D&D General Help me figure out this NPC's evil plot in my campaign

[Wasteland Knight]

I'm looking for ideas to flesh out the evil plot of an NPC in my game. A plot I didn't even realize was brewing until after events were set into motion

Here's the backstory: I needed to get the party from City A to City B for the next adventure. The hook in City B was helping an orphanage find (and rescue) some kidnapped orphans (Shackled City). While this backstory could tug at the heartstrings of many a good-aligned party, the PCs in my game are far more morally ambiguous and mercenary inclined than the average published adventure assumes.

So, having done various "odd" jobs in City A for those with power and ready cash but a strong desire to maintain clean hands, I came up with a hook to the hook. The party was hired by a wealthy (and connected) merchant-lord named Keltos. My quick backstory in my notes was this:

"Keltos is a wealthy merchant and trader of City A. He became a parent late in life, and his wife died in childbirth. Several years ago his daughter, Elena, ran off with a scoundrel and was never heard from again.

Keltos has recently discovered his daughter died (abandoned by her husband) but had a daughter. Keltos’ granddaughter was an orphan in City B. Party is hired to fetch his granddaughter from the Orphanage in City B, as Keltos wants this done quickly, quietly and discretely. The roads have been more dangerous of late, so hiring men both skilled with the blade (or spell) and ready to make use of these skills at a moment's notice is desireable"

Being offered very nice compensation for what seemed like low risk work, the party accepts ("low risk, high reward" is one of their mottos). When they arrive in City B, they discover the girl they sought was kidnapped, along with three other children. This ties in with the actual plot of the published adventure.

This brings me to the current situation. The party seems to think this story is pretty thin and there MUST be a real reason behind this fellow Keltos suddenly deciding to be reunited with his granddaughter. And if they were to go missing, any compelling evidence tying Keltos to the girl in the orphanage would be gone. So when they stated their concerns, I responded with "well, anything's possible." , but in my head I'm thinking "yeah, something DOES seem fishy with this story".

So, having (subconsciously) created a nefarious plot, I need to flesh it out. Why does this fellow REALLY want his daughter? And how with the almost certain double-cross against the party play out?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I say do a bait-and-switch morality play with it.

Use Keltos as a patron for the party and have him keep sending them on tasks that look fishier and fishier. Listen to the players as they try to figure out his scheme and go with tasks that seem to mesh with plans they think he is up to.

Have a second group/individual (who wants to take down Keltos for whatever reason) get in touch with the party and who uses them against him as double-agents. Lean into exploiting their not-so-good-but-mercenary outlook. Eventually have the party help this person/group overthrow, kill, rob, whatever Keltos.

Then drop a reveal bomb on them that Keltos was an innocent good guy all along and they have been used for bad by the other.

 

[jayoungr]

This brings me to the current situation. The party seems to think this story is pretty thin and there MUST be a real reason behind this fellow Keltos suddenly deciding to be reunited with his granddaughter. And if they were to go missing, any compelling evidence tying Keltos to the girl in the orphanage would be gone. So when they stated their concerns, I responded with "well, anything's possible." , but in my head I'm thinking "yeah, something DOES seem fishy with this story".

My quick thought is that it could be something to do with inheritance.

1. Keltos might need an heir to stave off a claim to something of his by a rival within his family. For example, some relative is trying to muscle in on his commercial empire, and Keltos wants to squash him. Maybe he has a nephew who keeps throwing his weight around as the obvious heir to Keltos's fortune, trying to get the underlings loyal to him as their eventual master. Maybe Keltos even suspects the nephew is plotting to poison him and take over. Or the nephew keeps borrowing money on the expectation of his inheritance (and obviously will run everything Keltos has built into the ground as soon as he gets his hands on it).

2. Maybe it turns out the scoundrel, the girl's father, wasn't a mere nobody--he was the black sheep son of some important family. That means that the girl could be in line to inherit something important from him--and as she's just a child, her loving grandfather would of course take over the stewardship of whatever it is until she's old enough. Purely out of the goodness of his heart, of course.

 

[Wasteland Knight]

I say do a bait-and-switch morality play with it.

Use Keltos as a patron for the party and have him keep sending them on tasks that look fishier and fishier. Listen to the players as they try to figure out his scheme and go with tasks that seem to mesh with plans they think he is up to.

Have a second group/individual (who wants to take down Keltos for whatever reason) get in touch with the party and who uses them against him as double-agents. Lean into exploiting their not-so-good-but-mercenary outlook. Eventually have the party help this person/group overthrow, kill, rob, whatever Keltos.

Then drop a reveal bomb on them that Keltos was an innocent good guy all along and they have been used for bad by the other.

I like it. The major mark against this approach is I have a lot of campaign worked out, and I’m leery of adding in yet another faction. But I might go with the angle of Keltos is simply an old man who had too much pride and made some poor decisions.

The PCs will be waiting for the other shoe to drop and it will ratchet up the paranoia level

 

[Richards]

Maybe Keltos made a bargain with a demon for increased power some years back and has to sacrifice a direct bloodline descendant in payment by a certain point in time. He'd been planning to sacrifice his daughter but she somehow got wind of it at the last minute and ran off, but now he learns she had a daughter as well before dying, so the granddaughter's fully suitable as a blood sacrifice. Keltos has already benefited from the demon's power so there's no turning back now - he needs his granddaughter by the next solstice/full moon/alignment of planets/whatever or else the demon's going to take it out on him.

