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Aotrs Commander
2015-03-23, 12:20 PM
It's probably not all that often that you get a situation where it's the PCs who are having to be the assassins, and having to do two simultaneously...!



I am preparing for day-game next month, and I have naturally managed to pick something that is a bit... difficult to plot out to my satisfaction and my time is running a bit short. (It doesn't help I lost three-quarters of my quest-writing day time last week to a power cut.)

So, denizens of the playground, I come seeking some suggestions and input.



Basically, the premise of this particular party is the PCs are members of the Dark Lord's dirty black ops brigade. This adventure was set-up on the idea that the PCs would have to make two simultaneous assassinations, right in the middle of the opposition's psuedo-Roman capital city. (They're currently level 4 - this is my 3.Aotrs (3.5/PF -derivitive) - and I wanted to put something like this in before they get access to spells to make the job much easier!) This is intended to be difficult, since the very existance of the Umbra Vigilies is not known to the Northern Nations. (Which all means this advanture is a complete change of pace from their usual affairs!)

The crux, of course, was ascertaining why both these people have to go down and why simultaneously. Without falling back on the hoary old, boring, deus ex machine "destroy both the overlapping magical shield generators (sic)" trope.



After a brain-storming session on the playground's ponythread, what I have currently is this.

(This will take a bit of explanation, as the PC's boss says to them...!)

The PCs are assigned to go looking for a record of a prophecy (which is related to a meta-plot). Their boss explains that, during the Dark Wars some two hundred-odd years ago, the good gods and the Dark Lord were involved in a "prophecy war" in, which one side (usually the good gods) would attempt to engineer a beneficial prophecy to come to pass, and the other (most often the Dark Lord's forces) would try and stop it. The Dark Lord's force knew that there was a source for all the prophecies, but they never located it - and said capital city was razed towards the end of the war. After the end of the Dark Wars, and the fade of magic caused thereof, it became impossible to attempt this sort of thing, since the gods could no longer reach into the world to be able to meddle even as indirectly than that1.

One of the PCs offscreen by happenstance appears to have found something like suggests this prophecy record book might be found in a forgotten temple to the Oracles in what is now the sewer system of the city. While they are searching for that, they find out that they weren't the first ones to enter this forgotten temple to the Oracles recently. Someone else has been here first.

Basically, they find a different prophecy, one set in motion during the prophecy war by the Bright Lady and the goddess of magic (2/3 of the top trio of goddesses who are pan-pantheon and the Dark Lord's chief enemies) and the not-Roman god of Love. It was to unite two patrician houses and result in some sort of champion to defeat the Dark Lord.

Nominally, my current thinking is that Dark Lord's forces managed to wipe out one house completely, but couldn't get the others because the goddess spirited the last children away or something and the Dark Lord's force were prevented from finding them.

I will just copy-paste what I've written for this bit thus far.

“When the house of the boar unites with the [???], their union shall be thrice-blessed by Light, Magic and Love. Their bond shall be unbreakable e’en beyond death. Their legacy shall endure all darkness undimished for seven hundred and seven years and the fruit of their union shall in their design cast down the Old Darkness from its tower and cleanse the land of its shadow forever.”

The prophecy originally referred to the house of the boar (Hagandia Aper) and the [???], two patrician houses at the time, from whom the god and goddesses planned to have a champion arise. The Dark Lord’s forces got wind of it, however, and made a concerted effort to wipe out all of the both houses. They managed to completely destroy [???], but the goddesses spirited away the children of the [house of the boar] where they could not reach them; however, the prophecy was essentially broken.

Now the lone heir to the “house of the boar” is a Sirrus Hagandia Aper. Born from a lowly plebian family, he managed to nevertheless impress his teachers with his intelligence. He studied in Ciracan, and became a tinkerer and inventor, and also a innovative thinker. He has just enough acumen to create his own business to begin to sell his inventions – and equally importantly, his innovative ideas on organisation and management – to the general public. As is often the case, his ideas and ambitions streched beyond what he could afford, so he looked for wealthy backers. He found one in [?????], the heir and head of the [???] trading company, which carries considerable weight and resources throughout the Empire and its vassal-states and beyond.

