In that case, once her message is passed on, any Melderyn maneuvering could take place off-stage, and not require any further PC intervention. I assume that this abbey is a place she stops at along the way? If the events at the abbey take place after her message is delivered, she can devote her full attention to them. If they take place before she reaches the Earl, she’ll be fighting time pressure–her message is urgent, but so is the situation at the abbey. Either way, it should probably be possible for the political repercussions of the murders to cause the failure of her primary mission. (Just to add that extra bit of drama.)
OK, that helps a lot. And you’re right, there is no way my idea would work given the events that have already happened. So how about this:
I don’t know much about your weird tribal cult, but that could have the potential to be a very interesting plot point. Let’s say that their freaky, and I assume evil, religion has started to grow and gain adherents in the royal courts. The Wizards of Malderyn view this as a serious threat, but the only person that has true knowledge of this cult is our protagonist, because the cult began in her backyard.
Now, the king of Sarkum (the brother in law of Malderyn’s Crown Prince) has been converted to this cult, as has some very powerful people in the other respective courts - especially the court of Kaldor (take your pick as to who). The cult factions in all the kingdoms are planning to unite all of Harn under the theocratic laws of their religion, by the sword if necessary - starting with Chybisa. It’s a good ruse because everybody thinks that Kaldor wants to conquer Chybisia because of the Treasure War, and thus the cult can remain secret till their plot comes to fruition. But there’s a hitch in their plans.
The Crown Prince is an ally of the secretive Wizards of Malderyn, and has the ability to muster armies from two great kingdoms to squash the cult. But… he’s spending the winter with his wife (and maybe a newborn child?) in Sarkum. He is the biggest block in the way of the cult uniting the kingdoms, and he’s a sitting duck in Sarkum with his wife’s kingly brother in control of the castle. The only people that know how evil and widespread this cult has become are the Wizards of Melderyn, who contact our Lady Knight protagonist because she is among the very few who have seen how bad the cult can be and she has had dealings with them.
Though she’s reluctant at first, the Wizards promise to pay off her debts, convince her how big the problem is, and explain why Harn needs someone with first hand knowledge of the cult to save the island. She agrees, and hauls ass down to Sarkum in order to prevent the cult (maybe they call themselves “The Order” now or somesuch) from assassinating the Crown Prince and prevent the island-wide ‘star chamber’ planned invasions and coup de’etats that the cult is plotting.
The religion aspect also gives her a reason to stop by the the Abbey and enlist the help of the Earl’s niece and her Bishop brother in order to prevent the cult’s take over of all of Harn.
Crap… on preview:
Obviously, my above idea would overshadow the events in the abbey. But, Hell, maybe the cult’s behind the murders there. Might work.
OK, tdn, that helps a lot. And you’re right, there is no way my idea would work given the events that have already happened. So how about this:
I don’t know much about your weird tribal cult, but that could have the potential to be a very interesting plot point. Let’s say that their freaky, and I assume evil, religion has started to grow and gain adherents in the royal courts. The Wizards of Malderyn view this as a serious threat, but the only person that has true knowledge of this cult is our protagonist, because the cult began in her backyard.
Now, the king of Sarkum (the brother in law of Malderyn’s Crown Prince) has been converted to this cult, as has some very powerful people in the other respective courts - especially the court of Kaldor (take your pick as to who). The cult factions in all the kingdoms are planning to unite all of Harn under the theocratic laws of their religion, by the sword if necessary - starting with Chybisa. It’s a good ruse because everybody thinks that Kaldor wants to conquer Chybisia because of the Treasure War, and thus the cult can remain secret till their plot comes to fruition. But there’s a hitch in their plans.
The Crown Prince is an ally of the secretive Wizards of Malderyn, and has the ability to muster armies from two great kingdoms to squash the cult. But… he’s spending the winter with his wife (and maybe a newborn child?) in Sarkum. He is the biggest block in the way of the cult uniting the kingdoms, and he’s a sitting duck in Sarkum with his wife’s kingly brother in control of the castle. The only people that know how evil and widespread this cult has become are the Wizards of Melderyn, who contact our Lady Knight protagonist because she is among the very few who have seen how bad the cult can be and she has had dealings with them.
