Hi all, we've had a significant change in my parties luck in this weeks session during the Whispering Cairn, and I'm quite stuck on what to do next. First, backstory... (apologies for length)
The party are/were as follows : (all level 2 now)
- Half Elf Alchemist (it's relevant that his father works in the Dourstone Mine as a demolitions expert, mother lives in the Free City, Grayhawk in this case)
- Sylph Rogue (recent addition, player started with an Elf 'Good' Necromancer but had moral conflicts with the rest of the party and also, he died)
- Halfling Bard (local boy, the 'knows everyone, talks too much, annoys everyone' type)
- Human (I think) Oracle
- Human Paladin (also a local boy, 'rich' parents live in the town)
- Gnome Sorcerer
- Aasimar Monk
The lead up to last night (over several sessions)
The group have investigated the Whispering Cairn (kicked off by the Necromancer coming to town with the rival group looking for local cairns to investigate). They had fully explored the Cairn all the way up to the ghost of Alaistor Land, and agreed to go return his bones to the family graves
This (as expected) led to the Land farmhouse, the owlbear, the arm with the tattoo on it, and Kullen's gang at the Feral Dog. As last week ended, they party had waited out for the gang to leave the Dog (about 3am) and head home, where they trailed Kullen back to his house.
Last night went like this : (DM dice ran hot, so it was an unlucky time for the party)
The rogue managed to get into Kullen's house via jimmying a window, then opening the front door. Kullen was fast asleep drunk, the rogue and paladin woke him and asked him for information about the graves. This conversation went wrong for three reasons...
- They explained why they were there by telling him their entire backstory, which confused and bemused Kullen in his drunken state
- They attempted to bribe him with a very low bribe (30gp)
- They fluffed their diplomacy roll
As there were only two people confronting him, 'drunk Kullen' become 'raging Kullen' and he went for his axe. The paladin attempted to subdue Kullen, but a lucky crit put the paladin down. Kullen was subsequently bludgeoned to death by the Monk. They quickly searched the place, got the Paladin back on his feet and fled the scene.
The following morning, totally unknown to the party, Kullens corpse was found, brought to Smenk where he was questioned (using a Speak with Dead scroll) and the Monks description given. This with informants around town gave Smenk an idea to all of the parties involvement (with the exception of the Rogue and Sorcerer)
The party decided to split their efforts at noon that day, as the party had determined that Kullen worked for Smenk, the rogue and the sorcerer (who is stealth specialised) headed over to case Smenks manor.
This led to the rogue being spotted (twice) and being run off. The guards suspicions were reported to Smenk who told one of the guards to put the rest of the gang on alert. As that guard left, the sorcerer trailed him and managed to pinpoint the house of one of the gang (although the sorcerer is not sure who's house it is). At this point he lost the guard and returned to the group. The rogue by this point had found a better spot to watch the manor, so he wasn't involved in what happened next at the Dog.
Meanwhile, the Alchemist used one of his abilities to concoct a Disguise Self potion, which he drank and disguised himself as one of the gang. He headed into the Dog, and the barman (clearly going to be a big burly well connected type) instantly realised that the Alchemist was a fraud (more good opposed rolls on my part). So the barman talked to the Alchemist, while signalling to his friends in the bar that something was amiss (by calling him 'my friend') and the Alchemist was lynched and beaten unconscious.
Twenty minutes later the party knew something was off, as they knew the disguise would have expired by then, so they planned to go in via the back door. At this point, the Bard decided that because everyone liked him, he go in the front door as a distraction. As the main party realised that the back door was locked (and the rogue wasn't present to unlock it), the Bard had gone in, found the bar as per a normal day, then annoyed the barman that much, that the patrons lynched him too.
At this point, the rest of the group (all bar the rogue) decided to assault the bar via the back window. A quick fight later and two patrons were dead, the Paladin was bleeding out and the rest of the party had fled. No-one left in the bar could tell that the Paladin was still alive and so he did bleed out. His body (along with the other two) were stripped and subsequently delivered to Filge.
Later, the Alchemist was brought round and with the Bard unconscious and at knifepoint, was questioned (by the barman with Smenk and Filge watching, but they didn't know this as it was a specifically lit cellar). He gave detail to the rest of the group, and the reasons to what they were doing and why. He was knocked out, and the Bard was questioned in the same way. The Bard practically gave his life story, and overhead Filge talking about the 'bones' (again he couldn't tell who this was). In the end, the Bard was told that he and the Alchemist must leave town and never come back or there will be repercussions to his friends and his friends families. The Bard was then knocked out.
The Alchemist and Bard come round (stripped of gear) on the road outside Diamond Lake, determined that they will go back (the Alchemist is vowing revenge, and burning the Dog to the ground), and skirted town and met back up with the rest of the party (missing the Paladin) at the Mine Office near the Cairn. The rogue has snuck back into town to meet the Alchemists father to get some basic gear. His father is sending the Rogue back with a note to the Alchemist asking him to not get involved and leave for the Free City, as 'he doesn't understand what these people are capable of'. I fully believe that the Alchemist will ignore this note.
The party are now licking their wounds in the Mine Office and trying to work out their next step... I'm not sure what that step is yet, and I've yet to talk to the Paladin player offline about what he's going to do next.