What started as a business partnership turned into romance. After the passing of [?????]’s father a year previously, she inherited the company. The two plan to marry, and into doing so, fully and legally amalgamate their companies together. In doing do, Aper’s company will provide the inventions and ideas and the[??] will provide the financial funding in the business infrastructure to develop and promote on a much wider and grander scale. Even without divine interference, such an endeavour could eventually lead to essentially an economic revolution.

Elliaestyllyne realised that [???] meant that this old prophecy could be resurrected, and the interpretation slightly changed – and with a little tugging on the strings of fate and destiny, could be used to garner the same result, albiet from a different direction (Economic followed by technological and/or thaumathergical dominace of the Dark Lands.) Or, equally usefully, follow the original intention pof the prophecy.

Adamorus and Nvyllisaerie eagerly agreed to lend their aid once more, and the Bright Lady sent her cleric a vision to seek out and learn the prophecy, so that the churches could aid in it coming to pass.

In order to prevent this from happening, the PCs must prevent the union (meaning both the wedding and the merger) from happening. Killing Aper will end the “house of the boar”, but [?????] has sufficient capital available that she can simply purchase Aper’s company outright and both she and his sucessors would continue the venture in his name, making it a symbolic union nontheless. Thus, killing [?????] will be required as well, as this will default the company to her younger brother [????], who is much more closed-minded and averse to risks. (Eliminating her alone will just allow the gods to try again at a later date or perhaps only just delay the process and giving Aper time to prove his ideas to [????].

The PCs and/or their boss will recognise the merger/wedding thing, having known about it, but not really realised he hidden significance, and they also will thus know they'vve only got a few scant days to stop it: noi time to call for moe experienced help or back-up, the PCs will have to handle it themselves...!



So, as I've set it up, there's a credible necessity for the PCs to kill both targets before the wedding/merger, and in the pre-wedding/merger gubbins for the targets not to see each other from the point at which the PCs realise the midden is about to hit the windmill until the actual wedding (at which point, they will basically be far too well guarded.)

The bit I'm having trouble with is the necessity of doing so simultaneously. (The idea being the PCs will be forced - for once - to Split The Party (*gasp*) and deal with two things (possibly combats?) at the same time.)

My current angle of attack is the nominal "divine protection" thing. The idea being if the PCs kill, one the other will become unassailable for some reason, either because they are magically protected, or just a karking great wedge of angels show up or something.

I'm not overly happy with this solution, though, and this is really the point I could use some suggestions. I mean, I could go the "magic mcguffin that lets one know the other's dead, so they run off to where the PCs can't get them" route - which would work without having to have "direct" divine influence, but I'm not sold on that idea either.

The reason this is an old prophecy being re-used, and not just one that was recorded but that never came to pass was just so that the boss could say "I was there at the time, crapbaskets, we better make sure we get them both together, or they might squirrel the other one away like last time." (I'm even considering suggesting that maybe even the goddesses changed the prophecy retro-actively to allow this to occur.) I'm not tied to either idea. This could be chopped out altogether, and the prophecy just be one that was written but never came to pass at the time of the Dark Wars and is only now coming into play, provided that there is a suitably good other reason (and way fior the PCs to find out) they need to knobble the pair at basically the same time.

Obviously, whatever I end up going for, the PCs need to find out that they need to do that more or less right out of the gate, so they know for when they do the planning (which will be the "meat" of the adventure.) So it probably needs to be part of the prophecy.

Help and suggestions on how to approach this would be welcomed!




1Indirectly or through clerics is the best way the gods have of interacting in the material world. Manifesting as an avatar or in person (which only three of them are known to have done) is extremely dangerous, since the Dark Lord is quite capable of killing them permenantly in that state.

JustSomeGuy
2015-03-23, 02:06 PM
How could you have an assassination attempt on the house of boar yet not include oinkbane?

Beta Centauri
2015-03-23, 02:40 PM
You have a challenge that you want to work a certain way in order to be challenging. You shouldn't have to an iron-clad reason why it has to be that way. If the players demand an iron-clad reason, have them help you come up with one. If they can't, then it's hard to see how they could expect you to. But that still doesn't mean you can't have the challenge work the way you want.

