| NERVchild |
I'm running Kingmaker on a weekly basis with a college club. They have done something a bit rash: attacking the Stag Lord, and then running away. The story with spoilers follows...
The party:
Netvor - Tiefling (limited powers) Cavalier of Tome 1/Transmuter 1 (working towards Eldrich Knight). Main speaker for the party.
Syra - Human Witch. Main source of healing.
Chronos Sertova - Half-elf Rogue.
Urien - Elf Conjurer w/teleport step.
Lucky - Halfling Cavalier of the Paw. Rides a wolf.
The party did not find Kressel's camp until 2nd level and day 19 of the adventure, which left plenty of time for Kressel to prepare defenses and a counterattack: Molotov cocktails for Oleg's. The party's assault on Kressle went down a little too easy, especially when I threw in Falgrim Sneed (the mercenary worth 4 mtw weapons), so a bit of GM illusionary magic was used. One bandit was cursed to being disguised as Sneed (a reused curse from my own playthrough of Kingmaker), while the real one took over Kressel's mission and added the Kidnapping of Svetlana to his list. The party took Kressel back with them (one of the few bandits to survive interrogation) and saw the burnt fort and Svetlana's capture. The chase was on.
The chase lasted through the night and into the day, when suddenly everybody's survival rolls turned to crap. Still, they trudged south. The Old Sycamore was spotted, and a cave entrance was found. Two mites were found and attacked. One rolled double nat 20s on Netvor, dealing a mighty three damage. Both were brutally killed. The party decided this couldn't be the place for the bandit to come, so they left the mite home for another day.
Some time later, the party finds the Stag Lord fort. They decide to attack it another day, and are followed by Falgrim Sneed and some mooks. He was easily captured and was almost killed before they stopped to heal him and check his description (1 hit point away from death). They haul him back to Oleg's, get some supplies for bribing, grab the whiskey, and head out again. They were delayed when Urien the wizard was nearly eaten by a whiptail centipede and a shambling mound, but they eventually made it.
The party of level twos got in with the password and took the loot to Akiros. They rolled 20+ on their bluff, Akiros got 0 on his sense motive, so they got to stay the day and chat. They gamed, they chatted, they hunted and ate. Dovan made contact with Netvor and paid him 2 platinum to make sure Akiros disappeared accidentally. Half the fort went to sleep, and they set into motion Operation Kill Everyone.
Round 1: Dovan takes a crit, another hit, and barely wakes up some others before going down. Auchs takes a big hit, and returns the favor to Netvor. Netvor runs for it. Akiros gets attacked by color spray, saves, and goes into rage in an effort to kill the wizard. Night watch try to shoot party, but do horribly (two nat 1s in a row).
Round 2: Dovan is confirmed killed, more bandits awaken and are cut down. Auchs lands in middle of group and sees Dovan dead. Sera rolls a nat 20 bluff to say Ayles did it.
Round 3: Auchs goes off to beat Ayles to death, Chronos continues to cut down bandits as rest converge on center room where Akiros is trying to cut down the wizard.
Round 4: Party is surrounding Akiros and dealing wounds. Akiros can barely roll higher than single digits. Auchs comes back and sees the melee.
Round 5: All converge on Akiros and Auchs. Neither one can hit anybody and are losing HP fast. Things are looking good for the party, until I call for a perception roll.
Round 6: Netvor misses the perception check and takes a sneak shot to the chest, downing him in one hit. Sera tries to hit Stag lord with hex, but it fails.
Round 7: Stag lord uses helm to sneak attack the human witch, bringing her below zero and taking a pot shot at cavalier. The party gets the Oh Sh** look on their face.
Round 8+: Nat One on stag lord, and he can't shoot worth crap anymore. Auchs goes down on Akiros, who rolls like crap to get the big man off him. Rest of party call for horses, grab up barely alive party members, and head out the door. A night of healing and hiding, and then they race back to Oleg's.
So, in total the party has killed six out of seven bandits, Dovan is dead, and both Auchs and Akiros are badly hurt. What does he do?
The party is close to level three. Aside from taking a week to recover and recruit replacements, I don't have a solid plan for Stag Lord aside from siege of Oleg's fort. Akiros still hasn't played his card yet. Auchs will have to follow Akiros. Svetlana is still with the Stag Lord.