Mulling Vengeance
A Psychopath's Guide to Character Assassination
Lydia Hartunian, recently outed as a psychopathic murderer, has been imprisoned in a Noble's Prison in the venerated Old Keep, in Craysilt. As such, she is afforded certain luxuries and accomodations, though not her freedom. She is confined to a suite of rooms until her death.
This suite of rooms includes a large, well-appointed bedroom, a bathroom and privvy, a study, a chapel, and a living room. Gourmet food is brought to her, and her clothing is swapped out regularly so that she has a sense of the passage of time. Her gaolers are tasked with ensuring she remembers the heinous murder she committed upon her own father.
Lydia, however, is not like other people. She seems to take sadistic pleasure in hearing about how much pain and fear she caused, before she was caught, and her murder spree ended. But the Hartunian is crafty, and very smart, and has been obsessing over what she sees as her downfall...and, perhaps more importantly, who she sees as her downfall. The party had been hired because she had been sure they would fail utterly; she had not even entertained the thought of them figuring out it had been her all along. Now that they had, and she had all the time in the world to plan, her mind is drawn to thoughts of lovely vengeance.
She has come up with a plan.
Parent Plot: Secrets of the Shrine
Related Organizations: Merchant and Sailors' Guild, Kate's Lads, Wharf Rats, The High King's Seat
Related Locations: Hamlet of Hammingburg, Craysilt, The Old Keep, The Gilded Goose
Related Characters: Zarkharn the Tenacious, Hugh de Payne, Cix, Owltin
Plot points/Scenes
Hammingburg
We will be beginning in Hammingburg, at The Gilded Goose, where Billy will inform the characters that they have been seen leaving the scene of a bank robbery gone very wrong in Craysilt, during which three people died. The party is now wanted by the authorities in Craysilt, Greynor, and Stilton Head.
Craysilt
The vast majority of the adventure will take place in Craysilt. It will be a city adventure, with all of the trappings and lore drops that that entails. The Wharf Rats and the Merchant and Sailors' Guild are going to feature heavily in it, as will the city guard and justice system.
The Gilded Goose
The Goose is a safe space for the party to hide, rest, eat, and gather information. Avo is a wealth of knowledge about locals and gangsters, while Leopa has connections in the police force. Igle knows just about everybody, being the bartender of choice for so many government officials that he has lost count of the number of "favors" he can supposedly "call in". Ole drunk Bill was on the City Council, and knows much of the comings and goings in Craysilt's Public Works Department. He also knows the city down to the last cobblestone.
Themes
Summoning circles, scrying eyes, fortune tellers, Singers, and mystical symbols are going to be everywhere during this adventure. Astrology and divination will be very prominent. Descriptive text will be added as examples, where appropriate.
Structure
Exposition
The sun is shining merrily through the windows of the Gilded Goose this morning, as you eat your breakfast borscht and some crispy fried potatoes smothered in garum. Igle has served up a batch of what he calls Morning Brew, a concoction he makes from an aromatic bean that he grinds and forces hot water through. You have been thinking of the long trip back to Greynor, and chatting idly about your adventures and what you have learned, when a flustered Billy throws open the door to the tavern and enters all in a tizzy. Looking around almost frantically, he sees your party in the corner and makes a bee line towards you.
"My friends! I am so glad I found you! I had hoped you would be here...it may be the only safe place for you in Craysilt! You are wanted by the police for a triple homicide in the Southdock Slums, and a further three deaths at a bank job near the harbor..." Billy pauses, and looks at you all askance. "Please, tell me they are wrong? But, they have eye witnesses and everything!"
Billy will pause for an answer, nodding as they refute the claims.
"There is a group of imposters disguising themselves to look just like you, committing wanton crimes throughout Craysilt. They have robbed banks, raided merchant caravans, and burned down a brothel, so far causing six deaths in the process. The deaths were very violent; unnecessarily so, in fact.
"Every time, there has been at least one eye witness who swears up and down it was you...identical clothing, scars, eye color, the works.
"You are wanted for murder, larceny, and public menace charges, which carry a minimum charge of life in prison. There is also the possibility of execution for the multiple murder charges. That would be up to the honorable judge."What Billy Knows
There have been six deaths throughout the three cities. They have all been exceedingly violent.
There have been numerous beatings and robberies, mainly of merchant caravans carrying salt-peter, dried fertilizer, and charcoal.