JeenLeen
2015-03-23, 02:41 PM
It seems to me that, if the wedding was disrupted by killing just one, that would probably postpone the merger (due to grief of the survivor, at least) for a day or two, allowing them to target that person separately.

To get around this, you could state that the betrothal contract between the two includes the merger, and (sort of like an inverted prenuptial agreement) it includes a statement that, should one or the other die, control of the merged company passes on to the survivor. Thus, killing just one causes the symbolic union of the companies to still proceed and thus allow the prophecy to be fulfilled. Even if the PCs kill the other person the next day, the companies are now one and thus, regardless of who runs it, it is symbolically the union of the two families.

To stop this clause from coming into play, both need to die at the same time. Then, neither merger nor marriage can occur. If the younger brother can be assumed to not go through with the merger, then the Dark Lord's plan is safe. (Although, honestly, if I were in this game, I would try to put some pressure on the little brother, in case the forces of light try to persuade him to go through with the merger.)

Maglubiyet
2015-03-23, 03:13 PM
To get around this, you could state that the betrothal contract between the two includes the merger, and (sort of like an inverted prenuptial agreement) it includes a statement that, should one or the other die, control of the merged company passes on to the survivor. Thus, killing just one causes the symbolic union of the companies to still proceed and thus allow the prophecy to be fulfilled. Even if the PCs kill the other person the next day, the companies are now one and thus, regardless of who runs it, it is symbolically the union of the two families.


This might even be the law of the land. Maybe a legacy from a time when rivals would assassinate each other's fiance's to prevent inheritances they disapproved of.

Or perhaps there's a family/religious curse that allows a bride/groom-to-be who is killed before the wedding date and before their betrothed to arise as an undead to seek vengeance. If they both die at the same time the curse can't be enacted.

Synovia
2015-03-23, 03:20 PM
Shouldn't it be the players figuring out how this can happen, and not you?

Fable Wright
2015-03-23, 04:36 PM
Shouldn't it be the players figuring out how this can happen, and not you?

He's trying to figure out how to force the PCs to have to assassinate the targets at the same time; its the PCs job to actually figure out how to pull off the assassination.

Personally, I like the idea of tying in another prophecy in, perhaps even older than this one, about a martyr dying before the altar while their beloved lives. Perhaps the Good deities put that prophesy in place to force the Dark Lord into a bad position; if the marriage happens, the Good deities win. If one is killed even a moment before the other, the other, possibly more powerful prophesy wins. They couldn't force a no-win scenario on the Dark Lord, but by including odds with a miniscule chance of going through, they were capable of coming pretty close. The Dark Lord got wind beforehand and tried to prevent the marriage from even becoming a possibility to prevent this worst-case scenario, hence the earlier destruction of the houses. Now that the marriage is in the works, his only shot is that angle that the Goddesses deemed nearly impossible for him to accomplish.

Not sure how well that fits into existing lore, though.

Aotrs Commander
2015-03-23, 06:17 PM
You have a challenge that you want to work a certain way in order to be challenging. You shouldn't have to an iron-clad reason why it has to be that way.

Unfortunately, I very much have to do that, since I am pedantic to the point of being completely incapable of not doing the job "right...!" Even if the rightness is something the PCs never really notice.


He's trying to figure out how to force the PCs to have to assassinate the targets at the same time; its the PCs job to actually figure out how to pull off the assassination.

Exactly.

Once I have the reasons all squared away, I can then set up how a) the PCs can relatively easily find out that they have to knobble both and plan accordingly and b) I can then set up the locations, times and whatnots of the two targets in question for them to work out how to assassinate them.




It seems to me that, if the wedding was disrupted by killing just one, that would probably postpone the merger (due to grief of the survivor, at least) for a day or two, allowing them to target that person separately.

To get around this, you could state that the betrothal contract between the two includes the merger, and (sort of like an inverted prenuptial agreement) it includes a statement that, should one or the other die, control of the merged company passes on to the survivor. Thus, killing just one causes the symbolic union of the companies to still proceed and thus allow the prophecy to be fulfilled. Even if the PCs kill the other person the next day, the companies are now one and thus, regardless of who runs it, it is symbolically the union of the two families.

