> hcarteau_at_... wrote:
> >
> > First, let the players in my Fay Jee campaign (you know who you are) turn their
> > eyes and be gone from there, lest Caselain strikes you mute and robs your legs
> > of Motion.
> >
> > O.K. I hope they're gone now. Here goes.
> >
>
> IMHO it's best if you put off the meeting with the demon. It doesn't make sense for Yorge to allow the guy with the will to go on the quest - for both of them to face the same danger negates the point of giving him the will in the first place! Perhaps it would be better if there were another threat which required their presence in the city ? Yorge's friend could be appointed regent to further motivate them.
>
> (If you follow that line and the players insist on going anyway, you've plenty of material to work with - they're arguably betraying the city and Yorge and that's got to have nasty resonances on a HeroQuest, which this ought to be).
I generally agree with the above, and I'll add that people with death wishes but who wish to provide for loved ones left behind generally don't take friends along on their final journey.
Perhaps show Yorge as perhaps playing along with them, and allow them to assist him in the preparations (this should satisfy his morbid psychological requirements to be helped by friends along the way), but at the last minute Yorge slips away like a thief in the night, as death is, after all.
This would help to maximise the drama of the event -- but to add something to it, have the last person to see Yorge alive be the depositary of the Will, and let Yorge provide him with a new one.
The accusations of murder sound like a good suggestion, and if they have helped Yorge in all the ritual preparations, there's circumstantial evidence galore to support it !!
If this fails and everything, and the players successfully accompany Yorge, then personally I would let the players do all kinds of things in the HQ, and I would probably use it as an allegory of the various forces present in your game, and depending on the outcome, performing or not performing, succeeding or failing, or not dealing with being neutral towards, the various elements would translate directly into changes (either instant or potential) to the political/family/social/etc situation in the "real world".
Also, if the players accompany Yorge, there should be a good chance that he could survive "against all odds", you shouldn't decide in advance that the HQ absolutely will kill him, only that this is the more likely outcome of it.
He can always die later, having returned as a Hero from Beyond, having spent some time back in the city glowing with the successful HeroQuester's Aura, and doing all kinds of Hero stuff to provide a satisfactory conclusion to the campaign... (and naturally, the players bask in all that glow) ... and finally, Yorge leaps atop his destrier, asks his people to neither despair nor mourn his passing, and promises to them all that he will return one day on the day of his city's greatest need, designates the players as the depositaries of his last will and testament (to make it clear they can't just up and ride of with him, he can issue commands designating all kinds of fairy tale rewards for them in the city) and rides off forever into the Sunset of Myth...
So really, there are so many different ways this can play out, I guess the best thing to do is just try and prepare for everything, and let player fiat and rolls of the dice determine the outcome ;)
Julian Lord
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