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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8087788" data-attributes="member: 42856">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...</blockquote>

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