To stop this clause from coming into play, both need to die at the same time. Then, neither merger nor marriage can occur. If the younger brother can be assumed to not go through with the merger, then the Dark Lord's plan is safe. (Although, honestly, if I were in this game, I would try to put some pressure on the little brother, in case the forces of light try to persuade him to go through with the merger.)


This might even be the law of the land. Maybe a legacy from a time when rivals would assassinate each other's fiance's to prevent inheritances they disapproved of.

This is, regardless of whast else happens, perhaps worth doing anyway. I had sort of vaguely thought about something in this vein, but this makes it look much better and clearer!

I even went and had a quick nosey at Roman property law (yay, thorough Romans!) Transfer of ownership required a ceremony, which means it actually fits in VERY nicely with the whole wedding idea! (I'll have a look at what I can dig up on Roman bethoral laws and practices too - they mihgt help the suituation as well!)

The only problem using it as the sole motivator is getting the PCs to find out about it easily. (It has to be fairly easy, as obviously, the double aspect needs to factor into their caluclations early on, as we don't have unlimited time for the players to re-work their plans in a day session!) At the very least , it can be a secondary concern just to make sure they get the point; it's definitely worth doing, I think!




Or perhaps there's a family/religious curse that allows a bride/groom-to-be who is killed before the wedding date and before their betrothed to arise as an undead to seek vengeance. If they both die at the same time the curse can't be enacted.


Personally, I like the idea of tying in another prophecy in, perhaps even older than this one, about a martyr dying before the altar while their beloved lives. Perhaps the Good deities put that prophesy in place to force the Dark Lord into a bad position; if the marriage happens, the Good deities win. If one is killed even a moment before the other, the other, possibly more powerful prophesy wins. They couldn't force a no-win scenario on the Dark Lord, but by including odds with a miniscule chance of going through, they were capable of coming pretty close. The Dark Lord got wind beforehand and tried to prevent the marriage from even becoming a possibility to prevent this worst-case scenario, hence the earlier destruction of the houses. Now that the marriage is in the works, his only shot is that angle that the Goddesses deemed nearly impossible for him to accomplish.

Not sure how well that fits into existing lore, though.

Both of these are sort of things I've considered (and are sort in part what I've nominally planned.) The hard part is getting this information to the PCs. I don't really want to introduce another prophecy (since there's already two this adventure!) The problem becomes - which is what stalled me out - if the prophecy says "yeah, if you kill one the other one is super-safe" it begs the question of why the goddess couldn't just have set it up like that from the bethrothal.




Thinking about it, I remembered that one of the other inital ideas I had floating around comes from the fact that the good guys don't know about the Umbra Vigilies. Like, at all. As in, not even that such an organisation exists. So they have no particular reason to suspect foul play (more than you'd get from this sort of situation anyway) at this stage of the game. But once the PCs knobble one target, they will cotton on basically straight away, and the other one will become so much better protected (hense protective detail of angels or whatnot.) This would work fine (and adds some pressue on the PCs, because the time elapsed between one dying and the protections coming in could be mere rounds!) Again, though, the problem I'm having is how to convey this information to the PCs so they can plan around it.

As I say, the only reason I am currently nominally having this be a second attempt at this prophecy is so the boss can say tell them "you better make sure you get both at the same time, or they'll move one out of reach." But it's a bit heavy-handed. Ideally, I would like to be able to somehow work it into the prophecy somehow and let the PCs possibly figure it out (with the boss to point it out only if they don't realise it themselves). Without leaving a logic hole in why the goddesses didn't use a tighter prophecy you could march a Shadow Guard Army through...

Fable Wright
2015-03-23, 08:30 PM
Both of these are sort of things I've considered (and are sort in part what I've nominally planned.) The hard part is getting this information to the PCs. I don't really want to introduce another prophecy (since there's already two this adventure!) The problem becomes - which is what stalled me out - if the prophecy says "yeah, if you kill one the other one is super-safe" it begs the question of why the goddess couldn't just have set it up like that from the bethrothal.

