I need some story advice. In the Edge of the Empire campaign that I'm running my crew adopted an npc street urchin (roughly 12 years old). During our last session, the crew fought a pack of corrupted ice wolves (a pack of ice wolves heavily corrupted by a dark force user). The defeated the wolves and our intrepid pilot cut out a tooth from the pack leader and turned the fang into a necklace that he gave to urchin. It was very touching and I immediately thought, "Wow! That would be such a great way to turn this loveable sweet child into a devious and psychotic killer." My thought being, that this necklace would gradually cause a personality shift by magnifying the negative impulses in the child and if the crew doesn't catch it in time, ultimately destroy the character. Is the idea of the dark side of the force clinging to the fang and slowly corrupting an innocent too far out there?

If not, what would be some subtle ways to show the shifting of her character? I was thinking having her start playing some malicious practical jokes on the crew, temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way, and as she gets further and further towards the dark side attacking innocent people who cross her. Any other ideas or scenarios?

"Hey kid, what's up with your eyes?"

"What's up with your crippling debt, dead parents, and alcoholism?"

If the kid is Force Sensitive, then put some yellow on her eyes, and feel free to up the severity of the following. If not, have her just be meaner than the average kid.

Maybe transition to a more unscrupulous or ruthless. Your idea of transition from mean-kid-in-a-mean-kid way to mean-kid-in-a- this-kid-is-going-to-be-a- serial-killer way.

Have her start to advocate more simple but brutal solutions.

"This guy keeps bugging us."

"So just kill him."

Later on, maybe have her show some more. . . initiative.

"What happened to that guy who kept bugging us?"

"Well now, about half of him's at the bottom of a garbage dump on Ord Mantell. The other half's stung up near that bar he likes so much. So what's for dinner?"

* Cut to blank, horrified stares of the party at this 12 year old. *

As to it being too far-fetched, I don't think so at all; and in fact I think it's an awesome idea.

As to how to reveal it, I think Dayham's got some great ideas.

Oddly enough, my PCs have one too; only she was messed up long before they found her. They knew she had problems, but didn't know how bad they were until they took her shopping for clothes. After she got dressed, one of the PCs noticed that the girl was wearing a hair ornament that they didn't remember buying for her.

When asked where she got it, the girl replied "a girl gave it to me".

"Just walked up and gave it to you?", a PC asked; a little incredulous.

"No", the girl replied in a plain and matter-of-fact tone. "I told her that if she didn't hand it over I was going to slam her face into the floor until she was unrecognizable; and then she gave it to me."

1 hour ago, Vorzakk said:

"No", the girl replied in a plain and matter-of-fact tone. "I told her that if she didn't hand it over I was going to slam her face into the floor until she was unrecognizable; and then she gave it to me."

Or if she is Force sensitive, "Yes. I told her to walk up and give it to me and she just did it." *Shrug*

Thank you for the feedback.

Dayham, I like the thought of having her start advocating progressively more and more brutal responses to situations.

8 hours ago, Vorzakk said:

Oddly enough, my PCs have one too; only she was messed up long before they found her. They knew she had problems, but didn't know how bad they were until they took her shopping for clothes. After she got dressed, one of the PCs noticed that the girl was wearing a hair ornament that they didn't remember buying for her.

When asked where she got it, the girl replied "a girl gave it to me".

"Just walked up and gave it to you?", a PC asked; a little incredulous.

"No", the girl replied in a plain and matter-of-fact tone. "I told her that if she didn't hand it over I was going to slam her face into the floor until she was unrecognizable; and then she gave it to me."

2

Vorzakk, I think I may have to steal this scene.

1 hour ago, pdxWednesday said:

Vorzakk, I think I may have to steal this scene.

All yours, sir.

The dark side works though basic emotions like fear, envy, desire and pride. With a child it's easiest to use Fear. The necklace represents resolving your fear through violence, by killing what you fear. This is obviously a pretty dark interpretation but could make perfect sense to a child. Children are often fascinated by death and what happens after and are terribly afraid that something will happen to the people they care about. Use these things to create a difficult moral challenge for the party. Also, The child can ask to be taught how to fight to defend themselves and then later use violence to "help" the PC's, for instance killing someone friendly by accident, acting out of fear.

Another avenue to explore is traumatic events in the child's past that are unresolved. The death or loss of parents or siblings or abuse at the hands of a trusted person. If situations that are similar to the traumatic events come up during play, they can have extreme effect on the child and force them to act in irrational ways to protect their mind. Further pushing them to the dark side.

I like the imagery but I think it's problematic as a way of creating a Dark Side Artifact. I would imagine if the kid is gonna turn bad it is his destiny to avoid or embrace. I don't think Force Corruption from something so ephemerally connected works for me. So these wolves were used by a Dark Side user, I don't think that the natural material of their bodies are gonna be saturated to that degree unless there is more explanation. If the guy who took the tooth said something murderous in that moment like, "Always kill them before they get a chance to hurt you, don't take chances with anyone!" I can see it being a memory used as a focal point for the kid's viewpoint, which at some point he embraces and decides to let the Force sort 'em out.

I'd just be wary of the players now seeing this as a way to imbue objects with magic.

Yeah, that strikes me as problematic about this scenario too: dark side influence should need to be REALLY concentrated to start messing with someone's head like that. If even a faint, passing trace is enough to turn someone into a psychotic ravager then one has to wonder why the entire galaxy hasn't been consumed by it long ago.

