A Sticky Situation

[AllHailthed4]

So, I've found myself in a bit of a moral predicament with my paladin character.

Shocking, I know. It's not what you think (probably.)

The general gist is as follows: the character started out as a soldier for the setting's evil emipre (think ancient Rome, with Hextor!) His earlier missions shielded him from harsher realities of what his country was doing, but later on he was confronted rather suddenly with the situation, and it didn't end well. He ended up killing his CO in an attempt to defend the villagers his unit was ordered to wipe out. Fortunately, the rest of his unit covered for him and the higher-ups bought it. Unfortunately, the Empire's spy master caught wind of what had actually happened and used it to blackmail him into taking an ambassadorial assignment in Al-Hassan, a desert country to the south.

Fastforward to now. Ambassadorial duties are light, so our paladin has had time to (discretely) romp about with a group of local adventurers, who have come to view him as a big brother. He's also taken the Oath of the Supernal Defenders (a 5e rework of the Topaz Guardians) as a private act of penance, and, as it turns out, he's pretty good at the job. All in all, not a bad resolution. Until last session. Last session, the Sultan of Al-Hassan revealed to the party that an ancient artifact which went missing from the Empire in the last war had been relocated. He directed the party to acquire the artifact and deliever it to a coalition of allies to which Al-Hassan belongs, for the greater good. In the same session, the spymaster contacted the paladin, demanding that he find the artifact and return it to the Empire at any cost. To demonstrate his sincerity, the spymaster included some pretty explicit threats against the surviving members the paladin's old unit. Next session, the party departs for the artifact's location. The artifact just happens to be the Torch from War of the Burning Sky.

Long story short, I'm up for tackling the dilemma, but want to avoid the tired Third Act Misunderstanding trope. The party has no idea about the spy ring or the incident that led to the paladin being sent south. However, they have all grown quite close, so grabbing the Torch at the last second and running away cackling is out of the question. By the same token, delivering the Torch to the Empire may actually be the first step in steering the Empire towards a less evil path. I expect this module will last about three sessions. The player group is pretty roleplay-heavy. How do I handle this?

[denthor]

Your first loyalty is to your church.

Give it to them.

[AllHailthed4]

Your first loyalty is to your church.

Give it to them.

I'll keep this in mind. At the moment, the church is a neutral party in the conflict (unless a trilliith gets involved, in which case it's time to smite and ignite.) If that changes, this will be my guiding principle.

[denthor]

Now that I have had a night to think about roleplay. Make sure your church knows everything confession time. See if NPC group can rescue your squad.

Thing is this spymaster understands your a good. If the squad is no longer a conscience problem over you their lives in your hand thing your free.


I forget there are always other groups and conflicts going on that are not me.

[Friv]

Here are my approximate thoughts:

#1 - I do not think delivering the Torch to the Empire is going to steer them to a less evil path, although if you want your paladin to make a mistake they could rationalize that. I think it will steer them towards further conflict. Now, this is based on a fairly surface-level knowledge of the Torch, but when evil empires start trying to recover conquest-based artifacts that is usually a bad sign.

#2 - Your paladin seems to have a duty to their squad. This is worth thinking about.

#3 - Your paladin has a duty to their church and allies, which is also worth thinking about.

It sounds like this is a good time to come clean to your allies and mount a cool rescue of your squad from the evil empire, possibly involving a convoluted plan to trick the spymaster into thinking you are bringing them the torch, in order to get close enough to do some serious good. This is a bit of a strain on your paladin oath, but should be minimal enough in the face of attempted coercion and threats on the lives of good people.

[AllHailthed4]

Now that I have had a night to think about roleplay. Make sure your church knows everything confession time. See if NPC group can rescue your squad.

It sounds like this is a good time to come clean to your allies and mount a cool rescue of your squad from the evil empire, possibly involving a convoluted plan to trick the spymaster into thinking you are bringing them the torch, in order to get close enough to do some serious good.

I think you're both right. At least that way everyone's on the same page. Although, it may be that only certain party members get the full story. It's hard to imagine our "hulking, raging murder princess" (her player's description) being appropriately discrete, haha.

#1 - I do not think delivering the Torch to the Empire is going to steer them to a less evil path, although if you want your paladin to make a mistake they could rationalize that. I think it will steer them towards further conflict. Now, this is based on a fairly surface-level knowledge of the Torch, but when evil empires start trying to recover conquest-based artifacts that is usually a bad sign.

True. As an explanation, the spymaster has stated that his only motivations are 1) the welfare of the Empire and 2) the soul of it's Emperor. The implication thus far has been the spymaster is working to steer the Emperor towards a better path than his predecessors, despite his ethically questionable methods, and my paladin is assuming that the Torch is supposed to play a role in that. Now that I've had a chance to think about it, that's a pretty big assumption. Also those goals are quite vague. Especially given that Deception is still at large...

This is a bit of a strain on your paladin oath, but should be minimal enough in the face of attempted coercion and threats on the lives of good people.

Eh, relations with his LN deity are already pretty strained at times. I won't be crushed if he ends up falling out of favor for saving his friends and later converting to something more in line with his good alignment.