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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7523236" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I introduced a nobleman in my pirate campaign, called <strong>Alfredo Poussin</strong>. I played him like an absolute ***hole, to really get under the player's skin. The funny thing is, he wasn't even a big bad guy by any means, but he really made life difficult for the players regardless. It started when he challenged one of their npc crew members, a man nick-named Rummy, to a duel to the death, over a girl who was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Rummy, in a heated moment, accepted to duel the man, without knowing what this meant. This sort of thing has some historical validity. Noblemen of the swashbuckler period would often duel people to the death, knowing they could easily beat them with their knowledge of fencing. It was basically legal murder.</p><p></p><p>So now the players were in quite a bind. Rummy would never beat an experienced fencer, so they would have to teach him to fence, and/or find a way to cheat. First of all they visited <strong>Alfredo Poussin</strong> (the nobleman) and tried to reason with him. But after meeting with him, they realized just what a jerk he was, and that there was no reasoning with him. They met with the greatest swordsman in the city, <strong>the Great Ravelli</strong>, who had taught many noblemen how to fence, including our bad guy. He would try and teach Rummy to fight as best he could, given the short time. He expressed his disappointment about having to teach fencing to so many hot-headed noblemen, who carelessly would throw their lives away for petty matters.</p><p></p><p>The players visited the father of the girl whom this whole duel was about, who was a wealthy merchant. They learned that the father did not like the idea of his daughter being with some lowly drunk pirate like Rummy, and that the nobleman was much more befitting of her status. But they tried to convince the man that the nobleman was a really bad guy, and that Rummy had a good heart. They were unsure if they had succeeded to convince the father when they left his house, but there was some doubt on his face after this meeting.</p><p></p><p>The players studied the local rules of duelling, and found out that both parties would get to appoint a wizard to check that no magical cheating was involved in the duel. This complicated their plans to cheat a bit. They also found out that they were allowed to appoint a second, who would take the place of the person challenged to the duel. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the players also had to deal with the appointment of a new ruler of the city, after the previous regent was assassinated. They attended a meeting between noblemen and important representatives of the city and had to try and convince them to vote a particular way. Of course our jerk nobleman was also present at this meeting, and one of the possible new regents. The players had to make sure that people would not vote for him.</p><p></p><p>The day of the duel eventually arrived, and the players had convinced Rummy to appoint one of the player-characters to fight in his place. He did as instructed by the players, but this prompted our jerk nobleman to also appoint a second.... and he appointed <strong>the Great Ravelli</strong> to fight in his place. What a twist! The duel eventually ended in a draw, but when the nobleman insisted that one of the two must die, the honorable Ravelli refused, and so did the player. While Ravelli could not refuse the nobleman's initial appointment, he was under no obligation to also kill for him. He chose not to spill any more blood, as befitting his alignment.</p><p></p><p>The players managed to distract the audience, so that their captain could quickly knock the jerk nobleman into the water with his <strong>Ring of the Ram</strong>. The druid of the party then shapeshifted into a shark and ensured that the nobleman never made it to the surface. So did no one see this blatant murder happen? Well, there were subtle hints that the girl's father had seen what happened... but he kept his mouth shut about it. Perhaps he had indeed changed his mind about who his daughter should be with. And so it all connected into one cohesive story. I was pretty proud how it all worked out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7523236, member: 6801286"] I introduced a nobleman in my pirate campaign, called [B]Alfredo Poussin[/B]. I played him like an absolute ***hole, to really get under the player's skin. The funny thing is, he wasn't even a big bad guy by any means, but he really made life difficult for the players regardless. It started when he challenged one of their npc crew members, a man nick-named Rummy, to a duel to the death, over a girl who was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Rummy, in a heated moment, accepted to duel the man, without knowing what this meant. This sort of thing has some historical validity. Noblemen of the swashbuckler period would often duel people to the death, knowing they could easily beat them with their knowledge of fencing. It was basically legal murder. So now the players were in quite a bind. Rummy would never beat an experienced fencer, so they would have to teach him to fence, and/or find a way to cheat. First of all they visited [B]Alfredo Poussin[/B] (the nobleman) and tried to reason with him. But after meeting with him, they realized just what a jerk he was, and that there was no reasoning with him. They met with the greatest swordsman in the city, [B]the Great Ravelli[/B], who had taught many noblemen how to fence, including our bad guy. He would try and teach Rummy to fight as best he could, given the short time. He expressed his disappointment about having to teach fencing to so many hot-headed noblemen, who carelessly would throw their lives away for petty matters. The players visited the father of the girl whom this whole duel was about, who was a wealthy merchant. They learned that the father did not like the idea of his daughter being with some lowly drunk pirate like Rummy, and that the nobleman was much more befitting of her status. But they tried to convince the man that the nobleman was a really bad guy, and that Rummy had a good heart. They were unsure if they had succeeded to convince the father when they left his house, but there was some doubt on his face after this meeting. The players studied the local rules of duelling, and found out that both parties would get to appoint a wizard to check that no magical cheating was involved in the duel. This complicated their plans to cheat a bit. They also found out that they were allowed to appoint a second, who would take the place of the person challenged to the duel. Meanwhile the players also had to deal with the appointment of a new ruler of the city, after the previous regent was assassinated. They attended a meeting between noblemen and important representatives of the city and had to try and convince them to vote a particular way. Of course our jerk nobleman was also present at this meeting, and one of the possible new regents. The players had to make sure that people would not vote for him. The day of the duel eventually arrived, and the players had convinced Rummy to appoint one of the player-characters to fight in his place. He did as instructed by the players, but this prompted our jerk nobleman to also appoint a second.... and he appointed [B]the Great Ravelli[/B] to fight in his place. What a twist! The duel eventually ended in a draw, but when the nobleman insisted that one of the two must die, the honorable Ravelli refused, and so did the player. While Ravelli could not refuse the nobleman's initial appointment, he was under no obligation to also kill for him. He chose not to spill any more blood, as befitting his alignment. The players managed to distract the audience, so that their captain could quickly knock the jerk nobleman into the water with his [B]Ring of the Ram[/B]. The druid of the party then shapeshifted into a shark and ensured that the nobleman never made it to the surface. So did no one see this blatant murder happen? Well, there were subtle hints that the girl's father had seen what happened... but he kept his mouth shut about it. Perhaps he had indeed changed his mind about who his daughter should be with. And so it all connected into one cohesive story. I was pretty proud how it all worked out. [/QUOTE]
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