RangerWickett
Legend
In my campaign, some time soon the party is going to meet Shaaladel, Shining Emperor of the Shahalesti People. Half the party hates him, 1 guy is unconcerned either way, and the last PC is dating the emperor's daughter. I think the PCs are going to try to kill him.
Now, I'm cool with that. The guy does have it coming. But I want to know how royalty should be defended in a high fantasy, high magic setting. Feel free to skip the background in red, and just go straight to the question at the end, if you want.
How about a wee bit of background? Okay, so Shaaladel is emperor of his people, and his empire is sort of a part of the larger Ragesian Empire, which controls the entire world. About 100 years ago, as Shaaladel was carving out his own empire, he tried to sieze all territory controlled by Elves and make it his own. The Taranesti, dark-skinned Elves who were opposed to Shaaladel, fought him, and Shaaladel's armies ended up killing most of the Taranesti, with the rest fleeing into deep tunnels below the Earth. Shaaladel also met resistance from within his own people, since not everyone was so comfortable with this power-hungry ruler. As a sign to his people that treason would not be allowed, Shaaladel had all the rebels he could find rounded up and chained to trees in Ycengled Phuurst, the Taranesti homeland. Now the forest is haunted, and many trees are twisted because the chains have stunted their growth. No one goes there.
Shaaladel also helped the main Ragesian Empire in some of its wars to conquer the world. Several mildly famous heroes from 100 years ago, and the founder of a radical religion, all were enemies of Shaaladel, and so he's rather infamous in many groups.
Recently, about five months ago, the emperor of Ragesia was killed, and so everybody is scrambling to sieze power. The PCs started off as fugitives running from one of these upstart emperors, and along the way, they were captured by Shaaladel's forces. Shaaladel was polite, recognizing the talents of the party, and he wanted to make them his allies, but a third party intervened, making Shaaladel think the party was trying to trick him. When Shaaladel confronted them with this information, he was enraged, making it rather clear to the party that his previous kindness had simply been an act, and that he had actually been trying to trick them. One of the PCs, a gnome who already knew rumors of how nasty Shaaladel was, tried to escape, and Shaaladel personally slew him. Then he imprisoned the party and had them tortured for information while he rushed off to try to get something the party wanted also.
Shaaladel left behind his daughter, Shalosha, to oversee the interrogation and then report to him. With the aid of some allies, the party managed to escape, and for some reason, one PC was adamantly against killing Shalosha. He claimed that the whole thing must have been a terrible mistake, and that they would need Shalosha alive to speak on their behalf. The party eventually caught up to Shaaladel, Shalosha got rescued, they recaptured Shalosha, and a few thousand warriors in Shaaladel's army were obliterated when they tried to use one of those dangerous, ancient powers not meant for man. Think of something akin to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After this, Shaaladel vanished, apparently returning to his base of power, whereas the party kept Shalosha as a hostage first, then later, after they had to work together to survive, they started to become allies. The group ended up going into Ycengled Phuurst, and meeting one of the rebel Elves who had managed to escape Shaaladel 100 years before. This Elf, who was a new PC, was part of a small rebel cell that oppose Shaaladel, but really can't do much to him because there's only a few hundred of them, and Shaaladel has hundreds of thousands of followers.
So, the situation as it stands now is we have one PC who has wooed Shaaladel's daughter, Shalosha, and he wants to get on daddy's good side. There's a gnome PC whose friend (a former PC) was killed by Shaaladel. There's a mage who's not too biased either way. And there's an Elf whose family was mostly murdered by Shaaladel 100 years ago. Then we have Shalosha herself, traveling with the party. They'll be going to talk to Shaaladel soon, and in case the group does something silly, like tries to kill him, I want to plan some defenses.
A few key things to bear in mind:
I've got about a week to figure this out. Help is much appreciated.
Now, I'm cool with that. The guy does have it coming. But I want to know how royalty should be defended in a high fantasy, high magic setting. Feel free to skip the background in red, and just go straight to the question at the end, if you want.
How about a wee bit of background? Okay, so Shaaladel is emperor of his people, and his empire is sort of a part of the larger Ragesian Empire, which controls the entire world. About 100 years ago, as Shaaladel was carving out his own empire, he tried to sieze all territory controlled by Elves and make it his own. The Taranesti, dark-skinned Elves who were opposed to Shaaladel, fought him, and Shaaladel's armies ended up killing most of the Taranesti, with the rest fleeing into deep tunnels below the Earth. Shaaladel also met resistance from within his own people, since not everyone was so comfortable with this power-hungry ruler. As a sign to his people that treason would not be allowed, Shaaladel had all the rebels he could find rounded up and chained to trees in Ycengled Phuurst, the Taranesti homeland. Now the forest is haunted, and many trees are twisted because the chains have stunted their growth. No one goes there.
