My PCs had a horrible time trying to gather info from Kullen's gang after investigating the Land farmhouse. The PCs have some very bad diplomacy rolls in the Feral Dog, causing Kullen to be antagonized to the point where a nasty bar room brawl breaks out and half of Kullen's gang gets slain. The half-orc flees the premises and the party pursues, except for the rogue PC, who tailed the mage Merovinn downstairs to watch a dog-fight. So the rogue nor the mage were involved in said brawl.
The party flees the Dog before the sheriff gets alerted and pick up Kullen's tracks to a hideout outside of town. The rogue gets wind of what happened and meets the party at the inn where they're staying for a plan of action (The Able Carter Coaching Inn). The PCs attempt to ambush Kullen at the hideout, this time Merovinn is with him. The ambush goes horribly wrong, botched hide and move silently rolls.. Merovinn dies, but not before leaving the monk PC drained of most of his strength ( two hits from the ray of enfeeblement wand).. Again Kullen flees.
So the PCs are left with no info on why Kullen and his gang robbed the Land gravesite.
The PCs get impatient, and two of them (the monk and the halfling sorceror) go back to the Dog after resting for a couple days. Somebody tips the sheriff, who arrives at the Dog and arrests and imprisons the players.
The sheriff is on Smenk's payroll and tells Smenk that he's got a couple of the "rubes" who took out Kullen's gang. So Smenk decides to have the PCs fight one of his dire apes in the basement of his mansion for some revenge and entertainment for his "guests." The sheriff transports the PCs to Smenk's mansion for the fight.
Meanwhile, the rogue gets wind of this through some nice Gather Info checks at old stomping grounds at the Emporium and rallies most of the party for a crazy rescue attempt inside the Smenk mansion.
Alustan decides to help by giving the PCs some healing potions and he dimension doors the PCs into the foyer of the mansion. From there, the cleric and the half-orc ranger fight their way into the basement through the remaining two dire apes and Smenk's dozen bodyguards. The monk almost dies but is stabilized by the halfling in a nice Heal check roll.
The PCs haul ass out of the mansion and meet up with the rogue outside of town at the ol' mining office who tells them that a necromancer hired Kullen's gang for the farmhouse jaunt.
The PCs raid the observatory and capture Filge but watch helplessly as Filge is assassinated by an arrow through the throat (the assassin was hired by Smenk who trailed the PCs to the observatory and waited for the opportune moment, which in this case was a nice window shot from one of the bedroom windows as a bound up Filge was being prodded down the stairs by the PCs).. The PCs don't know who killed Filge, they think it was Kullen that did it (when it was really a bounty hunter based on the template from the DMG2)..
So now the PCs can hit the last of the Whispering Cairn. It will be interesting to see how the PCs will react when Smenk invites them for dinner for a proposition into the bowels of Dourstone Mine.. I wonder what the PCs will do with the letter they found implicating Smenk? Should be interesting.
Playing out like good cinema. The rescue must have been great fun.
Playing out like good cinema. The rescue must have been great fun.
Holy cow was it ever!! I was even getting a tad bit nervous. The cleric and the ranger burst into the basement just as the monk fell to a bodyguard's blade.. The monk and the halfling were able to slay the dire ape, so a furious Smenk sent some of his bodyguards to finish them off, it was funny to watch a spell drained halfling sorceror run circles around the bodyguards who were garbed in heavy armor.. Finally the bodyguards gave up and went to help the guards fighting the half orc and the cleric.
By contrast, my players had no problems getting the information they wanted, even without particulary good Diplomacy or Intimidate rolls. They stalked and kidnapped whoever they wanted information from.
Oh, yeah, their alignments are currently a bit in question :)
Jack
By contrast, my players had no problems getting the information they wanted, even without particulary good Diplomacy or Intimidate rolls. They stalked and kidnapped whoever they wanted information from.
