valadil
2010-10-16, 11:05 PM
First off, my players should stay out.
Okay, so I've written myself into a bit of a corner. I'll try to keep this as brief as I can but you may still be facing a CR 15 Wall of Text.
Here's the deal. The PCs helped convince the nation of Vesperin to go to war with Netheril. Several sessions ago, some battle plans and troop movements were stolen and sold to an Underdark merchant. The players tracked and secured the plans, exiting the Underdark near Netheril. The doppelganger PC disguised himself as a Shadovar and cooked up a cover story about being Sembian mercenaries.
Naturally they met up with a unit from the Netherese army. The cover story held and the players agreed to come back to their camp for the night. To avoid suspicion, they participated in ritual worship of Shar (evil deity of darkness) which eventually included self mutilation. The soldiers here complained that they'd been moving north but the forest was somehow haunted and they kept getting lost. More on that later.
So that night a pack of unicorns attacked the encampment. The PCs were reluctant to fight them, but felt they had to keep up their cover story. Only the shaman managed to avoid hurting a unicorn at all. The bard/rogue killed a unicorn (but regretted it (he didn't realize it was badly wounded)) and the swordmage took its horn. Then the players decided the fight was big enough that they wouldn't be missed, they fled into the forest. That's where we left off.
Now let me back up a bit. When the players came out of the Underdark I put them at the base of the Desertmouth Mountains (no, you don't need to follow along on a map. I just figured someone would ask). I wanted them near Netheril (as that's where they assumed the troop movements were being taken, so that was their destination while they were underground) but close to Sembia as well so they could get back to the plot. The Netherese soldiers confirmed their location. When I knew where they were going to be I did some research. The nearest town was a place called "Shadowdale." According to the Forgotten Realms page on Wikia, Shadowdale is the home of a certain Elminster. (As a sidenote, my first inclination was to ignore this and say he was adventuring on the other side of the world. I don't usually invoke campaign setting NPCs because I don't see them as my property to use. However I'm trying to break old habits and try new things, so I figured I'd go with it.) He's weaker in 4th ed (as Mystra is dead) but still pretty epic. When he casts spells he goes insane and only Storm Silverhand can cure him of the insanity.
I figured that Elminster would not tolerate an army of Necromancers marching through his backyard. It seemed reasonable that he'd be opposed to this enough to risk insanity. So he lowered the barrier between the material plane and the feywild, then went nuts. This is the haunted forest the soldiers described. A pretty large portion of the Netherese army is confounded by the planar disruption going on here. This is also the source of the unicorns attacking.
But this is where I'm having trouble. I expect the players to come across Elminster. Even if they avoid the woods, the soldiers on their side who are nearby are actively looking for Elminster to petition him for help. The bottom line is that Elminster is no longer avoidable. And he's gonna be pissed at the PCs for killing his unicorns.
What I'm thinking at the moment is that due to his insanity he's declared himself the Lord of the Forest, or some such. The explanation is that Mystra is slain and as returned to the Earth, so the only way to channel her is through earthly magic. Thus he's learning to be a druid. Or something like that, I'm still working out the details. At any rate he's going to put the players on trial.
(And for some more backstory, I'm at a point where I feel I have to make the PCs question their morality. They've been a lot more evil than adventurers can usually get away with. The whole reason I had the unicorns attack was to make it pretty obvious that these good, innocent creatures regard some of the PCs in the same light as necromancers. The characters definitely got that message. Furthermore, one of the PCs (the one who killed the unicorn actually) has told me straight up that he wants to see the group's morality called into question. He actually said that if they aren't held accountable for what happened there, he'd like to switch characters. The selling point on his character was that he started the game without an alignment and wanted the party to show him humanity. That hasn't happened and he feels like his character is on the verge of becoming an NPC. I happen to agree with him. This is why I feel the need to confront the players in this way.)
So yeah. I'm not sure what to do with the trial. I don't see a group of level 8s fooling Elminster. And I don't see him doing anything but calling them guilty. Even if they thought they were doing good by maintaining their cover in the evil army, the players ultimately fought against the good unicorns. They killed the guardians who would have kept the Netherese at bay (after the PCs left, the Netherese won btw. I'm also debating having them zombify the dead unicorns if only so I can make a terrible "eunuch horn" pun to refer to the one who had its horn poached). Maybe the bard/rogue acted out of fear, but the swordmage had no reservations about what he did, and did it entirely out of greed and self interest. I don't see how Elminster can forgive him.
tl;dr A couple players did something naughty. I want them to pay for their sins. But I don't want to kill them verbally. How do I make the PCs question their morality in character in these circumstances without killing them or look like I'm letting them off too easily?
--
And that's where I'm stuck. If I pull my punch I won't really have confronted the PCs' morality. If I throw the punch, I don't see how that player can remain in the party. I figure Elminster would have him executed, or at the very least jailed. I don't want to remove a PC from the party in boxed text. That's a job for dice. OTOH, it was a player choice that condemned him rather than a bad roll. Maybe I should assume the players will be more creative than me when it comes to finding a way to weasel out of it? I'm hoping the playground has another option.
