Low Level Ambush on return from the Foxglove hunt. (SPOILER for Copper Ferrets)

[Romaq]

A PC in our group, Klyan, decided to drop in at the Fatman's Feedbag on her own to check out the local "toughs". The night was still young, and people mostly ignored her. She decided to talk with Jubrayl and see if he had anything "fun" going on she could join. He dismissed and pointedly ignored her. As she was leaving, she passed her slight-of-hand check against his perception and scored a scroll, then sat back down at her table.

Soon enough, Jubrayl saw Kylan playing with the scroll without reading it, which is the only reason he saw fit to allow her to leave the Feedbag alive, but he was annoyed. So he told Klyan he wanted the Pixie's Kitten shut down, he didn't care how, and that he would have Gaia Acari follow up.

Gaia did, but that's another story. Particular with *this* thread, Jubrayl is still pissed, but just enough to get the point across rather than kill Kylan outright.

We are still AGL 1, 4 PCs plus Foxglove and three of his menservants to manage the horses while they hunt on foot in Tickwood. The party, according to the map, has to cross a bridge at the west end of Tickwood, which seems a reasonable and safe spot to ditch the horses for the hunt and leave them in the care of the menservants.

On the way back too the bridge, however, it appears the menservants are a bit bloodied, gagged and tied together while an Encounter waits for the party to return. All they ask is a toll for crossing the bridge back. Say that fine boar there and some of those shiny buttons off the Govner's coat. That'll do.

If the encounter defeats the group, they'll simply make off with the boar and the buttons, and whisper a message to Kylan to take care what business she meddles in, and then to mention aloud, "And now you know who the traitor is." And a run off not to be seen unless the party encounters them on the road again at some future date.

If the party wins the encounter without killing all the bandits, Jubrayl still wants to get the "don't screw with me again" message across, as well as hint, "a traitor is among you" just to screw with the group, but it has to be done in such a way Jubrayl can't be charged with any wrong doing.

So I need to plan for how this works if the bandits are brought back to trial at Sandpoint. Can they just sit & rot for 1d6 weeks for attempted banditry if they refuse to speak? I've thought of Jubrayl being upset with them for failing to humiliate the group and murdering them in jail, but *then* you have the problem of "Speak with the Dead" and other such messy business.

Ideas? Suggestions? My goal is not to punish Kylan. What the player did was accept extraordinary risk attempting to infiltrate the Sczarni faction, but Jubrayl is no idiot and there is no way he's going to, "Why sure strange person to town! Come on in and join my gang of little bandits!" Uhm... no. And if she can't deal with a couple of goons, Kylan isn't worth wasting time on anyway from Jubrayl's perspective.

Also, I want Foxglove to have a reason to look more closely at Jubryl.

Why would Foxglove care?:

Because Foxglove wants to impress Kylan, and having Jubryl as the first of the Skinsaw Man's murders feels exactly right, especially if it implicates Kylan as a suspect.

So I have this opportunity to grab my group by the nose and make this Jubrayl thing personal. Suggestions?

[bulbaquil]

Simple: The bandits don't know of Jubrayl's involvement directly. Truth spells and speak with dead can't reveal what they didn't know.

So have it that the bandits didn't get the order directly from Jubrayl. They were paid by one of his lackeys using an alias, and by the time the bandits are interrogated, said lackey is laying low in a Sczarni safe house in Magnimar, not to emerge until "The Skinsaw Murders" is well underway. Kylan and Sheriff Hemlock may suspect Jubrayl, but there's not enough evidence to convict. (Not to mention that Jubrayl can always call in a blackmail "favor" from the Scarnettis to get him out of the jam.)

Consider also not having Foxglove stay in Sandpoint after the hunt for at least enough time for Kylan to share her suspicions on Jubrayl with him, before he returns to Magnimar. (This is fairly easy to do without messing with the plot unless your players are itching to raid Thistletop, since you control when Ameiko is kidnapped.)

[Romaq]

Thanks! I was also came across the Rushlight Society in "Champions of Corruption".

I didn't come across your idea, but having a mule from Rushlight deliver the instructions and pass on to Magnimar works well. Then the part about having Foxglove hang around just a bit, I'll see what I can do with that. I'm really new to all of this. I want the brass ring. I want this campaign to be the event the players talk about with joy. I want this to be the game I dreamed of playing all the years I've heard of D&D but felt creeped out about because of religious indoctrination.

Anyway, thank you for your ideas and encouragement. I want this thing.

[Romaq]

So... the ambush happened, the players were too cagey for me to pull off a surprise ambush from behind. The Cleric shoved the ambusher into the water to drown and float away, while the Barbarian took the Fighter down to one HP in a single hit, at which point he and his companion drop weapons and crap themselves. It wasn't as much of a threat as I had hoped, but I didn't want to overpower the group either. Low levels are so dicey. What I missed out on was the Bull Rush allows an attack of opportunity. The rogue who was bull rushed should have attempted a grapple to pull the group's cleric back towards the water with him to make things a bit more 'interesting'. I'm still a newb GM, but this is how I get to learn.