Yeah, why hasn't this galaxy filled with near constant warfare, slavery, bigotry, exploitation, crime, and dark siders gotten real bad yet?

On 4/25/2018 at 3:10 AM, GM_loke said:

Another avenue to explore is traumatic events in the child's past that are unresolved. The death or loss of parents or siblings or abuse at the hands of a trusted person. If situations that are similar to the traumatic events come up during play, they can have extreme effect on the child and force them to act in irrational ways to protect their mind. Further pushing them to the dark side.

2

GM_loke, great points. The character is already traumatized by her past and her main role model in the party is a drunk. I've set up scenes where the party sees her supplying alcohol to the addict and a couple where they see her drinking. Surprisingly, the group thought it was cute. Aside from any possible dark side influence, I've already planned on exploring aspects of past mental trauma. I'm interested in seeing the party's reactions to a twelve-year-old having full-fledged benders.

4 hours ago, Archlyte said:

I like the imagery but I think it's problematic as a way of creating a Dark Side Artifact. I would imagine if the kid is gonna turn bad it is his destiny to avoid or embrace. I don't think Force Corruption from something so ephemerally connected works for me. So these wolves were used by a Dark Side user, I don't think that the natural material of their bodies are gonna be saturated to that degree unless there is more explanation. If the guy who took the tooth said something murderous in that moment like, "Always kill them before they get a chance to hurt you, don't take chances with anyone!" I can see it being a memory used as a focal point for the kid's viewpoint, which at some point he embraces and decides to let the Force sort 'em out.

I'd just be wary of the players now seeing this as a way to imbue objects with magic.

2 hours ago, Garran said:

Yeah, that strikes me as problematic about this scenario too: dark side influence should need to be REALLY concentrated to start messing with someone's head like that. If even a faint, passing trace is enough to turn someone into a psychotic ravager then one has to wonder why the entire galaxy hasn't been consumed by it long ago.

For brevity's sake, I glossed over the wolves background in my original post. This pack was the descendants of the pack originally created and used by a powerful dark force user. The traditional home of the pack was a lair in dark side vergence of the force (similar to the dark side cave on Dagobah). Hundreds, if not thousands, of generations of these wolves have lived, bred, and died at this location. When the party encountered the pack I made it very clear in their description that the wolve's bodies had been twisted and deformed by the dark side. So the wolves themselves have been exposed to concentrated dark side power for a long time.

8 minutes ago, Dayham said:

Yeah, why hasn't this galaxy filled with near constant warfare, slavery, bigotry, exploitation, crime, and dark siders gotten real bad yet?

Dayham, your response made me smile....does that make me a bad person?

On 4/24/2018 at 10:38 AM, Dayham said:

Have  her start to advocate more simple but brutal solutions.

"This guy keeps bugging us."

 "So just kill him." 

“...with kindness!”

On 4/24/2018 at 3:22 AM, pdxWednesday said:

I need some story advice. In the Edge of the Empire campaign that I'm running my crew adopted an npc street urchin (roughly 12 years old). During our last session, the crew fought a pack of corrupted ice wolves (a pack of ice wolves heavily corrupted by a dark force user). The defeated the wolves and our intrepid pilot cut out a tooth from the pack leader and turned the fang into a necklace that he gave to urchin. It was very touching and I immediately thought, "Wow! That would be such a great way to turn this loveable sweet child into a devious and psychotic killer." My thought being, that this necklace would gradually cause a personality shift by magnifying the negative impulses in the child and if the crew doesn't catch it in time, ultimately destroy the character. Is the idea of the dark side of the force clinging to the fang and slowly corrupting an innocent too far out there?

If not, what would be some subtle ways to show the shifting of her character? I was thinking having her start playing some malicious practical jokes on the crew, temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way, and as she gets further and further towards the dark side attacking innocent people who cross her. Any other ideas or scenarios?

That is exactly one of the versions to explain the madness of King Pelagius III in the Elder Scrolls videogame saga. In resume: a witch queen named Potema, before she was defeated, passed him a charmed wolf pendant when he was a child, telling him that the pendant would bring him wisdom. The pendant was subtly charmed, but not to bring wisdom, but to enhance his fears.

The corruption of the One Ring from Lord of The Rings is also a good example.

The tooth could also do the same, enhance his fears and anxiety, filling his anger, but in a very subtle way. And if he is removed from his pendant, he becomes insecure, fearfull, nervous... like an addict. If he is also so dependant of the tooth he could die, unless the tooth is purified by a force wielder, perhaps a nature oriented force wielder. What about an Ithorian nature priest? Or ewok shaman? In a world so filled with modern medicines, technology and science, they have to rely to a... primitive and shamanic alien?

I hope I have been helpful!

On 5/4/2018 at 5:40 AM, hikari_dourden said:

The tooth could also do the same, enhance his fears and anxiety, filling his anger, but in a very subtle way. And if he is removed from his pendant, he becomes insecure, fearfull, nervous... like an addict. If he is also so dependant of the tooth he could die, unless the tooth is purified by a force wielder, perhaps a nature oriented force wielder. What about an Ithorian nature priest? Or ewok shaman? In a world so filled with modern medicines, technology and science, they have to rely to a... primitive and shamanic alien?

I hope I have been helpful!

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hikari_dourden,

Thank you for the response. This also reminds of the Shadar Logoth dagger from the Wheel of Time series. I really like the idea of having to find a force wielder to help cure the corruption. I think that would be an interesting side quest. Thank you for the great ideas!