I'm looking for brainstorming type of ideas. My game is rapidly closing in on the battle where Kallyr is killed (per KoS, her attempt at the stationary lightbringer's quest was assaulted by lunar forces, killing and wounding many in her household. In this battle, not so long later, enemy forces teleport to her location, and--with her personal followers weakened--the attackers manage to kill her. Queen Beti then rallies the Sartarite forces enough that the battle ends as something of a marginal Sartarite victory, in that the Tarshite forces retreat.)
The question is how to make this dramatic….for a fifteen year old. His character bled out most of his lifeblood at the battle of Iceland to help Kallyr return to the mortal world and was personally named "Hurricane Warrior" by her for his deeds there. He's shown up in the right place at the right enough that Kallyr has been known to look around and ask whether Dernu and Gernu have brought along "my luck" this time. So, not a direct relationship but the character and player feel fortunate to be well regarding by this great hero.
- On the one hand, having her die off-screen doesn't feel right, she's too important for that. Although a better variant of this could be giving him the choice between following her orders or trying to save her (say, as the enemy starts to `port in she gives him orders to find Queen Betti and tell her to make a full assault right now, while the enemy heroes are occupied)
- On the other hand failing to save her this time (even if he doesn't really have a chance) while surviving himself would be fairly devastating (again for character and player alike). Now, devastating can be OK, if it turns into motivation—a new hatred or enemy for example. But arranging it so that there is someone clearly to blame could be challenging.
- On the third hand (I swear, not a chaos trait!) I don't really feel like letting him save her, and having MG drift that much farther from the continuity (plus I've been laying the groundwork for how a king of dragon pass, not just a king of Sartar, is needed). Although in a pinch she could then sacrifice her self to stop something horrible from happening (after the lunar heroes are defeated, a chaos monstrosity out of legend and nightmare is released by the other side, and the injured Kallyr throws herself into its maw to strike the killing blow but then expires from her wounds.
For reference, his character is approaching `best in clan' type levels in sword play and magic, enough to make a speed bump for greater heroes, but not enough to have a realistic chance of taking them down, even with copious use of HP.
I'm just posting this in hopes that someone will have some ideas on how to make this cool and dramatic (be it elaborations on the above, or something totally different.