Moral Ambiguities! (ie, just tell me I did the right thing)

[Other Guy]

So, my lawful good asimar Monk recently joined the Zhentarim (of the Forgotten Realms). I'm so distressed over it .

It all began with him leaving his monastery of the Sun Soul in order to explore and learn about the world, which he knows very little about. The first person he meets is a neutral druid, whom he more or less befriends. The next is a neutral fighter. The fighter comes from a land that gives him an extreme universal acceptance, to the point that he simply has to say he is from that land to get just about anything he wants (within reason).

We get hired by a city in The Vast to take another city in the area to the west of (I can't remember the name of it, at the moment). So we go there, get the peasants support, and take the city (it was being policed by the Silver Ravens, but didn't have any true government). This raises sort of a problem, as Scyllua Darkhope, a 16th level fallen Paladin (a real NPC from the area) also wants the city in order to further establish her claim on the area (we were level 2). So the Druid and the Fighter that I'm with leave with the mercenary army the Fighter is in command of to try and get a neighboring city on our side. I volunteer to remain and do my best to protect the city.

The next day Scyllua and the army she has with her demands that we give her the city. I order all the peasants to leave so they don't get hurt, but 600 stay anyway, because they like her. My character orders the forces he had with him to flee, and has a messenger sent to Druid and Fighter (it took three days to reach them). She rides in and takes the city. My character is left with the other 600 peasants that fled the city, with only about 50 or so that can hunt or fish.

About three days later all the people are starving, and Scyllua has said that if we return she'll feed us. My character decides to return with the peasants and delay as long as possible for Fighter and Druid to return with the army. He (my character) does this by having endless negotiations with Scyllua. In this time she feeds the peasants and they (the peasants) all grow to love her.

Druid and Fighter and the mercenaries finally return. Fighter looks around at what happened, ordered the mercenaries I was in charge of to retreat, saying the city was lost, and orders my character to be executed.

Naturally, my Monk runs away and asks Scyllua if he can join her. Before she can respond Fighter comes back with his army and fires an arrow at my character (misses). Scyllua then grabs my character and they fly off on her nightmare.

So now I've joined the Zhentarim and I am back with Fighter as a representative of the Zhentarim to protect their interests. Druid talked to a bunch of squirrels using a magic item he got and took what they said to mean that he should stay neutral.

I think after Fighter has my Monk assassinated I'll just make a neutral evil fighter. I'm tired of never knowing what to do.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

An interesting story, but you kind of lost me. What role does the Zhentarim play in all this? Did your character join the Zhentarim to fight against Syllia or support her? Up until the possible questionable part of joining the Zhentarim, I think you did the right thing. You did all you could do to help and protect the peasants and make their lives as easy as possible. I wish I had players who actually worried a little bit about moral ambiguities. Perhaps your character can reform Syllia if your character gets close enough to her. By the way, by Syllia did you intend to say Scyllua Darkhope, one of the leaders of the Zhentarim, who happens to be a fallen paladin which has a nightmare? If so, I suggest that you, depending on your DM, try to reform her if you can some how, but that is just one opinion. Some more details might help.

 

[Other Guy]

Scyllua Darkhope

That's the one. The Zhentarim's role (as I'm sure you can now guess) is that Scyllua is one of its big leaders. I didn't know how to spell her name, nor the name of the organization for that matter . Oh well -- thank you.

He joined the Zhentarim in order to oppose the Fighter (who by the end of the session had turned evil). Fighter had done many questionable things before he ordered his execution, and my character had stayed with him in hopes of reforming him. He now looks to Scyllua with hopes of bringer her back to the way she once was, seeing in her the shred of kindness Fighter lacked.

(Now fixing the previous post to use the correct names)

 

[KChagga]

Don't stress it is just a game.
I don't really see how your LG monk could serve for the zentarim. He'll quickly find himself at odds with his orders, but perhaps you can use this to strike at the zentarim from the inside.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

It sounds to me like you are doing the best you can to protect the people and to strive for the greater good! Right now I could not think of a better solution of what to do knowing your unfortunate circumstances. If you reform the fallen paladin you will have done a triple service to the side of Good: getting another former servant of good to come back into the fold, saving Scyllua Darkhope from an eternity suffering in the Nine Hells after she dies, and possibly placing a crippling blow to the Zhents in the long run. All I can reccommend is to not let her bring you to the evil side instead of you bringing her to the dark side. By the by, who is the fighter working for? A report to his superiors of his cruel tactics might get them to appoint a kinder general. I look forward to seeing what happens in your game.

 

[Other Guy]

Fighter is working for a more-or-less neutral city that simply wants to expand it's influence, so I doubt they'd have much trouble with him as long as he does well. Ironically, he does all of this in the name of a lawful good deity and a radical (and very powerful) lawful good island nation that are both unique to our Forgotten Realms.

Unfortunately, since these are the monk's first experiences outside of the monastery, and since Fighter started out working for this nation, he believes that it must be just as corrupt as Fighter is; so he can't turn to that for help either.

 

[clockworkjoe]

He does this by having endless negotiations with Scyllua. In this time she feeds the peasants and they all grow to love her.

for the love of god, learn how to write properly before you post another story.

PROTIP: Don't use he/she/it unless the reader knows who you're talking about.

 

[Other Guy]

About three days later all the people are starving, and Scyllua has said that if we return she'll feed us. My character decides to return with the peasants and delay as long as possible for Fighter and Druid to return with the army. He does this by having endless negotiations with Scyllua. In this time she feeds the peasants and they all grow to love her.

That was writing properly, clockworkjoe. Using he/she/it is a lot better and more professional than referring to a person or object by the person or object's name every time you want to talk about the person or object. Do you see how annoying that sentence was?

If you are paying attention, then you should know what I am talking about. My character was the last person I referred to before the "he" that was singular and masculine. Thus the "he" referred to my character.

Then Scyllua was the last singular feminine person I referred to before the "she." Thus the "she" referred to Scyllua.

Finally, the peasants were the last plural body that I referred to before the "they." Thus the "they" referred to the peasants.

So for the love of god, learn to understand what you are talking about before you say another word.

Also, Psychotic Jim, I would love to keep you informed. I'll try to remember to post the story and what happens next in the Story Hour forum after my group's next session.

for the love of god, learn how to write properly before you post another story.

PROTIP: Don't use he/she/it unless the reader knows who you're talking about.

 

[clockworkjoe]

Proper english is clear and concise. Your original story was neither. I wasn't the only person who read the story and wasn't sure what happened. So, please edit the story or accept the criticism.

 

[Other Guy]

That's not proper English, that's lazy English, . Anyway, was it just that section that you had trouble understanding, or were there more? If there were, where else did you have trouble? Thank you.