Little help with betrayal plot

[Trit One-Ear]

Hey all,

Days away from my first session of my campaign! Finally got things set up! Thanks for all the help up to this point just planning out my plot.

I had left a big part of my plot vague to give me room to expand upon it, but after some thought figured I'd need to use it to bring my characters into the mix of the adventure. So here's what I have, simplified:

One PC's father is lord of a castle in a fairly safe area. One night, it's attacked by an army of orcs, who have managed to slip past all the defenses in the surrounding area. This shouldn't be able to happen without some sort of help from within (betrayal). So the PC's main interest is to find who planned/orchestrated the attack.

In my head, the attack was planned by the King of the neighboring kingdom, a fairly evil and racist kingdom which uses orcs as slaves and mercenaries. However, he would have to have bribed/manipulated someone within Arcantion (the PC's kingdom) to help him.

The main defense Arcantion has against "Evil King" is a keep on the border with a dedicated force defending it (accidently based on the Night's Watch from SoIaF). So Evil King finds a noble who hates the PC's father, and who has connections to the Dawn's Watch (my title, because they guard the eastern border), and convinces him to help infiltrate his army past the keep.

My real question: Is that enough? Should I add a few more elements/people to complicate things? Bear in mind, this is the PC's primary motivation at the start of the campaign, and a lot of their time is going to be spent investigating and working their way backwards from the guards who let the orcs through, to the noble.... etc etc to the Evil King eventually. I want to make sure they don't solve the "mystery" too quickly.

Trit

 

[Quickleaf]

So the opening scene takes place after the orc raid? And the PCs are investigating who the traitor was/is in the wake of the raid? Or is your opening scene the orc attack itself?

And how have you structured the mystery so far?

 

[Trit One-Ear]

The actual opening scene will probably be the attack, but not played strictly as an encounter. Then there's a little time passing montage, as one pc (the lord's son) comes of age. Using some clues picked up from the night of the attack and then some knowledge from npcs I'm going to drag them into a side plot I've posted about regarding a devilish cult. But in the meantime, I know they'll get frustrated unless they're also able to pursue their initial goal.

So far I have them learning about a last minute change in the guard's roster made by a captain related to a political opponent of the father's. (perhaps they just learn about the change of the guard and have to find and question the guards who were on duty) . That will lead them to the captain of the Dawn's Watch, who will lead to the lord who was bribed/convinced to betray the father.

Eventually they will track it back to the Evil King (I do hate calling him that) and learn it was all a plan to get a certain item the father had in his castle. From there, it will be some big "stop the ritual" type adventure, but that's down the line. I just want to know enough to keep them interested now.

Trit

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Personally, I would start with ork attack first, with the PCs fighting it off. Drop hints that there is more at work here - the orks come through a door that should have been barred and without any kind of equipment to bash it down (so, that they knew it would be unbarred).

Second, I would make the attack personal. Have the orks attack the PCs loved ones - the PCs can arrive just in time to save them (so, the orks have just hacked down the guards - then the PCs get there). You can also make this part of your foreshadowing that "something is wrong" - the orks obviously went out of their way to attack their targets and/or skipped more tempting ones (the vault, or the keep's lord, or whatever) to do so.

Finally, you can stretch things out a bit by making the culprit someone the PCs can't accuse without proof - maybe he's some lord, or a friend of the king, or what not. So, even if the PCs "know" who did it, they need more than that - they need actual, independent proof... and it could be race against time with the villian moving to eleminate witnesses and other lose ends.

 

[Unwise]

My main suggestion is, how is this betrayal? Does it lead to a sense of betrayal? Where is the emotional investment in this?

The two guys involved are an Evil King and a noble that already hates the Good King. That is not really betray, that is just an enemy doing what an enemy does.

I would suggest delaying the betray a touch. Give the PCs time to get to know the traitor and give them a reason to be shocked at the betrayal. A few suggestions off the top of my head.

A) One of the noble PCs wives (or sister in law for less impact, but easier for the PC to swallow) is the daughter of a noble that has been disgraced by the PCs father. Her father was caught doing something wrong and stripped of title. Given the "true love" though, no grudge was held towards her for her fathers wrongdoing. All the while though, she has hated this family and plotted revenge for the 'wrong' done to her father.

