After being accidentally included in a group message about my NPCs, it seems that my players have outfoxed me. They have already realised that their new patron is a bad guy who is just using them. It also appears that the party is using him as a way of acquiring new weapons and equipment. However, they are very suspicious about their patron's six-year-old daughter. They think that she is the bad guy, rather than her father and I am just distracting them from the truth with an evil patron.
I want to give my players what they want and let them feel smart for seeing through my plan, but I could not come up with a way to do that without it being corny and cliched. After I couldn't come up with anything on my own, I posted a question on Reddit, asking how I might go about giving my players what they wanted. I got several good responses, but the one I liked the best was giving the girl a Boneclaw pet. I had not heard of Boneclaws, so I did a little research on them and realised that they come into being when a Wizard attempts to become a Lich but fails. This research gave me an idea for making the girl's mother be the sister of the main villain and the villain of this part of the story, as detailed below.
The mother would have been a fairly decent, if chaotic person. Though she wasn't outright evil, she was chaotic neutral. Furthermore; she did not possess the mental fortitude or will of her brother and being somewhat weaker than him; he was able to control her.
That control developed into an unnatural obsession.
As the seed passion took root within his soul, he began to delve deeper and deeper into dark magic - searching for a way to make her his eternal possession. However; his research into dark forgotten magic only fed his obsession. It made him even more determined, more willing to go as far as need be to acquire the power he sought and achieve his goals.
Slowly, but surely, he was becoming ever eviler.
Before he was successful, though, she met, fell in love with and married the son of a local lord. Outraged that his sister could love anybody but him, he sought to destroy her husband. However, he could never find the right time or the right way to kill him quietly, and so turned his attentions back to his sister instead.
After a short while, she fell pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Unbeknownst to either of them; however, the brother had used his magic to disguise himself, and it was he, not the husband who was the father of the child.
After the girl was born, he continued to use his disguise to twist his sister's mind and soul, turning her against her husband. In his disguised form, he would abuse and torment her, and as himself, he would pretend to sympathise, whispering bad words of comfort. Eventually, she was so confused, worn down and burdened that she just believed everything her brother told her. So when he told her of a way that she could make her husband love her forever, she thought him true. Then; when he told her she needed to become a Lich for the magic to work, she believed him.
In reality, he wanted her to become a Lich under his control because then she would never be able to refuse him. She would forever be his eternal servant, bound by dark magic to his inescapable will. In years past, she might have seen through his lies, but now she was so broken, that never entered her thoughts that her beloved brother might not have her best interests at heart.
She saw only the love of her husband and the days of happiness they had spent together. She longed for those days to be again and if she had to become a Lich to make that happen, then so be it.
The gathered ingredients were processed, the phylactery made ready, and the ritual prepared. However; after managing to complete all the necessary steps, the soon to be Lich did not have the strength of will to force her soul into its prison. After failing to become a Lich, her disembodied soul desperately sought out a body to inhabit, and for a time she managed to exist by inhabiting the bodies of pets and servants. None of those bodies was strong enough to maintain her, however, and she burned them up quickly.
Growing increasingly desperate, she made her way into her daughter's body and there found familiar darkness. The same evil that existed inside her brother also lived in the child that she had unknowingly begotten with him.
It was now that she realised the truth. It was far too late for her to save herself, but perhaps by making the child's darkness part of herself, she could suppress the child's evil. To do this, she bound her disembodied soul to the darkness inside the girl's heart, making that evil part of herself, and becoming a Boneclaw in the process.
The child; who had been greatly saddened by her mother's supposed death, felt her mothers soul and was comforted by her presence. Eventually, the mother learned to manifest herself and became the child's protector. Though the desires to protect her daughter, had been twisted by undeath into a desire to kill everyone and everything that could threaten the child's continued existence.
No matter how insignificant the threat, the Boneclaw mother would manifest itself and mercilessly extinguish that threat.
The child could sense her mother's soul inside the creature, and so was never afraid of it and eventually learned how to summon it herself. The sight of a small child talking and laughing and playing with an undead monster, as though it were a dear friend, struck terror into all those who witnessed it. Most fled in fear; a few mistook the creature to be a devil or demon and attempted free the girl from the fiend's possession.
They did not last long, for anybody who tried to forcibly separate mother and child, met with a painful and bloody end.
At first, the deaths disturbed the girl, and she would have nightmares. Eventually, though, she grew accustomed to seeing people die and became almost as cold and detached as her servant protector.
When the brother realised that his sister had survived and bound herself to their daughter, he tried to separate them. He intended tod bind the soul of his sister to himself so that he could use to destroy her husband as he still bore a grudge against him. He realised in short order though that separating the two was not possible and so he changed tactics.
