"Reverse" Drow surface raid... thoughts?

[Herobizkit]

My solo player is enjoying his time as a CG Female Drow Gestalt Sorcerer//Favored Soul of Eilistraee. In our shared game world, Dark Elves are more like cursed, disenfranchised, and only kind-of-evil brothers of the surface Elves than an irredeemably Evil race of spider-goddess worshippers. However, Eilistraee decees that her purpose is to return her brethern to the surface world "where trees and flowers grow".

In a joking manner, we discussed the possibility of a "reverse" surface raid. In effect, his Drow would organize a hunting party, delve into the Underdark, and "kidnap" Drow children and adults and place them in her community. He loved the idea, and wants to do it.

How would you handle this, and what kind of interesting obstacles would you put in this PC's path?

 

[Herobizkit]

*bump* And no, this isn't a troll. I want to know any and all angles from which this act can be seen.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Kidnapping children? I think that's ... pretty low. However, drow society seems to promote physical and mental child abuse, so maybe it's the better way after all. It'd be interesting to see how the discussion turns out.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

Guard "dogs" (Spiders or what not)

Protection/detection spells at the premiter.

A moat with something in it.

Don't foget the drow can cast fairy fire.

Roving guards.

getting the kids past random monsters on the exit.

Getting cut off and rerouting...into a fungus man/ant man/insert other underdark thing here/ controled area.

 

[Derro]

One of the kids is a half-fiend

Duegar slavers wanna buy your kids... cheap

Cave fishers

Kids think it's a game and wanna play hide and seek in the Underdark

And of course... quaggoths

 

[DrunkonDuty]

How about having some of the kids not wanting to be rescued? Constantly attempting to sneak off, alert the Drow hunters who are following them, attract the attention of other monsters just to cause trouble.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

How about having some of the kids not wanting to be rescued? Constantly attempting to sneak off, alert the Drow hunters who are following them, attract the attention of other monsters just to cause trouble.

That's sort of what I was thinking. One of the kids could leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the Drow to follow all the way to your player's home.

You could also throw in a scene early on where your player does something heroic to win the hearts of the children since most likely they're not going to want to go with her away from their parents. (Even if they are terribly cruel dark elves.) Maybe have them be kidnapped by an illithid and your play can rescue them?

This is a very creative plot, I like the reversal! Kudos!!

 

[Graf]

[I'm an American, this story is told from an American point of view.]
I had a friend in college. We had a liberal congressman visiting for a small group chat. The friend was *quite* liberal at the time.

They were talking about raising the standard of living an my friend asserted it was a moral priority. The congressman agreed but suggested that there had to be some limits. He was trying to get away from absolutes. He suggested that "mexico has a lower standard of living, but we shouldn't use trade sanctions to try to force them to raise it".
(I think, I'm a bit vague on exactly what the representative was saying).

"No", agreed my friend. "We should invade."

He felt it was a perfectly logical argument; once inside the US economic system Mexico's standard of living would rise to match the US'.

If you're radical enough no action is off the table.

*******************

The children know they'll be rewarded if they foil the kidnappers, so fighting back against the PCs is very very likely.

One question is: who do they kidnap?
Drow society is very stratified, are they kidnapping the children of powerful matriarchs? Or 1st level warriors (who are effectively slaves).

Since Drow have a very low birthrate you might see -other- drow trying to kidnap the children so -they- can brainwash them.

What if a powerful drow wizard approaches the PCs offering aid; in exchange for one child of his choice (he says he just wants an apprentice, maybe his alignment appears neutral and his help would be invaluable... which child does he want? why?
[sblock=Some possibilities]The child he wants is actually his own child, conceived secretly
The child he wants is just going to be an awesome wizard and he really does want an apprentice
The child is -important- in some way that isn't immediately obvious (if they are trained as an assassin and used to kill X matriarch they will fulfill some sort of prophesy)
He's not really neutral, he just knows the right spells
He is neutral, but he's crazy
Its the child of someone he really really doesn't like and he plans on using the child to make them very unhappy

there are also some yucky possibilities that wouldn't be appropriate for most groups[/sblock])

The kids will be absolutely miserable during the daytime.

