Strong but flexible character motivations
I agree I could have handled it a bit better.
On the other hand, I had tried to convince the players (including you) to do a little bit of the world-building, such as describing their temple/grove/university and their mentor there, and encouraged them (you) to discuss the situation with them. Had you done so, you would have found another avenue of the insurrectionist movement, one that you could place a lot more trust in, and a validation of the NPC you were working with. I could have done the world-building part, and I certainly would have participated in it if I felt there was interest (as I did with Chu Yan's attempts in this direction). However, even assuming that the players' mentors had existed, it didn't make any sense at all for them to have approached you with the information, it had to come in the other direction.
But the real problem was more one of game style, and it was my fault for not making it more clear up front that I was looking for players that are a lot more pro-active rather than reactive. Part of the problem is that I'd really rather be running a Fate-based game, where such an approach is more expected, but I'm still not confident enough in my own Fate experience to pull the trigger, there.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:04, Thu 25 Mar 2021.