Party Still Divided Over Whether King is the BBEG After He Deploys Death Knights Against Peasants

A local Dungeons and Dragons party has remained divided about who the campaign's BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) is. This division was expected to disappear after the last session, which featured King Frump sending a squadron of death knights to suppress a group of dissenting peasants. Instead of confirming the King's status as the villain, it has further divided the party. Many villagers had assumed the party would aid them against the undead soldiers, but found them arguing over which side was in the wrong instead.

The King Deploys Death Knights

Before the latest incident, the campaign had been seeded with clues that King Frump may be the campaign's ultimate villain. He had aligned himself with the openly evil noble, Elion Odor, and removed his kingdom from treaties meant to protect the world from existential threats like demon invasions. However, it was his cult of secretive, robed figures making people disappear in the night that led to unrest on the west coast of the Kingdom.

The King sent 700 Death Knights created by his newly established Department of Necromancy Guys to "establish law and order" in the area. The reanimated corpses of fallen paladins marched into the village with long swords and spells like destruction wave prepared. The sight of these red eyed, dark armored figures descending on the town only served to escalate the protests against the King. They also split the party's allegiances.  

A Party Divided

This unprecedented use of deploying undead soldiers on a peaceful domestic population was written to be a clearly villainous act. However half of the party came out in support of the Death Knights. "The peasants are kind of asking for it by complaining," Jon Taylor, who plays the paladin Sir Goodred claimed. "Lke it or not he's the king and if the king wants to disappear people from their churches or off the street that's his right. Plus the peasants tore down a fruit stand and I think we can all agree that destruction of property is evil too. Maybe even more evil than summoning Death Knights."

Taylor was joined by Warlock player Stephanie Whitford in supporting the decision. "It's about time we had a king with enough balls to send a squad of Death Knights to clean up the streets. The peasants have had it too good for too long if you ask me. If they throw tomatoes we throw hellfire orbs. That's how you put down a protest." When Whitford was asked for her alignment she insisted her character Orphanbane Murdergirl was chaotic neutral. 

The dissenting members of the party are bard player Nancy Loman and fighter Eli Valentine. "He gave a whole villain speech about establishing absolute order with an army of undead minions and then laughed maniacally. Plus he's always talking about how The Red Wizards of Thay aren't actually that bad," Loman pointed out. "I really don't understand how we're still having this converstation." 

Valentine was quick to agree adding, "Death Knights aren't even built for non-lethal damage or crowd control. They're literally chaotic evil monsters. That's not a metaphor, they're in the Monster Manual. But when I brought that up Jon and Stephanie said it was disrespectful to all the soldiers who were raised from the dead for this kingdom."

DM Unsure How to Make The Plot Any More Clear

Dungeon Master Nellie Cian was particularly frustrated by the party's division on the issue. "I literally don't know how to make it more clear that King Frump is the bad guy. I thought for sure they'd figure it out when he declared war on the peaceful Ents to the north. Instead they just started talking about how the Ents weren't doing their part to secure the edges of the forest." 

The party was still split on whether King Frump was a villain as of the time of this writing. They were last heard discussing if necromancy is even that evil. Meanwhile, King Frimp held a massive military parade with lightning flashing ominously behind him.