Lady Saxby Question (SPOILERS)

[gideonpepys]

Does Lady Saxby have an Ob ring?

For that matter, did Macbannin? Or Creed?

And if not, why not?

Also - what kind of information can the party glean from Saxby? It isn't made entirely clear just how much she knew about what was going on. (Apologies if it is, and I just can't find it.)

 

[RangerWickett]

The meta answer is that I didn't think of the ring thing until working with Matthew on #3 , because we needed some clue for the PCs to find.

I'd say that Macbannin could have had one, and you can probably just hand-wave that the PCs didn't notice it. He's a rich guy; he had a lot of jewelry, and the ring isn't magical, so I figure most PCs will gloss over it.

Or maybe he didn't wear it because, again, he's a rich guy, and the ring wasn't fancy enough.

Or maybe he didn't wear it because he knew Saxby already knew he was involved in this secret project. Now, Macbannin didn't think he was working for an international conspiracy called the Obscurati. He just thought he was working for his homeland.

Creed too might have had one, but since he's in disguise a lot he might have had a collection of rings for different costumes.

Saxby, ring? I'd say that Macbannin probably didn't give her one. Macbannin probably got his from Governor Stanfield, who also might have included a handful of other rings with a suggestion, "Give these to your people who might get into trouble." He would have figured that if Saxby got into trouble, the only higher authorities would be people who already knew what was going on. And giving her a ring could possibly be a liability, so no ring.

 

[gideonpepys]

Thanks for the answers. This is pretty much how I'd rationalise the situation. I think the fact that Saxby has no ring indicates that she was on the fringes of the conspiracy too.

I'm wondering what she might give up during her interrogation. What did she think was going on, and how much information would she be prepared to share?

 

[RangerWickett]

She basically knew what Macbannin thought was going on, limited a bit. So Macbannin told her there was a secret government project to construct a device that could be used against the fey in the event of a war, and that it had to be done in secret to avoid provoking a conflict before the device was ready. So Macbannin asked that if anyone was brought in with a ring matching X, Y, or Z description, to give him a heads-up.

Nothing ever came of it until suddenly, after Nevard's rally, the PCs went after Macbannin. Saxby wasn't expecting anything to go wrong so quickly, and she doesn't have any other contacts. She's worried Macbannin might have been lying to her, and so she doesn't want to risk bringing up the topic with people on the off chance they were also involved.

 

[gideonpepys]

She's worried Macbannin might have been lying to her, and so she doesn't want to risk bringing up the topic with people on the off chance they were also involved.

So how much of this would she admit once captured? I'm anxious not to give away too much of the conspiracy but also want to reward the players for bringing her down.

I'm also interested in how other DMs handle the questioning of dead foes - especially ones killed by the PCs. I mean, are they hostile for obvious reasons? (They may very well kill Saxby after all - but a Spirit Medium can sidestep that eventuality, right?)

 

[RangerWickett]

If captured and offered a bargain, she'd probably share everything she had, which honestly isn't too much. Her role is mostly to highlight that indeed this is a big conspiracy, and to show that they take compartmentalization seriously (and to give the PCs a foil to take down).

And I'd expect the spirit of an NPC the party just killed wouldn't be very helpful unless the party can offer it something it wants, like promising to take care of its family, or killing its enemies.

 

[gideonpepys]

Thanks for the fast reply!

When I add our next update to the Korrigan & Co. thread you'll see why I have so many questions.

We houseruled that, even if the party declares that they intend to take suspects alive (as per easy-peasy 4E rules) should they score a critical on the blow that fells the opponent, they cause an accidental death.

You'd be surprised how often that happens...