Bandit Camp Breakout! (Some mild book 1 spoilers)

[thegreenteagamer]

Started Kingmaker yesterday. We will have six players regularly, so I used the six-player conversion. One player didn't show up, and I asked if they wanted to go with the 4 or 6 player version, and they asked for the 6.

They handled defending Oleg's place pretty easily, and then decided to head straight to the Thorn River Camp, but they decided to explore each hex along the way. Their very first hex was a random encounter, and I rolled a werewolf! I decided not to murder a brand new party of first level folks and rerolled for a worg, which they took out, but it nearly destroyed the rogue in two rounds as it surprised them. They headed back to heal, and then had the same issue with the giant spider and the ranger.

As a result, they arrived right after the 3-day limit to catch the bandits unawares at Thorn River Camp. Between a prepared camp and the 6-player conversion being used for 5 players, and them not having leveled up at all, and 3/5 players being brand new to Pathfinder, it didn't go well.

I'm not one to pull my punches on my players, but it was their first game, and as I said, most of them were brand new to tabletop altogether, and so I didn't really want to TPK on the first session. So when 3/5 of the team were unconscious but stable and bleeding out, and the samurai was completely and utterly surrounded, I had Kressle demand their surrender. The samurai (reflavored as a knight) was a bastard of a noble, and actually well favored by his noble father, and so I figured they'd want to ransom him. You see, the missing player is a barbarian orc with the brigand trait, and chaotic evil (but the player has sworn and promised to be a team player on threat of being forced to play NG if he causes trouble) so I figured he could be one of the bandits, betray them, and offer to help them escape if they made it worth their while next session.

Well, the rogue surrenders, and the samurai agrees to and sheathes his weapon - but the samurai was a sword saint. It was all a ploy to try one last iajitsu against Kressle. When he rolls a 2 on the die, it doesn't go well, and he gets stabbed more than Julius Caesar during the Ides of March.

So, I need to figure out three things:

1. Why are they taking them captive instead of ransoming them? Maybe once they see the charter they realize these people could be worth something to the Swordlords?

2. The Thorn River camp is pretty open, and wouldn't make a great spot to keep captives, but the Stag Lord's fort is way too strong a place to be taken to and escape from at level 1. Is there a good spot you think they'd take them?

3. The new character is going to be a paladin. An angel-blooded aasimar paladin with a halo and the whole shebang. I'm thinking of how do I introduce him? Nobody knows the party is missing, so my initial idea "coming to rescue" is unlikely. "Happens to be attacking the bandits while they're trying to escape" is the best I have, but I can't think of much better...

Any ideas?

[magispitt]

1. Possibly so that they can force them to become bandits later, maybe the Stag Lord said to recruit more peons. My other thought was that they're going to take them to the Stag Lord so that they don't get punished too harshly for failing to raid Oleg's successfully

2. I think you could keep them in the River Camp if you tied them up with rope. This gives them the chance to either break the ropes with brute force it slide out more sneakily

3:

Akiros is an ex paladin at the Stag Lord's Fort, maybe have the new paladin be his brother who was looking for him - that way you could have both the brigand and the paladin in the same camp. The paladin would be disguised as a bandit too obviously, though now you he a better reason for Akiros to turn against the Stag Lord later once he sees his brother had come and found him

[KenderKin]

In my version of Goblin kingmaker, the original heroes were wiped out on the plains battling all the bandits.

One alternative is a daring rescue operation by the kobold Mikmek or the mite Crackjaw or both of them working cooperatively to stop the kobold mite conflict.

I mean we know some little rascal stole a certain bag of loot from the bandits in the camp, so another raid is in order......

Alternately the fey pranksters are certainly up to the task.....

[thegreenteagamer]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I particularly like number 3, magispitt. I'm thinking by "brother" you meant brother in the paladin order, not necessarily brother biologically.

The idea is he could be trying to hunt down and bring Akiros back into the fold through repentance, or, barring that, make sure he never kills again if he doesn't.

KK, those are pretty good ideas, but they have met neither the mites, nor the kobolds, nor even the fey pranksters yet. They pretty much only did what I outlined in the original post. :-/

[pennywit]

Hi, there. You could play with a slightly different plotline (and one that's been broached elsewhere in this forum).

One possibility is to make the Stag Lord a bit touched in the head. Perhaps he actually thinks that he's the rightful lord of the northern Greenbelt. In this scenario, he thinks that the bandits are his soldiers and tax collectors, and he regards his officers (Akiros, Dovan, and Auchs) as his trusted advisors.

Of the bandits and officers, only Auchs really buys into the Stag Lord's kingdom fantasy. But since Auchs is big and strong, and the Stag Lord is great with the bow, most of the bandits don't want to argue with him. Besides, Dovan finds the entire ruse useful, and Akiros finds the delusion somewhat fitting. He's a pretend paladin, after all, so it's fitting he's a knight in a pretend kingdom.

The bandits can clap the PCs in irons and take them to the fortress. There, Dovan is all in favor of executing them on the spot, but the Stag Lord intervenes. He rips up the PCs' charter from the Swordlords. Instead, the Stag Lord offers to make them His Lordship's Surveyors, tasked with exploring the Stag's Kingdom, cataloging the inhabitants therein, and reminding all that they must pay their taxes (read: deliver tribute) in exchange for enjoying the Stag's Peace.