Though she’s reluctant at first, the Wizards promise to pay off her debts, convince her how big the problem is, and explain why Harn needs someone with first hand knowledge of the cult to save the island. She agrees, and hauls ass down to Sarkum in order to prevent the cult (maybe they call themselves “The Order” now or somesuch) from assassinating the Crown Prince and prevent the island-wide ‘star chamber’ planned invasions and coup de’etats that the cult is plotting.
The religion aspect also gives her a reason to stop by the the Abbey and enlist the help of the Earl’s niece and her Bishop brother in order to prevent the cult’s take over of all of Harn.
Crap… on preview:
Obviously, my above idea would overshadow the events in the abbey. But, Hell, maybe the cult’s behind the murders there? Might work.
Whoops, the connection timed out and I double posted. Could a passing mod clean this up?
Though this isn’t going to help tdn, let me tweak my original idea just for shits and giggles to avoid the rape-and-revenge theme. Bradley’s probably right - it’s a bit hackneyed.
I still like the idea of a badass pregnant woman traveling a long way, but instead of rape, how’s about consensual sex? She slept with the Crown Prince the morning of the wedding, got knocked up, and thought “Hey, what the Hell, I have my own fiefdom and I wanted a child anyway.” But the King of Chybisia convinces her to use the proof of her pregnancy as grounds to dissolve the marriage union that threatens Chybisia and travel to Sarkum. I think I like the implied ambivalence of her motive better as a story arc than the rape and revenge thing.
Still don’t help tdn, though.
Why not have her following someone? Perhaps she is trying to stop a friend from making a terrible mistake. Or perhaps she is following someone suspcious (known or unknown). Depending on how much mystery you want to add, she can know the final destination or just be tracking them. The target might stop at the abbey or the PC might simply get waylaid there. If she is waylaid, you can add some tension to the abbey quests by keeping the urgency to get moving (e.g. I got to keep following that guy, but I do need to sort out these abbey murders first).
Her pretense for following the person could be an assigned task or an impulse on her own. If you want to abort the journey after the abbey quests are complete, you can have the target stop at the abbey on their way back. Perhaps they changed their mind about the quest. If the target is someone she cares for, then they can witness her wrap up the abbey murders, perhaps even being a suspect.
They are. But her liegelord is but 12 miles from her. By horse, a ride of an hour or two. The journey required would take months, by several well-timed caravans.
She’s a knight? Schedule a tourney in honor of something or other.
Of course, in role-playing game, you don’t need logic. A quest is a quest. “Hey, you’ve been chosen to ride 300 leagues through a desolate wintry wilderness to fetch the holy hipbone of St. MacGuffin which we plan to use to prop up the short leg of the banquet table in our great hall.”
Could she get clues to the location of the missing sword and go after it, or more information about it, with the thought that the reward would let her finally build her keep? She would still be concentrating on managing her estate, then.
Correction: In a crappy, ill-considered RPG campaign, you don’t need logic. Good campaigns are self-consistent and follow their own internal logic reliably. They have well-defined story arcs, plausible motives, and opportunities for character development. (Granted, good campaigns are often hard to find and an incredible amount of work to create.)
Long-time former DM here.
It seems to me your problems are as follows:
—the Quest #1 Maguffin needs to be something the Knight must do herself, in person
—the Quest #1 Maguffin needs to be urgent enough to get her out the door and go 1,000 miles
—the Maguffin can’t be so urgent that it makes the Knight leave Quest #2 to complete Quest #1 (which is now only 500 miles away)
One possibility that leaps to mind is that a traitor has been captured, claiming to be a relative or friend of the Knight. She is called to go identify whether or not this is true, but they will withhold trial and punishment until she arrives.
If it were my campaign I’d find a way to tie Quest #1 and Quest #2 together somehow to nullify any urge she might have to abandon Quest #2 — perhaps the traitor’s allies are at the abbey and she discovers their plans, perhaps she learns it was all a ruse to draw her away from home.
I like Fish’s ideas about a trial.