Because they did? The first time, marriage plans were wrecked before a betrothal could get in place; now that the betrothal is up, the job got a lot harder.

But I do get prophesy creep. Hm. Perhaps, maybe, you could leverage the fact that the prophesy says unite the house of the boar and [????]. Current contracts, which the PCs perhaps get a look at, might note that in the case one dies before the other, the houses are united anyways, without the living heirs; the house of the kid who died first will inherit the property and titles of the other. Even if both die when no one sees, magic might be able to come into play to determine an exact time of death. If they die one before the other, the houses become united, even if both pass on; if they both die at the same time, though, the laws and logistics come into play making it impossible to divvy up the land and politics break down the unity of the houses.

Eloel
2015-03-23, 08:39 PM
If one of them dies, the other one learns there are assassins probably looking to destroy the merger and ups his protection? Upping defenses can be done in a minute or two if you consider hiding in a specialized bunker good enough - he can then use a scroll of sending to his allies wherever to send him protection - he has the money now that the merger happened and the other house is also his. Say another minute or two for the assassination to be learned by the second guy. I'd say if the PCs can do both assassinations in 4-5 minutes, it's synchronous enough. If they can make the travel time shrink to that amount, let them stay as a full party.

Aotrs Commander
2015-03-30, 10:39 AM
Okay. After a GREAT deal of thinking, balancing at general sorting out (the hardest part of which was finding something that could be construed as a former noble house an a trading company) I have the following (which is a little of column A, and a little of column B of your suggestions!:

“From the first meeting of the heir of the house of the boar and the scion of the coterie of the silver creel, shall be a bond be formed that shall be thrice-blessed by Light, Magic and Love and be unbreakable e’en beyond death and guarded by angels; through it they shall always know of the other, and draw strength.

Upon their union, their legacy shall endure all darkness undimished for seven hundred and seven years and the fruit of their consanguinity shall in their design cast down the Old Darkness from its tower and cleanse the land of its shadow forever.”

The prophecy originally referred to the house of the boar (Hagandii Aper) and the clan of Silaetarvin (lit. “silver creel”). (A creel is a wickerwork basket used typically by fisherfolk to carry their catches: the clan took its name from them.) The first was a patrician house of Nepitar, the latter a small clan from Sileanarwae. The Silaetarvin clan had spawned more than a few influential figures in the past – at the time, the clan was quite well-known. The Hagandii Aper were on the rise in influence, thanks to Legate Mertus Haganius Aper, who lead the V Legion to several famous victories. His son and grandson seemed to be following his path. From between the two groups, the god and goddesses planned to have a champion arise.

The Dark Lord’s forces got wind of it, however, and made a concerted effort to wipe out all of the both houses. They managed to completely destroy the Silaetarvin clan – an undertaking of considerable difficulty. They attacked the Hagandii Aper family as well, but, forewarned, the goddesses sent in an angelic host to spirit away the children of the Aper houseshold to where the Dark Lord could not reach them. The family’s power and influence were eradicated, however, and the survivors lived out their lives as plebians, retaining only their names. The prophecy ad been essentially broken.

Now the lone heir to the “house of the boar” is a Sirrus Hagandius Aper. Born from a lowly plebian family, he managed to nevertheless impress his teachers with his intelligence. He studied in Ciracan, and became a tinkerer and inventor, and also a innovative thinker. He has just enough acumen to create his own business to begin to sell his inventions – and equally importantly, his innovative ideas on organisation and management – to the general public. As is often the case, his ideas and ambitions stretched beyond what he could afford, so he looked for wealthy backers. He found one in Aphira Cottia Mercator, the heir and head of the Argent-Corbis Trading Company (named after the two major trading rivers in the Empire), which carries considerable weight and resoucres throughout the Empire and its vassal-states and beyond. (“Corbis” is an older, High Lidusain word for “basket.” I am SO lucky that the word I made up ten years ago for the name of the river was an actual Roman word...! "Argent" was easier, since it was the name of the river that flowed out of the Silver Woods (of the Silver Elfs) and through the Silver Lake...)

