Sunfall
2013-10-10, 09:38 AM
It's be creative with your NPCs time!
((Disclaimer to my players: If you see this thread, turn back now. Do not read the spoilers. You'll find out eventually. :smallwink:))
So I've been roped into GMing Song of Ice and Fire for my group (my first time GMing that system) and thought I'd start off with a published adventure. Now the published adventures in SoIaF are quite brilliantly written, but as usual there is the risk of the players going off on a tangent that has not been provided for. Which they officially have. So I can basically throw out the prewritten plot.
Now I need some ideas as to how a certain NPC could react. Further description in spoilers.
The basic premise is that an assassin is loose at a noble house's castle, targeting the (quite hapless) young lord. The players need to find him. And they've, well, found him. Days before he was supposed to start his final attempt.
They had him pinned in the ruin where he was hiding and asked him about the shards of the poison vial they found under his sleeping mattress. He managed to lie to them, saying he'd found it in the castle's kitchen. He succeeded on his bluff check. Now they want him to work for them, keeping an eye out for irregular occurrences.
I have to say, it's pretty darn ingenious, but now I'm at a bit of a loss.
The guy himself is not very bright. In fact, he's described as the worst assassin ever, and his past three or four assassination attempts have invariably gone wrong. (So much that almost no one believed that there even is an assassin and not just a rather unfortunate string of bad luck for the young lord.) I've had to scramble to not have the story end then and there when they had him. And I can consider myself lucky that they didn't search him.
So how do I keep him in the game now? Or should I even keep him? Of course, he's not working alone, and his employer not only knows about his ineptitude, but has furnished him with "evidence" to incriminate another house in the matter. (Which they would have found if they'd searched the guy.) His original plan was to poison the lord's favorite dish on his nameday, which IC is three days from now.
So I see only three possibilities:
The assassin runs away, having gotten cold feet after being interrogated by the PCs. (There was mention of having his arms ripped off, after all.) Maybe he'll try to murder the lord one last time, or maybe he'll just leave the incriminating letter and scram. The next part would then be the characters following that clue, dropping any ongoing interaction with the court completely.
The assassin stays (they promised him a lot of money, after all), but starts to act suspiciously because he wants to stick to the original plan. Maybe he's still going into the castle even after they promised to bring him food. Maybe he's found in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you have any ideas for suspicious behavior? He's not the brightest candle in the chandelier, so to speak, so he's bound to make mistakes.
One of the assassin's employers decides to check on the proceeding of the plot, so the PCs get another antagonist to reckon with. And this one could be a bit smarter. Maybe he even kills the first one and takes over the plot.
What do you think? What should I do?
((Disclaimer to my players: If you see this thread, turn back now. Do not read the spoilers. You'll find out eventually. :smallwink:))
So I've been roped into GMing Song of Ice and Fire for my group (my first time GMing that system) and thought I'd start off with a published adventure. Now the published adventures in SoIaF are quite brilliantly written, but as usual there is the risk of the players going off on a tangent that has not been provided for. Which they officially have. So I can basically throw out the prewritten plot.
Now I need some ideas as to how a certain NPC could react. Further description in spoilers.
The basic premise is that an assassin is loose at a noble house's castle, targeting the (quite hapless) young lord. The players need to find him. And they've, well, found him. Days before he was supposed to start his final attempt.
They had him pinned in the ruin where he was hiding and asked him about the shards of the poison vial they found under his sleeping mattress. He managed to lie to them, saying he'd found it in the castle's kitchen. He succeeded on his bluff check. Now they want him to work for them, keeping an eye out for irregular occurrences.
I have to say, it's pretty darn ingenious, but now I'm at a bit of a loss.
The guy himself is not very bright. In fact, he's described as the worst assassin ever, and his past three or four assassination attempts have invariably gone wrong. (So much that almost no one believed that there even is an assassin and not just a rather unfortunate string of bad luck for the young lord.) I've had to scramble to not have the story end then and there when they had him. And I can consider myself lucky that they didn't search him.
So how do I keep him in the game now? Or should I even keep him? Of course, he's not working alone, and his employer not only knows about his ineptitude, but has furnished him with "evidence" to incriminate another house in the matter. (Which they would have found if they'd searched the guy.) His original plan was to poison the lord's favorite dish on his nameday, which IC is three days from now.
So I see only three possibilities:
The assassin runs away, having gotten cold feet after being interrogated by the PCs. (There was mention of having his arms ripped off, after all.) Maybe he'll try to murder the lord one last time, or maybe he'll just leave the incriminating letter and scram. The next part would then be the characters following that clue, dropping any ongoing interaction with the court completely.
The assassin stays (they promised him a lot of money, after all), but starts to act suspiciously because he wants to stick to the original plan. Maybe he's still going into the castle even after they promised to bring him food. Maybe he's found in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you have any ideas for suspicious behavior? He's not the brightest candle in the chandelier, so to speak, so he's bound to make mistakes.
One of the assassin's employers decides to check on the proceeding of the plot, so the PCs get another antagonist to reckon with. And this one could be a bit smarter. Maybe he even kills the first one and takes over the plot.
What do you think? What should I do?