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Anyone have any fun stories of how their players dispatched (or dealt with) Kullen and his gang? My players did a number on him tonight!
Warning: Spoilers ahead...
We got together last night to continue the Whispering Cairn adventure, and reached the point where the characters need to track down Kullen and his gang and find out what became of Alastor's family's remains. The PCs find them in the Feral Dog, and split up to flirt with Tirra and eavesdrop on Kullen and his gang. Kullen, positioned at the bar near the dog fighting pit, was growing increasingly drunk and unruly as the night wore on, and I had a messenger drop in to summon his gang to Filge for instructions.
Already resentful of being placed at Filge's disposal, he became downright hostile on his way towards the door, shoving people out of his way as he went. this included two chaotic neutral PCs, however, who retaliated without hesitation. The barbarian shoved him right back, and as he spun around to confront her, the rogue took a sneak attack on his leg (aiming for a called shot to hamstring him, but managing only a normal hit).
Two of Kullen's cronies had led the way out of the bar, but their mage had stayed behind to make sure Kullen was coming. He quickly cast a Daze spell on the barbarian, and moved into position to cast something else the next round.
Kullen began to rage and drew his greataxe, taking a wild slash against the barbarian while the PC rogue vanished into the crowd. He scored a crit (x3 multiplier!) which nearly dropped the PC barbarian in a single blow! It left her with 3 hit points out of about 30!
Not to be left out of the action, the PC psionicist used his turn to animate a barstool Kullen had shoved aside, directing it to trip him up and send him into the pit. One excellent attack roll and a failed reflex saving throw later, and the albino half orc was indeed tumbling into the pit below, where two vicious dogs were more than happy to tear into him!
Meanwhile, the PC wizard hit Kullen's mage ally with a color spray, knocking him out quite effectively. The barbaria, who had just been dazed by this mage and nearly eviscerated by the half-orc, proceeded to pick him up and toss him unceremoniously into the pit with Kullen and the dogs!
The PC wizard, sensing some troublesome explanations and confrontations if they lingered too long on this shocking scene, urged the party out of the door, and that's where we ended the session.
When they left, Kullen had 8 hp left (with barbarian rage), and his mage ally was still unconscious...and both were still in the pit with the starving dogs.
I'm trying to decide if the dogs would be allowed to (or able to) finish them off, or if the handlers would put a stop to it right away. Any suggestions?
I'm leaning towards having the pair live to encounter the PCs again a bit later in the adventure...recurring villains are so much fun, and these two certainly have a vendetta now! The players had a blast in this session, though, and I'm torn between letting them keep the satisfaction that they disposed of these thugs with creative ease, and letting them have another round of fun with them.
Under different circumstances, this fight would have had a much different outcome, I think, and I'm somewhat curious to find out if the players could come up with another way to deal with Smenk's thugs so smoothly.
I would definately keep them for future use. But - to give the players a sense of achievement - give the bad guys some nasty scars, or a limp. Maybe the mage looses a hand and is unable to cast spells effectively. Certainly reason to hold a grudge.
V is for Vendetta as they say
I absolutely agree with Host of Angels. That was a VERY cool combat encoutner, and one the players will probably remember for a long time. Having the bad guys show up again later, badly scarred and pissed off in the extreme, wouldn't at all rob them of their accomplishment. It would only give them a chance to prove it wasn't a fluke and truly put down Kullen and his gang... or get their butts handed to them in an unexpected retaliatory ambush that they barely survive! Very cool, indeed!
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Thanks for the feedback, guys!
For flavor, I've decided to give the mage a broken nose, along with a dislocated shoulder that forces a concentration check any time he casts a spell with a somatic component. (He lost 6 of his 7 hit points from the fall into the pit.)
Kullen is also going to survive, with a thirst for vengeance and plenty of scars added to his tattooed face. I think I might also have him leave his greataxe soiled with the barbarian's blood until he can finish the job properly.