What started as a business partnership turned into romance. After the passing of Andrus Cottius Mercator (Aphira’s father) a year previously, she inherited the company. The two plan to marry, and at the same time, fully and legally amalgamate their companies together, via a simultaneous mancipatio (the formal transfer of property via a ceremonial conveyance.)

In doing do, Sirrus’ company will provide the inventions and ideas and the Argent-Corbis company will provide the financial funding in the business infrastructure to develop and promote on a much wider and grander scale. Even without divine interference, such an endeavour could eventually lead to essentially an economic revolution.

Elliaestyllyne realised that this meant that this old prophecy could be resurrected. (Argent = silver, creel = corbis (basket)), albeit with the interpretation slightly changed – and with a little tugging on the strings of fate and destiny, could be used to garner the same result, albiet from a different direction (Economic followed by technological and/or thaumathergical dominace of the Dark Lands.) Or, equally usefully, follow the original intention of the prophecy.

Adamorus and Nvyllisaerie eagerly agreed to lend their aid once more, and the Bright Lady sent her cleric a vision to seek out and learn the prophecy, so that the churches could aid in it coming to pass.

In order to prevent this from happening, the PCs must prevent the union (meaning both the wedding and the merger) from happening. Killing Sirrus will end the “house of the boar”, but Aphira has sufficient capital available that she can simply purchase Aper’s company outright and both she and his sucessors would continue the venture in his name, making it a symbolic union nontheless.

Aphira has already officially designated Sirrus as her legal heir (thanks to the way Lidusain sucession law works), so if she dies, the Argent-Corbis Trading Company will revert to him (and again, making the union symbolic.) Thus, killing Aphira will be required as well, as this will default the company to her younger brother Menus Cottius Mercator, who is much more closed-minded and averse to risks (and whom Aphira was afraid will run the business to ruin).

The bond between Aphira and Sirrus will alert them if the other is attacked. They will know the rough details, and will take action accordingly. If one dies, the bond will send the survivor a vision, from the perspective of the deceased of what happened. (I.e., if the PCs manage to poison one, the other will only know they have been poisoned; if one was murdered as they sleep, the other will only know of the death; if there is combat, the survivor will know everything the deceased knew.)

Furthermore, the “guarding angels” will be tipped off for the first time someone is attempting to prevent the prophecy. They will arrive in but minutes, and explain to the survivor what has happened (if it is not imediately obvious through the bond) and about the prophecy. This will result in the (rather angry) survivor immediately undertaking the legal proceedings to ensure their partner’s legacy is set. In addition to the regular guards, at this point, the survivor will also have an angelic guardian, essentially rendering them untouchable.

The only way to prevent this from occurring is to ensure both die more-or-less simultaneously.



I figure that the "angelic host" bit can, with a bit of explanation from the PC's boss about what happened last time, should be clear enough (he can point out that they sent an angelic host WITHOUT the "guarding angels" clause being in effect...!) The will/buy-out thing can be fairly easily located by the PCs on some research into what's going on. (I plan to slide the mention of the upcoming wedding/merger into one of the PC's personal "what you've been doing since the last game" update.) They won't know all the details, but it should be enough to convince them that dealing with only one would be Bad.



Does that sound vaguely reasonably/plausible? Any additional thoughts?

Any suggestions as to what to call Sirrus' comapny could be called? It has to have "boar" in there somewhere ideally (so the PCs don't have to be told that "Aper" means "boar" before they can be given the opportunity to make the connection themselves.)

Thrudd
2015-03-30, 01:10 PM
This sounds like an incredibly convoluted way of trying to justify a contrived scenario which has the sole purpose of splitting the party. Not that splitting the party is necessarily wrong, from the DMs perspective, but this is a situation where you are forcing them to do so, rather than letting them weigh the options and choose to split. The option is, split or fail the whole mission, no way around it.

None of this information matters to the players except the fact that, for reasons, they must split up and do two different things at once. How would you plan on introducing all this background to the players, how do they find out what this God is planning and all these divine and corporate contingencies? I don't see any good way to do this that is not ten minutes of exposition, which will promptly be forgotten except for the takeaway point (kill both at same time, or else fail: here's the rails, get on the train).

