Help! My player wants to save the Piskies and stop lumber jacks from nailing them to trees for their blood. (Dubious legends about it turning lead to gold, if you'll recall.) What would the town's and the lumber consortium's reaction to such a campaign?
Contributor
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It really depends on how widespread the practice is. If, in your story, this is something that a lot of the lumberjacks are doing in an attempt to make some money on the side, then such a campaign would create a lot of disgruntled workers. If the workers are unhappy because of someone "making trouble" the consortium is likely to frown on it. Similarly, the townsfolk will not take kindly to someone telling them that such a common practice is immoral. "It's just pixies, after all."
However, if this is the work of one or two "bad seeds," the townsfolk would probably approve. If they can be made to understand that these activities are giving the Lumber Consortium an even worse image than it has earned, the Gavel might even support them in their efforts.
I haven't had a chance to play up this aspect of Darkmoon Wood, but the PCs have already found the first of the murdered pixies, so I'll have to see how/if it develops with the story, myself
Thanks for the help!
What ended up happening:
My bard PC used her singing to attract attention to the issue. She found out what Piskies supposedly eat and went out to feed them. She eventually ended up making contact with them over time. She spread the word of their awesomeness through the bars of Falcon's Hollow (Gather Info). She faced some random encounters in the woods, which she turned to her advantage in her campaign. She rescued some loggers from a harpy, turning them to her side in the lumber camp. She saved the body of a dead logger from bugbears fighting over who got to eat his toes, which made his hooker girlfriend be on her side. The loggers and the hooker spread the word to the two main lower-class social groups in the area. She had a social relationship with the sheriff, getting him to take the issue seriously. Then she made a Diplomacy check of 41, which made the town friendly to the concept after having been hostile. Then she spent two more months boosting that score to make the town helpful. I ended up ruling that she's gotten it so that the town opinion is that only psychotic low-lifes nail piskies to trees, sort of like how we regard killing kittens for sport.
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Contributor
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Thanks for the help!
You're welcome. Your account sound like a good way to resolve it. I'm sorry I didn't understand that you were dealing with the issue so soon. Otherwise, I would have tried to give you some more concrete ideas. Of course, as it turned out, you didn't need them. I'm sure your player enjoyed the chance to shine. Good job!
Without the PC's knowledge, I ended up deciding that the Lumber Consortium would be in favor of anything that takes away hope of quick gold from its workers, so they didn't interfere. Had she tried to pass a law about it, however, they would have picked her up, pointed out that they controlled the most likely site of enforcement, and then asked what was in it for them...