As slight variations, consider the following:
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A friend of the knight’s court is held on trial for spying; a knight is needed to go and smooth things over, while still retrieving the subject safely
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An imposter (doppleganger?) has represented themselves as an ambassador or relative of the Knight’s liege’s family, and is causing bad diplomatic relations and stirring up trouble; the Knight needs to expose the imposter and sort it all out
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A ranking emissary from a yet different country is being held there for a serious crime; representatives of friendly foreign kingdoms are kindly being asked to send representatives for a jury, in order to make the judgement as a third party, to not cause an international incident (being winter, a lowly Knight may suffice, or the Knight could be escorting said person) between the two foreign nations, and avoiding a destabilizing war in the region is a good idea to the Knight’s liege
Some other ideas:
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There is a border dispute between two foreign countries and an outside emissary (Knight, or one that the Knight escorts) is being summoned to settle a border dispute; precious resources have been located in an area close to the two kingdoms’ borders, and the Knight’s country is far enough away to be a true third party in negotiation
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There is a wedding of some important person (which can’t be held off if the bride is to stay, er, respectable) and a representative is needed to be sent for good relations
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There have been rumors that certain disreputable persons have been trying to sell an item resembling “The Sword of Calsten” to wealthy private dealers there; the Knight is being sent to see if the rumors are true
How about an inheritance from a long-lost aunt which she has to collect in person - enough to get her out of debt.
Not reading the above posts and admitting it before hand. Also not a D+D guy.
Ummm, the lady-knights baby boy, the product of a magical union between elf and mortal, has been kidnapped to be exploited for his magical powers by the neighboring kingdom of Kaldor. The earl of Sarkum she is visitting is her uncle and has the power to gather an army in order to rescue her child.
On re-reading, you did mention the actual adventure was to happen upon the journey and not the setting itself, but I like my story none-the-same 
Just be glad you posted that here and not at harnforum.com! You’d get flamed six ways from Sunday. Harniacs tend to pride themselves on logic. This ain’t no collection of 13-year-old boys who fantasize about chicks in chainmail. We’re a group made up largely of professional historians and scientists (I’m neither) who can get into deep arguments, sometimes flamewars, about things like whether the endosperm of wheat constitutes a viable nutrient for the poor, or how worsted wool is baled. I once started a thread about how the tide charts were wrong and largely unusable because there was no way a natural sattelite could cause such a thing. The whole board was against me until a professional astronomer stepped in to explain – in painful detail – exactly how orbital mechanics work.
Insult not the logic of Harniacs, for thou art crunchy and taste delicious roasted over a woodfire and glazed in pear and Kaldoran mead sauce. Vintage 718 mead, of course. Any idiot knows that the weather of 719 was a bad year for bees, duh!
I especially like this idea. It’s non-specific and yet contains enough importance to warrent a mission.
In Soviet Harniac, dice roll YOU!
I would still lean in the direction of a trial.
If someone was that keen on making sure that the sword was the real thing, wouldn’t they just draw a damn picture of it and send it to the Knight? I mean, they gotta send a messenger to the Knight anyway to request her attendance, don’t they? Just send the picture along with the messenger. And the distance: couldn’t they be able to find someone else closer — a military historian or a blacksmith — that could perform the same task? Couldn’t they just buy it and identify it later?
But a human imposter, on the other hand, can be questioned, and a portrait is insufficient to expose him. If that human imposter is also a dangerous prisoner, they wouldn’t let him out of his oubliette and send him on a journey to be identified. And if the imposter is trying to impersonate one of the Knight’s alleged friends or relatives, then it isn’t a job that can be passed off to some other expert.
That’s just me, though. Feel free to use whatever works.
Hmmpf. Random quests have a long and noble literary tradition. Any of your Harniacs ever read Morte D’Artur? The thing is chock full of knights feasting in a hall when a damosel rides in on a palfrey followed by a dwarf on a mastiff, begging for some knight to come free her mistress from an ogre or some damned thing.
Your Harn doesn’t sound that different in spirit – England of the 11th century. I don’t know if it’s a universe in which magic actually exists, but in a medieval society of that time, they certainly would have believed in random miracles and saints. So both random quests and religious relics are not out of the question for that milieu. I say, send her after the sacred hipbone of St. Macguffin.
And King Arthur said, “I wouldn’t send a knight out on a dog like this!”