Okay, I seem to have a problem in this adventure and I'm really hoping someone out there has a brillant bit of insight for me. My party (and they are all experienced players with at least 10 years under their belt) have entered the city of Ahlster and decided to visit one of the lower class bars. One of the players (a guy) is playing a human female barbarian. She sort of stands out, so she's approached by a few bugbears in the bar - they want to buy her a drink. She says fine, if you beat up my friend over there. I don't for the life of me know why she did this, but she did. The bugbears are always up for a fight and jump right in. The rest of the party, and bar, get involved. It's going great until one of the angels shows up to break up the fight. The citizens all quiet down, but the party doesn't want to go to jail and attack the angel, killing her! Now they just want to 'disguise' themselves and get away with it. No harm, no foul. I'm not to comfortable with that, there should be some kind of consequence - but does it mean the end of the adventure path? How is the Prince going to feel about the group that's going around killing his city watch - certainly he's not going to want them at his party. This one has me stumped. Any suggestions?
|
Okay, I seem to have a problem in this adventure and I'm really hoping someone out there has a brillant bit of insight for me. My party (and they are all experienced players with at least 10 years under their belt) have entered the city of Ahlster and decided to visit one of the lower class bars. One of the players (a guy) is playing a human female barbarian. She sort of stands out, so she's approached by a few bugbears in the bar - they want to buy her a drink. She says fine, if you beat up my friend over there. I don't for the life of me know why she did this, but she did. The bugbears are always up for a fight and jump right in. The rest of the party, and bar, get involved. It's going great until one of the angels shows up to break up the fight. The citizens all quiet down, but the party doesn't want to go to jail and attack the angel, killing her! Now they just want to 'disguise' themselves and get away with it. No harm, no foul. I'm not to comfortable with that, there should be some kind of consequence - but does it mean the end of the adventure path? How is the Prince going to feel about the group that's going around killing his city watch - certainly he's not going to want them at his party. This one has me stumped. Any suggestions?
who says that the Prince can't still invite them to his party if they were in fact to be arrested? the way i see it, he'd want to invite them to his soiree' all the more, simply out of curiosity. who are these people that were able to kill one of 'my' guards? could i make use of them to further my own schemes? and even if you'd think the Prince wouldn't think that way, Lashonna would and her voice carries great weight with Zeech.
and as for them escaping into the crowd disguised, i'd think that would be unlikely as the blessed angels don't work alone. the other 3 or 4 would probably be hanging out invisibly, watching the battle and then the PCs. the death of their sister would not go unavenged for long and then they would have their sorry carcasses hauled off to jail.
Creative Director
|
If this happens, the best thing to do is to remember that the Blessed Angels are actually Lashonna's minions. She'll certainly take note of the PCs after this, and her interest in them will increase (since if they have the guts to take on the "police" they'll probably have the guts to fight Dragotha). She'll smooth over the incident as best she can, and use her own resources to bring the slain angel back to life using a wish or something like that. So the meeting with Lashonna can certainly still occur.
However, you shouldn't just gloss over the repurcussions of what the PCs did. They SHOULD have to go into hiding. If they've already got their invitations to the gala, they may have to secure NEW invitations for their new identities, perhaps after using magic to fake the deaths of their old identities. This adds a thick layer of complexity to the adventure, but it could be fun to play out.
Alternately, you could send a flight of Blessed Angels to try to arrest the PCs. Feel free to send enough of the erinyes to make it a really tough encounter; the PCs did after all kill a police officer. Run the battle to try to catch the PCs alive (and hopefully, they won't ressit arrest in the first place). If the PCs are arrested, they'll have a quick trial. Normally, killing a Blessed Angel has severe repurcussions, but Lashonna wants the PCs to work for her so she pulls some strings and the PCs are found guilty of self defense against a rogue agent of the Blessed Angels. They are given the option of paying a fine (something along the lines of 5,000 gp or a 10,000 gp or higher magic item; this can be reduced by half if one of the PCs makes a DC 30 Diplomacy check); if they refuse to pay this fine, they'll either face exile from the city or jail time.
If the PCs kill more Blesed Angels (a real possibility during an attempted arrest), you have a different problem on your hands. In fact, if the PCs couldn't resist killing one of them in that bar fight, you might already have this problem: Your PCs simply aren't interested in an adventure like "Prince of Redhand" where there's not much combat and the PCs have to interact with the "bad guys" in non-violent ways. In this case, you should consider other options. Perhaps the PCs can abduct one of the other party goers and disguise themselves as that NPC and his/her servants? Perhaps the PCs can infiltrate Zeech's manor using stealth to attend the party as unseen spectators?
You should also consider the possibility that you simply won't be able to run "Prince of Redhand." Lashonna still takes notice of what the PCs did and eventually approaches them with an offer for a meeting, although she frames her offer under the guise of "You adventurers are just what this city needs; someone who's not afraid to stand up to Zeech. I can use people like you."
If the PCs get uppity with Lashonna, there's some advice in the next adventure on how to salvage the rest of the plotline for Age of Worms.
Hopefully some of the above ramblings help you out! :)
Thank you James, this is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. What would I do without the exceptional support of the people of Dungeon magazine? I think I know how this will work out now. Thanks again.