Oh, yeah, their alignments are currently a bit in question :)
Jack
Zee town vigilantes eh? :D
I think that an interesting twist might be that Smenk is an agent of the Thieves Guild located in "Free City." This would allow for Smenk to be a plant in Diamond Lake, carrying out smuggling or other activities for the Thieves Guild. It would also give Smenk backing that amkes him a little more powerful and a bit more "untouchable" as the Thieves Guild might not like Smenk being messed with if he remains valuable to them. Just a thought.
.. Merovinn dies, but not before leaving the monk PC drained of most of his strength ( two hits from the ray of enfeeblement wand)..
A touch off topic but when a character is hit with a ray of enfeeblement spell multiple times you apply the highest penalty, they do not stack. Page 172 PHB.
.. Merovinn dies, but not before leaving the monk PC drained of most of his strength ( two hits from the ray of enfeeblement wand)..A touch off topic but when a character is hit with a ray of enfeeblement spell multiple times you apply the highest penalty, they do not stack. Page 172 PHB.
My bad- thanx.
I think that an interesting twist might be that Smenk is an agent of the Thieves Guild located in "Free City." This would allow for Smenk to be a plant in Diamond Lake, carrying out smuggling or other activities for the Thieves Guild. It would also give Smenk backing that amkes him a little more powerful and a bit more "untouchable" as the Thieves Guild might not like Smenk being messed with if he remains valuable to them. Just a thought.
In MOC, Smenk turned to the Ebon Triad for protection after he fled from diamond lake. Kullan's three associates who escaped with him are now harrassing the PCs. The mage, who the PC's "questioned" by breaking his fingers, just lured the group's mage into a trap in free city. Un-able to cast spells with somatic gestures, he's become a fighter/sorcerer with duel wands. Although severly wounding the mage, the PC escaped with some clever spell use. Smenk mean while is advancing the Ebon Triad's plans with various schemes, and the PC's occasional use divination to check up on this great reaccouring character.
This is a familiar scenario. My PC's had a heck of a time trying to broach the subject of grave robbing with Balabar's gang too. They even decided to go check out Balabar's mansion for info in preference of attempting to talk it out of Kullen & crew. This put me in an awkward position. Fortunately the Dire Apes scared them back to the feral dog.
It was weird and awkward for the PC's and for me. How do you, as a DM, get inside the head of a group of reluctant grave robbers? They didn't really rob the grave for money. They don't even really like the guy they completed the task for (Filge) but feel obliged out of respect/fear for their boss (Smenk). They don't even really feel fear of the legal reprisals because Smenk will just ask the Sherriff for a favour. The only real reprisal might be the possibility that the Cult of the Green Lady could get on their case. The real issue is that its an embarrassing topic. Who wants to be accused of grave robbing?
Fortunately one PC role-played a very good encounter with Kullen. He started by making it obvious he was staring at Kullen's tattoo. When Kullen did the obvious and asked: "What are you staring at you filth?"; the PC pretended to be a long lost relative of the Land's and admitted to discovering a body part in the farm house with the same tattoo. Kullen was obviously on edge at this point but admitted that the tattoo was common among the former workers of "I-forget-his-name's" mine. With carefully neutral and unassuming language the PC pursued the matter asking if Kullen knew anyone missing and how sympathetic he was over the loss considering the cause of death(nasty owlbear). Eventually the PC had Kullen drinking with him and toasting the loss of his buddy and battles with owlbears before casually mentioning the opened graves: "You know the other weird thing about my cousin's place was that the graves were empty. I'm not so fussy about it but its my father as wanted me to check on the property and now he's going to keep me here till I can satisfy him as to what's to be done about it. If only I could recover the bodies it would save me a lot of work. I'm sure the robbers were only after the money which I'd gladly overlook if I could just get back to the Free City." Kullen looked upon this as an opportunity to sell some anonymous information as to the Land's whereabouts. 50gp later and the PC's were on their way to Filge's. After so much awkwardness I was so happy with the PC's role-playing I gave him experience as if he beat Kullen in battle.
That's my two bits.
Cheers,
C.