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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 barbarian, 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.
Dogfood I say! Dogfood!
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my pc's got Smenk arrested after dourstone mine (though by the middle of HoHR he has returned to Diamond Lake after being found "innocent" in the Free City of Greyhawk.) and then the rogue tried to buy Kullen's services. Kullen instead challenged the rogue to a fight. The rogue barely lived (3 hp) but managed to defeat Kullen and gain his employment. Now the gang is back with Smenk, and the rogue is secretly working with Balabar to uncover more about the age of worms
wiz made himself look licke Smenk. When they were all drunk he led them outside always staying 40 feet away. He came to a small outcropping of trees where the archer was hiding. The druid was in the bush and the barbarion still had to use his rage for the day. Wiz color sprayed and all went down but kullen. Druid entangled kullen and the prone bodies. The archer shot him once and the barb. got him in a coup da grace position. They killed Kullen and stripped the others of there clothes after interogation. Dont you just love/hate illuisonists?
:)
My group rocked this encounter.
The group (Eberron campaign):
Vealin, Valenar Elf ranger
Meghan, Half-elf Druid, Greensinger
Raina, Shifter rogue
Lavinia, Halfing Cleric of Olladra, with Healing dragonmark
Sam, Changeling sorcerer
Orco, Halfling rogue (not in this session)
The ranger and Druid of the group both had high Survival rolls for the Track at the Land farmstead, and the rogue nailed the Knowledge (local) to determine the origin of the tattoo on Skutch's arm, and the Gather Info for where the gang hangs out.
The group being pretty cautious, they take two PC's to do more Gather Info about the gang, making a point to avoid going to the Feral Dog and thus attracting the gang's attention. This Gather Info got them a breakdown on the race, class and general demeanor of the group (they used an AP).
They didn't like their odds, so they decided to hang out and watch them for a night at the Feral Dog. The druid had to leave because she couldn't stand the dog fights, but the rogue and the ranger (and some others, I forget) stayed the whole night out.
As is written, the gang got roaring drunk and staggered home, shadowed by the rogue and ranger. I put them in the abandoned Deepspike Mine house as a crash pad. Once the gang had passed out, the party decided to act.
The rogue went in and sapped every gang member unconscious. One shot each, it was awesome. Thump!
This is when it gets great.
The party hides in the other room while the rogue, druid, and changeling get ready to scare Kullen. First they bind him to a chair.
The changeling changes into a tall, fearsome wizard-like humanoid with horns. The druid casts Produce flame and hides behind the changeling, casting an eerie, flickering glow over the changeling. The changeling's Disguise roll is in the high 20's. The rogue stands behind Kullen with the sap. I think the halfling cleric was in there too, to cast a Cure minor to rouse Kullen.
The changeling tells Kullen that the Land skeletons were not his to give away, that the changeling wanted them and where were they? The Intimidate check was in the high 20's (AP used). Kullen failed miserably and cowered while he told the group of what they had done. After the changeling had asked all the questions they need answered, the rogue sapped Kullen again. Whap!
The group went on to clean out the observatory, but Kullen didn't have anything to tie the group to the dark, horned wizard in the night.
Pretty fun.
--dave
Kullen and co. are still alive but that may change tonight!
After having found the Land graves empty and killing the owlbear the party went to Diamont Lake. As one partymember knew the Kullen boys (he is the nephew of Smenk) and was afraid of them they figured bribing them might be best. The gnome bard tried to chat them up, buy a few rounds and made them friendly enough to be bribed and they told him about Filge. He had to promise to bring Kullen Filges eyes though.
All's well at this point. However the party bungled their attack on the observatory and had to flee. The next day some partymembers spotted Kullen and co. coming out of the observatory, being very, very pissed off. Sneaking close they heared Kullen and co. complaining about having to drag zombies around and vowing to get that frigging gnome and his friends. The party spent the rest of the day dodging Kullen and buying equipment for a second attack on the observatory (one member got killed in the first attack and they wanted revenge). Unfortiunately Kullen and co. caught the party's monk and told him to bring another 200 gp and Filges eyes to the Land farm this evening or Kullen would hunt them down and kill them all.
Before letting the monk go Kullen asked the monk to give the gnome a special message and he bashed the monk's nose. "and that bastard gnome had better have a broken nose when he brings the money tonight, otherwise I will have to hunt you down again for not doing as I say!".
