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Dayvig
2015-12-15, 06:02 PM
A bit of background; I'm running a 3.5 campaign set in a large desert with underground cities dotted around. My party is around 3rd level and is composed of a Human Psion, a Human Fighter, Human Swordsage and a Thry-kreen Soulknife.

The Psion is an emperor who was overthrown, and is now seeking to raise an army to take back his city. The Swordsage is a human who is possessed by an ancient spirit residing in a sword, the Thry-kreen is a former slave who's looking for adventure and the fighter just wants to hit things with his axe.

Shortly after the party was done killing an evil cleric who was running a small run-down city, the Swordsage decided that he wanted to stay behind and help clean up the crime rather than stay with the party. I talked to him OOC and we decided that he wanted me to find a way for him to rejoin the party. So I decided that the town that the party was going to next was haunted by the same ancient spirits that he is being possessed by, and they were wanting retribution for a slaughter that happened thousands of years ago. They pulled him to the city and asked him to blend into the city and give them information. I was hoping that he would rejoin the party to get closer to leader of the city, and then eventually the party would have to either team up with the spirits and take down the city, or find a way to stop them.

What happened instead is that the party pretty much ignored that plotline and became coliseum fighters (which I'm totally okay with by the way), and the Swordsage did something stupid and attacked the guards, after trying to steal a powerful magic item from the the other PCs. Now he's directly helping the spirits while the others are faffing about: the party is split and I don't know how to fix it. Eventually the other players might decide to deal with the spirits, but then that puts them directly at odds with the Swordsage.

Is this situation salvagable?

JBPuffin
2015-12-15, 06:59 PM
A bit of background; I'm running a 3.5 campaign set in a large desert with underground cities dotted around. My party is around 3rd level and is composed of a Human Psion, a Human Fighter, Human Swordsage and a Thry-kreen Soulknife.

The Psion is an emperor who was overthrown, and is now seeking to raise an army to take back his city. The Swordsage is a human who is possessed by an ancient spirit residing in a sword, the Thry-kreen is a former slave who's looking for adventure and the fighter just wants to hit things with his axe.

Shortly after the party was done killing an evil cleric who was running a small run-down city, the Swordsage decided that he wanted to stay behind and help clean up the crime rather than stay with the party. I talked to him OOC and we decided that he wanted me to find a way for him to rejoin the party. So I decided that the town that the party was going to next was haunted by the same ancient spirits that he is being possessed by, and they were wanting retribution for a slaughter that happened thousands of years ago. They pulled him to the city and asked him to blend into the city and give them information. I was hoping that he would rejoin the party to get closer to leader of the city, and then eventually the party would have to either team up with the spirits and take down the city, or find a way to stop them.

What happened instead is that the party pretty much ignored that plotline and became coliseum fighters (which I'm totally okay with by the way), and the Swordsage did something stupid and attacked the guards, after trying to steal a powerful magic item from the the other PCs. Now he's directly helping the spirits while the others are faffing about: the party is split and I don't know how to fix it. Eventually the other players might decide to deal with the spirits, but then that puts them directly at odds with the Swordsage.

Is this situation salvagable?

Quite so; the spirits don't need the city in its entirety, just the coliseum owner and those who frequent it. By doing what they're doing, the PCs there are doing the spirits' work, and so the spirits send the Swordsage to go and assassinate the owner. They all end up in the coliseum AND doing the spirits' work. Easy peasy.

nedz
2015-12-15, 08:44 PM
It sounds like the Swordsage's player is enjoying the possession thing. It's quite a common reaction because it gives him licence to do things his character wouldn't do otherwise - read as CE.

It also means that you can have the spirits prompt him, also the spirits might be mad and ask him to do some arbitrary, seemingly random, thing.

Or you could just have the spirit leave once it has accomplished some goal - however abstract - which should accomplish the objective of getting the party back together; the player may not want this but it's an option if everything goes pear shaped.

I'm curious about why he tried to steal the item, and how the other player's view this ? Maybe it's not important.

Getting the party back together should be easy since they are at least in the same city.

Dayvig
2015-12-15, 10:14 PM
I don't know if I was being unclear or you guys are reading too much into this, but there are a few things.

The Coliseum has nothing to do with the massacre that happened, it's just the main attraction of the town. However, the spirits don't necessarily have to destroy the whole town, they just want to kill the ruler of the town (The Protector) because he's a descendant of one of the people that committed the massacre. Having him assassinate the leader guy not only would be difficult but it would be diametrically opposed to the rest of the party, who's aim is more or less to convince him to aid them in the coming conflict for the Psion's empire.

Also, I can see how the whole spirit sword possession thing could be confusing; his character has been possessed from the very beginning of the campaign, that's his backstory. He has full agency both in character and out of character. Also of note is that I don't think he's intentionally disrupting things, it's just he gets into the roleplaying aspect and also often makes stupid decisions.

The item was a powerful artifact able to trap souls that they nicked from the evil cleric, and why he wanted it I'm not completely sure of - probably because of the fact that it's a powerful weapon against spirits.

Dayvig
2015-12-16, 12:23 PM
Any other ideas?

TheFamilarRaven
2015-12-17, 01:44 AM
Having him assassinate the leader guy not only would be difficult but it would be diametrically opposed to the rest of the party, who's aim is more or less to convince him to aid them in the coming conflict for the Psion's empire.


Sounds like you deliberately made two PCs' objectives diametrically opposed. Or at least, one PC's method of obtaining his goal is opposing another PC.

In this case, I'd make "the protector" actually loyal to the usurper, and send assassins to kill the emperor. That'd get at least the emperor on board to take out "the protector" and the fighter can kill things with his axe, and the swordsage can help out these spirits (assuming the spirits have a legit reason to have retribution, other than, say, "man that paladin totally stopped our demon rituals!").

It might force the PC's to leave the city, in order to find a way to take him down. Maybe there's an underground resistance because "the protector" is more of a tyrant than his job title might suggest. The Pc's could join that. that way, the swordsage can kill his target, and the psion could free the town and gain their support for his cause...

LnGrrrR
2015-12-17, 07:11 AM
What if this town was based on "the mighty make the rules"? And if you assassinated the king, you became the king? This way the swordsage kills the ruler, and you can still use the army to help him on his quest. Plus, you get an adventure book that as long as he remains King he will be the target of assassination attempts. (Think Futurama, the water people episode.)

Usually the position is for life, but he could take his death, or be the first to resign, etc etc just find a way to dump it when it gets boring.

Demidos
2015-12-20, 12:19 PM
Alternately, have the king be evil, as previouly suggested, and have some way for the spirits to possess him over to the party's side.

PrincessCupcake
2015-12-20, 08:48 PM
It's absolutely salvageable. I've got two separate suggestions.

Suggestion 1:
-have the coliseum owner allied with the spirits. He is doing the gladiatorial arena to look for someone tough and smart enough to be of use to the spirits. Eventually throw them at the swordsage.

Suggestion 2 requires a few steps:

step one- drop some hints that the king might be evil, or at the very least not good. Maybe he's a usurper who stole the throne from someone they were okay with. Maybe he's just a bad dude. Regardless of reason, He's doing something to actively anger the spirits instead of just them wanting revenge for something he had no actual part in.

step two- The king has some kind of heir (either nominated, born, or whatever) who might placate the spirits if he/she entered power. (Descendant of the slaughtered, possessed, etc.)

step three- get the rest of the group to agree that killing the king is probably for the best.