Shaaladel also helped the main Ragesian Empire in some of its wars to conquer the world. Several mildly famous heroes from 100 years ago, and the founder of a radical religion, all were enemies of Shaaladel, and so he's rather infamous in many groups.
Recently, about five months ago, the emperor of Ragesia was killed, and so everybody is scrambling to sieze power. The PCs started off as fugitives running from one of these upstart emperors, and along the way, they were captured by Shaaladel's forces. Shaaladel was polite, recognizing the talents of the party, and he wanted to make them his allies, but a third party intervened, making Shaaladel think the party was trying to trick him. When Shaaladel confronted them with this information, he was enraged, making it rather clear to the party that his previous kindness had simply been an act, and that he had actually been trying to trick them. One of the PCs, a gnome who already knew rumors of how nasty Shaaladel was, tried to escape, and Shaaladel personally slew him. Then he imprisoned the party and had them tortured for information while he rushed off to try to get something the party wanted also.
Shaaladel left behind his daughter, Shalosha, to oversee the interrogation and then report to him. With the aid of some allies, the party managed to escape, and for some reason, one PC was adamantly against killing Shalosha. He claimed that the whole thing must have been a terrible mistake, and that they would need Shalosha alive to speak on their behalf. The party eventually caught up to Shaaladel, Shalosha got rescued, they recaptured Shalosha, and a few thousand warriors in Shaaladel's army were obliterated when they tried to use one of those dangerous, ancient powers not meant for man. Think of something akin to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After this, Shaaladel vanished, apparently returning to his base of power, whereas the party kept Shalosha as a hostage first, then later, after they had to work together to survive, they started to become allies. The group ended up going into Ycengled Phuurst, and meeting one of the rebel Elves who had managed to escape Shaaladel 100 years before. This Elf, who was a new PC, was part of a small rebel cell that oppose Shaaladel, but really can't do much to him because there's only a few hundred of them, and Shaaladel has hundreds of thousands of followers.
So, the situation as it stands now is we have one PC who has wooed Shaaladel's daughter, Shalosha, and he wants to get on daddy's good side. There's a gnome PC whose friend (a former PC) was killed by Shaaladel. There's a mage who's not too biased either way. And there's an Elf whose family was mostly murdered by Shaaladel 100 years ago. Then we have Shalosha herself, traveling with the party. They'll be going to talk to Shaaladel soon, and in case the group does something silly, like tries to kill him, I want to plan some defenses.
A few key things to bear in mind:
- I use most all sorts of magic except resurrection. I only allow Raise Dead to work if the person died in the past few minutes. Shaaladel will probably have a few mages handy to raise him in an emergency.
- Shaaladel in the past has encountered a shadowdancer assassin (who is actually the guy who killed the main Ragesian Emperor). Shaaladel's got a big 'light' theme to himself and his empire. Most of the architecture is narrow and long, like beams of light. It's not necessarily sunlight, but he'll probably have bright lights in all of his major buildings.
- Shaaladel is a 20th level Fighter. He's led armies and fought powerful enemies for hundreds of years. I'm almost tempted to put him into Epic levels, though he'd be, like, one of three people in the world who's that powerful. Not as if that matters much when someone just cuts your head off in the middle of the night.
- The capitol city of the Shahalesti Elves, Calanis, is more akin to a human city than to something like Lothlorien. It's an actual city, with impressive buildings, walls for defense, and undoubtedly a few magical defenses. The city itself straddles a waterfall.
- High-level characters are pretty rare. The highest-level person after Shaaly in this empire is probably 16th or 17th. I can imagine a few hundred highly elite warriors of 10th level guarding a palace, but high-level spellcasters in particular tend to get assassinated, so there aren't that many of them.
- We need to protect Shaaladel against the common techniques of assassination in high-magic fantasy. Shadowdancer/assassins are one major threat. So is the teleport in/abduct/dump in volcano technique. Poison is another major problem, especially since the Taranesti Elves were famed for poison use. I'm not trying to thwart the players; I'm just honestly trying to think of how a powerful emperor would defend himself. In his mind, the only thing that should have a chance of getting near him should be a full military assault, and then he'll have his army between him and danger.
I've got about a week to figure this out. Help is much appreciated.
SteveC was already taken (although I've never seen him post). I have a good friend who calls me Steverooo, so I've used that as an alternate title whenever SteveC isn't available. And yes, it has had three Os as long as I've been on ENWorld.
