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The New Bruceski
2008-10-14, 02:38 AM
My RL campaigns gotten caught up in some intrigue. Before our next session I've been having fun overthinking things (party wizard, I'm the group brain), so I figured I would share. I checked with the DM and it's original material, so this isn't an "oh, it's this module, X is the plot" thing. Just some fun stuff.
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The town of Brookhaven is under attack by undead. As things started our adventures ended up in the middle of things, and found out that one of the four High Council was behind things (don't know who). Said Council asked us to help, and one of them (Lady Valinae, will sort them out later) gave us more information. Apparently a legendary scepter had been found and was being used to raise the undead. We were sent to retrieve the Sword of Jendar, which had deftated the scepter in the past. We found it, fixed it, and returned to find the city overrun by undead. The first thing we did was check up on the Council.

Lady Valinae: Aged elf, keeps to herself. We were turned back by her aide because she has sealed herself in her estate for safety. This aide had previously helped us fight off ambushes, so I'm inclined to trust him.

Paxtros: A wizard of the researcher type, he was familiar to some of us previously, and was our plot hook. He has been trying to research a solution, and is particularly pushing for us to try something with some "blue adamantite" he has discovered. We haven't taken him up on it, as he doesn't know if it will help, just wants to see the effects. He has been a resource for underground access to areas discussed later, and has been our main confidant.

Lord Gerard: A military man, he has been fighting the undead in the streets. He has implored us to get a message to the kingdom of Rodoze for aid, insisting it is the only choice. Background-- Brookhaven was occupied by Rodoze in the last big war, and has only recently gained independance. Occupation was not pretty.

Lord Appias: Has sealed himself in the barracks. Unable to contact him normally, we checked further through Paxtros' knowledge of the underground.

Coming up underneath the barracks we happened on ritual areas for raising undead, as well as murdered guards. A secret room held clothing and makeup for disguises. Proceeding up a floor we found a map with markers (appear to be people, but unknown what it signifies) and a journal discussing events and our means to stop them. Then we fled upon hearing noises, but I hanged behind to watch. I saw someone advance to a fancy door holding the scepter and guarded by undead. He dropped his hood and turned around to look straight at my hiding place, then went through the doors. The face I saw matched Lord Appias. As we fled there was a quake that nearly took us out and collapsed tunnels around us.

So here are the clues:
--If not for finding the disguise kit Appias would be the obvious culprit. It seems like he allowed me to see him, which could suggest that the REAL Appias is dead, and another Council member is behind it.
--On this note, Valinae's aide knew we were looking around, and Paxtros knew exactly where we were going. I do not believe we told Gerard anything.
--My current character is in Brookhaven for the first time, so though his description was identified as Appias, it would be easier to fool him.
--The journal we found referenced meetings between us and Valinae/Paxtros referring to them in the third person, but this would mean nothing if written by a (high-up) underling.


So, assuming that "kill them all" is not an option (we're 7th, the campaign is planned to 11th, and the DM's told us that the bad guy's already statted out and won't be nerfed for us) what would you do next? I'm currently inclined to trust Valinae, and we're headed to her estate using underground routes again. If we don't find anything before finding her, I'm planning to confide in her and seek council, as we know "Appias" has undead too strong for us to take.

Fiery Diamond
2008-10-14, 02:56 AM
My guess would be that the culprit is more-than-likely NOT Appias. I'm inclined to believe it isn't Gerard, despite his suspicious beg-for-help plan, simply because he's been fighting them in the streets. I'm actually betting on Valinae's aide, despite because of the fact that he's helped you, and Valinae is inaccessible. The fact that neither Valinae nor Paxtros is mentioned in the first person (and both are mentioned in the third person) indicates that it isn't either of them (I know that I wouldn't let a high-up underling keep the journal).

Why do I think the aide is suspicious? Simple - he's a benefactor. Benefactors whom you do not know well = suspicious. I DM, and I actually had the bad guy behind the undead assault on a city be the head cleric of the city, who not only threw off suspicion but also got intel on the party by giving them free healing/restoration/potions/holy water over the course of multiple weeks in game.

My second guess would be Gerard (he just seems suspicious) and my third guess would be Paxtros (benefactor reason again), but since he was known previously, that makes him unlikely.

-Fiery Diamond

Edit: Oh, and how do you know it's one of the 4 Council members? Unless by divination magic, any information that would reveal it to be Council could also indicate the aide.

Talic
2008-10-14, 03:38 AM
Lady Valinae: Fits the archetype of the villain. Quiet, unassuming, convenient alibis when stuff's going down. The real issue here is the aide. Either they have some way to know the party are major players, or there's no reason for the aide (if in the know) to aid the party in an ambush. So, if the party's relatively non-known, then chances are, the aide's not in the know. I.E. If Valinae is the culprit, chances are that the aide would be horrified by it too.

