Discover the Truth About Kevian
Gradually, as the players gather more and more hints, I want them to get more and more suspicious about Kevin Bretson. I want a positive interaction for their first meeting (unless the players really blow it), but gradually, there will be too many coincidences involving him, and they'll progressively put the pieces together and start to suspect something's rotten in Gwardonna.
Plot points/Scenes
Hearing bad things about Kevian in Voskionia, good things in Gwardonna. He's politically unfriendly to Voskionia, but in Gwardonna he's cutting down on crime, doing social programs, creating jobs, building much-needed infrastructure, etc. Fighting minor undead, especially skulking cysts.
Players do something heroic involving a rogue undead, meet Kevian as heroes and get praise & rewards, he gives them a quest.
A few quests at Kevian's encouragement, he tries to gently direct them away from other quests they hear rumours about. If they take those quests despite his discouragement, they find evidence of corruption higher up, but nothing directly pointing to Kevian. Kevian tries to sneakily get them encysted if they're not already.
Friendly NPC says something negative about Kevian, goes missing with flimsy cover story or if important enough is still present but not acting themselves (secretly doppelganger). Or maybe distraught NPC with missing loved one seeks them out for help.
While investigating, catch hints of the rebels. If track them down and have friendly talks, they accuse someone high up of practicing necromancy, and reveal the necrotic cysts born by any players. They try to get the players to join the rebellion, and offer to remove any cysts.
Rebels have anti-Kevian quests that lead players to uncover more and more of Kevian's dark secrets. Gradually they piece together than the mother cyst bearer responsible for these horrors is Kevian.
If confront Kevian, he lies and has plausible deniability and good cover stories for everything. Then begins actively plotting against players, spying on them, etc.
If Kevian can't talk them down & they fight him, then there's the boss fight. With varying difficulty based on how much they've undermined him vs how much he's learned about them and their weaknesses.
Themes
Kevian is nice, Kevian does nice things for the players, but Kevian always has an angle and the coincidences don't add up.
Gwardonna is a nice place, but there's something rotten beneath the surface.
King Lionheart is miserable and no one knows why.
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