The perpetrators have looked exactly like the party members.
The imposters make sure they are seen drinking and carousing after each of these trespasses, then disappear into the underbelly of the city, only to pop up again somewhere else completely unexpectedly.
There is a lot of talk about the party in the taverns and inns of Craysilt. Much of it is about how violent the characters can be.
Cass Elliot does not believe the party is guilty; mostly, because she knows they have been out on the frontier mapping out Dragon Shrines, and fighting V'peef.
There is a lot of political pressure to bring the party to justice, for some reason. Political pressure from very high up the food chain.
Conflict
The conflict at first is to stay out of jail long enough to figure out what is happening! The authorities are searching high and low for the party, and there are detectives searching everywhere except the Gilded Goose.
Secondly, they need to confront the imposters in some way.
Thirdly, they will need to determine that Lydia Hartunian is behind all of it.
Lastly, they will need to figure out what to do about Lydia.
Rising Action
Hammingburg
Lydia's spies will almost immediately inform her that the party is in Hammingburg, after they get back from their encounter with V'peef Sujo, and report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a fit of rage she will throw all her plans away and summon a Yochlol, unleashing it upon Hammingburg from afar, and forcing the party to deal with it.
A woman runs, screaming, into the bar, yelling something about a demon attacking the town!
"Help!" She yells to no one in particular, looking around the room in a panic. Everyone in the bar is frozen, looks of deep concern on their faces as they watch the shouting newcomer. "It's already killed people! What on Tellus are we going to do? Who could possibly stop it? A demon, I tell you! It's a demon!"
Running to the door to look outside, sure enough you see that a large pillar of what looks like bubbling purple snot is rampaging down Hammingburg's main street, tearing wooden facades off of shops, and ripping down porches and verandas.
After the fight with the demon, they will be invited back into the Gilded Goose for congratulatory drinks, and complementary borscht. The next time they leave the Goose, they will be in Craysilt!
Navigating Craysilt
Craysilt is the captial city of The Unified Kingdoms of Craysilt. It is an old city that is cut almost perfectly in half by the mighty River Wutjörn. The buildings are constructed mainly out of mortared river stones with shingled timber roofs. The roadways are cobbled, and crowded with both vendors and locals. Street food in Craysilt is a wonderful melange of cultures and flavors that have come together in a uniquely Craysiltian way. Dumplings are very popular; as is borscht.
The party is wanted by the law in Craysilt, and they are actively being searched for. Unless they take precautions, they will be found in 1d12 hours. Even with disguises, the heroes are going to have to deal with Craysilt's team of crack detectives...meaning any time they have an interaction with somebody, there is a chance they will be found out. 1d100 every time they interact with someone (other than each other) in Craysilt. On a roll of 01-10, they will be discovered within 1d4 hours! When that happens, the chase is on!
Of course, they have the option of fleeing. If that happens, the above rules apply anytime they travel to one of the larger cities or towns.
The First Lead
Billy will find the group, most likely at The Gilded Goose, which will be the first place he looks. If the party has not gone back to the safety of the Goose, Billy will find them wherever they happen to be.
Billy approaches you with a slight smile on his face, speaking softly as if he is afraid of being overheard. He looks around furtively, eyeing every passerby and scanning every shadow for listening ears.
"You have some enemies in high places! Some friends, too, it would seem. I have news...I know where the imposters are going to strike next! They have been down at Gallagher's bar in Southbay, bragging about how they are going to take down Popeye's Real Estate tomorrow night! This has been kept a great secret, as Cass Elliot wanted to get this information to you, first. To see what you would do with it; some sort of test, I would imagine.
The encounter at Popeye's should be very challenging for the party, as the Vrock and Shadow Demons will fight viciously to the very end. They have to; they have been ordered to by Lydia.
The demons will do their best to absolutely destroy Popeye's; they delight in chaos and destruction, after all, and while they have been ordered to kill the party, they have not been ordered to not destroy the building. It all makes perfect sense in the fiends' minds, and they will be hooting and hollering like drunken Rangers as they throw chairs, roar, and make faces at commoners while they use their Fearful Presence ability to terrify the citizenry. Thankfully, there have been no deaths prior to the party's arrival.
Aftermath at Popeye's
The Garda will show up 1d12 rounds after the end of the fight.