Later that day the party say Kullen and co. again emerging from the observatory this time briefly followed by an angry screaming Filge. Again the ranger followed them and listened to their conversation.
"It's a win-win situation," he heared Bask explain Kullen, "either the kill Filge first and pay us and we're in the clear and rich as Filge only communicates to Smenk through us" (Bask is wrong here) "or the come to pay us without killing Filge and we ambush them and both Filge and Smenk will congratulate us for killing those that attacked Filge". "You better be right or I'll organise a special fight in the Feral Dog, between 2 champion dogs and you, handcuffed."
The ranger snuk back to the party and told what he heared. What followed was a 2 hour discussion. In the end they opted to attack Filge first and deal with Kullen second. Btw, they are really scared of Kullen and co., even thought the party consists of 8(!) members.
We stopped playing halfway through the attack on the observatory. In 60 or 90 minutes from now (realtime) the story will continue.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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That's a terrific story. The dogs should be pulled off, but not before they inflict some scarring wound. One thing you might consider doing is having Merovinn lose a hand to the dogs. Not only could you have him come back as a recurring villian, but at some point later in the campaign (say, the Library of Last Resort) he could come back with a certain artifact attached to his stump and a chip on his shoulder...
My PC's scouted out Kullen and his gang, learned their abilities (i.e., who was a mage, who was a fighter, etc) and their usual nightly routine. They set up a brutal ambush in which on the first round half of Kullen's party was taken out of the fight by a color spray, Merovinn was killed by a sneak attack, and the final member was hit by a daze spell. The party effectively cleaned house before Kullen and co. could even react.
I posted this in another thread, but...
Just prior to the WC encounter with Filge, the PCs put a complete beatdown on Kullen and his boys. They then healed Kullen a little and made/hired him as a meatshield for the observatory. He promptly got skewered by the crossbow-firing skeletons, and the team left him stabilized but unconcious.
They then got the snot kicked out of them by Filge's group (see obituaries) and retreated taking everyone but Kullen with them. When they tried to sneak back in the window later that night, the rogue opened the shutters only to find:
"Heeeeeere's Kullen!" *WHACK!* Zombie Kullen, in fact. They eventually took him out again, marking the third time he'd been put down in 24 hours.
My Kullen challenged the PC's lead loud-mouthed braggart fighter to a one-on-one combat in the Feral Dog pit. It ended in a tie when Kullen, at 0, slashed the fighter unconscious, then collapsing himself.
Since then they've been fast friends, going half-and-half ownership with the Dog.
When the PC's arrived back from the Free City, they found most of the town destroyed. Just about the only building left standing in the square was half of the Feral Dog. The PCs walked in to find a one-armed Kullen still serving beer to those who wanted it.
Also prostitutes, since the loss of the Emporium left a huge market available.
One of the party's rogues actually did a great job of making nice with Kullen (buying a few rounds and griping about THE MAN helped) to get the info about Filge. Unfortunately, after Filge was killed by the party, Todrik (the glaive ftr who feels obliged to Smenk) secretly ratted out Kullen. Since one of the PC's is a member of the Parrin family Smenk thinks this is the start of some kind of turf war and orders Kullen & co. to burn down the Parrin residence while the party is at the true tomb. I'm looking forward to a good old fashioned Tombstone-type showdown once the party finds out.
My party decided to get the information on the Land family in an interesting way. They waited at the Feral Dog for Kullen, then slipped out back. Not too long later Bask came out to get some fresh air and "water the bushes". As he finished up the mage was ambushed and nearly killed. They tied and gagged him and hid him out of sight. Then Todrik and Rastophan came out to see where Bask went. They too were bushwhacked. Then, suprisingly, the party took their captives and left. We ended not long after, and I'm still scratching my head as to how Kullen will react to this problem. He knows by now that his henchmen are missing, but not what happened.
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my players were initially set to charge into the Feral Dog and just beat the unholy heck out of Kullen and Co., but the group leader, decided to parlay instead. they actually impressed him enough to not only give up info on Filge, but to ask for the necromancer's eyes as well. when they followed through on his request, Kullen offered his services and that of his crew as well and the party leader accepted.