I would reconsider this entire plot line. Maybe make killing them both at once a safer option, but killing one then the other is doable but tougher because a divine contingency will be activated that summons holy protectors.

If they do their research beforehand, they can learn about the divine contingency (though probably not its exact details), if they don't they can be surprised by the godly wrath they face on the second half of the mission.

Rabidmuskrat
2015-03-30, 01:53 PM
I have a fairly simple idea for how you can spring the succession clause on the PCs. What evil assassin organization does not employ at least one (most likely numerous) lawyers?

Boss: "... so this time, make sure you get them both. Go for the girl/guy first. The other one will take longer to get his guard up if something happens."
Lawyer Flunky: "Uh, sir, that isn't good enough. They have to kill them at PRECISELY the same time."
Boss/PCs: "Wait, why?"
Lawyer Flunky: "Lidusain succession law states that should one of the parties be slain, the other inherits everything. If that party is then slain, the next in line inherits and so on and so forth. I have taken the liberty of mapping out the prospective inheritance path of the combined company and a total of 57 individuals will need to be exhumed before the company has no legal inheritor. In that case, the company charter states that ownership of all assets go to the Church of the Bright Lady who are free to assign a new executor as they see fit. The only way to disrupt this occurance would be for both parties to die at precisely the same time, in which case the law clearly states that the merger is annulled."

I would drop the angelic guardians thing though. That's just a bit too ham-handed. And make sure you consider what happens if the players fail or stubbornly decide to kill them one at a time (failure, in essence). 'Welp, campaign over' doesn't quite work in that regard.

Perhaps instead of there being this 'game over' prophecy, there are instead a large number of prophecies relating to the 'Scion of the Boar and the Silver Kreel" that got nipped in the bud ages ago by the evil side by simply wiping out one of the houses. Now, suddenly, all those prophecies are back on the table, and to make matters worse, the Dark Side have lost or forgotten about half of them since they didn't think them important anymore.

Trevortni
2015-03-30, 02:25 PM
It looks like it might be a bit too late, but I thought I'd chime in anyway:

Proxies.

One of the local laws wherever they are allows marriage by proxy, which they are doing to protect the marriage/merger. The proxies are already on the way. If one of the proxy ceremonies takes place before word reaches them that the other partner is dead, then the marriage is successful. But the proxy marriage requires that at least one of the participants be the real person getting married. If both of them die before the proxy reaches their respective towns, then there won't be a valid participant at either location. Oh, by the way, the proxies will both arrive at their destinations tomorrow.

Killing the proxies could also work, but they're playing a shell game with the proxies, and it's a shell game where all of the dozens of cups have the ball under it, and you can't be sure that you've identified all the cups. Good luck getting them all!

This loosens up the requirements so that it only needs to be done tonight instead of at the exact same second; it's up to you whether that's acceptable.

Storm_Of_Snow
2015-03-31, 06:25 AM
I was thinking the simplest version of it - assassinating two people at exactly the same time shows to everyone how powerful you are, and how much they should fear you.

Another version could be that they need to be assassinated with ceremonial daggers, and the blood on both daggers needs to have been there for the exact same length of time (well, within a few minutes) for some ritual.

Aotrs Commander
2015-04-05, 03:48 PM
I am really starting to run out of time (game is weekend after next!) so for the immediate moment, I'm going to go with what I've got, pending revisions if it strikes me.



So, next job is to set up what the pair are doing. I thus need to set-up up an itinerary for Sirrus and Aphira for the 36 hours before their wedding. I would welcome any suggestions of what they might be doing (the only proviso is that they do not meet each other (outside of anywhere that is basically not practical for the PCs to attack them) during the preparations.

So, what sort of thing would they be filling thier time with, in preparation for the meger/wedding?

I am thinking of the sort of thing wherein I can have "0800 get up, 0900 leave for business at office blah blah for four hours," that sort of thing and then fill in the details so that the PCs can work out how to approach them.

Any ideas would greatly help me cut the thinking time down!