D&D General Lore-related: What happens to a fallen Harper?

[aco175]

You keep committing bad things since you are on a special mission from senior leadership to infiltrate an evil gang of thugs knows and the PCs. Eventually you will turn on them and reveal that you are the good guy all along. Kind of the end justifies the means.

 

[ilgatto]

(...) Khelben "I'm a 27th level wizard and my wife is also a 20th+ level wizard who also happens to be a Chosen of Mystra" Arunsun (...)

A-haaa! So that's what that "Blackstaff" stands for! I've always wondered.

 

[J-H]

It does depend a lot. Harpers by there nature bend and break 'rules' often. So attacking and killing people is normal day to day stuff. As is manipulation.

Killing Shadow Thieves is no big deal...they are evil.

Was the nobleman a 100% pure and innocent saint? If not the Harpers won't care too much. And did the PC even do the killing blow or did they just "help"?

Assuming the Pc is still trying to do good, the Harpers would give them the benefit of the doubt.


Game wise....well....this can get tricky. You have a good PC with a good ability/group/whatever....and you have a group of other evil PCs. This won't end well. With the other players being pure evil....it leaves the poor player of the good PC out in the cold. When they other players say "evil", then all that player can do to keep their PC good is not play.

So you might want to step in and "fix" things so the game is not ruined. Maybe just have the Harpers ignore it or something. Maybe as the player if they want to switch to some evil group with no penalty?

The whole group has slanted towards evil recently despite starting off as mostly good-ish. The Harper's going along with it, so... consequences happen.

Depends on how you implement the general story of the video game in yours, but the local Harper organization is pretty evil too. They would not necessarily go out of their way to hunt a renegade member. Hell, they might even recruit them!

Ah, but the local Harper organization acted as they did because their leader is angling for a high position. What if, instead of falsely accusing the Bhaalspawn of being a bad guy, he correctly accuses the Bhaalspawn of working with a coven of vampires, murdering a nobleman in his bed without determining if he's actually guilty of anything at all, etc.? Maybe he has a point this time.

I have a feeling they're going to finish with the Shadow Thieves and immediately bail on the city, leaving any consequences to sit and fester for a few weeks while they are gone.

 

[James Gasik]

The answer is Arilyn Moonblade, who will probably challenge the renegade to a duel and murder them nice and legal.

 

[J-H]

The answer is Arilyn Moonblade, who will probably challenge the renegade to a duel and murder them nice and legal.

Interesting. The party will be level 9 so she's about the right level, but the Harper is a rogue and not bad in a fight (his AC's a bit low, but he has more HP than anyone else in the party thanks to 16 CON, Tough, and a helm giving +5hp).

The takeaway is that there's not so much a formal stripping of powers as there is likely to be a series of attacks on the party.

They are piling up a nice little set of enemies for themselves.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I could see the Harpers and Shadowthieves teaming up against the party. Or simply bribing the Cowled Wizards to brand them as deviant and send them to Spellhold as inmates.

And even if they leave the city, the Harpers would still hunt them, so maybe a nice ambush in the Umar Hills or Suldanessalar Forest?

 

[J-H]

I could see the Harpers and Shadowthieves teaming up against the party. Or simply bribing the Cowled Wizards to brand them as deviant and send them to Spellhold as inmates.

And even if they leave the city, the Harpers would still hunt them, so maybe a nice ambush in the Umar Hills or Suldanessalar Forest?

Aran Linvail is going to die in the next two sessions, and the party's about to sail to Spellhold with Bodhi, probably before the CWs can react as they have been ignoring the whole thing.

I rather imagine that when they return, they'll find Mae'Var and perhaps Edwin in charge of the remants of the Shadow Thieves, probably with the Night Knives muscling in on the territory.

Aran has a Ring of Djinni summoning among his treasures in the game; it's ignored in combat, and as a 1x/day summon that is lost forever if it dies, it's risky to use. I'm planning to swap it to "once per week for 10 minutes" with attunement required, as there's quite a bit of spellcasting and damage wrapped up in that summon. Utility will vary based on whether or not the djinni likes them.
Aran's going to summon it with orders to observe, defending itself only, and then after he's dead to report who killed him and why, with full accuracy and truthfulness, to the people whose knowledge of these events will most harm the group.
Right now, that's the Harpers and the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. Going evil does burn a few bridges. The djinni will tell them this later, if they ask.

I have a new player I'm waiting on. One of his options is to be affiliated with the Zhentarim... if he goes that route, they'll be able to call on some less-than-legal support.