As it stands, the party thinks that Smenk is likely the kingpin, and think that most of the muscle in the town are either allied to him or paid off by him, and that they have few (if any) allies in town. They don't know about Filge yet (or Allustan), but they've determined that there is a mage involved.
My question is, what would Smenk, Filge and crew do next?
- I would assume that most of the muscle (everyone bar Smenk and Filge) would assume that they've done enough to scare the rest of the party off.
- Smenk will have the parties family members watched for three to four weeks, so that they don't try anything out of the ordinary.
- Would it make sense for Smenk to somehow call on his new 'allies' in the TFoE Cultists (even though he's terrified of them) to help deal with the PCs? Would he track the PCs to the Mine Office and approach them early to deal with the cultists?
- Could Smenk make a threat against Neff to coerce Allustan to make a move on the PCs? Either in an effort to scare them away from Diamond Lake (I don't think Allustan would agree to kill them) or recruit them to deal with the Cultists?
What would you think Smenk / Filge would do next? I'm trying to play them as close to as written as possible, any ideas will help!
If two of the characters were really lynched, then their players would be making new characters.
Not having run AoW yet (too many APs waiting on the shelf!), I can't give any good advice, unfortunately. Hopefully someone else will have a more relevant comment.
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Smenk is a Magnificent Bastard. Have him try to turn this to his advantage. He contacts the PCs and tells them he'll agree to put everything aside—and even help them out on their little corpse run—if they agree to owe him a favor. He calls up Filge and has the guy just flat-out give up the skeleton.
See, Smenk may be pissed at the PCs for taking away his second-favorite thug, but he's infinitely more unhappy with the situation with the Faceless One. The Ebon Triad recently dropped the head of his second-in-command on his bed. And since he's currently short some men, perhaps coercing the party to go up against the Ebon Triad can kill two birds with one stone.
If they renege on the deal, Smenk can kill one or several of their family members, capture another, then cheerfully repeat the command. This will likely lead to the party fighting Smenk and Filge, mind you. Smenk should subtly warn of this possibility in advance—have him emphasize when he offers the deal that he does not like people breaking their word.
If the party simply refuses to take the offer, they later hear that Smenk has been murdered. The Ebon Triad knows he's been plotting against him and ran out of patience. Now, this will likely make the party happy at first—but the Triad knows they had dealings of some nature with Smenk, so they're next.
Thank you Mr Cleaver, you are Magnificent (not a bastard tho)
Completely forgot about the actions regarding the Cultists and his second in command. Totally going to run with this.
The party will be getting a visit from the rest of Kullens gang (and some extra muscle) shortly... 'Mr Smenk wants to 'ave a chat'
Just to let you know what happened this week, because it continued down the 'wierd' path.
The party (hiding out at he Mine Office) decide to head back to the Cairn to try and persuade the ghost of Alaistor Land to help them by leaving the Cairn and go searching for his family. As they left the Office, they noticed a group of men heading up the plateau (I've got the Mine Office and the Cairn up at either end of a plateau north of town), so they hightailed it to the Cairn.
The men in question were actually the rest of Kullens gang and some thugs, send up by Smenk to tell the PCs that Smenk wants to have a chat with them. The PCs assumed they were Smenks thugs sent to kill them, and setup an ambush in the Cairn.
Some hours later, the men tracked the PCs to the Cairn, was wary about wandering in and therefore sent in two thugs to check out the entry way. These thugs were ambushed and killed by the PCs before they could react, so Kullens gang retreated somewhat. This led to a waiting game where the PCs eventually went down to talk to the Ghost, and Kullens gang headed back to town.
Alaistor Land told the PCs he couldn't leave the Cairn, but he could tell that his families bones were near (effectively in town). The PCs went back to the Mine Office to find the Owlbear cub killed (the party oracle was trying to befriend and train it, and had him based at the office. When Kullen's gang found it, one of them who'd come off nasty against the Owlbear decided to kill it. Doesn't send the right message of 'we want to talk' but he did it in a moment of anger).
The PCs headed down towards the town the next day to see that there was a group of men outside the Dourstone Mine. They didn't know this, but this is effectively Smenk trying to have some kind of roadblock to allow the PCs to be spotted and 'requested' to meet with Smenk. This meant Smenk had to strain his relationship with Dourstone a little, but he thinks that once he has the PCs on his side, their actions would mean they probably will kill off Dourstone as well.
Smenk currently sees the PCs has a bunch of slightly unhinged individuals capable of random acts of violence (which if you look at what they've done already, is probably quite true). He really wants to use them to clear out the cultists right now.
The PC's snuck into town (the roadblock is easily avoided) and the Oracle contacted the Acolytes at the graveyard, and found that the Land family have not been interred in the town graveyard, nor have there been any interments in the last two weeks. The Acolytes did advise that they are wary that a new necromancer is in town, someone by the name of Filge. (The PCs at this point have not followed this lead up)
Finally, part of the group have snuck across town to the house that the Sorceror saw visited by one of Smenks thugs last week, and broke in. They're totally unaware of who's house it is (the ranger in Kullens gang), but noticed that the door (and windows) had a simple device on it to show any entry (strand of hair stuck across the frame). They broke in, stole his cash, replaced the hair and headed back to the party...
That's where it ended, this is turning out to be a hell of an interesting game!