Johnathan

 

[Wasteland Knight]

My quick thought is that it could be something to do with inheritance.

1. Keltos might need an heir to stave off a claim to something of his by a rival within his family. For example, some relative is trying to muscle in on his commercial empire, and Keltos wants to squash him. Maybe he has a nephew who keeps throwing his weight around as the obvious heir to Keltos's fortune, trying to get the underlings loyal to him as their eventual master. Maybe Keltos even suspects the nephew is plotting to poison him and take over. Or the nephew keeps borrowing money on the expectation of his inheritance (and obviously will run everything Keltos has built into the ground as soon as he gets his hands on it).

2. Maybe it turns out the scoundrel, the girl's father, wasn't a mere nobody--he was the black sheep son of some important family. That means that the girl could be in line to inherit something important from him--and as she's just a child, her loving grandfather would of course take over the stewardship of whatever it is until she's old enough. Purely out of the goodness of his heart, of course.

Maybe Keltos made a bargain with a demon for increased power some years back and has to sacrifice a direct bloodline descendant in payment by a certain point in time. He'd been planning to sacrifice his daughter but she somehow got wind of it at the last minute and ran off, but now he learns she had a daughter as well before dying, so the granddaughter's fully suitable as a blood sacrifice. Keltos has already benefited from the demon's power so there's no turning back now - he needs his granddaughter by the next solstice/full moon/alignment of planets/whatever or else the demon's going to take it out on him.

Johnathan

Excellent suggestions. Both involve the same reason - bloodline - but with radically different short term implications.

I think the angle of inheritance would play out without a double cross. He has the girl, and what he promised the PCs for a reward is a pittance to what he would expect to gain.

Going with needed for a blood sacrifice, I think the PCs may be marked for elimination.

 

[jayoungr]

I think the angle of inheritance would play out without a double cross. He has the girl, and what he promised the PCs for a reward is a pittance to what he would expect to gain.

In either option, the person who would lose by Keltos gaining control of the girl could be either an antagonist or an ally for the PCs, though.

1. Keltos could send the PCs to rub out/threaten his nephew.
2. The nephew could hire the PCs to rub out Keltos, not knowing about the girl.
3. The nephew could be a good guy and want the PCs to kidnap the girl back from Keltos.

Similar options with the father's family, if you went with that one.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The story of the runaway daughter who died, heartbroken, after her boyfriend's departure and died of grief just after childbirth is, contrary to the feeling of the PCs, 100% true. It didn't happen to Keltos, though, but to the Iannos, another merchant prince from city A. At the moment, Iannos is old and his trading company will falter as he lacks an heir and his loyal associates wouldn't stay after his demise and try their luck on their own. They are loyal to him, but not to each other. Divided competition would allow Keltos to crush them one by one.

Recently, old Iannos has paid a diviner to foresee the outcome of his succession in order to select the best lieutnants to "sponsor" in the hope his trading house don't collapse after his death: lacking an heir, he'd like his name to endure through his company. The diviner answered that his blood heiress would increase the prestige of the trading tenfold, making Iannos understand he must have a granddaughter.

Keltos got the news as Iannos is recruiting a party to find the child and take him back to him. He hires the PCs to do the exact same thing, hoping to remove her. He understands that hiring people to kill orphan girls could attract bad publicity so he didn't mention his plans to an outsider.

1. The PC will have the opportunity to realize the truth if they hear the exact same story they are finding fishy with another merchant as the granddaddy. They could learn it in parts, and deduce that their instinct was correct.
2. The revalation about this story will make Iannos suspect AS WELL. They will certainly understand that the girl is important without at first knowing why. Will they just sell her to the highest bidder? Would they be better than the beholder running the slave trade in that case?
3. Iannos could succed in hire a party. Finding clue of their involvement would make the party think that there is something sinister to suspect. Especially if the confrontation with Iannos' team turns violent, a result quite common with PC (he could also have hired only morally intransigeant NPCs to send on the quest for his granddaughter, in order to make the situation even more tense, and if the first encounter turns badly, Iannos will think his granddaughter might be in danger and hire hitmen to hunt the PC identified as a threat). But they could also get clues about who is right in this story if they handle it better.
4. The orphan girl could be in age of not wanting to have anything to do with running a trading house. As a young Druid level 1, she thinks monetary wealth would only disrupt her newfound link with nature, so "thank you for coming, but I am not leaving Cauldron". If the PC decided to "betray" Keltos to go with Iannos, they might find themselves in a worse position as Keltos gets what he wanted without the need to pay the heroes...

 

[aco175]

I was originally thinking of having the grandfather be a wealthy tycoon, like Carnegie, who in his old age realized that he could not take it with him and became a great philanthropist. Although, I like having the father of the orphan be the bad guy and come for the PCs later. He could be the one who needs to find the daughter to sacrifice to the devil.

You could have some sort of red herring, like in the movie Good, the Bad and the Ugly with the grave of Arch Stanton be a foil and the money is in the grave next to it. The name given to the PCs could be one of the orphans and the real granddaughter is the other one. Of course, the herring keeps getting targeted and the PCs will thing all along that she is the one until she is killed when they almost get her to the grandfather.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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