RangerWickett
Legend
Update.
The scenario was a healing ritual at a church that the demon was hoping to disrupt by goading people into fighting each other. My idea was to introduce the various characters at work in the adventure at this ritual, and have something possibly go awry, but with a chance the party could keep it on track. Then later on they could track down the demon responsible (who actually is a bit of a distraction from the adventure's real antagonist).
I decided the demon would have a ring of mind shielding, and that in a later scene the party would have a chance to meet the previous owner of said ring, who gave it to the demon to try to get the fiend to not kill her. They would recall seeing a woman at the ritual with that ring, and could surmise she was to blame for all the misfortune afoot in the town.
I always like to have my PCs meet villains before they're introduced to the reason that turns that NPC into an antagonist, so that there's a bit more story than just "Oh, she's the bad one? Cool, roll initiative."
And if there is a fight, well, that disrupts the ritual anyway, so the succubus still causes misfortune, which raises the stakes a bit.
So, what happened?
The party met with various guests at the ritual, and indeed the paladin did ping with divine senses, noticing a tiefling who registered as infernal, an aasimar who registered as celestial, and even the revenant PC who registered as undead. And he managed to stop an altercation between an arrogant knight and a foreigner asking for aid, and did so without violence. But when he got into a conversation with a gorgeous woman who seemed to be probing for his moral failings, he decided, just in case, to use his abjure the extraplanar ability (oath of the watchers).
This led to him politely escorting the succubus out of the church by her arm and telling her to run along and get out of his town, or else.
It was kind of an excellent outcome. He knows she has some magic to hide her aura, but he forced her to flee and avoided a scene. And now she totally has a grudge against him and will try to sucker punch him later in the adventure.
The scenario was a healing ritual at a church that the demon was hoping to disrupt by goading people into fighting each other. My idea was to introduce the various characters at work in the adventure at this ritual, and have something possibly go awry, but with a chance the party could keep it on track. Then later on they could track down the demon responsible (who actually is a bit of a distraction from the adventure's real antagonist).
I decided the demon would have a ring of mind shielding, and that in a later scene the party would have a chance to meet the previous owner of said ring, who gave it to the demon to try to get the fiend to not kill her. They would recall seeing a woman at the ritual with that ring, and could surmise she was to blame for all the misfortune afoot in the town.
I always like to have my PCs meet villains before they're introduced to the reason that turns that NPC into an antagonist, so that there's a bit more story than just "Oh, she's the bad one? Cool, roll initiative."
And if there is a fight, well, that disrupts the ritual anyway, so the succubus still causes misfortune, which raises the stakes a bit.
So, what happened?
The party met with various guests at the ritual, and indeed the paladin did ping with divine senses, noticing a tiefling who registered as infernal, an aasimar who registered as celestial, and even the revenant PC who registered as undead. And he managed to stop an altercation between an arrogant knight and a foreigner asking for aid, and did so without violence. But when he got into a conversation with a gorgeous woman who seemed to be probing for his moral failings, he decided, just in case, to use his abjure the extraplanar ability (oath of the watchers).
This led to him politely escorting the succubus out of the church by her arm and telling her to run along and get out of his town, or else.
It was kind of an excellent outcome. He knows she has some magic to hide her aura, but he forced her to flee and avoided a scene. And now she totally has a grudge against him and will try to sucker punch him later in the adventure.
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