Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 BohoMojambo Jun 02, 2015 21:32:08	It's for a character who is playing a Human Eldritch Knight Fighter with the soldier background. Here are the elements needed.     -The character is a member of a mercenary company contracted by the local human empire to engage in peacekeeping actions on a recently pacified frontier border with a confederation of recently civilized orcs who are in the process of being assimilated into the empire. -The company is supported by a war mage allied with the Human Empire.   -During the peacekeeping mission, one of the war mages seems to go insane and betray the company. He fireball's an entire orcish village, raises the burned and bloody corpses into an army of undead and attacks the mercenary company. The PC character is the sole survivor, and vows to learn magic to defend the innocent against magic...   My issue is that I need this character to start the adventure on a remote frontier, and I need an element in this backstory which explains why he didn't just return to the Human empire and explain that their war mage just went crazy and killed everybody with his undead orc army. I'm not really ready for this wizard to be a major villain in the campaign yet, so I can't have him attack the empire or anything. There is definitey a plot afoot, I just don't want it out yet. But I need this character on the run, far away from the events. How would you go about this. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.
#2 BoldItalic Jun 02, 2015 22:47:20	Ask the player?
#3 BohoMojambo Jun 02, 2015 23:05:12	BoldItalic wrote:
#4 akr71 Jun 03, 2015 5:54:41	He's a soldier, he was deployed at the frontier and has not been relieved of his duty yet.  Of course, not repoting the incident or just wandering off is dereliction of duty too...   I think you need a higher ranking NPC to arrive and give him new orders, or discharge him from service - not fit for duty - PTSD in today's terms...
#5 Ralif_Redhammer Jun 03, 2015 7:12:30	The first thing that comes to mind is that the insane war mage framed him for the crime somehow.
#6 Griffin2099 Jun 03, 2015 17:50:18	Is he somehow related to the War Mage? Cousins, Childhood Friends?   Does he have a drive to become a gret hero and sees this as a challenge that will start his path to fame?   Was one of the Mercenaries killed close to him and he sees taking out the War Mage as personal somehow?   How far from the nearest relief post is he? would he make it with the provisions he has? Is the War Mage now more powerful than the outpost and will overrun them soon if the hero doesn't step up and take on the Villain?
#7 Varden_Khol Jun 03, 2015 19:14:59	With no real proof of the Warmage's misdeeds his return to civilization would be seen as desertion of his post, a terrible crime against the empire. So, while the Warmage has disappeared for now, the soldier cannot simply return to Bigg City until he can gather some evidence. This leaves him stuck on the frontier, with the possible complication of active soldiers thinking he's a deserter. (If you go with something like this I would swap the Soldier's feature for something else, maybe the Outlander's, as I don't expect deserters would be allowed to requisition equipment)
#8 Touc Jun 04, 2015 10:55:13	Maybe the mage is a best friend, lover, or spouse. The character is torn about reporting them, given there is no rational explanation and an emotional connection. With the company destroyed, he's the only one who can report this, but until he's sure what happened, he won't.  By not reporting, he knows he's condemning himself if he cannot put an end and solve matters, but the emotional connection overwhelms this risk.  Needs to be strong connection, so that's why I'm suggesting lover or spouse.  Helps explain the obvious, why he wouldn't simply return and warn the kingdom of a dangerous undead army possibly killing innocents.