Scenes from Incursion...

[jeffers]

I'm gonna be playing Incursion soon. As the Githyanki swarm over Greyhawk, I figured I might throw in the following personal storyline for one of the players...

The PC meets his brother, Hexalis, learns Hexie has joined the rather militant Elven army of the Darkwood Stalkers. From the point of veiw of the Orcs of the Pomarj, they are mere terrorists, despite the Orcs behavior of the last few dozen centuries. The PCs fight Orcs for a few sessions...

About a month into the war the Gith turn on the Orcs, some of the Orcs propose a truce... specifically, the Warlord Dirbag (called Dirtbag by many a human mercenary in Ulek) joins the Princes of Ulek in fighting the Gith Menace. Takes a bit for folks to trust each other, naturally, but after a few episodes, Dirbag is seen as a fair and honorable warrior in his own right. (After a fashion, he is an ORC after all... )

Then orcs in the Allied Army of Ulek and the Pomarj start dying off... The Drow of Houses Ilserv and Everhate (also fighting to save their homeworld from the Gith) side with the Orcs supporting the possibility that an elf is doing the killing...

Arrows found in the dead orcs are quite clearly Darkwood Stalker arrows. The maker's marks reveal them to be the very arrows of Hexalis... oh darn... the PC's brother is a murdering bastich...

We have to stop hunting Gith to take on family members... A nice break in the action, or too much drama?

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

It could be...nothing like a little dramatic family relations trouble to make for good roleplaying. That is, if the players in your campaign like that sort of thing. I would suggest to make sure that the players could possibly see this sort of thing coming. Have Hexalis really show is hate for the orcs, even beyond the normal for the Stalkers. A possiblity would be to have Hexalis disregard an order from a superior to hunt down and kill many orcs that haven't been causing any problems. Make him a borderline character. If it just comes right out of left field without a "I should have seen that coming" from the players then the tension and later drama will not be as fun.

 

[Joshua Randall]

You know what they say: The only good orc is a dead orc. Make Hexalis like John Wayne's character from The Searchers -- someone who utterly loathes Indians (orcs) and believes them irredeemable

Spoiler

even when one of them is his own niece

.

You could make Hexalis even more sinister by having him join the Githyanki just so that he can kill more orcs. (Er, wait... maybe that's the point. Duh.)

 

[jeffers]

I hadn't thought of that...

When the Orcs ally with the other races of Greyhawk, he might think his fun is over... and switch sides... take back your "duh," sir... I like that.

My every gratitude!

 

[Krieg]

Wait a minute! You mean Hexalis wasn't being framed by agents from Ilserv or Everhate?!?!

Go figure.