B) You know the old practice of taking an ex-enemy's son as a page/squire/ward/hostage? One of the PCs has grown up with a bloke, treating him as a brother. He was always treated well, but has always been plotting revenge for the perceived wrongs done to his family and for being effectively stolen away from his family. (Kind if like that Greyjoy guy that lives with the Starks in Game of Thrones)

C) The Evil Uncle (tm) is always good. He got passed over for the throne, so now unwisely conspires with enemies to steal his brothers throne.

D) The PCs father announces his new will. As in most medievil times, the youngest sons of nobles pretty much got screwed over and got nothing. They had to just trade on their good name and hope to marry a rich merchants ugly daughter. One of the younger sons does not like the sound of this at all and feels betrayed. He is the hardest working, most motivated and has made a fortune for his father. He will be left with nothing as his father gives it to the older brothers. He conspires to take revenge of his father and set himself up for life.

E) To make things interesting, I really like having the betrayer deeply regret their actions. The bitter sibling/ward/wife likes the idea of revenge, but when they start seeing exactly what a bunch of orcs do to poor villagers they think "By the gods! What have I done!". They are powerless to stop it now though. It leads to some good RP.

In the first battle scenes, I would have the PCs expect help that never arrives. The county has a set battle plan and course of action when orcs arrive, they do their bit, but the cavalry never comes to help them.

I suggest that hte PCs see a signal fire spark up (and maybe then go dark again). They go to investigate. They see that one guy seems to have killed a bunch of the other guards guarding the signal. Investigation shows that he was trying to light it and the guards were trying to stop him. He cut his way through them (they later find he was some renowend badass) and got it lit, but died from wounds soon afterwards. They stand there wondering why this happened. Why did the other guards try and stop him? Later, investigating those guards shows that although they are in uniform, none of the locals know them, they were only hired in the last week. By who? Lots of other signal fires should have been lit too, it looks like similar things happened elsewhere.

I think it makes for a powerful scene when the PCs fight a minor skirmish with an orc scout party (they were there to put the fire back out). Then during or after that, they see the orc army moving past. The scouts shot their horses, so they know they will never catch up to that army in time. They run back home to find the place already pillaged. The sense of powerlessness I think could be very powerful.

 

[was]

so who was the inside man who let them in?...I'd suggest the butler/seneschal

 

[Ryujin]

Betrayal needs motivation. Simply being a political opponent isn't enough motivation, to betray a kingdom. Jealousy is a pretty good motivation though.

The noble 'betrayer' is high up in the watch and resents being 'exiled' to the fringes of the kingdom, while the PC's father hold the position at court that he is 'rightfully' due. He has two co-conspirators in the guard, who are of like mind, and who has promised considerable power when he gets called home, to replace the 'tragically' slain father.

He sets the co-conspirators up as the gate guards at the keep, for that night, so that the orc force can get through. Perhaps the orcs kill them, as agreed with the noble, so that the secret is safe. Maybe they're actually valuable enough allies to be left alive, so that they can later be questioned by the PCs. Either way, it's an additional layer to your plot.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Great advice, everyone. I think a more cinematic focus for this scene would make it really strong story-telling. Here's how I'm going to structure the mystery so far.

Evil King wants an item held by PC's Father.
Evil King confides with Angry Noble (member of the Good King's court), who attempted underhanded political dealings, was ruined by PC's Father.
Angry Noble uses his position and some blackmail material to turn Good Noble, making him an unwilling ally (specific tactics may change, kidnapping? Bribery? Threats?)
Good Noble writes to his brother, Greedy Captain at the keep on the border, instructing him to allow orcs through.
Orcs have been rallied by Evil King, told to ensure they get the item, but then to kill everyone else and destroy the keep, in order to cover their trail. They also are instructed to kill the guards at the border keep who let them through.

The PC's will discover this backwards, first learning of the guards who let the orcs through, tracing them to the Greedy Captain, then up to Good Noble etc. Some of these characters will be friends/allies by the time their betrayal is discovered.

As for the motivation of the betrayers, revenge and personal gain are definitely part of it, but I'll throw some other things in there when I see more how the campaign is going.

 

[Unwise]

Sounds like a nice idea. May I suggest that Good Noble never did anything blackmail worthy himself, but rather his son or daughter was actually caught up in what Angry Noble did. Angry Noble did not dob him in, so that he would have leverage to hold over Good Noble.

So Good Noble is just trying to protect his child from a mistake they made when younger. Either way, I would make the son/daughter into either a very good or very bad person now. Either way opens up great roleplaying. "How could you protect that monster!" is cool, so to is "you mean Lady Penelope who runs those orphanages was part of the Dark Conspiracy of 1410 ?!".