Paxtros: Less likely. Only possible motive if he created this plague would be an "Incredibles" theme, wherein he hires people to test the strength of the plague.

Lord Gerard: If he's a loyalist, then there's possible motive for reuniting the two countries. Still, probably not, as the motive is TOO obvious.

Lord Appias: Wild Card. The disguise kit could be a red herring. If there's this little going on with him, then the replacement could be a valid use.

Overall? I suggest a stealth incursion on the Valinae Estate, for evidence. If you get caught, you needed to urgently speak with Valinae, and couldn't risk compromising her safety by breaching defenses.

The New Bruceski
2008-10-14, 03:46 AM
Edit: Oh, and how do you know it's one of the 4 Council members? Unless by divination magic, any information that would reveal it to be Council could also indicate the aide.

A document found in earlier actions discussed resource movements, and fingered one of the Council as being behind it from what was referenced. I am inclined to believe it due to how it was found (Secret page on a bookshelf, owned by somebody would reasonably know that information).

The New Bruceski
2008-10-14, 04:04 AM
May as well give y'all what I've got. The journal we found was a player handout, and I have it on-hand. My notes (context) will be in bold.



November 1: R 4, A 1
Suspect source three will run out tomorrow. Recon on possible source seven dead end.

November 2: R 3, A 2
Source three ran out. Started digging at new source.

November 6: A 1
Products destroyed outside town gate. Outside interference. K lead outsiders to D, called in favor from S. Outsiders taken care of.
This is where we came in, stopping a zombie ambush of some merchants. A "representative of the Council" (apparently K) led us into an ambush by shadar-kai (S).

November 7: R 4
Outsiders returned, D ran. Hope not to see D again. Told K to follow outsiders.
After recovering we returned to the ambush site and fought our way to a cult leader (D). After scaring him off we found documents (mentioned in above post) indicating one of the High Council to be behind the attacks.

November 8: R 1, A 5
Called in favor from S. Outsiders talked to P. S took care of outsiders this time, expect no further interference.
We took what we found to Paxtros. I made a copy and he took it to analyze. Shadar-kai ambushed us at night.

November 9: R 2, A 1
Outsiders talked to V. Seeking sword of Jendar. Sent K to make things difficult.
Valinae sent us to get the sword. In that meeting we chased off an eavesdropper. While seeking the sword we heard of another visitor from Brookhaven, but did not follow that up (apparently K).

November 10: R 6, A 4
Stepping up production.

November 11: R 10, A 8

November 12: R 20, A 18

November 13: R 15, A 12

November 14
K reported back. Outsiders ruthless. Spent valuable time adding death glyphs to barracks instead of working on production.
I'm glad we didn't go in through ground level.

We don't know any names to go with K or D. The DM has said that the "R (number), A (number)" does have meaning, but he doesn't think they would mean anything to us/aren't critical to figure out. It seems to be production of some sort.

Talic
2008-10-14, 05:22 AM
R = Received? Raised?

A = Animated?

Pronounceable
2008-10-14, 05:27 AM
Your DM might've been straightforward with the more logical (tropey) Lady. If he's a little twisty, Appias is bad and the kit is a herring. Got nothing on the wizard, which means he's not our guy unless your DM is corkscrewy.

But my gut tells me it's Gerard, just because he'd have a very outlandish motivation if it's him. And that butler (or whatever) is in on it, no matter who the real culprit.

only1doug
2008-10-14, 05:38 AM
May as well give y'all what I've got. The journal we found was a player handout, and I have it on-hand. My notes (context) will be in bold.

We don't know any names to go with K or D. The DM has said that the "R (number), A (number)" does have meaning, but he doesn't think they would mean anything to us/aren't critical to figure out. It seems to be production of some sort.

Hehe, puzzle solving, great.
I'm leaving your notes in bold and adding mine in red
(Spoilered to avoid wall of text)


Clearly the produce mentioned is Undead.
R=Undead type: Skeleton?
A=Undead type: Zombie?
November 1: R 4, A 1
Suspect source three will run out tomorrow. Recon on possible source seven dead end.

November 2: R 3, A 2
Source three ran out. Started digging at new source.
source=graveyard?

November 6: A 1
Products destroyed outside town gate. Outside interference. K lead outsiders to D, called in favor from S. Outsiders taken care of.
This is where we came in, stopping a zombie ambush of some merchants. A "representative of the Council" (apparently K) led us into an ambush by shadar-kai (S).

November 7: R 4
Outsiders returned, D ran. Hope not to see D again. Told K to follow outsiders.
After recovering we returned to the ambush site and fought our way to a cult leader (D). After scaring him off we found documents (mentioned in above post) indicating one of the High Council to be behind the attacks.

