My game...and the corner I painted myself into

[Aries_Omega]

I am the DM of a game right now and due to lack of prep time I used a few free adventures of the WOTC web site and from Dungeon Magazine. I now have painted myself into a corner of sorts.

I started off with "Dry Spell" with four 3rd level characters. I added the back story that the Himtooth Marauders were attacking just about all caravans and riders going in or out of the area and their was a prominent noble (a wizard) that was killed and the loot they carried off. The noble wizard was going to confront a corrupt Church bishop named Palkin. He had no idea how evil Palkin was. Palkin was actually responsible for rallying the Himtooth Marauders from a small group of brigands to a clan of bandit kings. The Himtooth Marauders know him under an alias as Lord Erebus.

Palkin has a facade of goodness but is actually in league with evil powers. Clerics in my game world mechanically work similar to how they do in Eberron in regards to alignment vs. abilities for those familiar with Eberron.

There was a bounty put out by the Church on Himtooth Marauders. The Marauders had outlived their usefulness for Palkin (they got ride of a noble who he hated and could expose him) and now are villains. To keep up appearances of a great bishop, he hired a conservative religious knight (the fighter), his skilled equerry (a rogue) and his confessor (a NPC cleric friend from childhood) and told them to gather a fighting company to take on the Marauders. He found these two people:

a very private, bow wielding elven woodsman (Wild Elf Druid to Solonor Thelandira)
a very affable dwarven merchant and sometime "treasure hunter" (Hill Dwarf Fighter/Sorcerer...who sells alchemy items)

They went and did the quest, found the serpent statues mentioned in Dry Spell as foreshadowing for the next adventure. When they got back, the local lord threw a party in the Bishop's honor for hiring such good adventurers. The lord presented them with documents that are basically letters of marque. This power play effectively shifted control of the party from the Bishop to the nobles. Bishop Palkin still needed them to put his plans in motion.

During the party A local farmer crashed the party to tell the lord that the river they depend on for trade and food was recently poisoned with a tide of filth, and a goblin named Belig has claimed responsibility. If the people of the hamlet don't pay a ransom, Belig has promised them much worse will come with the next poison tide. This is from Dungeon 135..."Within the Circle" and once again yuan-ti are hinted...okay just about said they are around.

During Within the Circle the characters lost many items to a side quest with a half-green dragon rust monster. When the PC's asked the lord for compensation to pay for new gear he denied them based on the fact he is not asking for any taxes on the treasure they found, which is standard to be taxed. This really ticked off the fighter who went to Bishop Palkin for advice. Playing the good guy he told him to turn in his letter of marque and work for him and the Church. He presented him with a suit of enchanted mithral full plate as well as items to the rest of the party to sweeten the deal. The party agreed and their first mission was to make sure that a evil man would be cremated. This led to Dungeon 135 "Funeral Procession" with the change of the god of luck Jodai not being Grazz't but Merrshaulk.

This is where I am at now. So far the bishop is using the party to eliminate rivals and partners he no longer needs. He is trying for a power play somewhat like Palpatine did in Starwars. The fighter sees him as a great good, kind and wise man of the Church. He has no idea he is an evil cultist. The player of fighter wants to take on the paladin prestige class (paladin, ranger and bard are prestige classes in my world) and recently took a level of favored soul to someday soon take on the paladin prestige class.

The only thing I can think of for the next adventure is that he is accused of heresy and sorcery (he can do divine magic and didn't go to the seminary to learn it...he must be getting his power from somewhere evil) and he must go quest for some holy item to prove he is good since it would burn him or something if he was evil. This is a good idea and all but I want to include more yuan-ti somehow...or some kind of hard to fight reptilian creature.

Any ideas what to do after Funeral Procession?

 

[atomn]

How about going with the religious zealots accusing the almost paladin of heresy idea. The bishop can send him on a quest for a long, lost magic item, citing that if he recovers his holy relic it will show his devotion to the Good gods and the angry religious people will see he's not evil. But the bishop is just using the party once again and instead of recovering a long, lost holy relic, it's an evil magic item that he wants for his own ends. I'd let the adventure go long enough for them to level up after returning the item to the bishop so the fighter gets a level of paladin. Then I'd set up a situation where the new paladin would use his Detect Evil and discover that the Bishop was Evil. Now it depends a ton on your campaign but if you have the world set up correctly, the party will know he's Evil but due to his place in society they won't be able to slay him and claim he's Evil. From there I'd let the party loose to figure out how to gain evidence that he's Evil and bring him to justice (with some added encounters where they see one of his plots unveiling itself to help them out if they need a lead).