 

[Herobizkit]

I just wanted to thank everyone who has posted so far; having such a large and varied collection of minds to tap for insipration is the reason why I love EnWorld so much!

We are currently playing through The Ruins of the Dragon Lord by Mongoose Publishing, a 1st-20th level uber-campaign. I am finding that my player (who I have known for nearly 15 years) is wanting to veer more and more away from the box set and into his PC's personal projects. This is a Good Thing; both of us tend to do this in every campaign we play. However, I am constantly having to invent more and more information and the game is fast becoming more like Civilization (the computer game) than your standard D&D game. I just don't have the ability to crunch numbers and cultures and such that I used to. I may have to take a break from the campaign as is and take the time to expand upon all the information in the box set...

 

[QuaziquestGM]

How good of a roleplayer is she?
Here is a way to keep her "on the reservation" while building a drow plot for her.

Hit her with a memory wipe.

Hell, hit her with a high level warlock/wizard with a sense of humor who baleful polymorphs her into a Human/halfling/standard elf, and have her fail both saves so she forgets what race she is as well as her memory. (it's supposed to turn you into a rabbit or something and if you fail the second save you for get that you aren't).

Reroll physical stats.
Conserve her hit dice, but convert them to d3 commoner hit dice.
Conserve her physical skill points (Jump)
Delete her trained skill points.
Delete her weapons and armor proficiency.
Give her proficiency in the first simple weapon that she happens to pick up.

She is a *other race* commoner with no memory who speaks only common.
Her alignment aura has been scrambled.
Have her fall in with a retired druid who can tell that her memory loss is magical and that she is either good or true neutral with good tendencies.

He can check with some friends.....

His old buddies, the retired paladin, and the retired CG warlock arrive, they rap, they happen to know of some magic item (inserted into the adventure path X that you want to run) that may be able to restore her memory. They are too old to go with her, but they can train her to be a Paladin/(LG)cleric, a Druid/spirit shaman, or a Warlock/(wu Jen, wizard, psion, wilder...), give her some old magic items they don't need anymore, and she can go get it herself. She just has to choose an alignment. (if she is a really good roleplayer she'll go for the pally or druid)

If she spends skill points on a skill she happened to have previously (other than knowledge) then give her back ranks in it. After she trains with her mentor, give her her old feats back.

Now the payoff.

While you are running Adventure X, throw tidbits into the background that would be relevant to her old life, information that the player will be chomping at the bit to jump on but can't until she gets her character's memory back. You can even have her overhear conversations in Drow. You don't even have to decide what information she over hears, as the pc doesn't remember Drow. Later, after you have had time to think up something, she gets her memory back and then BAM:

1, All the information is made available and relavent to her.

2, She immediately reverts to her old alignment, possibly losing powers (palidin, durid, cleric, and favored soul....why have you been worshipping strange Gods?)

3, all of here old class levels, skill ranks, and features comeback (except see above).

She now has some choices to make:

1, What, if any, priority to give to tracking down that SOB who polymorphed her?

2, Keep the new body or try to get the old one back? (Give up darkvision or sunbathing?)

3, Keep on the Adventure X path or act on Drow subplot information?

4, Keep her old alignment, convert to the new one, or end up somewhere in between?

5, Skip the atoning and just kick a 'lil, or atone...?

5a, Atone to Eilistraee and go on a quest to prove loyalty and convert the Cleric Levels to her service and lose the paladin powers(or if you are gonna let her weasel out of it...convert the Paladin levels to Paladin of Freedom).

5b, Atone to Eilistraee and go on a quest to prove loyalty and convert the Spirit Shaman levels to her service (or compatible underdark spirts, or get her totem animal to go along with the new program...what ever) and lose the druid powers.

5c, Atone to LG God and go on a quest to prove loyalty and convert the Favored Soul Levels to His service and regain the paladin powers.

5d, Atone to the Druids/spirits and go on a quest to prove loyalty and convert the Favored Soul Levels to their service.

5e, Screw it, I'm leveling up in Bard now.

Anyway, this way you can temporally drop her power level (commoner levels), keep her on the reservation while buying time to build a new reservation, and give her some plot hooks and hard choices. What more could a good roleplayer want?