If the players turn down the Stag Lord's offer, he will point out that they are prisoners, rightfully captured in war, and that they can become prisoners once again, or even be executed at his pleasure. The Stag Lord is crazy, but he's also dangerous.

To REALLY make this scenario bizarre, consider:

* The Stag Lord invites the players to join him for a royal banquet. He hosts them in a ruined hall festooned with badly made banners. The Stag Lord and his officers eat at the High Table, while the men eat at lower tables. The Stag Lord proclaims that he serves a bounteous table ... but the food is all stale and undercooked.

* High Tea with his beautiful wife. His "wife" is actually a peasant who was taken prisoner and put in badly tailored noble's clothing. She's absolutely terrified of the mercurial Stag Lord and the other bandits. But she plays her part because she doesn't know what else to do.

* A gnome bard (a real bard) who is in complete possession of his faculties and not afraid of the Stag Lord at all. He just finds the whole thing damn amusing. He's trying to teach fumble-fingered bandits how to play in a proper orchestra. He also announces all visitors and blows a trumpet fanfare when before the Stag Lord enters any room. The fanfare is "Shave and a Haircut." This gnome could be related to Tartuk.

[Cuup]

How did they know where the Thorn River camp was? Have any of the PC's played Kingmaker before? If so, that seems like a poor move, as they would probably remember how tough that encounter is. If that's the case, I wouldn't feel too bad killing the more experienced players off, as kind of a slap on the wrist. All the same, here's my suggestions:

1. The bandits are very disappointed that the expensive ransom they were about to have got himself killed, and are holding out hope they can identify one of the survivors as a secondary expensive hostage.

2. The Bandits have captured the only ones who stood against them at Oleg's. Oleg's, as far as their concerned, is now theirs again. They could take them there, feeling extra cockey, as it would be the best place to get one of the PC's identified, and then send out a ransom message afterwards.

3. I really like Magispitt's suggestion.

[captain yesterday]

Probably tracked them there, if I recall it's not too difficult to do.

[KenderKin]

thegreenteagamer wrote:

KK, those are pretty good ideas, but they have met neither the mites, nor the kobolds, nor even the fey pranksters yet. They pretty much only did what I outlined in the original post. :-/

Well as far as the fey pranksters go....

Spoiler:

if you have the PCs tied to trees with ropes and then mass confusion occurs....the players find the ropes cut, the bandits distracted and make an escape then you can tie the severed rope of the dead trapper and antics from the camp to the encounter with the fey as written....I also have the fey helping the PCs on a quest for darkwood at the end of book 1.....

[thegreenteagamer]

Cuup wrote:

How did they know where the Thorn River camp was?

They interrogated Happs with a crazy intimidation roll and threats of removing body parts men don't want removed. Only one player played KM, and not very far.

[Philip Knowsley]

I like KK's ideas of introducing the fey Pranksters.
This is exactly the sort of thing they'd do in their patch & it doesn't even
have to all go the PCs way...

e.g. yes, their ropes are suddenly cut or untied, & yes, there seems to be
some sort of flair up in the bandit's fire (strangely arcane come to think of
it)...& why did that bandit just trip over for no reason...

But - the fey have no particular reason to like the PCs yet, so are not friends
or feeling beholden to them, so why not make a chase scene out of it? i.e.
when the PCs are just sneaking off, a disembodied voice calls out (in a
somewhat high pitched manner) - "Quick, they're getting away!"

You don't have to have the fey ever be visible, & it will make a great plot
reveal later on when the PCs are actually getting pranked themselves... :)

[thegreenteagamer]

That's a good idea, and I like it. The only thing is if the pranksters help, how do I introduce both a LG and CE characters without them fighting? A bandit betraying his own might win a paladin over to temporary trust that this person may be redeemable (I think paladin is going Sarenrae but I'm not sure yet), but if the pranksters do the rescue what role does the Orc Barbarian play?

[RobRendell]

Perhaps you could run a combination of all of the above, like this:

• The bandits go through their captives' stuff, and find the charter. After reading it Kressel decides that the PCs (and the charter) should be sent to the Stag Lord.
  
• However, they don't set off straight away, so they'll keep the PCs tied up at the camp for a while.
  ** If Kressel or many of the bandits were injured, perhaps they want to heal up a bit first.
  ** Perhaps they don't want to head off towards the fort in the middle of the day, knowing they'd have to camp out part-way there in the Kamelands.
  ** Or even, you could have it that the Stag Lord's booze isn't there yet, and they're not game to go to the fort without it. A couple of brushed-up bandits were sent to Restov on horse-back to buy it with loot a few days ago, and they need to wait for them to return.
  
• Given that they're in the camp for a while before being taken to the fort, your Barbarian PC has the opportunity to rescue the other PCs, establishing his bona fides with them (why does he rescue them? That's up the the player to justify).
  
• If the escape is going too easily, you could have the fey do the "They're getting away!" thing (as well as pyrotechnics on the fire etc.) during the escape, as a great way to establish the tone of the mysterious fey-infested forest.
  
• If the escape doesn't go well, and they end up being recaptured and dragged down to the Stag Lord's fort, you could use pennywit's great idea to give the PCs another out.