)!One of my players in our current Eberron campaign plays a Changeling who's been trained to infiltrate and impersonate a House Phiarlan heir for pretty much all her life by an ambitious heir of House Thuranni. She's been given the name of her target, was raised with elves of House Thuranni, was trained in her targets arts, skills and lore and has studied the heir in question for months in disguise (as a servant in her household), before moving in for the kill.
She prepared herself to copy the dragonmark's powers with magic items, studied similar rituals and the like...
But before she could actually play the part and go deep undercover for her Thuranni master, the Mourning happend and literaly blew her plans. She survived by means of the plot and after having escaped with a bunch of up-and-coming-heroes (the rest of the party) from the Mournland and the wilds of Darguun, she managed to get to Breland, and, coincidentally, Wroat.
With the Demesne of Motion right on her doorstep she would like to pick up where she left.
She has already got back in touch with her contact at Thuranni, who made his way to Wroat and they've started working.
Now I'm looking for ways to complicate the scheme, while keeping things entertaining and the coup possible.
So here's the question:
How would House Phiarlan react to the, more or less, sudden reappearance of a (formerly) dead house heir?
I assume, the House would...
1) Interrogate her
2) Confront her with persons she should know.
3) Ask her to manifest dragonmark powers
4) Demand a signature "Heirloom Performance" the heir should know.
5) Run a "changeling" test-ritual, something similar to 3.5 "True Seeing"
6) Being House Phiarlan, use some sort of scrying, divination or truth magic.
7,8) [...]
...not in this order, necessarily.
Of course, she has to counter these trials somehow, and here what I came up with:
1] The interrogation would, of course, focus on her surprising return from blasted Cyre. The House would check these information, double-check them, and check them again. This might take some time.
Now, how would you play these sessions? Good cop/bad cop, a friendly discussion among equals, torture?
2] The House would probably let persons she should know and recognize run these interrogations.
Being perfectly briefed, this won't be an issue. She can rattle along her ancestors, friends, partners and so on.
What dear Ayamis doesn't know yet will surprise her, though. Her target was investigating her Thuranni Master, his work with and for the Emerald Claw, who's playing a major part in the overarching storyline of the party, and his involvement with the Dragon's Path.
Once she has passed all these tests, she will be confronted with a friend of her target and asked about what she was able to find out.
3] The dragonmark is no longer an issue, because she manifested a Mark of Shadow during the Mourning. The trapped soul of the killed Phiarlan heir (that she trapped in an artifact) merged with hers, causing the changeling to manifest the mark. She still struggles to controll these powers, but she's got the mark, alright :-)
4] The heirloom performances will be a differnt kind of deal. She did study the signature Zen-bow-like performance, but she will have to perform it. And this will be tricky.
5] She has already figured out a way to "fix" her elven appearance by an eeeevil blood magic ritual, some drugs and strength of will. This will effectivly eliminate her shapechanging power for some time, but has to be renewed once in a while.
6] Here's where I draw a blank. What kind of scrying magic, truth seeing, lie discerning mumbo-jumbo arcana will House Phiarlan bring to bear?
I (and her)'d really appreciate it, if you could help me/us out here!
I think the major problems would be in social interactions. People that the heir had known way back would be excited (and in some cases dissapointed) that he/she was back. This might cause them to be suspicious, and since they are all spies by trade, cause them to start doing spy stuff.
So my rambling aside, i think there would be minimal difficulty at first, but if the longer the PC stays around, the bigger the scrutiny will ensue. It would probably be done more covertly then with any bit of organization. Also don't forget, that a heir just showing up, surviving all this would be a time for great celebration. Probably a huge party with the heads of some of the families coming together. Its not like he/she would be able to just walk through the door, show an ID and carry on like nothing had happened.
As for magic, i remember reading that at Dreadhold Island Prison they questioned everyone with a truth spell when they come to visit, I know this is 3.5e vs. the new 4e, but I'm sure there are spells that correspond.
Hope it helped with your ideas at least.
It did help :-) I suppose it'll completly baffle her when she'll only have to suffer smalltalk at her welcome-home-party.
Thanks for the reply, Wargoose!
It did help :-) I suppose it'll completly baffle her when she'll only have to suffer smalltalk at her welcome-home-party.
How about this: House Phiarlan runs some of the tests and realises she's a fake. But they decide to "run" her as a double agent against House Thuranni...How long until she figures it out? And what does she do then?