Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormrunner" data-source="post: 3067425" data-attributes="member: 13471">The dowager Queen Mother is totally unaware of the current plotting?  Really?  Unless her time as Queen was so stressful that she wants to flee to the country and forget it all, it seems unlikely.  (Makes a nice cover story, though.)  Have you read the Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh?  Ilisidi, the dowager queen in that series, is no pushover!  She may not, technically, rule anything but her own demesne anymore - but oh boy, does she Know The Right People.  And they all owe her personal favors, or are scared of her.  (She has Iron Will and a really high Charisma - not the "beauty" type but the "force of personality" type.)  Definitely a possibility as a "behind the scenes" manipulator.  (Could she have somehow arranged the PCs' finding of the thought jar?  Might she be realted to the druid leader? In a Royal Court setting, fifth cousins and the like connections abound.)Even if she really is feeble, forgetful, and wants nothing to do with politics anymore, she's still potentially a potent symbol.  Having her publicly announce her support for Prince X goes a long way towards "legitimizing" Prince X's reign, therefore Prince X will want to control her somehow - or silence her, preferably in a way that can be blamed on the opposition...If there's a bard among the PCs, there's always the traditional tactic of making up a few can't-get-the-tune-out-of-your-head songs about "Vassily the Vacillator" and teaching them to children near and far...public ridicule won't topple the Prince but might provide a +1 circumstance bonus to swaying a crowd here and there...surely there's some embarrassing incident in the Prince's youth that could be twisted to fit.Then there's the old trick of Mr Obnoxious.  Find some minor noble that everyone loves to hate - he's a vocal racist, or a heretic, or just has a really grating personality - and convince him that supporting Prince V is a really good idea.  Next time the Prince throws a party for his supporters, there's Duke Obnoxious, loudly stating that "Yeah, once V is on the throne, we'll finally get rid of those #$%^#^$% dwarves.  He'll see to it.  He's a friend of mine."  This won't affect V's puppet masters or fanatical supporters - but presumably V can't just walk in with an army and seize the throne, he needs the support of most of the little fringe nobles.  These guys don't really care about V, but they vote for him because A) he seems like the most qualified candidate, B) they want to avoid the mess of a civil war, C) he promises to support causes they espouse, and/or D) he quietly paid them a lot of money. But now it's looking like they're publicly agreeing with Duke Obnoxious.  Maybe this isn't so good a deal as they thought.  And what's all this about getting rid of the dwarves?  What sort of deals has V been making behind their backs?  Inquiring campaign contributors want to know...</blockquote>

Verification