Fixing the second half of Servants of Darkness

[Joël of the FoS]

Bonsoir chers amis,

IMHO, two things don’t work with Servants of Darkness, which I’m currently DMing.

First : No way Loht himself is going to his arch-enemy Tristessa’s lair to get the Sword of Arak (with the Eye aka a baby to Tristessa).

« Hey Triss, I know I’m the one who fought your cult mercifully, and finally having you pinned to the mountain to horribly die in the sun rays. Oh, and your baby too, yeah, I know. Really sorry, that was so long ago. No hard feelings, huh? »

Doesn’t work, she would kill him on sight.

Loht has to send somebody else with the Eye. The PCs? Lorelei?

Second : Quite surprising that Wyan has in his vault a mighty delusion item such as the Eye of Vhaeraun (the item is enchanted to make you see whatever you want most i.e. a Holy Sword for a Paladin for example).

Given the item’s nature, and the fascination of hags to trick people, would it make more sense that the hags / darklords are involved in this?

Would it make more sense if Loht/the PCs/Lorelei have to bargain again with the hags to get the item, go to Tristessa, exchange it with the Sword?

[The Dark]

For the second part, Wyan states some of his followers fished up the Eye a few months ago, and he's been keeping it in a vault to keep everyone from fighting over the thing they desire most. Maybe making sure it got fished up was a plot by the hags to try to get Wyan's faction to destroy itself, but I think the overall adventure already has enough moving pieces that I'd be reluctant to have yet another group play a major role (a minor role that can be followed up on later, yes, but not something that affects the immediate plot).

And now that I've said that, I'm going to suggest bringing in someone new to address the first issue. Gaz V claims the Caller (well, "a mysterious gentleman") helped Loht discover where the Sword was. The Caller could also arrange for someone to deliver the Eye in exchange for the Sword, although using one of his own children might be too obvious for him. Perhaps he calls on something undead? They're immune to illusions, it avoid any potential issues with Tristessa wailing, and the Caller has ties to at least one vampire (Marla).

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Perhaps he calls on something undead? They're immune to illusions, it avoid any potential issues with Tristessa wailing, and the Caller has ties to at least one vampire (Marla).

is undead too but as an artifact the eye works on her, thus other undead creatures too, so there must be a reason why it works on undead, perhaps Vhaeraun was one of the thirteen women and thirteen men brought together by Hala to learn the secrets of the Weave. Or since it can be destroyed if placed in a lightless realm its origin is Arak or the Shadow Rift.

[alhoon]

I don't know the adventure but I do the issue of trusting to the PCs a powerful item... going to the enemy with what the enemy wants most is safer, IMO

[The Dark]

Perhaps he calls on something undead? They're immune to illusions, it avoid any potential issues with Tristessa wailing, and the Caller has ties to at least one vampire (Marla).

is undead too but as an artifact the eye works on her, thus other undead creatures too, so there must be a reason why it works on undead, perhaps Vhaeraun was one of the thirteen women and thirteen men brought together by Hala to learn the secrets of the Weave. Or since it can be destroyed if placed in a lightless realm its origin is Arak or the Shadow Rift.

Somehow I completely overlooked that Tris is undead (in my defense, Keening is one of the domains I mostly ignore). That makes the whole plot a bit weirder, since the Eye shouldn't work. OK, time for a plot patch. The Eye (somehow) works on anything intelligent, but gradually begins failing and changing its appearance when possessed by an undead, because it starts picking up on the mental static that prevents telepathy spells from working on undead in Ravenloft. It basically starts shifting back and forth between what the undead really wants and what the person its surface thoughts are mimicking would really want. It works longer on more powerful/evil undead because the strength of their underlying true desire is easier for the artifact to keep track of, so a weak intelligent undead has the artifact stop working pretty quickly, while it'll take a lot longer for Tris' illusion to break (I'm not assigning specific numbers to this because a plot patch shouldn't be mechanically load-bearing; it happens at the speed the plot requires).

[alhoon]

Whatever works for your campaign, my friend, but... the Eye is an artifact. It can go beyond the power of the Mists.