Ideas Wanted: Changeling with Amnesia Meets Long-Lost Son

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'm running my campaign this Sunday, and I'm hoping I can get some fun ideas from y'all. My blog has a brief description of my Fading Earth campaign. Here's an even briefer summary of recent events: a changeling PC with amnesia rescues a color-changing man who claims/thinks he is the changelin's son. The stranger has vague memories of living on a magical moon, the Feywild's reflection of Earth's moon.

All I've decided [mostly] for sure is that unknown to most Earthlings, changelings and kalashtar inhabit this Fey Moon. (Kalashtar being color-changers based on mood.) I have some vague idea about the changeling PC having married a kalashtar princess in a Romeo-Juliet type scene in the past, but I'm not very good with spectacular plots.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[thejc]

What do you hope to gain through the whole amnesia bit? What is gained by introducing a son that he doesn't know? Is he actually the son?


Just some questions that might help us help you. The son would know that the man is his dad...right? The strange color changing man is following him around calling him Dad? Maybe this brings some flashbacks of his romance with the princess. Perhaps they both bear the same strange birthmark. Perhaps the pc remembers something inconsequential a birthday party or a day by the lake or something.

I hope this helps

 

[Rune]

All I've decided [mostly] for sure is that unknown to most Earthlings, changelings and kalashtar inhabit this Fey Moon. (Kalashtar being color-changers based on mood.)

I really like this idea!

Here's an even briefer summary of recent events: a changeling PC with amnesia rescues a color-changing man who claims/thinks he is the changelin's son. The stranger has vague memories of living on a magical moon, the Feywild's reflection of Earth's moon...

I have some vague idea about the changeling PC having married a kalashtar princess in a Romeo-Juliet type scene in the past, but I'm not very good with spectacular plots.

Any help is appreciated.

Here are some ideas:

The NPC is a charlatan. He wants something out of the PC and he thinks this is a good way to get it.

The NPC is mistaken. He desperately wants the PC to be his father, because he has searched all his life for the man, but the PC is not.

The NPC is the son. He has sought out the PC to establish a relationship.

The NPC is the son. He has sought out the PC to avenge some wrong done to his mother (abandonment or worse!).

As for the mother, if the NPC is, indeed the son...

She is (was), as you suggest, a Kalashtar princess. When the PC disappeared (or was taken away), she wasted away with grief and, because she is Kalashtar, fed this grief to her loved ones (son included) through their dreams, eventually creating a sort of waking nightmare.

She was never a Kalashtar princess, but led the PC to believe she was. When he found out otherwise, he left, feeling so betrayed that he sought out a powerful ritualist to remove his memories of having ever met her. Now an evil has befallen the mother, and she sends her son to find the PC, not knowing that he has removed all memory of her.

There never was a mother. The PC was a part of vile arcane experiments that produced the NPC. The PC's memory was wiped during this process (either intentionally, or as a result of the trauma endured), but the NPC has remembered fragments of the experience.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

The changeling's amnesia was the player's backstory. He told me "fill in the blanks however you want." He likes character discovery stuff. The kid having amnesia was partly me procrastinating on plot planning and partly "Gee, wouldn't it be fun to place an arcanist beholder in the dungeon, who slowly sucks memories out of mortal minds for some mysterious reason?" I had a vague idea that maybe this was how the changeling had lost his memory too, but how did he escape?

I think the kid is actually a long-lost son; I'm building up my players' trust in my NPCs. (So when a betrayer appears at some later point, they might actually be surprised.) I guess my ulterior motive for this plot is to give the party a reason to experience the Fey Moon, but I also want it to be interesting and fun for the players. The changeling player is definitely excited about this character development. (He replied to the blog I linked to.)

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

She is (was), as you suggest, a Kalashtar princess. When the PC disappeared (or was taken away), she wasted away with grief and, because she is Kalashtar, fed this grief to her loved ones (son included) through their dreams, eventually creating a sort of waking nightmare.

Oooh, I like this one!

 

[Rune]

Oooh, I like this one!

Spiffy! Now, if you ever get the chance to send the PCs to the moon, you can make sure they get see the dark side!

 

[Gilladian]

I don't know anything about the two races involved, but here's an idea that came to me:

The PC and his princess fell in love, Romeo and Juliet style. They fled together and spent some amount of time together (a night, a month, a year even; maybe long enough the baby was born and he held his son in his arms just once). Then her family caught up with them, and took her back with them. In the process the PC was either drugged or magicked or just received a nasty blow to the head. In any case, the Princess believed he was killed; when he awoke, he had no memory of her.

She went home, and either wasted away or died when the baby was born, or something similar. Or maybe she's still alive, kept isolated and grieving. Or she was forced to marry some other prince and now lives the life of a lonely, desperate Queen, longing for her lost love but knowing she has only his son.

The kid of course was treated by his kin as a bastard; he's either totally devoted to his mother or loathes her (or her memory). He may be desperate for his father, or may hate him, or both! If the mother is still alive, that gives the PC an excellent reason to go there and confront her family and try to rescue her...