a result of his blood being combined with Witch oil, so it will only be noticable when he is wounded or is wearing clothes which he bled on, so he will not smell of it when in his butler persona unless he has unhealed wounds perhaps after one of the fights with the pc's.
We know no details of his prior career , so he could have worked with a yerasol veteran pc, it depends on wether you can fit a covert agent into what you know of your players career. If your pc was not a spy then perhaps Creed briefed him before an operation or something.
If your pc's use positive energy on the shadow man perhaps they get a glimpse of his real face , and then when they see him later at MacBennins manor they recognise him or perhaps they recognise him as Macbennins butler if they have already been to the manor.

Really though they should know he is the murderer as soon as they know he is a butler , as all good fans of murder mystery know the Butler did it!

 

[Crispy120286]

I am hoping i can get them to go up Cauldron hill first. So they can have their encounter with the "Shadow Man" they've been hunting for so long but have him get away. Then the next day they should be able to go to the Old Church and actually get into an encounter with him. Perhaps revealing himself to Leone when they talk outside of the Church. Perhaps then they'll start to put the pieces together.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, if the party defeats him in the church, the shadows will melt off his scarred face, which means they won't recognize him as the Butler, but he could have on his body, like, a small pouch of holding that contains a policeman's uniform.

If they don't defeat him, he can slip out. The party can hear Leone say to the shadow man, "You, sir, look worse for wear. Please, put on your face before that," gestures at his hideously scarred visage, "spoils my appetite. Perhaps if you show up in uniform, ha, we can convince them the police are here and it's safe for them to come out."

 

[Crispy120286]

That's excellent. I definitely want him to survive so he can fight them in a more proper battle later on during the final scenes. I do like the script Leone would say to him. Now in his character description, Creed is said to wear his old face most often. So if they can get his shadows to disperse, they'll see a more scarred version of the butler from Macbannin's manor. Hopefully they'll put two and two together early on. I'd just need to discourage them from storming the Macbannin Manor immediately. lol