|
Obligatory my players KEEP OUT warning
Alright, so a plotline has developed at the end of book 1 that I'm not entirely sure how to proceed with.
Elijah - Alchemist 3, brother of Wren, learning some gunslinging
Ruetallia - Witch 3, kind to her friends, violet to her enemies
Sanjuro - Bloodrager 3, Android, Lawful Good, almost paladin-like
Wren - Rogue 1/Wizard 2, brother of Eli, heading towards Technomancer prestige
Exploring the final Engineering level, our four heroes bested the gang of half-orcs/ratfolk and barely overcame the gargoyle. After passing carefully by the repair bots and encountering the Gearsman, they made the wise choice to activate the reboot they had noticed earlier.
This, of course, alerted Meyanda when her own robot shut down.
They spent some more time exploring. I ruled that she left the reactor, noticed the unconscious gargoyle (who they had left to stabilize), healed him up, then checked on her men in the other rooms (still unconscious, not worth the spells to bring one up now).
She headed back to the central area with Gruethor, encountering the PCs as they left the southern room.
After a brief exchange of words and unpleasantness, the group surrendered. They had barely taken Gruethor before (yay magic DR) and definitely knew they couldn't take him again plus this new android in their current state. All spells and bombs and rage were gone, it was not a good fight to try.
Meyanda took all of their gear/weapons, everything except armor and the witch's familiar (who had managed to hide inside Rue's clothing). She then took all of them but the android and locked them in one of the bedrooms (no key card of their own to get out with now).
At the moment her and Sanjuro are discussing his place with them. He's a fellow android, and with her experience I figured she'd show him more respect than the others, try to convert him to Hellion.
But beyond that... what now?
- I've established that the reactor work will be done in about a week's time
- There's no reason that she wouldn't prep a few more cures tomorrow and start getting her gang up all and healthy
- The PCs have meager resources now, just a familiar and armor. PCs could prep spells, but against Meyanda plus gargoyle and gang? She's also pointed out that them trying anything dumb will just get one of them killed, guaranteed. She's also implied that the lives of town depend on them behaving too.
Initially I figured Sanjuro might be able to convince her to see things differently but... now I'm realizing that is unlikely. She's fanatically devoted to Hellion, Sanjuro has meh for Diplomacy... hrm.
Anyhow, just looking for ideas on what to do here. Maybe I should have Khonnir and some others come rescue them? I've always avoided NPC rescues in the past, feels like it's taking away from PCs as the focus... but I really don't know here.
|
I think it would be interesting to have her proceed as planned and then take these adventurers back to Scrapwall to present them to Hellion, especially the android Barbarian.
This would have them be slightly underleveled starting book 2 of course but I would have them presented to Hellion in book 2, not his aggregate form but rather the hologram generator that he uses to manifest as a demon and if they'll submit to him, great then he can give them the task of subjugating the rest of the Gangs in scrapwall to prove their worth. When they do that and perform other tasks, gaining his favor you can have some of the other Lords of Rust get angry/jealous and try to kill the PC's and this can help get them gear, and xp and more favor.
If they do agree to work for him/with him then you can kind of go through all of Book 2 from a /evil/ perspective. He could even share details about Unity, its working with evil to overcome an even greater evil really.
Assuming that all goes well, he can give them the task of finding Casandalee which kicks off books 3 and 4 pretty easily.
|
What about if the familiar sneaks off, warns Khonnir, and Khonnir sets up a diversion that draws away Meyanda c.s., so that the PCs get a chance to escape?
That way, you take a lot of the sting out of the "saved by NPC" thing, because the NPCs work off-screen to give the PCs the chance to do some on-screen stuff. But the heroes do get rewarded for saving Khonnir, which is also nice. And it rewards the effort to conceal the familiar.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Talked this over with some others as well, had a few more points brought up:
- One idea that I really loved was to have an interaction with Hellion. I had Meyanda bring in a charged battery and a broken monitor. She then used a spell I made up (basically "contact AI overlord") that required a charged battery. Consumed it, manifested Hellion on the monitor. Got to drop a few info bombs here that surprised the players:
-- They found out that Hellion was from Sanjuro's "homeworld" as well and that the language was his home language (until now they had no idea if these pieces came from other planets at all, let alone a single one).
-- As part of his backstory, I had him be a bodyguard of Casandalee before her fall near Iadenveigh. Sanjuro (having been "born" 3 years ago in the same body) recalls caring for another person and a great battle.
-- Because of this, Hellion recognized Sanjuro, asking if he remembered Casandalee then demenading Meyanda bring him back to Scrapwall alive.
So after all that, got to showcase Hellion a bit, namedrop Scrapwall and Casandalee. All felt natural, but big pieces of information.
Now Sanjuro is locked up in a separate room from the others. Another idea that I'm going with was:
- Sometime after the PCs don't return, something happens to the relay. The PCs had recovered it from Garmen and had Khonnir holding onto it.
- Idea is that Garmen, on his way to flee town, decides to stop by and break in. A fight breaks out and the power relay is knocked aside and damaged, then Garmen flees.
This will knock the relay offline, let Meyanda notice, and send her along the same plans as if this had happened earlier. She will heal a couple of her half-orc guards in the morning with some spells, then take Gruethor to go investigate while the half-orcs stay guard. I'm going to have her setup some crappy backup relay that was a last resort, but will extend the time they need to transfer the power.
During this time, the PCs should be able to come up with some plan to take out the half-orcs and get out. At that point they can recover their gear and setup an ambush for Meyanda when she returns. Epic fight scene, maybe she can get to the reactor and set it off, end of book.
Thanks for the suggestions all!