He came to the husband as the grieving brother and doting uncle and told him that he had found a way to free the girl from the beast and to bring back the child's mother. He had found a way; he said, to save everyone, though it pained him immensely that he lacked the finances and resources to do the proper research.
Saddened beyond measure at the loss of his wife, and most distressed about the evil cloud that hung over his daughter, the husband was easily convinced. He gave his brother in law a great deal of money and promised him that he would have all the resources and finances he needed.
It is precisely this situation in which the players now find themselves embroiled.
A patron turned to evil by the madness of grief. A child possessed by her mother who has now become a Boneclaw, after failing to become a Lich and a family directly related to the stories main villain. So ultimately, it is the child's mother who is the villain here, though the child is still involved as the mother has become a Boneclaw and is bound to her. However, the girl is not directly the main villain of this arc like my players are suspecting.
What do you guys think? Would a plot like this good, or is it way overdone and have I fallen into the cliched trope trap that I was trying to avoid?
As always, thoughts, opinions, ideas and constructive criticisms are welcome.
i will first say that your post was very very long. which for me was just a bit difficult to follow.
i would suggest sticking your original plan. just because your characters suspect something does not mean you have to change it into what they think. it would be like season 8 of game of thrones where it was all just feeding the fan theories.
let them believe the daughter is the main villain. and even if they realize their patron is the big bad guy. you can turn the plot around on them having them continue to try and foil his plans without letting him know they know. or have the big bad guy know they know and try to recruit them to his side offering them gold and power. or try to get rid of them by forcing them to do some sort of mission which the party would deem immoral, or straight out plan to have them on a suicide mission and your players discover this and now have to try to navigate their way out of peril.
Well...I hope your players don't read this forum. ;)
As far as cliché or tropes go I doubt it will matter. Your players are going to be questioning everything under the sun assuming its a servant of the BBG, which itself is a trope. Tropes occur, and if they are enjoying the story, does it really matter? Tropes stick around for a reason.
My only advice is that while you have a great arc above, you might want to leave some things undefined so that you can take advantage of your players assumptions. Tightly scripting it can prevent you from making interesting adjustments to the story.
The players have figured him out and are still working with him.
If the villain REALIZES they have figured him out...how can he exploit that?
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Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) WoodElf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2 Last Tree StandingTabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1 Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
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After being accidentally included in a group message about my NPCs, it seems that my players have outfoxed me. They have already realised that their new patron is a bad guy who is just using them. It also appears that the party is using him as a way of acquiring new weapons and equipment. However, they are very suspicious about their patron's six-year-old daughter. They think that she is the bad guy, rather than her father and I am just distracting them from the truth with an evil patron.
I want to give my players what they want and let them feel smart for seeing through my plan, but I could not come up with a way to do that without it being corny and cliched. After I couldn't come up with anything on my own, I posted a question on Reddit, asking how I might go about giving my players what they wanted. I got several good responses, but the one I liked the best was giving the girl a Boneclaw pet. I had not heard of Boneclaws, so I did a little research on them and realised that they come into being when a Wizard attempts to become a Lich but fails. This research gave me an idea for making the girl's mother be the sister of the main villain and the villain of this part of the story, as detailed below.
The mother would have been a fairly decent, if chaotic person. Though she wasn't outright evil, she was chaotic neutral. Furthermore; she did not possess the mental fortitude or will of her brother and being somewhat weaker than him; he was able to control her.
That control developed into an unnatural obsession.
As the seed passion took root within his soul, he began to delve deeper and deeper into dark magic - searching for a way to make her his eternal possession. However; his research into dark forgotten magic only fed his obsession. It made him even more determined, more willing to go as far as need be to acquire the power he sought and achieve his goals.
Slowly, but surely, he was becoming ever eviler.
Before he was successful, though, she met, fell in love with and married the son of a local lord. Outraged that his sister could love anybody but him, he sought to destroy her husband. However, he could never find the right time or the right way to kill him quietly, and so turned his attentions back to his sister instead.
After a short while, she fell pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Unbeknownst to either of them; however, the brother had used his magic to disguise himself, and it was he, not the husband who was the father of the child.
After the girl was born, he continued to use his disguise to twist his sister's mind and soul, turning her against her husband. In his disguised form, he would abuse and torment her, and as himself, he would pretend to sympathise, whispering bad words of comfort. Eventually, she was so confused, worn down and burdened that she just believed everything her brother told her. So when he told her of a way that she could make her husband love her forever, she thought him true. Then; when he told her she needed to become a Lich for the magic to work, she believed him.
In reality, he wanted her to become a Lich under his control because then she would never be able to refuse him. She would forever be his eternal servant, bound by dark magic to his inescapable will. In years past, she might have seen through his lies, but now she was so broken, that never entered her thoughts that her beloved brother might not have her best interests at heart.
