Need roleplaying advice: an angry djinn

[Jon_Dahl]

Background:
The PCs were traversing through the Astral Plane when they met two young djinn girls who queried them about their home plane. The PCs kindly obliged and told them what they could. What the PCs did not know, until much later on, was that one of the girls had a suitor, a young noble djinn, who was more than determined to win her heart. The girl, however, was not that keen on him. even though she had been semi-interested in him at one point.
After the PCs had told her and her best friend about the Prime Material, she decided to award the PCs with a gift from her suitor, although she did not disclose its origin.

The gift, a gem



Later on, the girl told the suitor that a band of prime thieves had stolen the gem. The story lacked credibility, but the suitor became occupied with the retrieval of the gem. She was delighted that the suitor would go away for a while. Also, she believed that he could never actually find the PCs. Before departing to the Prime Material, the suitor made a solemn vow to her that he would retrieve the gem.

The situation now:
The young noble genie managed to successfully play detective in the Prime Material and, against all odds, he found the PCs. He kicked down the door of the inn catching the PCs in the middle of a dinner and promptly demanded them to relinquish the gem at once. However, neither the PCs nor the players remembered what had happened to the gem, and no one had it. The opponents of the PCs, a night hag and an evil cleric, took advantage of the situation and attacked the PCs at that very moment thinking that the genie would aid them, but he didn't, and the duo lost the fight. In the aftermath, the genie demanded that the druid PC would to revive the critically wounded and unconscious evil cleric who was lying on the inn floor, but the PC did not comply. The PCs didn't bat an eye. The genie used a Heal check to stabilize the NPC cleric and then flew off with her. Before exiting the inn, he vowed to return for the gem, but this time with more force.

What should the NPC noble genie do now? He is an unfamiliar place, carrying a stabilized evil NPC cleric at -9 hp in his arms; he has promised to return with the gem back to the love of his life, but the thieves seem to be too powerful and they are also willing to let people bleed to death even though they possess healing magic. The genie has a hat of disguise, some gold and a ring of protection with him.
How to proceed?

[Battlechaser]

So the genie is in love, he chooses to not side with obvious evildoers and even tries to save them when mortally wounded, for me this sounds as if he holds to clear principles and value. The party’s actions on the other hand speak of a more self-centered approach, leaning towards evil. I sure hope there is no paladin in the team.
I would have the genie search for the town healer to stitch the evil cleric back up. He knows he can’t beat the party, so he’ll start to get them a dismal reputation. A little rumormongering here, a little chitchat there. The authorities will be after them and once they are captured, he can negotiate his assitance in their escape for their assistance in the retrieval of the gem.

[Unoriginal]

What should the NPC noble genie do now? He is an unfamiliar place, carrying a stabilized evil NPC cleric at -9 hp in his arms; he has promised to return with the gem back to the love of his life, but the thieves seem to be too powerful and they are also willing to let people bleed to death even though they possess healing magic. The genie has a hat of disguise, some gold and a ring of protection with him.
How to proceed?

So the Djinn does not care that the person he loves told him no, assumes he can bash down a door and make demands, and also that his demand can include "heal the person who just attacked you with lethal force". He also repeatedly vows to do things that should be entirely out of his league.

This paints him as a pompous egotist used to have things happens the way he think should happen, and who has troubles conceiving things outside of that premise.

On the other hand, he did not attempt violence against those he think have stolen from the person (he thinks) he loves, even when there was an opportunity to attack in the confusion and grab an hostage. He also confronted the supposed thieves head-on and asked them to give the gem back, rather than sneak around during their sleep or using underhanded tactics. Futhermore, his reaction to a mortal dying is to want to save them from that fate.

This paints him as someone who is honorable and benevolent when he can get his head out of his own behind.

And lastly, not only did he persevere with the search for the "thieves" despite how faint the clues to follow where, he actually did find them pretty quickly, and his reaction in face of something impossible for him to beat was to observe, retreat and resolve to come back stronger.

This paints him as determined, patient, ressourceful, analytical, and keen at reading both others' strengths and his own.


To me, someone with all those traits in such a situation would start by gathering as much factual knowledge on the PCs as possible.

First he would put the evil Cleric somewhere to be healed, and when she has recovered enough to be conscious again he'd demand to know what she knows of the PCs. He'd be thorough with his questioning if she cooperates, but he wouldn't be the kind to bargain or threaten or be interested in the reason why the Cleric attacked them. Once the Djinn has learned enough, or as soon as the Cleric refuse to tell (or tell more), the Djinn would just leave her, since clearly someone who attacked the PCs with such an ill-advised plan and who was beaten so soundly the Djinn needed to save them would only hinder the genie noble's efforts.

Once that is done, he'd go around, using his Hat of Disguise to take various personas so the PCs and their allies wouldn't suspect a thing, and follow any lead that'd let him learn more about the PCs. NPCs encountered in the past, sites of old adventures, bardic tales, rumors, etc, so that he'd get a complete picture of the PCs and their abilities.

Once *that* is done, I'd say the Djinn would make a list of what he'd need to defeat them, and set to acquire those ressources. I think he would be unlikely to ally with villains, based on the morals he showed, and he would only ally with people the PCs have already defeated if they can demonstrate they've learned from the encounter and improved since. But his favored method would be to simply recruit professionals with the desired skillset, and in large enough number (since he already saw how the PCs could deal with just two opponents). He wouldn't be against doing unrelated works in order to get the funds for such an enterprise, or to help someone with something unrelated so long as he can use the favor earned that way to further his goal.

When the Djinn noble think he is ready, he would set up a situation the PCs wouldn't be able to escape from in his eyes, then reiterate his demand for the gem. Making it clear he has no desire to fight them, as they have not harmed his love, but that he *will* have the gem one way or another.

[Jon_Dahl]

So the Djinn does not care that the person he loves told him no

Thank you, but I would like to mention just one thing: The girl has not said "yes" or "no", not even a "maybe". Her behaviour has gone from friendly to aloof towards the genie, and the genie has high hopes for their future despite the girl pretty much ignoring him most of the time. Now the girl has told him that the gem has been stolen, which has prompted him into action.

[icefractal]

Out of curiosity, do the PCs still have the gem, or did they sell / lose it?

[Jon_Dahl]

Out of curiosity, do the PCs still have the gem, or did they sell / lose it?

Nobody remembers. My guess is that they have forgotten to write it down. They are adamant that they have received it from the girl, and I agree with them.

[zlefin]

Nobody remembers. My guess is that they have forgotten to write it down. They are adamant that they have received it from the girl, and I agree with them.

Well, I think it'd be highly important to figure out what did actually happen to the gem to figure how the situation would go. I mean, players forgetting sure, but for the PCs themselves to have forgotten what happened to treasure seems a bit more odd, especially if they still actually have it. Moreover the players could simply do a full inventory of their belongings, both local and in any long-term storage they don't carry around, which would either definitively turn up the gem or reveal they don't have it. Like what if the PCs just invite the Djinn to look all through their stuff and see that it isn't there, or zone of truth or something and say they got the gem awhile ago and just don't know what happened to it.

It makes me wonder how often real adventurers would do an inventory check (or have one of their followers do it, at least for the less valuable stuff).

[Jon_Dahl]

Well, I think it'd be highly important to figure out what did actually happen to the gem to figure how the situation would go. I mean, players forgetting sure, but for the PCs themselves to have forgotten what happened to treasure seems a bit more odd, especially if they still actually have it.

After much deliberation, I let the players roll INT checks to recall what happened to the gem, but they all failed the checks. Granted, I made the DC difficult, but not impossible.