What would Nale's kids be like?

[r2d2go]

I'm running an OotS setting based D&D game, and I was thinking of a vengeful secret child of Nale being an antagonist. Something about being resentful of the OotS's legacy because they got to be big heroes while Nale got "unfairly robbed" of his evil plans, and as a result attempts to reopen rifts and take control of them.

I figure you all have collectively better (or worse in a good way) ideas than me. Anyone have cool ideas (for name, personality, history, etc)?

[DaFlipp]

Some ideas off the top of my head:

1.) Assuming the players are themselves OotS fans, some good red herrings/humor could come of being intentionally vague exactly who they're the child of, at first. Let Nale!Kid refer to themselves only as the offspring/heir/etc. of the Order's greatest foe, and let them think they're facing a secret Xykon or Redcloak lovechild or something.

2.) As for the kid itself, I'm assuming Sabine is the mom? If so, that means they could have inherited her shapeshifting, which is 100% the sort of ability that should not be obvious the first time the PCs cross paths with them. Come up with a stable of recurring NPCs, some or all of whom are actually Nale!Kid in disguise.

3.) Expanding from the above, the NPC disguises should ultimately come to be in service of truly unnecessarily complicated plans - because, of course, this is Nale's kid we're talking about. No reasoning is too convoluted. One of the recurring NPCs is a merchant? Cornering the awl pike trade is a corner stone of Contingency Plan #7. One of the disguises becomes romantically involved with a PC? Everyone knows love is a vital spell component in Obscure Rift-Altering Ritual #82! And so on.

4.) Finally, for all the potential destruction re-opening the Rifts could cause, it's not out of the question that this kid might actually be able to be redeemed where Nale could not. Now, this is just me, but I hate stories that try to imply that offspring are destined to make *all* the same mistakes their parents make; letting this kid actually develop the kind of conscience (or even just self-awareness) that would have saved his father could be surprisingly cathartic. This is especially true if you follow suggestion #2 and the PCs realize they've actually had regular interactions with this villain while in disguise - especially if any of those interactions were especially positive.

Oh, as for name? Hmmm... The obvious choice would be have it be a daughter named Lena or a son named Alen. But it might also be pretty funny to have it be something off the wall like Percival Blackshadow, Bringer of Darkness Eternale. Yes, with the E at the end. That's the part that's named for his father.

[Darth Paul]

Twins with opposed personalities seem to run in the family. What if he wound up with fraternal twins, a boy who was supernaturally attractive like Sabine, and a girl who inherited Nale's complexity addiction and vengefulness. I think that would be an interesting angle.

And, since they're fraternal twins, it would not be obvious they're related, so they could play their enemies even more effectively; one infiltrating a group and passing information back to set them up for a betrayal, and so on and so forth.

[r2d2go]

These are great ideas! To clarify some:


Some ideas off the top of my head:

1.) Assuming the players are themselves OotS fans, some good red herrings/humor could come of being intentionally vague exactly who they're the child of, at first. Let Nale!Kid refer to themselves only as the offspring/heir/etc. of the Order's greatest foe, and let them think they're facing a secret Xykon or Redcloak lovechild or something.

Only some of them are - I probably will throw this in but not as a main trait.



2.) As for the kid itself, I'm assuming Sabine is the mom? If so, that means they could have inherited her shapeshifting, which is 100% the sort of ability that should not be obvious the first time the PCs cross paths with them. Come up with a stable of recurring NPCs, some or all of whom are actually Nale!Kid in disguise.

This is excellent, and I will definitely use it.



3.) Expanding from the above, the NPC disguises should ultimately come to be in service of truly unnecessarily complicated plans - because, of course, this is Nale's kid we're talking about. No reasoning is too convoluted. One of the recurring NPCs is a merchant? Cornering the awl pike trade is a corner stone of Contingency Plan #7. One of the disguises becomes romantically involved with a PC? Everyone knows love is a vital spell component in Obscure Rift-Altering Ritual #82! And so on.

This seems like a convenient way to make the plot more "cohesive".



4.) Finally, for all the potential destruction re-opening the Rifts could cause, it's not out of the question that this kid might actually be able to be redeemed where Nale could not. Now, this is just me, but I hate stories that try to imply that offspring are destined to make *all* the same mistakes their parents make; letting this kid actually develop the kind of conscience (or even just self-awareness) that would have saved his father could be surprisingly cathartic. This is especially true if you follow suggestion #2 and the PCs realize they've actually had regular interactions with this villain while in disguise - especially if any of those interactions were especially positive.

I like this, though it might be more difficult due to aforementioned lack of knowledge.



Oh, as for name? Hmmm... The obvious choice would be have it be a daughter named Lena or a son named Alen. But it might also be pretty funny to have it be something off the wall like Percival Blackshadow, Bringer of Darkness Eternale. Yes, with the E at the end. That's the part that's named for his father.

Ha! I'll probably go with the former, but that would be hilarious. Maybe with an acronym that spells out another Nale scramble.


Twins with opposed personalities seem to run in the family. What if he wound up with fraternal twins, a boy who was supernaturally attractive like Sabine, and a girl who inherited Nale's complexity addiction and vengefulness. I think that would be an interesting angle.

And, since they're fraternal twins, it would not be obvious they're related, so they could play their enemies even more effectively; one infiltrating a group and passing information back to set them up for a betrayal, and so on and so forth.

I hadn't considered doing twins - it might be harder to fit one in as an NPC ally, but it could work!

[brian 333]

Lane was a lonely child. Her mother had moved a lot when she was very young, ending up in a tiny mountainside village of goatherders. But her platinum blond hair and ice blue eyes set her apart from the children of the mountain folk.

She was also very pretty, which may have made the village girls jealous, but what really set her apart was her bossiness. She demanded things be done her way, and her angry outbursts when she didn't get her way grew ever more frightening as she aged.

When she was old enough she was sent to tend the goat herds in the upper pastures, giving some relief to the villagers. But on the mountain there were fey: dark creatures of cruel intent and wicked humor. They befriended the kindred spirit and helped her to awaken the sorcerous powers latent in her blood.

Her unexpected aquisition of spellcasting powers frightened the villagers even more. And the truth was that she enjoyed their fear.

In the spring of the year that she would turn fifteen a sickness swept through the village which killed the very young and the very old. Her mother, though not yet of middle age, fell victim as well. Her dying was long and painful, and as she lay sick she tried to give what advice she could to her daughter through tales of her own life.

For the first time she learned of her father: a handsom boy who was the son of the general and her mother's first crush. There was a picture in her mother's locker of a handsome, smiling man in uniform standing with his hands on the shoulders of two young teens. The girl was her mother. She was pregnant and she appeared frightened as she looked at the boy. The boy looked angry as he looked away.

The boy had her face.

Her mother gave her names. The names of the man and the boy. The names of places. Lane ignored the morality tales, but remembered the details. The lesson she learned from her dying mother was to never be the infatuated idiot, but to be the one to take advantage of him.

After her mother's passing the villagers demanded she leave. She complied.

As she walked away from the smouldering ruin of the village she had but one thought: surely by now her father would be a powerful warlord. She would find him and claim her inheritance.


This would make Elan about 30. I think in OotS he is around 25. So, you know...