She saw only the love of her husband and the days of happiness they had spent together. She longed for those days to be again and if she had to become a Lich to make that happen, then so be it.
The gathered ingredients were processed, the phylactery made ready, and the ritual prepared. However; after managing to complete all the necessary steps, the soon to be Lich did not have the strength of will to force her soul into its prison. After failing to become a Lich, her disembodied soul desperately sought out a body to inhabit, and for a time she managed to exist by inhabiting the bodies of pets and servants. None of those bodies was strong enough to maintain her, however, and she burned them up quickly.
Growing increasingly desperate, she made her way into her daughter's body and there found familiar darkness. The same evil that existed inside her brother also lived in the child that she had unknowingly begotten with him.
It was now that she realised the truth. It was far too late for her to save herself, but perhaps by making the child's darkness part of herself, she could suppress the child's evil. To do this, she bound her disembodied soul to the darkness inside the girl's heart, making that evil part of herself, and becoming a Boneclaw in the process.
The child; who had been greatly saddened by her mother's supposed death, felt her mothers soul and was comforted by her presence. Eventually, the mother learned to manifest herself and became the child's protector. Though the desires to protect her daughter, had been twisted by undeath into a desire to kill everyone and everything that could threaten the child's continued existence.
No matter how insignificant the threat, the Boneclaw mother would manifest itself and mercilessly extinguish that threat.
The child could sense her mother's soul inside the creature, and so was never afraid of it and eventually learned how to summon it herself. The sight of a small child talking and laughing and playing with an undead monster, as though it were a dear friend, struck terror into all those who witnessed it. Most fled in fear; a few mistook the creature to be a devil or demon and attempted free the girl from the fiend's possession.
They did not last long, for anybody who tried to forcibly separate mother and child, met with a painful and bloody end.
At first, the deaths disturbed the girl, and she would have nightmares. Eventually, though, she grew accustomed to seeing people die and became almost as cold and detached as her servant protector.
When the brother realised that his sister had survived and bound herself to their daughter, he tried to separate them. He intended tod bind the soul of his sister to himself so that he could use to destroy her husband as he still bore a grudge against him. He realised in short order though that separating the two was not possible and so he changed tactics.
He came to the husband as the grieving brother and doting uncle and told him that he had found a way to free the girl from the beast and to bring back the child's mother. He had found a way; he said, to save everyone, though it pained him immensely that he lacked the finances and resources to do the proper research.
Saddened beyond measure at the loss of his wife, and most distressed about the evil cloud that hung over his daughter, the husband was easily convinced. He gave his brother in law a great deal of money and promised him that he would have all the resources and finances he needed.
It is precisely this situation in which the players now find themselves embroiled.
A patron turned to evil by the madness of grief. A child possessed by her mother who has now become a Boneclaw, after failing to become a Lich and a family directly related to the stories main villain. So ultimately, it is the child's mother who is the villain here, though the child is still involved as the mother has become a Boneclaw and is bound to her. However, the girl is not directly the main villain of this arc like my players are suspecting.
What do you guys think? Would a plot like this good, or is it way overdone and have I fallen into the cliched trope trap that I was trying to avoid?
As always, thoughts, opinions, ideas and constructive criticisms are welcome.
Cheers
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hello socialfox
i will first say that your post was very very long. which for me was just a bit difficult to follow.
i would suggest sticking your original plan. just because your characters suspect something does not mean you have to change it into what they think.
it would be like season 8 of game of thrones where it was all just feeding the fan theories.
let them believe the daughter is the main villain. and even if they realize their patron is the big bad guy. you can turn the plot around on them having them continue to try and foil his plans without letting him know they know.
or have the big bad guy know they know and try to recruit them to his side offering them gold and power.
or try to get rid of them by forcing them to do some sort of mission which the party would deem immoral, or straight out plan to have them on a suicide mission and your players discover this and now have to try to navigate their way out of peril.
hopes this helps
The love triangle, even with the incest, is a bit into tropeville. If you want the daughter to be evil, she can be reincarnated of fome fiend.
If it's the lich, then they don't need a reason, just a goal.
Well...I hope your players don't read this forum. ;)
As far as cliché or tropes go I doubt it will matter. Your players are going to be questioning everything under the sun assuming its a servant of the BBG, which itself is a trope. Tropes occur, and if they are enjoying the story, does it really matter? Tropes stick around for a reason.
My only advice is that while you have a great arc above, you might want to leave some things undefined so that you can take advantage of your players assumptions. Tightly scripting it can prevent you from making interesting adjustments to the story.
GLHF
Just a side thought...
Your villain was hoodwinking the players.
The players have figured him out and are still working with him.
If the villain REALIZES they have figured him out...how can he exploit that?
Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) Wood Elf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2
Last Tree Standing Tabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1
Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive
Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth
Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia