This past Sunday, my PC's continued their march into Age of Worms by trying to contact Kullen and his thugs in regards to the Land Family's remains.
Everyone knows this encounter, because it has the possability to go many different ways. Can they charm Kullen? Will the Albino Half-Orc attack them outright or will they end up with a request to return Filge's eyes to the gangs leader?
I'm pretty sure this will go down as one of the strangest Feral Dog encounters yet.
My PC's took Skulch's arm and the Owl-Bears head to the tavern as proof that they were on Kullen's side, and that they took out the foe that embarrassed him so. They managed to use diplomacy extremely well and brought Kullen from hostile to friendly. He told them the story and asked for Filge's eyes. They agreed, and that was that....or was it?
The previous night, our Drow Sorcerer convinced our Human Fighter that the NPC Melind, the attractive Paladin of Heironeous, would sleep with him if she was hurt in a battle and he helped heal her, staying by her bedside and whatnot. I don't know how this became a good idea, but they planned on starting a bar fight so that she could get hurt. When Kullen didn't offer that, the Human Fighter left and the Drow Sorcerer, still wanting to fight, had to improvise.
He convinced the Satyr Rogue that Kullen would like them better if they got into a bar brawl and proved their worth, thus solidifying them as hearty cuthroats. The rogue agreed and attempted to start a brawl.
He slapped someones girlfriend on the rear and, when the brawl began, got the initiative and knocked the boyfriend out with a headbutt. The girl cried and no brawl started, because it's the Feral Dog and everyone is always fighting.
Suddenly, the Lawful Good Monk realized he was Lawful Good and had to immediately stop the dog fights that were occuring in the back. By the time he got through the crowd to the dog fighting pit, (there was a michael vick joke in there im pretty sure) one of the dogs (scrappy-doo) had killed the other (dyno-mutt). The monk flipped out, and when the janitor went into the pit to clean it up, he leapt down, looking for a fight.
Well the janitor beat his initiative, freaked out, and left the pit (closing the door to the bottom of the pit behind him and locking it). So now the Monk is in the pit with literally a feral dog, who began attacking him. In self defense, the Monk accidentally killed the dog.
Oh boy.
Everyone at the tavern flips out, because most had bet on Scrappy Doo. They began hurling mugs and bottles into the pit trying to knock out the Monk. The Monk, in return, knocked down the door blocking him and tried running back up to the bar. A crowd then gathered at the door, waiting to beat the crud out of him.
So here comes the Drow Sorcerer to "save the day". He leaps out from behind the crowd, shouts "I'LL GET HIM!" referring to the Monk, and lets go a Burning Hands...directly into the crowd. Needless to say, he's killed three people and the fourth, who jumped out of the way and landed in the dog pit, breaking his neck.
The crowd has now gone from ecstatic from the dog fight, to angry that the Monk killed their dog, to terrified and furious that a sorcerer toasted their friends.
The bartenders have already pulled crossbows from beneath the bar and opened fire and the Sorcerer is now unconscious on the ground.
Long story short, they're never allowed back into the Feral Dog. Ever.
What I don't understand is, how it all could have gone so wrong. I mean, they fricking HAD the mission. They knew to go to the Observatory and take out Filge. We haven't played in a while, and I think they were just looking for a fun little combat. Unfortunately, it got quite out of hand.
A ten minute encounter ended up being the entire session. It was pretty funny though.
No matter how carefully planned, no adventure survives it's first encounter with player characters.
I think someone in the D&D hierarchy said that I just don't seem to remember who.