So my group just finished the Blue Nixie portion of the adventure. Most the crew jumped ship and limped away. Vark and the Rhagodessa didn't survive, but the fire was put out quickly and the ship was saved. The characters searched the ship and found the ring, the combination and the 100pp that was the back haboring fees. What I didn't expect was my players to tell Lavinia that they didn't recover her money. I'm not sure why I didn't expect it, since it is treasure after all. I'm just curious how many groups actually returned the money to her.
One of my players separated from the group during the rhagodessa fight and found it. He later returned it to Lavinia after the job was done, minus a bit he considered extra expenditures and advised the Lady that the smugglers probably had already dipped into her coins.
My group returned it all...
I think my group would actualy return it, they just have very short attention spans, and so probably won't remember their on the ship to find money as opposed to kill all the bad guys. So I think what I'll do is when Lavinia gives them the mission brief she'll mention something about the minting, and then instead of just finding a sack with one hundred platinum coins the party can find one hundred platinum coins that appear to be minted from that one neighboring kingdom. Hopefuly I don't have to be any more obvious than that. *god I need to people to game with*
My players returned all of the gold, though it did take them some moral searching and asking for a bluff check to get them to give it back. They were more than happy to recieve 20 pp back as the reward. Of course, for my party, this adventure is the biggest payout that they have ever expienced in their 10+ years of D&D playing (sooooo much treasure! it's unbelievable!) so it was a great surprise for them.
I'm not DMing STAP right now (I'm DMing my own Eberron-flavored Red Hand of Doom campaign), but when I do start it I'm pretty sure my players won't return the money... They're usually pretty fond of playing chaotic types that enjoy stealing things. I don't think any of my players has ever played a lawful character... <cries>
My party had no problem returning levinia's cut- but 2 party members refused to return the citys lost loot. so they divided it evenly and 3 people turned theirs in- they were rewarded for their honesty with minor magic goodies- gifts from the city.