Test my players' alignment/kindness/cruelty

[evilmastermind]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a little advice with a terrible position in which my players have put themselves into.

Long story short, they are wanted for mass murder, for trying to charm a whole town with enchanted food and for being presumably allied with a guy who is summoning a demon lord in the material world.

In truth they didn't really murder anyone, they just committed an insane streak of bad decisions and wrong alliances.

Now, while sleeping inside an old ruin in the wilds, they're being surrounded by fey creatures, allies of the ruler of the land.

These creatures have rules of their own and want to test the players before capturing or harming them.
They are Swan Maidens, Sprite Swarms and Pixies and they have spell-like abilities like Major Image, Detect Evil/Good, Detect Thoughts, Permanent Image and insane stealth skills at their disposal.

My players' alignment is Neutral (greedy and power-addicted). Do you have any idea on how I should roleplay this? What could these forest creatures do to test my players?

Thank you and sorry for my crappy english!

[Bronk]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a little advice with a terrible position in which my players have put themselves into.

Long story short, they are wanted for mass murder, for trying to charm a whole town with enchanted food and for being presumably allied with a guy who is summoning a demon lord in the material world.

In truth they didn't really murder anyone, they just committed an insane streak of bad decisions and wrong alliances.

Now, while sleeping inside an old ruin in the wilds, they're being surrounded by fey creatures, allies of the ruler of the land.

These creatures have rules of their own and want to test the players before capturing or harming them.
They are Swan Maidens, Sprite Swarms and Pixies and they have spell-like abilities like Major Image, Detect Evil/Good, Detect Thoughts, Permanent Image and insane stealth skills at their disposal.

My players' alignment is Neutral (greedy and power-addicted). Do you have any idea on how I should roleplay this? What could these forest creatures do to test my players?

Thank you and sorry for my crappy english!

What are their classes, levels, and equipment?

Assuming they can't pierce the fey illusions, I'd say:

First, the fey should sneak up and cast their detect good and evil spells, to discover that they don't show up and are neutral.

Next, hide and probe their thoughts for a while.

Then, set up some illusions depicting attacks against the innocent to see how they react. Or maybe an illusion of being found by the agents of the ruler and/or the demon summoner, to listen to their thoughts.

Then they can do whatever it is you have planned next!

[evilmastermind]

What are their classes, levels, and equipment?

Assuming they can't pierce the fey illusions, I'd say:

First, the fey should sneak up and cast their detect good and evil spells, to discover that they don't show up and are neutral.

Next, hide and probe their thoughts for a while.

Then, set up some illusions depicting attacks against the innocent to see how they react. Or maybe an illusion of being found by the agents of the ruler and/or the demon summoner, to listen to their thoughts.

Then they can do whatever it is you have planned next!

They're level 4 but it's a campaign with slow level advancement. They've had enough time to acquire many magical items, including more than two Ebony Fly Figurines for each member. This explains why I chose those creatures and also why they're so strong compared to them: my players could fly away at any time.

What I planned? I planned for them to run away and start a "new life" elsewhere. But even though they knew the risks they decided to stay for another day... at this point if they end up dead or in jail for the rest of their life.. I can't really be blamed for it. I've given them enough help

[Segev]

They're in an old keep, surrounded by fey of which they're unaware? Mirage arcane (inject a being capable of using it if necessary) to make the place look opulent and in good repair when they wake up...in luxury guest suites. The various fey use illusions to appear as castlefolk, and the party is treated as if they're honored guests who've been there for at least a day. Perhaps the King and everybody insists they've rescued his daughter from a dread dragon.

Let them stew on what the heck is going on for a bit. Did they time travel? Lose memory? Get body-swapped in a way they can't detect with the 'real' heroes?

Test their cruelty by placing hapless servants at their disposal. Meek, obviously not considered worth protection by those in power. "How she treats the waiter" is a fairly common test to see if your date is as good a person as she's pretending to be.

Test their kindness by having some of the minor nobility bullying others, and see if they step in to stop it.

Test their honesty by seeing just how easily they slip in to this false narrative that seems to benefit them. (Some amount of "er, right, yes, of course!" and playing along is acceptable; it can be a survival instinct. But if they jump right in and try to live it up as if they deserved it, that's going a bit beyond.)

Finally, have the King suffer a sudden emergency, potentially just when some rumblings of people getting discontented with the party's "heroic" status start reaching the party's ears. The King - perhaps against his advisors' warnings - trusts the party implicitly with a highly valuable artifact that he needs delivered to a place fraught with dangers only such trusted heroes could manage. If it's not delivered, the King and all his people will be ruined. Of course, there's no way that anybody could come from a ruined kingdom to punish them if they just ran off with it...


