Truth_'s page

I need some guidance in Cheliax lore, reasonable homebrew, and effective GMing. Last session my party failed a heist and all got knocked out and arrested by the dottari.

Backdrop:
We’re in Book 1 on Week 4. The players have gone off-script to fortify the Wasp Nest and clear the nearby sewers over two weeks for better movement. They have freed the mercenaries from the Saltworks, but have not done the other tasks. Then they decided they needed a few things for their growing operation: money, manpower, and notoriety to grow their resistance. Freeing slaves at the same time was also important.

They asked about any slave markets, and while none were listed in the city almanac, I figured there would be a single small one for use in the plantations of the North Plains or possibly mines, as well as Nidalese merchants. The citizens don’t love it, but it’s legal. Tossed in the sale of indentured servitude contracts there as well. They decided to hit it.

What happened:
Waiting for peak hours and several sales to go through, the PCs waited for one last sale before jumping in. They simultaneously tried to knock out a noble who was leading newly-purchased slaves away, free a couple new slaves being led out for sale, and steal the strongbox with the gold in it before it was transferred indoors. They did not team up in this endeavor, spreading themselves thin and eventually committing to the fight against the auctioneer’s men instead of fleeing, resulting in their getting surrounded. No one offered surrender, so they fought on. Dottari showed up and eventually subdued them all.

Aftermath:
They all used non-lethal until the very end. Two employees were knocked out, and one dottari. After two players went down, the third player finally used lethal for the first time and managed to kill an employee (fourth player missed session). A freed slave was also knocked out. There were no other casualties.

No one is aware they are the Silver Ravens, although two of them did shout a tagline that outs them as Milani adherents.

Options:
They killed someone. If it wasn’t for that, this might be different. This is too serious for a dottari tower, so instead I’m thinking they get sent to the Holding House from Book 2 for processing. One player has Legal Lore, but I cannot imagine it saving them from a serious sentencing for attacking both citizens and the city guard, plus killing someone (even if only 1 of them did the murder).

The player who missed the session wants to break them out, preferably using the sewers and the tengu and mercenary teams, plus some goblins they subdued in the sewers, as well as Laria and Rexus. This sounds difficult for their level. Additionally, they’ve done this sort of thing before in other campaigns: bold actions that get them in trouble with the law that they disregard. I can’t let them off the hook easily, otherwise they’ll just do it again (been there, done that, and had an OOC talk at that time).

Refusal to let them try a jailbreak (arguing it’s just too heavily fortified and no wide sewer connection) is an option to show there are consequences, and a new group of characters are needed (in Book 2 they can free their old characters and choose who to play?).

I can’t think of other options. It seems assault and murder would not just have them doghoused and released. Murder seems too steep for 6 months indentured servitude or some other small enough time period that we could “fast forward.”

What do you think a reasonable punishment is given how lawful Cheliax is, and balancing player fun without letting the players off the hook for terrible choices?

I am in Book 1 and my players have repeatedly mentioned wanting to clear the entire city's sewers as a means of travel for them and their teams, plus any folks they rescue, not to mention as a place to stay if things get too hot.

Aside from the amount of time it would take to clear an entire city, even a "small" one like Kintargo, what sewer encounters outside the book and/or with substance have you created?

I want some longer encounters or even side-quests available from this. For example, I have put a group of goblins down there that has lived there for some time. However, they've recently entered a war for their area. A morgodea (cockroach-controlling fey) has moved in, and needs space and food for its growing cockroach hordes. They have already stumbled on rumors of goblins ranging out of the sewers, and city employees complaining the cockroach problem is rendering sewer maintenance impossible. They'll either stumble upon the lair directly, a goblin scout, or a wounded goblin. This will either lead to a battle with the goblins (four normal gobbos, a warrior, and a shaman plus a neutral giant leech in the water and several goblins and roach corpses around the area) or team up with them against the morgodea and its forces (itself plus a giant cockroach and a venomroach).

I'll be using some of the random encounters, but I want some longer ones, or ones that take several encounters over time as well (like slowly taking back a large section from a particular gang over a few weeks).

*This isn't the GM's reference thread, so friendly spoiler warning for all books.

I have fully read and begun to GM Book 1. I have fully read Book 2 and skimmed 3-6, taking notes. Excuse any ignorance despite this.

The adventure seems a bit 2D politically. There are many potential factions mentioned, but they do not seem alive. Barzillai as the BBEG has some reactions. Everyone else, however, seems frozen in time and merely a brief backdrop. Please correct me in all ways I am wrong, but I am looking for ways to make the campaign a bit more reactive and proactive, living, and 3D.

The cultists of Mathallah sit at the anchor and do nothing until slaughtered by Thrune. The (separate? Aware of one another?) cultists in the Lucky Bones also just have their own sacrifice parties. (I also notice the lore on Math is pretty light).

The Skinsaw Cult is also missing from most the campaign despite being next door. I don't know enough about them to know what they might be doing before the SRs peeve one of their members in Vyre.

The gangs (Red Jills, River Talons, and Luncafex) are all small-time and don't feature much.

The noble houses are generally left out until you need to recruit them (there's one or two encounters with individuals before then, but otherwise they seem to ignore what's happening).

Does the Court of Coin ever do anything?

The Order of the Rack seems strangely absent for most the campaign?

The Church of Asmodeus and the Hellknights seem to have judicial and extrajudicial power, but they seem content to let Barzillai handle (or fail to handle) everything. I don't know if they are worried about the Silver Ravens at all and/or if they're fine with watching Barzillai fail.

Other groups have gone aground, so that's a reasonable reason why they're missing (Archivists destroyed, Rose of Kintargo and Bellflower Network in hiding, the followers of Calistria, Caden, Desna, and Sarenrae silenced). Although then they just seem to fall in line after being aided by the PCs.

I know it's not their affair, but the Nidalese don't seem to intervene in any way, even in secret. The local temple's priestess features in later books, but just to pummel the players on behalf of her boytoy, not interact with them.

The Iomedaens/Glorious Reclamation are left out on purpose, I believe a book note says, because their targets are elsewhere and they're more center stage for Hell's Vengeance campaign. Still could have a tiny involvement, though.

The Aspis Corsortium is strangely missing despite being featured in nearly every Pathfinder Society mission that even passes through Cheliax.

The Eagle Knights, if any, probably wouldn't target Kintargo much for sabotage, I imagine, especially when they realize they are rebelling, but still a potential option.

I don't know if any other devils or devil cults would be interested in getting involved. (Mathallah is a "recent" convert and seems more interested in herself than the diabolism of Hell or Asmodeus). The later contract devil does get involved a little, but that is PC-driven - not by taking notice of or approaching the PCs himself.

I am interested in any way any of you have spiced up your games. I really want to have the world moving around the players, whether they act or not... and then actually react to the PCs, not wait their turn to be discovered and beaten to a pulp.

This is just spit-balling, but I am also trying to think of a side/third party that gets involved. A devil who tries getting ahead by helping or hindering the PCs, a deeper Mathallah or Skinsaw group with some grand goal, an infiltrating Nidalese vampire cult trying to influence Kintargo/Ravounel, a growing countryside rebellion that eventually comes at odds with the Kintargo-grown rebellion, a disinterested archmage/lich/someone who uses the PCs to get at something for a book or two... or something like that.

What have I missed, and what ideas have you had or even enacted in your Hell's Rebels campaigns?