November 8: R 1, A 5
Called in favor from S. Outsiders talked to P. S took care of outsiders this time, expect no further interference.
We took what we found to Paxtros. I made a copy and he took it to analyze. Shadar-kai ambushed us at night.

November 9: R 2, A 1
Outsiders talked to V. Seeking sword of Jendar. Sent K to make things difficult.
Valinae sent us to get the sword. In that meeting we chased off an eavesdropper. While seeking the sword we heard of another visitor from Brookhaven, but did not follow that up (apparently K).

November 10: R 6, A 4
Stepping up production.

November 11: R 10, A 8

November 12: R 20, A 18

November 13: R 15, A 12

Totals
R 65
A 52
(more "production will be ongoing while you investigate of course)

November 14
K reported back. Outsiders ruthless. Spent valuable time adding death glyphs to barracks instead of working on production.
I'm glad we didn't go in through ground level.

K will obvoiusly be a re-occurring spy, you need to plan to capture him if possible. Failing capture you want him as intact as possible for speak with dead and any evidence carried (unlikely) (cleric to have speak with dead prepared) (plans may be overheard, write notes to each other and destroy afterward while talking about a decoy plan)




Lord Appias: Has sealed himself in the barracks. Unable to contact him normally, we checked further through Paxtros' knowledge of the underground.


Coming up underneath the barracks we happened on ritual areas for raising undead, as well as murdered guards.
Who would normally be in chare of the barracks area? ritual areas would be difficult to construct secretly, who arranged this?

A secret room held clothing and makeup for disguises.
doesn't disprove Appias was Appias, there are many reasons to disguise oneself.
Proceeding up a floor we found a map with markers (appear to be people, but unknown what it signifies) sources for undead maybe?
and a journal discussing events and our means to stop them. Then we fled upon hearing noises, but I hanged behind to watch. I saw someone advance to a fancy door holding the scepter and guarded by undead. He dropped his hood and turned around to look straight at my hiding place,
was there any reason for him to turn around?
then went through the doors. The face I saw matched Lord Appias. As we fled there was a quake that nearly took us out and collapsed tunnels around us.



A document found in earlier actions discussed resource movements, and fingered one of the Council as being behind it from what was referenced. I am inclined to believe it due to how it was found (Secret page on a bookshelf, owned by somebody would reasonably know that information).
information that there was no way an aide could have discovered? even if the aide has charmed/dominated a council member?

Please post as much info as you can of this document (when you get a chance)

Totally Guy
2008-10-14, 07:01 AM
I've been doing the whole "guess whe the baddie is" thing in the game I'm running. Unfortunately it's not been working quite so well... the players have made a list of the bad people and have got to a point where motivation and evil plans no longer matter. If you're an antagonist, with or without an evil scheme, with or without the motivation to do evil things, you end up on the PC's list. Once you're on this list the PCs decide on killing you.

I want the players to start thinking for themselves again. Now they just turn to the list for guidance.

only1doug
2008-10-14, 07:24 AM
I've been doing the whole "guess whe the baddie is" thing in the game I'm running. Unfortunately it's not been working quite so well... the players have made a list of the bad people and have got to a point where motivation and evil plans no longer matter. If you're an antagonist, with or without an evil scheme, with or without the motivation to do evil things, you end up on the PC's list. Once you're on this list the PCs decide on killing you.

I want the players to start thinking for themselves again. Now they just turn to the list for guidance.

Give them some indicators that make them think X is a bad guy, once they kill him there should be a public outcry once it is discovered that X was a philanthropist who didn't like to talk about his charity work (the indicators of bad guy-ness having been him doing his snealy charity work). enter citywide hunt for murderers, have people try to hire the adventurers to avenge him etc.
Basicly rub their nose in their "shoot first, ask questions never" policy

hewhosaysfish
2008-10-14, 08:00 AM
I would suggest that you might be over-thinking this. It could be that Appias is the badguy and that he used the disguise kits to go out in disguiseand conduct business in the town while maintaining the pretense of being locked away in the barrack. Or possibly he has kept himself locked away, instead sending out this mysterious K (disguised) to run his errands because, you know, it kind of makes sense that the shadow figure dogging your steps may have been doing so in a variety of guises.

Also unless Valinae is fairly butch or Appias fairly effeminate, it may be difficult for the former to disguise herself as the latter.

Fiery Diamond
2008-10-14, 09:17 AM
After reading that, I've got a hunch that K is Gerard, and that Appias could indeed be the culprit. But that's just instinct talking.

I also agree that if Valinae is the culprit, the aide probably isn't in on it. I think it's more likely that the aide is the culprit than Valinae.