Okay, so I've written myself into a bit of a corner. I'll try to keep this as brief as I can but you may still be facing a CR 15 Wall of Text.
Here's the deal. The PCs helped convince the nation of Vesperin to go to war with Netheril. Several sessions ago, some battle plans and troop movements were stolen and sold to an Underdark merchant. The players tracked and secured the plans, exiting the Underdark near Netheril. The doppelganger PC disguised himself as a Shadovar and cooked up a cover story about being Sembian mercenaries.
Naturally they met up with a unit from the Netherese army. The cover story held and the players agreed to come back to their camp for the night. To avoid suspicion, they participated in ritual worship of Shar (evil deity of darkness) which eventually included self mutilation. The soldiers here complained that they'd been moving north but the forest was somehow haunted and they kept getting lost. More on that later.
So that night a pack of unicorns attacked the encampment. The PCs were reluctant to fight them, but felt they had to keep up their cover story. Only the shaman managed to avoid hurting a unicorn at all. The bard/rogue killed a unicorn (but regretted it (he didn't realize it was badly wounded)) and the swordmage took its horn. Then the players decided the fight was big enough that they wouldn't be missed, they fled into the forest. That's where we left off.
Now let me back up a bit. When the players came out of the Underdark I put them at the base of the Desertmouth Mountains (no, you don't need to follow along on a map. I just figured someone would ask). I wanted them near Netheril (as that's where they assumed the troop movements were being taken, so that was their destination while they were underground) but close to Sembia as well so they could get back to the plot. The Netherese soldiers confirmed their location. When I knew where they were going to be I did some research. The nearest town was a place called "Shadowdale." According to the Forgotten Realms page on Wikia, Shadowdale is the home of a certain Elminster. (As a sidenote, my first inclination was to ignore this and say he was adventuring on the other side of the world. I don't usually invoke campaign setting NPCs because I don't see them as my property to use. However I'm trying to break old habits and try new things, so I figured I'd go with it.) He's weaker in 4th ed (as Mystra is dead) but still pretty epic. When he casts spells he goes insane and only Storm Silverhand can cure him of the insanity.
I figured that Elminster would not tolerate an army of Necromancers marching through his backyard. It seemed reasonable that he'd be opposed to this enough to risk insanity. So he lowered the barrier between the material plane and the feywild, then went nuts. This is the haunted forest the soldiers described. A pretty large portion of the Netherese army is confounded by the planar disruption going on here. This is also the source of the unicorns attacking.
But this is where I'm having trouble. I expect the players to come across Elminster. Even if they avoid the woods, the soldiers on their side who are nearby are actively looking for Elminster to petition him for help. The bottom line is that Elminster is no longer avoidable. And he's gonna be pissed at the PCs for killing his unicorns.
What I'm thinking at the moment is that due to his insanity he's declared himself the Lord of the Forest, or some such. The explanation is that Mystra is slain and as returned to the Earth, so the only way to channel her is through earthly magic. Thus he's learning to be a druid. Or something like that, I'm still working out the details. At any rate he's going to put the players on trial.
(And for some more backstory, I'm at a point where I feel I have to make the PCs question their morality. They've been a lot more evil than adventurers can usually get away with. The whole reason I had the unicorns attack was to make it pretty obvious that these good, innocent creatures regard some of the PCs in the same light as necromancers. The characters definitely got that message. Furthermore, one of the PCs (the one who killed the unicorn actually) has told me straight up that he wants to see the group's morality called into question. He actually said that if they aren't held accountable for what happened there, he'd like to switch characters. The selling point on his character was that he started the game without an alignment and wanted the party to show him humanity. That hasn't happened and he feels like his character is on the verge of becoming an NPC. I happen to agree with him. This is why I feel the need to confront the players in this way.)
So yeah. I'm not sure what to do with the trial. I don't see a group of level 8s fooling Elminster. And I don't see him doing anything but calling them guilty. Even if they thought they were doing good by maintaining their cover in the evil army, the players ultimately fought against the good unicorns. They killed the guardians who would have kept the Netherese at bay (after the PCs left, the Netherese won btw. I'm also debating having them zombify the dead unicorns if only so I can make a terrible "eunuch horn" pun to refer to the one who had its horn poached). Maybe the bard/rogue acted out of fear, but the swordmage had no reservations about what he did, and did it entirely out of greed and self interest. I don't see how Elminster can forgive him.
tl;dr A couple players did something naughty. I want them to pay for their sins. But I don't want to kill them verbally. How do I make the PCs question their morality in character in these circumstances without killing them or look like I'm letting them off too easily?
--
And that's where I'm stuck. If I pull my punch I won't really have confronted the PCs' morality. If I throw the punch, I don't see how that player can remain in the party. I figure Elminster would have him executed, or at the very least jailed. I don't want to remove a PC from the party in boxed text. That's a job for dice. OTOH, it was a player choice that condemned him rather than a bad roll. Maybe I should assume the players will be more creative than me when it comes to finding a way to weasel out of it? I'm hoping the playground has another option.