 

[theredrobedwizard]

But, as a Cleric of a Good god, his aura of Good would be much stronger than his aura of Evil. Sure, Detect Evil would work, but it would show up as a weak aura compared to the blazing Good aura around him.

You need to do the fun RP session where the Bishop tries to overtly recruit the PCs; with the "the government is weak, and I can help you (insert goal)" speech.

Or, possibly, just go the Miko route.

-TRRW

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Keep using the PCs to eliminate and weaken rivals, perhaps even bring to light some "evidence" that the nobles are cultist. This would actually be easy to do since Palkin should have at least one noble, or someone close to a noble, and it only takes one substantiated claim to ruin the reputation of every one in a group.

Pull a Palpatine, let the PCs help Palkin into power, and then run them out of the kingdom. This could either be the start of a new story arc, or they could start planning to overthrow Palkin, and adventure to find the means and allies to do it.

If you are looking for a module, I cannot help you. I run mostly home brew.

 

[atomn]

But, as a Cleric of a Good god, his aura of Good would be much stronger than his aura of Evil. Sure, Detect Evil would work, but it would show up as a weak aura compared to the blazing Good aura around him.

So much the better! Surely someone in the groups' interest will be piqued that the seemingly honest, good priest has a strong Good aura and a less strong Evil aura. Maybe they'd confront him about it straight out and from there he's try to have them killed since they're the only ones who know for sure. Or maybe they keep quiet and investigate what it could be that's making him seem Evil. Something that muddies the waters makes for more intrigue roleplaying opportunities, it doesn't shut options out.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

If the Fighter thinks the Bisop is such a great guy, why would the first thing he does upon becoming a Paladin be to use Detect Evil on him? That should be the last thing he does after he has good reason to think that the Bisop isn't such a nice guy after all. And according to the D&D Alignment system, you're either Good or Evil, there is no mixture. (That's Chaotic Neutral, according to many.)

 

[atomn]

If the Fighter thinks the Bisop is such a great guy, why would the first thing he does upon becoming a Paladin be to use Detect Evil on him? That should be the last thing he does after he has good reason to think that the Bisop isn't such a nice guy after all. And according to the D&D Alignment system, you're either Good or Evil, there is no mixture. (That's Chaotic Neutral, according to many.)

Right, which is why I'd orchestrate a situation where the paladin would use his Detect Evil around the Bishop. The Detecting may not be directed towards him specifically but if he's caught in the area studied, he'd show up too.

 

[Nyeshet]

Um, if the proto-Paladin is accused of heresy, he wouldn't be allowed to wander free as he might - if allowed to roam - attempt who knows what evil act(s) - or even attempt to convert others to his evil patron.

But, being untrained in religion (at least to any significant degree), he would perhaps not realize this. So instead have the corrupt bishop 'arrange' for his freedom, telling him to seek out, obtain, and bring back a relic to prove his non-heretic nature. (Note, Detect Evil could determine that the Fighter was not evil, so his casting is not being criticized because it is evil, but because it must be due to another (non-evil, but not their patron) deity.)

The object, unless an artifact or under notably continuous magic, might detect as evil while en route, so perhaps you could even tell the Fighter that the item is not of their deity, but is in fact an item their religion wishes to destroy. It is not strong enough to corrupt, but its destruction may in some manner aid their church. Only the bishop and higher priests have the knowledge on how to property destroy it so that it does not restore itself or corrupt its destroyers, etc. They are told to bring it secretly to some location in a nearby town (perhaps a location where the bishop or a minion of his has a home, shop, temple, etc).

