History as scenario fodder
Aug. 8th, 2011 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brushwolfTHE KING IS DEAD! The young and much-loved monarch has died unexpectedly, interred at top speeds into a tomb possibly intended for another member of his family - and in complete secrecy. His young widow barely holds the throne. A powerful and ambitious general seeks to marry her, and through her, to control the entire kingdom. The kingdom is threatened militarily from both north and south and the queen asks the hand of one of the heirs to that northern kingdom.
Was the king actually as frail as frequently portrayed? Oh, sure, the king was a teenager who relied on a cane after a broken leg healed poorly, and his only heirs were both stillborn. But the king still had the physical and mental wherewithal to re-establish state cults suppressed by his father's sun cult, to actively tank around in armor on the battlefield, and to re-establish diplomatic ties to the northern kingdom. Could someone have murdered the king, and if so who? People from the northern kingdom, eager to take control from his wife? The general had obvious reasons for wanting the king dead, but what about the less obvious reasons - that the general is, in fact, loyal to the old sun cult? Perhaps the strangest suspects, there are actually weirdos who worshiped the king as a god while he still walked on this earth. Could one of those priests have killed the king, desperate to see him exalted "into his rightful place?"
I can see this one working vaguely as a campaign framework - the PCs go from the front lines of any of the border conflicts, to serving as the queen's secret envoys to the north a la The Three Musketeers, or investigating the murder which would require finding the tomb and then breaking in to examine the corpse. But I can also see it working as a short LARP, with players meeting at the king's secret tomb, and coming from all factions (the general, the Queen, spies from the either outside kingdom, sun cultists or king cultists, a priest of the funery god there to ensure the body was handled with respect, etc.).
Was the king actually as frail as frequently portrayed? Oh, sure, the king was a teenager who relied on a cane after a broken leg healed poorly, and his only heirs were both stillborn. But the king still had the physical and mental wherewithal to re-establish state cults suppressed by his father's sun cult, to actively tank around in armor on the battlefield, and to re-establish diplomatic ties to the northern kingdom. Could someone have murdered the king, and if so who? People from the northern kingdom, eager to take control from his wife? The general had obvious reasons for wanting the king dead, but what about the less obvious reasons - that the general is, in fact, loyal to the old sun cult? Perhaps the strangest suspects, there are actually weirdos who worshiped the king as a god while he still walked on this earth. Could one of those priests have killed the king, desperate to see him exalted "into his rightful place?"
I can see this one working vaguely as a campaign framework - the PCs go from the front lines of any of the border conflicts, to serving as the queen's secret envoys to the north a la The Three Musketeers, or investigating the murder which would require finding the tomb and then breaking in to examine the corpse. But I can also see it working as a short LARP, with players meeting at the king's secret tomb, and coming from all factions (the general, the Queen, spies from the either outside kingdom, sun cultists or king cultists, a priest of the funery god there to ensure the body was handled with respect, etc.).