How to urge party to not go after BBEG?

[Cor Azer]

- the troll for some reason ignores blind priest, who lives near the bridge. The priest cares for a small temple devoted to neutral deity, and, sometimes, helps the villagers. The troll leaves the priest alone, though its footprints are sometimes visible in the morning
- the priest gets by from day to day living on gifts of the villagers
- the troll sometimes brings some aquatic creature for the priest, too
- once anyone passing the bridge reaches the temple, the troll ceases pursuit
- small sacrifices to the troll, the bridge or gievn to the priest are thought to bring good luck

Hmm... I was planning on having a small Shinto-like shrine near the bridge, and already had some strangeness about it. The troll ripped out every torii by the bridge, except the particular one leading to this shrine; having a blind priest there can add more tales of the troll.

Going with this angle, you may want to have some locals view the troll as an ugly but necessary part of the region - maybe its sense of possession of the area (or inhuman hunger) means that it kills off (or hunts and eats) some monsters or inimical wildlife that would otherwise pose a threat to the villagers.

Or maybe even the regions protector. Without the Troll, something much worse could invade this tranquil peninsula, destroying their way of life.

Good ideas, but I don't want to heap that moral dilemma on my players - in the past they haven't enjoyed them. Still, I might make the troll and blind priest an "odd couple" of friends; well, less friends as much as such long fixtures in each other's lives that the priest is worried about what life will bring afterwards.

To put a small but cool twist on the "see the area's protector die" theme, why not start the first session by handing them a group of pregens that you know can't take the troll, that are like 7th level or so? Make damn sure that you've set everything up so that the troll achieves a quick and easy tpk- maybe start the pcs with some of their healing surges gone, dailies used, etc- stack the deck, but in a slightly subtle way.

Then kill the party.

Then: "Ten years later... okay, guys, pull out the characters that you have generated yourself..."

I had thought of that idea, but I don't really want to delay their playing of the characters that much. However... if I combine it with the above priest idea... maybe he witnesses (as much as a blind person can witness) that battle. Some of his details will be off, but instead of him just telling the tale to the PCs, I'll get the players to play out the fight with said pre-made temp PCs. The details between the drunken crippled veteran and the blind priest will be due to personal biases and selective memory - giving the players a valid reason to mistrust some of the details (ie, urging against too much metagaming against the troll), but still giving them a lot of insight.

Ooo... I'm liking this train of thought. I can do it for both the drunk and the priest. Each time the players talk to one or the other, I can play a couple rounds of combat - using slightly different versions of the temp PCs each time (again due to fuzzy memories). Maybe not every time - but only when the PCs bring evidence to one or the other that rekindles a memory ("Didn't Eravin wield a halberd?" "What? Oh yes... then... then maybe it was Durn with the axe, and the fight happening like...")

 

[El Mahdi]

Sounds like you are ready to go. Interesting campaign and story ideas. I hope you and your players have fun.

Good Luck and Knock em' Dead.