Then, after they have left for the quest, the Bishop reveals to the city that the heretic has escaped. He informs them that several attempts at divination by other clerics of the religion have failed against the heretic and his allies (maybe the bishop gave them an item - to prevent their corruption by the item or being found by the cultists / etc that may attempt to seek them should their mission be discovered), but the bishop (presumably he is the highest level cleric in the city) has managed after several attempts of his highest level divination spells to determine they are headed for _____ (somewhere in the opposite direction of where they are really going).

Later, if the divination scam is found out, then obviously either they turned around later to try to fool those that discovered their trail or they had a powerful spell (ie: higher level than the bishop can cast) fooling the divination.

If they return with the item but are captured, the bishop can state that he did not send them on the mission nor help the heretic escape prison, and furthermore he can confiscate the evil item so that it can be properly destroyed by the church.

If the group manages to find out what is going on, they are still being hunted for having an escaped heretic amongst them, and if they have already completed their initial quest then they also are carrying a powerful evil item with them - damning evidence to be sure. They don't dare leave it behind or along the side of the road once they realize the danger of being captured while still carrying it, as they do not want some evil creature to get a hold of it, using it to cause trouble, horror, etc. So they are forced to carry it about until they find a means of destroying it or otherwise hiding it where it will not be found by those most likely to misuse it.



Anyway, that is how I would run it. The bishop will have a complex plan that will have several outs for him and few for the party - more or less villifying them indefinitely with the church, even if the bishop is later found out (as the fighter was called a heretic even before he escaped prison). In addition to this the 'quest' that is supposed to exonerate the fighter instead is set to further villify him and the party as well, while at the same time - should it succeed - being all but certain to further empower the corrupt bishop beyond anything they can easily deal with - such that the next quest is likely trying to find a way to prove their innocence and the true nature of the bishop, while the one after that will deal with hunting down the bishop and attempting to capture / slay him, his minions, etc before they finish their terrible goal (whatever that might ultimately be, but it should be - by this level - something that could negatively affect the entire region or even the entire continent).

 

[Aries_Omega]

Thank you all for the help. I like atom's comment on the alignment. On an off note...you live somewhat nearby...if you want to come game let me know at ariesomega at gmail dot com. I don't thing that the alignment issue would be important. Clerics are more like Eberron Clerics in my world and also we are using Allegiances in a somewhat similar way to d20 Modern.

Neyshet did bring up a good point. Why let him go. The Fighter is accused of heresy. He casts spells and wasn't trained in either an approved school of magic for arcane studies or attended the seminary to be ordained as a cleric. He isn't on the spot convicted since it's divine spells not arcane. The Inquisitorial Synod doesn't have an answer to that...maybe the usual..."darkness can disguise it's self as light" argument. What do you all think of "go on the quest but take "him" with you so if you mess up he brings you in" type of NPC. I'd maybe give him/her some kind of "instant teleport 1 way with my quarry" item or some other item that would greatly assist in bringing the fighter back.

I do like the "it's heresy now prove you are not evil angle" for a quest. As for the item being good or bad...I am still 50-50 on it. Since for all prestige classes I use Test-Based Prerequisites as well for my prestige classes, one person suggested since this quest would test the basic requirements for the Paladin Prestige Class...minus the turn undead part (I am not requiring that to be a huge part of the test...if you have it...VERY helpful...if not and do EVERYTHING else great) why not have him recover a lost Holy Avenger? My only hesitation is 1: is that to powerful for him to have...even temporarily. 2: He uses bastardswords...not longswords

I had an idea that the sword is in a keep guarded by a death knight who was a great paladin at one time. The deathknight is cursed by the gods/the church/whoever to guard it in undeath for shirking his duties in life. He hates the sword but cannot destroy or let it out of the keep. I dunno...just an idea for a good item quest. What is your all's thoughts.

 

[atomn]

Um, if the proto-Paladin is accused of heresy, he wouldn't be allowed to wander free as he might - if allowed to roam - attempt who knows what evil act(s) - or even attempt to convert others to his evil patron.QUOTE]

Agreed, so either the Fighter has gone on the lam and the Bishop meets up secretively to give him the mission to find the relic. Or the Fighter gets captured and thrown in jail and the Bishop helps to free him so he can prove his innocence. Either way it keeps the PCs in a mess of trouble while furthering the Bishop's goals.