TFoE Opinions

[walter mcwilliams]

In my game the PC's approached Ragnolin directly on the afternoon prior to there planned infiltration of the mines, and I am currently undecided on what action Ragnolin would take. The PC's gave no inclination that they were planning to infiltrate only that they had heard from Balabar than an evil cult existed with his mine, and that they assumed it way a ploy of Balabar's to discredit Ragnolin.

The PC's plan for infiltrating the mines is to stow away on Balabar's next cart of supply.

Also, how did those of you who have completed this chapter deal with the legal implications in the aftermath of TFoE?

Thanks
Mac

[evilvolus]

Well, in my game, Ragnolin had been replaced by a doppleganger from Waterdeep. That left Smenk on trial all by his lonesome after the dopp bugged the hell out of town. In the wake of the trial, the character find out quietly from Delfen (Allustin) that Dourstone's body had been found stuffed in a chest in his own basement months before, giving the players a better tie-in to HoHR.

[Guy Humual]

evilvolus wrote:

Well, in my game, Ragnolin had been replaced by a doppleganger from Waterdeep. That left Smenk on trial all by his lonesome after the dopp bugged the hell out of town. In the wake of the trial, the character find out quietly from Delfen (Allustin) that Dourstone's body had been found stuffed in a chest in his own basement months before, giving the players a better tie-in to HoHR.

I did this the other way around, I had a doppelganger impersonate Smenk, and the real Smenk somehow escaped with his life. Problem is the PCs have no idea how long the doppelganger has been impersonating Smenk and the real Smenk (now out of the woodwork) claims that it's been well before TFoE and thus he's innocent of any wrong doing.

Personally, as to the OP, I'd have Ragnolin do one of two things: either he gets angry and throws them out of his mine, neither confirming or denying Smenk's accusations, and then does nothing.

Or, depending on the how persuasive the PCs are, he makes a show at getting angry, gives them a big long angry speech, and then hands them a note either saying "get out of town while you still can" or "meet me later",

If you go with the meet me later option, Ragnolin has the PCs meet him at his house, gives them the skinny on the cult and begs that they destroy them. Another option is that Ragnolin has the PCs meet him someplace secluded so that he can have goons ruff them up and run them out of town. Or, perhaps Ragnolin intends to meet with them, but the cultists get wind of this first and when the PCs arrive they find Ragnolin's mutilated corpse.

[The unscrupulous Dr. Pweent]

My PCs did exactly the same thing. Dourstone was just horrified, of course, to hear rumors of such beastly goings-on in his mine. But, he declared, he believed he'd know if that were true. He therefore proposed to have the PCs come back that night after the miners were off-shift, and check out the mines themselves, escorted by several of his own guard. And could they please keep this quiet until anything was proven, as no doubt it was another attempt by Smenk to ruin his good name.

Needless to say, he hand-picked a set of guards who were all Ebon Triad cultists and dismissed everyone else. They were instructed, if the PCs found the boarded-up shaft that led to the temple, to provide all aid, let them through to the elevator, and then ambush them and dump their bodies down the shaft. And no, that didn't work out too well for the guards.

Dourstone stuck around the mining office to make sure everything went according to plan. When the guards didn't report back, he went in to check on them, found his guards slaughtered and the elevator at the bottom of the shaft, decided discretion was the better part of valor, and skipped town. He'll be showing up again in The Champion's Games. It's nice to have villains who get to turn up again later to haunt the PCs.