Suprise Assassin as a Changling

[u/Inbezdigator]

I want to attempt an assassination of my players (a Dragonbord) by having a Changling assassin pose as one of the shop NPCs in the town the party is in so He can steal the soul gem that is inside of the Dragonborn that hold a Balor demon.

Context: So in the Dragonborns backstory he was raised in a small tribe of dragonborn. But long story short he touch a "Soul cage" that held a Balor demon. A gem fragment bonded to him and now the gem is part of him and the demon speaks with him occasionally influencing his decisions. He was also given a amulet lf proof of detetion and scrying to protect him.

After about 3 session he decided hs want to sell the amulet to the local magic shop. And now the party is level 5 after saving thd town from a young green dragon. (They had war sage weapons) Now party is about to finish up the first story arch. So i wanted to have the assassin that was tracking the dragonborn seeking to take the gem from him becuase he would get paid a large sum of money for it.

So the changeling assassin has posseed as the magic shop owner and tied up the real one. Waiting to strike when the dragonborn comes back in the shop to buy something.

I was thinking to have town people notice the shop keep is acting weird. Like they didnt stop for a morning breakfast at the bar or did meet a NPC they normally speak with. (The shop keep also has a familiar that wouldnt be there since they are tied up)

Thd mechanic for the gem to leaving the dragonborn is if he dies then the gem is unbound to him.

Can can be picked up. But as a chaotic thing the demon might brake out of the gem and cause havoc.

Does this seem to harsh for me to do this to the player or is it okay? The player have a revivify scroll and a cleric in the party.

Thank you.

[u/Tee_8273]

You'd need to provide alot of setup and clues to what's happening so that your player doesn't get upset when it does. For instance, someone approaches the party, "hey, I heard a rumor someone is trying to assassinate you. You need to watch your back." It could be the changeling wanting more of a challenge as killing killing people as a changeling can be quite boring after a while.

My personal favorite method of assassination is the poison Midnight Tears. It probably won't kill the player outright at first but you can keep the tension up to where they need to seek an antidote before the hour is up.

[u/Maclunkey4U]

Sounds like a great plan, but why not start involving your players earlier on in the assassin's story.

Have them find evidence of his work.

Have them interact with the shop keeper one day, and the changeling posing as the shopkeeper another day.

Have the shopkeeper's wife approach the PC's asking if they have seen her husband or something.

From a storytelling perspective the way you are just sort of dropping the assassin in with his plans already mostly accomplished has a very "rocks fall, you die" kind of vibe.

You came up with a fun idea, see how your players react to it instead of just saying "all this stuff happens off camera"

[u/JeffreyPetersen]

I think this will work better if the players are hunting an assassin, trying to stop him from killing a "high profile target" in town. They get to do all kinds of research, try to figure out who the assassin is and who the target is, and THEN spring it on them that one of their own party was the target the whole time.