Radical Ending to Life's Bazaar


Shackled City Adventure Path


Life's Bazaar took quite a twist in my campaign. The party found the elevator to the Malachite Fortress quite quickly (while still 1st level). Despite being mauled by the Stone Spike and Xukasus, they escaped back up the elevator. They poked around in Jzadirune a little more (until hitting 2nd level), then returned and slew the two guardians.

Pressing on into the fortress they slew the guards in the Forge and then headed right into Kazmojen's chambers. Things looked really bad, but Vhalantru's appearance gave them a breather and a lucky color spray took out Prickles. Kazmojen still knocked down two party members before seeking reinforcements.

At this point the party was its own worst enemy. The mage and rogue wanted to take the kids and run. The paladin and the bard wanted to stay and fight. One group would spike a door and the other group would remove the spike. Kazmojen ran to the Guard Barracks, the Main Hall, and the Main Barracks in turn and ordered the hobgoblins in to the fray. The mage and the rogue got away with the kids. The paladin, bard, and cleric were all captured alive.

The mage and rogue were smart. They got help (volunteer and paid) from several parties in the city (Alex Tercival, Skylar Krewis, the Stormblades). Ike Iverson was even willing to help, as the party cleric is a cleric of Wee Jas. They prepared to storm the Fortress the next day.

During the night the slavers decided to release the cleric of Wee Jas by escorting him up to Keygan's shop and turning him loose (without explaining why, although I decided they were contacted by Ike). The slavers also nabbed Keygan and ransacked his shop. When the rescuers arrived the next day they discovered that Kazmojen and crew had abandoned the fortress, leaving the two other PCs and most of the townsfolk behind (they took the cook & Keygan with them and finished torturing Coryston Pike to death before leaving).

I know I let the party off very easy, but now they have several mysteries to resolve. My assumption is that the party cleric of Wee Jas has the Carcerian sign (the backstory he wrote plays perfectly into that idea), and that Kazmojen got word from Ike that the slavers' cover was blown. Ike may also have paid a ransom for the PCs (they are from noble families, and he might be able to use that against them in the future).

Now the group is cleaning out the rest of Jzadirune while I try to bait them with the Mad God's Key (altered as mentioned in another thread here). Kazmojen may return once the heat has died down. The party is interested in purchasing Keygan's shop, which reverted to city property. The Stormblades are taking a lot of credit for helping rescue the townsfolk.

Any other ideas about how I might twist this outcome? I made a lot of snap decisions so the players of captured PCs could rejoin the game as quickly as possible (I didn't want to spend a long time GMing one group of prisoners and one group of free PCs, and they had no intention of "recruiting" other second level characters to join the rescue attempt). In retrospect I could have had them roleplay the rescuers (Alex, guardsmen, Stormblades, but I think it is better to keep those NPCs somewhat mysterious).

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