Iron_Chef
First Post
Please help me figure out what alignment this is and what the character should do:
This PC was trained by his father in a unique and deadly style of martial arts, which his father had used to make a small fortune as a gladiator, buying his freedom and a small inn. The son was forbidden by his father to fight in the arena, but was approached by his father's longtime rival and offered a chance to secretly participate in the gladiatorial games (in disguise), in exchange for which the rival would furnish him with a set of masterwork weapons. The son agrees, wishing to experience the "exciting" life of his father and to test out several "refinements" of his father's combat style, proving them superior, as his father has dismissed the son's new techniques as inferior to his own "true" style. This is a point of contention between father and son, as is the son being "saved" for a better life than his father had. Otherwise, father and son get along well and love each other, working together at the inn, which the son will inherit someday. The son asks himself: "Why did my father instruct me in the deadly arts if I was never to use them?" and "Why is my father's life not good enough for me?"
The son participates in his first match and wins. His father's rival keeps his word, giving him the weapons as agreed, and asks the son to participate in the next match. The son agrees, though now he realizes that if he doesn't have much of a choice, as the rival would expose him to his father if he refused. This, the rival implies, but keeps his tone as friendly as possible. Obviously, the rival is betting on his success, and so he also bets on himself to win, every last coin he has, which is now doubled as he wins again in the arena, and his secret remains safe.
However, when he comes home from celebrating with some "adoring fans" he finds a suspicious woman in his inn posing as a prostitute. He notices her tattoo, and recognizes her as member of a powerful local crime family. Not wishing to bring the wrath of this group on his father's inn, he agrees to let her go and not speak of her if she will tell him the reason she is here. She tells him she was sent to assassinate his father's business associate, a tax collector (not friend, mind you, the tax collector was a rat bastard, but better than some), a sleeping upstairs, who is now dead. Horrified, he realizes that his father may be accused of murdering the tax collector, and having dead guests turn up in the inn is bad for business. So he works out another deal with the assassin, whereby she will forge records of the dead man's passage out of the country on a ship in exchange for cash; supposedly, they each put up 50% of the bribe money required, since it is both their best interests for people to think the man has gone away rather than finding him dead and asking questions. She promises to take care of this and he allows her to depart unmolested. He then wakes one of his servants (who can keep secrets), and together they bundle the dead man up, transport him out of the inn, and onto their fishing boat. They weigh his body down and dump it in the deepest part of the harbor, under cover of fishing for their morning catch. When they return to the inn, an inspector is there asking after the missing (dead) tax collector. The son lies to the inspector, attempting misdirection and half-truths more than outright lies. The inspector promises to check up on the story that the tax collector checked out "bright and early" and said he had to catch a boat on business.
Now, as it turns out, there is a missing pirate treasure supposedly bured nearby, and the pirate who buried it (and is long dead) was a frequent guest at the inn. So the inspector and many other interested partioes now begin to suspect that tax collector found either the treasure or a map or some other clue in the inn, and departed. More bad news: The tax collector never filed certain licenses the father bought, and now that he is gone, his replacement (a bitter enemy of the father) is out to nail the father for the license "violations." So, the father tells the son to break into the missing tax collector's house and get ahold of the missing paperwork. The son attempts to, but is foiled in his quest before he can even get to the house, which some other party burns down. The son goes home to find another, inspector waiting for him, accusing him of burning down the house and saying he will go before the court in two days for an official inquiry at which time charges may be brought, and the penalty for arson is death...
What alignment is this? What would you do?
The son wants to prove himself to his father (and to himself), and use most of the money won to help improve the inn (which is the third best [out of three] in the district). Certainly though, he wants to create something for himself, some lasting legacy, whether an arena record or business venture. He wants to obey the city laws, and loves his country (think decadent Imperial Rome where justice is often for sale) but keeps finding himself in positions where the laws must be bent or broken, not just for his own sake, but for his family. The hypocrisy & corruption of his country is becoming more obvious, but so are the ways to live within that system. He never kills unless he must, but is finding himself forced to kill more often. He's totally in over his head, with each new lie he tells or law he breaks creating more problems than they solve. He wants to be a good, (mostly) law abiding citizen, but is realizing that there seems little profit in that if no one else is bothering to obey the rules (sure they pretend to in public, but they merely twist the law to their own ends). He is willing to play the same game if he must. He does not want to abandon his family or his birthright, yet would do so if it meant saving them. It turns out he may also have some yuan-ti blood in him (on his dead mother's side), though the character is not aware of it. Certainly, he has a fascination for snakes, and he schemes a lot, though perhaps not very well.
