Goodman Games

I was running Into the Wilds yesterday. The PCs found the planning room and though it was set alight, they recovered a map of Wildsgate Keep with Lady Aborn's seal.

The players asked:
"If Lady Aborn is the half-sister of Baron Kaldal, she'll inherit the Keep when he dies. So why is she planning to attack it?!"

This floored me. I looked through the module, and the more I looked, the less sense it made. Lady Aborn is 'planning a coup', apparently an invasion, of a place she already stands to inherit. Shortly.

Does anyone have an explanation, or a way to fix this?

Simon,

Great catch. I re-read area 2-15 and realized it wasn't terribly clear.

Aborn is all about redundant measures. She wants Wildsgate no matter what, so there a few concurrent plots afoot. She is poisoning her brother, while seducing the captain, while prepping a coup.

Ideally, if any one of these fails, she can step in with another measure. (Even if all goes as planned, Sergio the Vizier and Sodersund the Regent are going to suspect something is afoot and challenge her claim to the throne.)

Tell your players that it was the writer's fault for the confusion.

//H

Thanks Harley. I think my problem is that Aborn's plans actively work against each other, implying she may be rather imbalanced, at least. She's certain to inherit & very popular, but is plotting a violent attack, which would destroy those advantages.

BTW I don't think the module says that Aborn is poisoning Baron Kaldal, rather he's dying from the Curse of Wildsgate that has afflicted all Barons for the past 100 years.

I want to avoid telling my players "the author screwed up" if I can help it, since that would likely destroy their enjoyment of the module. Hmm. The problem is that, as written, there is no rival power that would oppose Aborn's rise to power following Kaldal's death. Hmm, I could retcon a bit and say that she can't legally inherit, that according to Wildsgate's founding charter only male-line descendants of Wulfrun can inherit, failing which the Barony passes to the ruler of the realm (IMC, the Archduke of Colladel). I think that'd work.

*laugh* Been a LONG time since I wrote that. Starting to sound like a befuddled old man.

//H

You can remember TSR modules better than your own adventures ...

[tease]Showing your age, old man.[/tease]