The Nature GM

They show it off without fail in every new town.

“The emperor commands it?” a player character will say. “Why, I’m working for the emperor!” And, with a flourish, they will draw out the pendant given to them by the high priest which was stamped with the emperor’s crest.

Little do they know that the high priest had given them these pendants for his own purposes, and they are playing right into his hands.

Today’s post is about a long con I am running in one of my games. Magah, Jack, Kyuriam, and Radman—on the off chance that you have wandered by the blog, this one is not to be read until after you have defeated Ulekihonuhonu and restored Haahoa to the throne. So in another year or so.

Everyone else: gather closer around the fire. It all began when the heroes saved the emperor from an assassination attempt…

The Setup

In our Smoldering Isles campaign, which is fantasy Hawaii populated primarily by drakona, the player characters began to earn a reputation of succeeding where the emperor and his high priest, the kahuna, had failed. The emperor and the kahuna do not want this trend to continue.

The emperor and the kahuna both sought to put the player characters on their payroll and thus under their thumb, but the heroes wisely refused. They might not know exactly what the emperor and the kahuna are planning, but they do know it involves summoning a powerful demon and some amount of world domination.

The emperor cannot subjugate these pesky mercenaries, and he cannot outright kill them because they have become so popular. But the kahuna has a plan: he will ensure that he always had a way to locate and spy on the player characters, wherever they might be. And he would do so in a manner that is so obvious they would never suspect it.

At a banquet held in the characters’ honor for saving the emperor from an assassination attempt, the kahuna gifted each of the characters an item that he had had specially crafted. They were small sunstone pendants stamped with the emperor’s crest, that, when tapped, emitted a soft red glow.

Let me make one thing clear: these pendants are useless trinkets. The single time someone has used the red glow was to goad an NPC who was jealous of the characters’ association with the emperor. All of the characters can see in the dark through either natural abilities or magic items. These pendants are pure vanity items.

And the players absolutely love them. They show them off at every town to gain trust with the local guards and government officials.

The Payoff

What does the kahuna get from the characters possessing these gimmicky pendants? An item that he is intimately familiar with that his primary enemies carry on their persons at all times.

For the kahuna is no mere cleric, he is secretly a powerful wizard. Which the players would know about if they had even attempted to break into his unoccupied private room at a resort that they stayed just down the hall from. Twice.

(I might have mentioned elsewhere that my players are risk-adverse. This is partially their personality, and partially the fear I have instilled in them from previous scenarios.)

As long as the characters wear these pendants, not only can the kahuna monitor their actions through scrying, he can send assassins after them even in the deepest most remote wilderness. The player characters have defeated not one, not two, but THREE groups of assassins with scrolls of Locate Object stuffed in their pockets.

Do the player characters continue to wear these pendants, given to them by a known evil villain?

You bet they do.

The Rising Stakes

The heroes recently entered a new town, displayed their emperor-crest pendants, and were dutifully shown directly to the kahuna’s lieutenant, the cleric Opio. Naturally, Opio immediately tried to arrange an “accident” that involved the characters falling to their unfortunate deaths.

When they survived this, Opio sent the characters out on a wild goose chase with an assassin, who turned on them as soon as they were away from civilization.

The characters defeated the would-be assassin, and during the interrogation they learned of the ploy to magically track by their pendants.

Did they now cast off these clearly dangerous items?

Of course not.

Because they have now been alerted of the true use of these supposed tokens of honor, this allows me to raise the stakes even higher. Soon Opio will return to face the characters at a most inopportune time—such as when they are meeting with the son of the rightful king. And this time Opio will come in full force, with soldiers to back him up.

I am excited to see how this gets resolved. I am afraid the characters will have to kill Opio and all the guards in order to protect the NPCs that they love the most. I hope they can pull it off.

Conclusion

This is one of the best plays I have ever made as a game master. I continue to find new ways to exploit the situation.

In a campaign that turned out to be somewhat too complex (the players often lose the thread of what they are doing and who is who in the world), one thing they consistently remember is these dumb little pendants that secretly enable the villain to out-maneuver them. It is so gratifying.

Has anyone tried something similar? Have you pulled off a long con with your players? I would love to hear about it.

Heads up that I will (most likely) switch site hosts soon, and that might come with some changes to the overall layout.

Either way, we will keep exploring.

(Post cover image by Giada Nardi.)