DM Brainstorming. Need ideas!

[Cowboy_ninja]

There are no dumb ideas let me hear them all!

I'm trying to incorporate one of my player's back stories into my dungeon. She was orphaned at 7 because her parents found out something about a high ranking official. (We haven't decided what it is yet) They were about to blow the whistle when they were murdered. She found her father's journals (before they were destroyed evidently) and knows that bit of information. She became an assassin/rogue on the streets of the city, and over the course of 20 years has slowly assassinated everyone involved in her parents murder except for the ring leader. She knows who the ring leader is but not where.

I need ideas that will answer the following question:

-Simple question: Why can't my PC come forward with that information herself? (Log version: What is a scenario where you could find out something about a high ranking official that is bad enough to get your whistle-blowing-do-good parents killed, but you yourself could not come forward with that same information?)

[Honest Tiefling]

1) Because she doesn't know where they are. Something happened in the kingdom to cause upheaval, so records are destroyed, and many people left as refugees. So yes, you could incriminate Duke Flubblebus of Norma, but uh, good luck finding him and no one cares because they don't even know if he's alive or not.

2) He's turned over a new leaf. Maybe a good leaf, or torn with guilt might have been helping a certain someone killing his evil compatriots...Or helping other people so much that maybe the stabbing should be delayed just to figure this out.

3) Doing so will destroy an alliance and plunge the place back into war. He could be one half of a political marriage.

4) People already know he's a jerk. He decided to join Team Devil a while ago, so you COULD reveal him, but many people just would not be surprised...

5) Because shouting 'HEY! I'm coming for yoooou' by revealing him is a bad idea. Sure, some people might listen, but they aren't going to kill him immediately. This gives him ample time to pick up more guards, some magic, etc. and make it all that much harder.

6) Because she disguises herself as a maid to get closer to him to get the perfect time to attack him.

7) He might be a jerk, but someone close to him isn't. Maybe she meets his perfectly nice, good-hearted son, who is intent on reforming the guard so abuses of the past could not happen again. Killing his father is...Probably not going to help his efforts there.

[Cowboy_ninja]

1) Because she doesn't know where they are. Something happened in the kingdom to cause upheaval, so records are destroyed, and many people left as refugees. So yes, you could incriminate Duke Flubblebus of Norma, but uh, good luck finding him and no one cares because they don't even know if he's alive or not.

2) He's turned over a new leaf. Maybe a good leaf, or torn with guilt might have been helping a certain someone killing his evil compatriots...Or helping other people so much that maybe the stabbing should be delayed just to figure this out.

3) Doing so will destroy an alliance and plunge the place back into war. He could be one half of a political marriage.

4) People already know he's a jerk. He decided to join Team Devil a while ago, so you COULD reveal him, but many people just would not be surprised...

5) Because shouting 'HEY! I'm coming for yoooou' by revealing him is a bad idea. Sure, some people might listen, but they aren't going to kill him immediately. This gives him ample time to pick up more guards, some magic, etc. and make it all that much harder.

6) Because she disguises herself as a maid to get closer to him to get the perfect time to attack him.

7) He might be a jerk, but someone close to him isn't. Maybe she meets his perfectly nice, good-hearted son, who is intent on reforming the guard so abuses of the past could not happen again. Killing his father is...Probably not going to help his efforts there.


#5 is interesting. Perhaps he can only commandeer to many protective resources (guards, magics, etc.) without raising too many questions. NOT telling the world makes him easier to assassinate....

#3 is something I thought of and worth discussing. My only concern is that she is Chaotic Neutral, so I don't see her NOT exacting revenge because it would throw her beloved city into ruin. I don't think she gives a crap about the city, but it may be worth discussing with the player.


Thanks for the good ideas!

[Honest Tiefling]

She may not care about the welfare of the city, but she might care about the welfare of her career. War might cause the assassination market to boom! But that's a weebit evil, methinks, depends on your and her comfort level.

Does she have any other enemies? Perhaps she wants to play her cards right with this political intrigue. Maybe if she can get some dirt on him, she can get another noble to bankroll her to get more money for someone she was going to murder anyway. Reveling immediately would nix this pretty quickly, and maybe more open bounties aren't as lucrative.

Or she wants to do more then simply kill him. She wants to ruin him. Make it so people curse his name for generations to come. Make his family abandon him, wreck his reputation, and take all of his wealth away before killing him. Revealing him immediately wouldn't work, as she needs a plan to ruin him completely.

[arkangel111]

1. She can't out him because parents were deemed traitors or some such and he was "justified" in having them killed and no one would believe her since her family was discredited.

A. I would twist the whole story on its head though and have her find out, after the fact of course, that her parents were really bad, and left the journal to her so she could complete their evil mission. Yes the baron or whatever may have done some things wrong but he was not evil, by completing her parents objective some major far more destructive event is destined to happen and only the group can stop what they started. Add demons and undead to taste.

[Honest Tiefling]

As an alternative to arkangel111's ideas, the parents were good...But someone else gave the Baron bad information and he thought he was perfectly justified in this. The same group could have very well have led two normally good people (the character's parents) into a plan that they also thought was good, but was going to do something very bad like summon a demon or two.

[Cowboy_ninja]

1. She can't out him because parents were deemed traitors or some such and he was "justified" in having them killed and no one would believe her since her family was discredited.

A. I would twist the whole story on its head though and have her find out, after the fact of course, that her parents were really bad, and left the journal to her so she could complete their evil mission. Yes the baron or whatever may have done some things wrong but he was not evil, by completing her parents objective some major far more destructive event is destined to happen and only the group can stop what they started. Add demons and undead to taste.

I like it! She tried to out him, but her whole family were discredited so no one would believe her. It was also all true... the parents were bad...with the best of intentions?

[Seruvius]

As she is chaotic neutral, maybe she doesn't just want to kill the guy but take over the (evil?) organisation that he is the head of. Think of O-Ren Ishiii (Cottonmouth) from Kill Bill. You could easily combine this with other suggested aspects to explain why she hasn't done it in already; the baron could be a deadly warrior himself or have his own assassin squads etc. that prevented her from doing this in the past. This could make for a pretty interesting overarching quest based in a city campaign, or a city hub over multiple adventures. Good party members are trying to take down the local crime syndicate of which this Baron is the boss while the chaotic evil assassin is trying to use the party to her own ends to take over or at least get revenge.