If the party is still at the scene when the Garda arrives, they will be recognized, surrounded by crossbowmen and pikemen, and arrested. Their armor, items, and weapons will be taken from them, and they will be bound with their hands behind their backs. They will then be loaded into a Paddy Wagon for transport to the jailhouse.
On the way to the jailhouse, the wagon will be overturned by a Yochlol and two Shadow Demons seeking to end the characters' lives!
If the party flees the scene, a Singer woman will approach them the first time they take a break, and inform them that they are being scried upon. She will point out Lydia's Scrying Eye, and dispel it for the characters, if they play their cards right. This will, of course, enrage Lydia, who will be forced to rely on her human assets to find them.
Lydia will find the party out 1d4 hours later, summoning a Yochlol to their location in an attempt to end their lives! The only place safe from the attack is inside The Gilded Goose.
The Yochlol's death will be epic, with slime and eviscera exploding outward and coating everything and everyone in a thin sheen of putrescence. Its final, defiant act will be to screech Lydia's name out to the onlookers.
Screaming a single name, "Lydia Hartunian!", the slime demon expires, exploding with a tremendous, wet splooshing sound that comes just an instant before all and sundry in a sixty foot radius are covered in the putrid demon's gummy purulence. Wiping the stinking slime out of your eyes, nose and mouth occupies the next several moments of your lives, but finally you sputter and blink out enough of the viscous eviscera to be able to communicate with one another again. The echoes of the demon's last words writhe around in your mind...Lydia Hartunian...the vile murderess who conspired against her own father!
Confronting Lydia
Lydia has been secluded in her Noble's Prison since her arrest after the conclusion of A Dame to Die For. Since then, she has used her study and chapel to make dark pacts with fiends from the abyss...creatures who, ultimately, honor no pact. She has sold her soul, bit by, to a Nalfeshnee named Gutguk, who has been using her to escape a prison of his own. When the characters confront Lydia, Gutguk will tear itself out of her, killing her in the process, and then attack the Weavewalkers!
Gutguk is hoping his act of selfless bravery, eradicating the Weavewalkers, will earn him a repreive on his prison sentence back home in the abyss. It was his reasoning for glomming on to Lydia Hartunian, whose hatred of the party resonated supernaturally powerfully throughout the lower planes. When Lydia took his suggestion to start summoning soldiers to defeat the party, she unwittingly opened a psychic doorway to him by selling off her soul to cast the spells. It helped that Gutguk was the one who got her soul...and he will also get the soul bag Lydia promised him in the first place...that is, if he manages to defeat the party!
Climax
Lydia's face splits apart down the middle, and a pig's snout and tusks sprout out of her once delictate features. Wings tear themselves out of her back, and her skin rips and falls off as a hulking, porcine body emerges from the diminutive form of Lydia Hartunian. Roaring in violent glee, the demon attacks!
The Nalfeshne will try to use its Frightful Presence as much as possible, bashing as it does so. It will laugh as it fights, laugh even harder when it gets hit, and will claw and gnaw at every single moving thing it can find. It is there to cause utter chaos, and to try to impress its gaolers.
The nalfeshnee fight should be quite a struggle for the party, but it should not be insurmountable. It may behoove the GM to adjust the encounter difficulty on the fly, to better fit the characters' level and players' ability.
Falling Action
Once the nalfeshne has been defeated, the characters will be asked to attend the High King, himself, who will ask for the whole story. Roland Hartunian IV, Lydia's brother, will be in attendance and is very interested in the proceedings, although he does not interrupt or even disagree with anything that is said. Instead, he seems to accept everything, sadly, with a lot of head hanging and exasperated incredulity aimed in his sister's direction. He is going to excuse himself after the story is told, to go and tend to his sister's remains.
Resolution
The King will be kind, but insistent that the party tell the entire story, from beginning to end. He is going to honor them with a Hero of the Realm medal, one hundred shiny-new gold pieces each, and the deed to a vacant home in Craysilt.
The read out loud dialog is great. I like this idea too, the players go through a campaign, defeat a character, and she's back. That would be a fun thing to reveal when you get to that point. The story and everything is great. I will leave one little note and say that if you leave gypsies in there it may offend some people who would probably play this otherwise. I know the group that I D&D with would be since it's now seen as a slur by some. That is my only critique.
Thanks for looking out, I certainly didn't want to, or mean to be, offensive. I have changed it.