WotBS Connecting Backstories...

[emeraldbeacon]

In each of my two separate Burning Skies campaigns, I have one player with a backstory elements that I want to help pay off and resolve by the story's end... but I'm having some trouble coming up with organic and natural ways to do so, given the existing flow of the campaign narrative. I thought I'd ask here for some advice...

1. A Mysterious Coat. A player who joined the campaign in chapter 3 (as the party arrived in Seaquen) is running a Half-Taranesti Eloquence Bard, someone whose parent fled Innenotdar as a child. His schtick is being charming and clueless, especially regarding the origins of his coat, which he randomly found one day... a coat that always has a flask of alcohol in it somewhere. He claims he just had it when he woke up one day, which makes me think it may have some Fey connections to it. I'd kind of like this coat to have some relevance down the line, like it might be more important than the team realizes, but I'm not sure quite how. (This group otherwise contains a Dasseni noble, a Taranesti from Phorros Irrendra, a Droalesti priest, and a Ragesian Dragonborn ex-soldier.)
2. Son of a Solar. In the other campaign, one of the players is an Aasimar Paladin/Warlock, whose celestial patron is also his father, a Solar with his own designs on the world. My intention is to have this Solar loosely allied with Shaaladel, whose joint plan is to bring the world to a more orderly state (under their control). The Solar has a more divisive, secret plan, though, to use this progeny as a tool to bring the entire world into judgement, by ensuring that either the Aquiline Heart drives everyone to all-out war, or that one side of the current war conquers everything decisively. I figure the party will need a definitive final encounter against the solar, probably at late levels. Mathematically, 5 players should be able to tackle a CR-21 creature at level 15 or 16, which in the campaign, would fall right around the attack on Scourge Prison. I suppose I could postpone it until the Festival of Dreams, and just jack up his HP (or give him reinforcements), but I'm still not sure if that's the right NARRATIVE place to put it. (This party otherwise has a human druid from Gate Pass, a Taranesti survivor of Innenotdar, an Ostaliner Halfling Bard on a mission against the Khagan, and a Gnome Artificer from Sindaire with a tragic past)

Do you have any thoughts on ways to craft some story, that would fit within the WotBS universe, to tie these ideas in?

 

[emeraldbeacon]

Some weird ideas I had...

1. The drunk elf's coat itself is sentient, but just sleeping right now. It's actually a trillith named Revelry, with the ability to provide random, semi-real items that might be useful in the moment, similar to a Coat of Useful Items. It just got stuck on alcohol, because it's all this elf seems to want at this time. The coat will lose its magic after Trilla's awakening, but will enter the bard, granting him a similar power (the ability to pull mundane items out of his pockets at will).
2. I kind of want to push the Solar confrontation back, to shorty after the defeat of The Tempest. As the armies are finally gathering to war, the Aasimar is confronted regarding his independence and disobedience, and forced to decide... bow to the Solar's will, or forsake his heritage and lose his warlock powers (all through which, this Solar will reveal his extremely unappealing plan for the world). I think the plan would be moot if he threatens the teammates, though, declaring them distractions... I want to egg him on into a fight, probably with everyone involved, and in the end, to realize that as a high-level half-celestial, he can basically be his own warlock patron.

 

[Fuzzybear]

2 - What is your reason for not thinking it narratively fits with the Gate Pass section? It seems very reasonable for the solar to realize that Shaaladel isn't going to do what he wants anymore and that the Trillith might present a better path to his goals? It could be useful for it to decide to take matters into their own hands around the treaty perhaps?

You could also decide to make the battle near the Aquiline Heart in adventure 12, especially if you wanted to write out the Time section perhaps?

 

[emeraldbeacon]

2 - What is your reason for not thinking it narratively fits with the Gate Pass section? It seems very reasonable for the solar to realize that Shaaladel isn't going to do what he wants anymore and that the Trillith might present a better path to his goals? It could be useful for it to decide to take matters into their own hands around the treaty perhaps?

You could also decide to make the battle near the Aquiline Heart in adventure 12, especially if you wanted to write out the Time section perhaps?

I guess, I just felt like it wasn't the right place to be "finishing" that character story... plus, while Shaaladel is clearly only an ally of convenience at that point, it's not yet clear that he's an outright antagonist. Having the Solar confront his Warlock about not serving Shaaladel, when the party will almost certainly be anti-Shaaladel at that point, would feel more like exoneration that the Solar is right. Hence why I'd kind of like to move the confrontation later.

The Solar's main goal (I think) is to "purify the world," mainly by ridding it of anything that doesn't fall under its own ultra-pious nature. That's one reason why it's interested in the Aquiline Heart and Leska's plan... she seeks to doom the world to endless conflict, and in that conflict, the Solar believes, weakness will be purged. It may also want to claim The Torch, as the weapon that killed one of his Trumpet Archon subordinates.