-Fiery Diamond

Totally Guy
2008-10-14, 10:18 AM
Give them some indicators that make them think X is a bad guy, once they kill him there should be a public outcry once it is discovered that X was a philanthropist who didn't like to talk about his charity work (the indicators of bad guy-ness having been him doing his snealy charity work). enter citywide hunt for murderers, have people try to hire the adventurers to avenge him etc.
Basicly rub their nose in their "shoot first, ask questions never" policy

The guy in most danger from this is a guy that ruled with an iron fist and used questionable methods for the greater good. People hate him, he's retired. He's everything a villain should be but with none of the plans. He's retired now and has gone to see the world, his absence has got the players thinking he's up to some evil deed.

only1doug
2008-10-14, 10:37 AM
The guy in most danger from this is a guy that ruled with an iron fist and used questionable methods for the greater good. People hate him, he's retired. He's everything a villain should be but with none of the plans. He's retired now and has gone to see the world, his absence has got the players thinking he's up to some evil deed.

Give them a chance to kill them and let them unravel what he was doing at the time. Let it be some huge work of good for the benefit of all that could only be organised by someone of his stature.

That should teach your players about assumptions.

note: you must enforce wome way of them discoverring what his plans entailed: final speech "you may have killed me but my minions will continue my works, you cannot stop my plan!"
as they investigate the minions will yield more info and they will have to examine each stage of the plan to determine where the next minion is. eventually they will have unwittingly stopped the next golden age unless they can somehow restore his plans.

Magnor Criol
2008-10-14, 10:58 AM
Did you guys ever see Appias normally before all this went down?

My thoughts, when I first read your scenario above, were that the disguise kit wasn't used to make someone look like Appias, but rather that Appias was using it to make himself look alive.

I.E., perhaps Appias is undead himself, or has some similar sort of reason why he'd need to disguise himself when appearing in public, and that's what the disguise kit is for. So it is Appias, just not who - or what - you know as Appias.

Also, my money's betting that the "R" and "A" in the notes mean "Raised" and "Animated", respectively. I doubt if Gerard is K; why would the note-taker use the first letter of everyone else's name, and then decide to denote Gerard with a K?

Erk
2008-10-14, 11:36 AM
they will have unwittingly stopped the next golden age unless they can somehow restore his plans.

Very cute trope reversal. I like it. It almost makes me wish my players were "shoot first, ask questions later" types, but they are actually well behaved.

The New Bruceski
2008-10-14, 12:07 PM
Did you guys ever see Appias normally before all this went down?


Due to character deaths and one guy being absent, only one of the characters present had seen Appias previously, and it was not me. The others ran while I stuck around.

Also, there was no handout for the information fingering one of the council, so I can't pass that on. I believe all of you have what I have now.

And finally, I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking it, but it's fun to do so, so I decided to share.

only1doug
2008-10-16, 06:33 AM
Due to character deaths and one guy being absent, only one of the characters present had seen Appias previously, and it was not me. The others ran while I stuck around.

Also, there was no handout for the information fingering one of the council, so I can't pass that on. I believe all of you have what I have now.

And finally, I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking it, but it's fun to do so, so I decided to share.

Hmm, I'd expect that the info that pins the blame to one of the council could be assumed to be available to their assistants also, It is unlikely that a BBEG posing as an assistant of a council member wouldn't know everything the councilperson does.
So that could double your pool of possible's for BBEG.

I still wouldn't neglect the likelyhood that it actually is Appias. The next most likely option is that Appias is already dead and the BBEG is impersonating him for his own reasons.

Appias decided to hole up in the barracks; which was one area where the ritual summoning chambers have been constructed.

The barracks have been destroyed, the BBEG will need summoning chambers, where will they be hidden? (find more summoning chambers = find more clues)

The New Bruceski
2008-10-18, 03:26 AM
Silly me for thinking it would be easy. In tonight's session we found that:

--Valinae is a vampire lord (found her bed though she seems to be sheltered elsewhere). A very high Arcana check let us figure out the last location a teleport circle was used to reach, so once we get that ritual we could follow her. She does not seem to be behind the big troubles, but people have been disappearing to feed her. We had to tell a farmer the bad news about his son.
--Appias is in fact alive, well, and the actual guy behind the undead roaming the streets. Either he doesn't know we know, or he doesn't care.
--Gerard has imprisoned the one guy who could fix this locally for the past year. Edward was the old captain of the town guard, skilled and charismatic, and was imprisoned "out of fear he would take over the town." Gerard gave us the key and his location to go decide what should be done, though he still feels we should get aid from Rodoze.

So that's two, maybe three people to deal with, and we still don't know about Paxtros. Fun times.