This PC was trained by his father in a unique and deadly style of martial arts, which his father had used to make a small fortune as a gladiator, buying his freedom and a small inn. The son was forbidden by his father to fight in the arena, but was approached by his father's longtime rival and offered a chance to secretly participate in the gladiatorial games (in disguise), in exchange for which the rival would furnish him with a set of masterwork weapons. The son agrees, wishing to experience the "exciting" life of his father and to test out several "refinements" of his father's combat style, proving them superior, as his father has dismissed the son's new techniques as inferior to his own "true" style. This is a point of contention between father and son, as is the son being "saved" for a better life than his father had. Otherwise, father and son get along well and love each other, working together at the inn, which the son will inherit someday. The son asks himself: "Why did my father instruct me in the deadly arts if I was never to use them?" and "Why is my father's life not good enough for me?"
The son participates in his first match and wins. His father's rival keeps his word, giving him the weapons as agreed, and asks the son to participate in the next match. The son agrees, though now he realizes that if he doesn't have much of a choice, as the rival would expose him to his father if he refused. This, the rival implies, but keeps his tone as friendly as possible. Obviously, the rival is betting on his success, and so he also bets on himself to win, every last coin he has, which is now doubled as he wins again in the arena, and his secret remains safe.
However, when he comes home from celebrating with some "adoring fans" he finds a suspicious woman in his inn posing as a prostitute. He notices her tattoo, and recognizes her as member of a powerful local crime family. Not wishing to bring the wrath of this group on his father's inn, he agrees to let her go and not speak of her if she will tell him the reason she is here. She tells him she was sent to assassinate his father's business associate, a tax collector (not friend, mind you, the tax collector was a rat bastard, but better than some), a sleeping upstairs, who is now dead. Horrified, he realizes that his father may be accused of murdering the tax collector, and having dead guests turn up in the inn is bad for business. So he works out another deal with the assassin, whereby she will forge records of the dead man's passage out of the country on a ship in exchange for cash; supposedly, they each put up 50% of the bribe money required, since it is both their best interests for people to think the man has gone away rather than finding him dead and asking questions. She promises to take care of this and he allows her to depart unmolested. He then wakes one of his servants (who can keep secrets), and together they bundle the dead man up, transport him out of the inn, and onto their fishing boat. They weigh his body down and dump it in the deepest part of the harbor, under cover of fishing for their morning catch. When they return to the inn, an inspector is there asking after the missing (dead) tax collector. The son lies to the inspector, attempting misdirection and half-truths more than outright lies. The inspector promises to check up on the story that the tax collector checked out "bright and early" and said he had to catch a boat on business.
Now, as it turns out, there is a missing pirate treasure supposedly bured nearby, and the pirate who buried it (and is long dead) was a frequent guest at the inn. So the inspector and many other interested partioes now begin to suspect that tax collector found either the treasure or a map or some other clue in the inn, and departed. More bad news: The tax collector never filed certain licenses the father bought, and now that he is gone, his replacement (a bitter enemy of the father) is out to nail the father for the license "violations." So, the father tells the son to break into the missing tax collector's house and get ahold of the missing paperwork. The son attempts to, but is foiled in his quest before he can even get to the house, which some other party burns down. The son goes home to find another, inspector waiting for him, accusing him of burning down the house and saying he will go before the court in two days for an official inquiry at which time charges may be brought, and the penalty for arson is death...
What alignment is this? What would you do?
The son wants to prove himself to his father (and to himself), and use most of the money won to help improve the inn (which is the third best [out of three] in the district). Certainly though, he wants to create something for himself, some lasting legacy, whether an arena record or business venture. He wants to obey the city laws, and loves his country (think decadent Imperial Rome where justice is often for sale) but keeps finding himself in positions where the laws must be bent or broken, not just for his own sake, but for his family. The hypocrisy & corruption of his country is becoming more obvious, but so are the ways to live within that system. He never kills unless he must, but is finding himself forced to kill more often. He's totally in over his head, with each new lie he tells or law he breaks creating more problems than they solve. He wants to be a good, (mostly) law abiding citizen, but is realizing that there seems little profit in that if no one else is bothering to obey the rules (sure they pretend to in public, but they merely twist the law to their own ends). He is willing to play the same game if he must. He does not want to abandon his family or his birthright, yet would do so if it meant saving them. It turns out he may also have some yuan-ti blood in him (on his dead mother's side), though the character is not aware of it. Certainly, he has a fascination for snakes, and he schemes a lot, though perhaps not very well.
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