As for whether or not the PCs learn of Kullen's survival...that entirely depends on whether they linger around town the following day, and who they talk to. The news of Kullen's humiliation and vow of revenge will be the talk of the town...if the PCs are around to hear it.
Since they still don't know where to find the Land family's remains, I suspect some of them at least will be poking around. One of Kullen's cronies (the ranger) left the bar before the fight started, and is initially oblivious to the events inside. The fighter was just past the doorway when the above events happens, and saw his boss and the mage both go into the pit in one round. He immediately fled the scene.
The players may catch up to them at the start of the next session, depending on what they decide to do immediately following the brawl. The barbarian is still at 3 hit points, though, and the party's cleric is elsewhere...so they may decide to beat a hasty retreat out of town.
My group's run in with Kullen and crew was pretty interesting. Two of the players weren't available so I decided to have the other PCs have a little encounter with Kullen's boys. Kullen's rogue buddy (who would soon meet his end at the Land farm) had vandalized a tiny roadside chapel of Pelor I added outside town, the party cleric, fighter and rogue decided to confront him.
This gave me an opportunity to introduce both Kullen and the rival adventurers. Words were exchanged and chests were thumped, but nothing happened then. Kullen mentioned business elsewhere (meeting Filge) and left the PCs with a warning top stay out of "their" bar.
Later, when the PCs found the tattooed arm, the ones who had been there recognized it. The party mage suggested he should approach Kullen and the others since he hadn't already run afoul of them. Everyone assumed he would attempt the diplomatic route to get some info out of them. The mage shocked us all by strutting up to Kullen's table, tossing the severed arm on the table and demanding to know what they did with the remains of the Lands.
After everyone got over the surprise of that move the inevitable barroom brawl erupted.
Everyone in the party took one of the thugs, except the mage of course. After raging Kullen got a couple good swings with a broken bottle before the fighter laid him out. The surprise was their two-fisted ranger, who was rolling phenomenally well. He KO'd our party's cleric and ranger, and was giving the rogue and the fighter a lot of trouble before he went out.
Seeing the last of his crew go down the last of them sang like a canary and high-tailed it out of town.
The PC's took everything but their skivvies, hog-tied the other thugs, and tossed them in the center of the vein. Numerous townsfolk took the opportunity to hurl mud and over-ripe fruit at the bullies, and rumor has it that someone got the pig-treatment...Deliverance style. Needless to say Kullen is seething with hatred for the PCs, so they haven't heard the last of him.
I doubt the mage will ever be allowed to be the party's voice again.
My PCs ended up killing Kullen & his cronies BEFORE they thought to extract the information on the location of the Land bodies from him. The only player who remembered was the mage, & he was unconscious when the battle ended. This led the group on a little jaunt to purchase a scroll of speak with dead from Jierian Wierus, who was quite angry to learn of the graverobbing, since the Lands were parishoners of his.
As a side note, in AoW Overload, one of the Emporium employees is named Natalo Bask. I'm thinking about having him seek retribution for Merrovin Bask's death (no relation is stated, but 2 Basks in DL--gotta be brothers or cousins or something).
Perhaps Kullen could come out of the encounter missing a few limbs, and you could eventually re-introduce him as an iron half-golem. I think the half-golem template is great, and iron half-golems are particularly cool. They're a sort of fantasy version of Darth Vader.
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Heh...the whole nekkid hog-tieing in the middle of town thing is great...I hope my players do something equally memorable the next time they defeat these guys, though I suspect their next encounter with Kullen & gang will be fatal for one party or the other.
Rob, thanks for pointing out that part about Natalo Bask. Nice catch...and one I hope to use at some point. :)
The half-golem suggestion is a neat idea, too, though it feels a bit too extreme for this level of the campaign...who in Diamond Lake has the resources (and inclination) to turn Kullen into a half-golem? If they somehow manage not to encounter Kullen again for several levels, though, I may do something like that to reintroduce him...perhaps during the Champion's Games in the Free City arena. Thanks!