Run that adventure, even, if you like. The "artifact" looks real and does really cool stuff (because several fey are following, hiding, to mimic its "powers" when the party tries to use them). If the party delivers it and then tries to return, they're greeted by the King and his court revealing the truth to them. If the party absconds with it...well, it's not real, and eventually the illusion wears off. And now the fey all know the party's nature.

In any event the fey deal with them as they see fit based on the various tests. Possibly having one of the victim-servants/guards revealing themselves to have been high-ranking leaders of this court, who are now presiding over the trial. Which, being fey, is a mockery of the formalities of standard trials, but still is deadly serious.

[evilmastermind]

Oh yes! This is perfect! I was considering spell limitations and stats and didn't think outside the box! Thank you so much Segev :smallbiggrin:

[Sagetim]

Oh, and don't forget to use Nystul's Magic Aura on the item in question so if they decide to test it with detect magic it registers as magical.

Just....don't tell them about the Head of Vecna, okay? With a party like that, I can see them trying to use it.

[Segev]

Glad to help! If you need further help with making any of it "by the rules," let us know what your specific needs are and I'm sure that these boards can come up with ways to meet them. (I won't promise I can; I like optimizing, but I do it from the player side. While I try to stay in-rules when I DM, I tend to wing it more there, so add class levels if I need to, and make custom stuff where I can't find something useful pre-made. So I won't always know the perfect monster for a power suite. But I'll certainly try.)

[evilmastermind]

Oh, and don't forget to use Nystul's Magic Aura on the item in question so if they decide to test it with detect magic it registers as magical.

Just....don't tell them about the Head of Vecna, okay? With a party like that, I can see them trying to use it.

The Head of Vecna.. now I have a back up plan ahahah

I'm glad I can justify even that part with a spell. By the way Segev, Pixies in pathfinder have the ability to eliminate the previous 5 minutes of memory of a creature by firing an arrow at them. I can just decide that every time a player saves against an Illusion, a team of pixies is ready to reset his memory and put him back in the scene. Just in case they will later argue that I didn't provide enough saves for the whole thing. I have every intention of letting them free if they pass the test. After all, I love those characters

[ATHATH]

The Head of Vecna.. now I have a back up plan ahahah

I'm glad I can justify even that part with a spell. By the way Segev, Pixies in pathfinder have the ability to eliminate the previous 5 minutes of memory of a creature by firing an arrow at them. I can just decide that every time a player saves against an Illusion, a team of pixies is ready to reset his memory and put him back in the scene. Just in case they will later argue that I didn't provide enough saves for the whole thing. I have every intention of letting them free if they pass the test. After all, I love those characters
Question: If the pixies wipe one character's memory, why don't the other character's see the attack? Won't the PCs eventually find the tiny arrows in their necks/backs/wherever?

[Segev]

Question: If the pixies wipe one character's memory, why don't the other character's see the attack? Won't the PCs eventually find the tiny arrows in their necks/backs/wherever?

Maybe, but after a few minutes of not seeing the pixies, they'll just assume it's their imagination and ignore the arrows in their necks.

[ATHATH]

The Head of Vecna.. now I have a back up plan ahahah
Relevant:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Head_of_Vecna

[Gildedragon]

Question: If the pixies wipe one character's memory, why don't the other character's see the attack? Won't the PCs eventually find the tiny arrows in their necks/backs/wherever?

Trick is to wipe ALL their memories.
They wont: ammunition is destroyed upon a hit... and the PCS will be undamaged (merciful bows are a good investment for the pixies) so they have no reason to suspect anything

[ATHATH]

Also, won't the PCs notice some memory gaps, especially if they're touching/interacting with illusions a lot?

Then again, that might be one of the subtle hints that you can drop that lets them know that not everything is as it seems...

[Red Fel]

Six words and one little girl: "Please do not take these items." Google it.

[Sagetim]

Six words and one little girl: "Please do not take these items." Google it.

I think you forgot the purple text there, buddy.

[Segev]

Six words and one little girl: "Please do not take these items." Google it.


I think you forgot the purple text there, buddy.

Perhaps it's just my alignment showing, but that doesn't seem particularly evil to me.

[Red Fel]

Perhaps it's just my alignment showing, but that doesn't seem particularly evil to me.

Yeah, the scenario isn't inherently Evil. It's just a very simple test.

Fact is, even if you left out all the other stuff with the famous "Noh" story, it's still a little girl guarding a few objects, who refuses to leave her post and asks the PCs not to take them. The PCs can disregard her and take the objects, or acquiesce and leave them. They can try to take the protesting little girl away from the dangerous place, or leave her to what may be certain death, or straight-up kill her for kicks. They can be paranoid, compassionate, or actively cruel.

It's a remarkably simple scenario which opens dozens of possible actions by the PCs. And that can tell you exactly who they are.