So, the paladin, being a Shoanti, has decided that its his mission to convince Belor to marry Kaye and reunite with his brother at the White Deer, and constantly brings this up when they meet with the Sheriff.
The half-orc is going to work as hired muscle for the Sczarni without even consulting with the rest of the party, and is constantly taking things, without even trying to be stealthy (taking a keg of ale home after the Swallowtail Festival, taking candles from the Cathedral).
The half-elf, an arrogant Korvosan trained wizard, while studying at the Turandarok academy, threatened an orphan and got banned by Ilsorai for scaring the children.
But the half-elf topped himself last session. As "payment" for keeping an eye on the town while he was gone, Belor, who already got the mayor to pay for the PCs to stay at the Rusty Dragon, told the half-elf that he could use his "friend" Kaye's arcane supplies to scribe a scroll into his spellbook for free as part of his payment.
Belor, having given the half-elf a note that told Kaye to "provide for his needs," gave the half-elf the opening for a legendary bluff check. Upon arriving at the Pixie's Kitten, Mendicus (the half-elf) began to discuss how he was one of the heroes of Sandpoint, and that as a reward for his past heroism and for his current position as "acting Sheriff," he was to be "taken care of" by the entire staff of the Pixie's Kitten on Belor's behalf.
So on top of using Kaye's arcane supplies to scribe a scroll into his spellbook (I know she is a minor sorcerer, but since he has been burning through his arcane allies with his attitude, I ruled that she would have some "dabbler" level equipment that he might be able to scrounge for inks for his spellbook), the half-elf is now, until Belor returns to straighten out the "misunderstanding" being "kept" by the staff at the Pixie's Kitten on the town's tab.
It took a while for the other PCs to pry the half-elf from his new home away from home.
Director of Brand Strategy
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That's great, KEJ! I love it when players take adventures into fun/weird territory within the confines of the adventure from a mostly roleplay angle. It stinks when they try to add shenanigans by veering really far off the written path though. Sounds like you're reigning 'em in nicely while still leaving a lot of room for fun. Let us know what else comes up with your players' creative choices.
Its been great because the players really like messing with the NPCs and interacting with them, but they aren't dragging the adventure itself off the rails, while still doing plenty of "customizing" of the adventure with what they have added.
I can't even do justice to some of the comments that led to these situations. While the half-elf's staying at the Pixie's Kitten was pretty funny, I wish I could remember the whole litany of the paladin's explanation of the civilized "rat killling" mating ritual ("so obviously, the female needs to see that the male is willing to contribute to the household, and as such must make him perform a task to aid her in her duties before sharing her feminine favors")
The paladin decided that he had no problem with the half-elf "killing rats" for the young Shayliss, but he also assumed that since he did it so blatantly that it was kind of like a "Klingon" marriage, where the two jump each other and then have to get married.
My only regret is that Three the half-orc wasn't around last session to add to this chaos.
So, um, does it still count as "shenanigans" if the two half-orcs decided to stuff Tsuto into the glass forge to get rid of him before he could spill anything about Lord Kaijitsu and his connection to the Sczarni?
At the very least, I got a good reaction on the player's faces when I started screaming in character as Tsuto, evoking the "what did we just do" reaction from them.
Sounds delightful Knight - keep us posted!
This campaign has been a blast so far. My only complaints are that
A. We had a fun player drop out already, and I wish he could have stayed in the group.
and
B. I wish we could play more often and/or for longer periods of time.
That having been said, I've always been blessed with really great players, and so far in this campaign that has certainly been the case.
I just can't wait to see how the wizard deals with being hit with his bill from the Pixie's Kitten when Belor realized where that charge came from.
I'm a little scared to see what the half-orc coalition comes up with next.
One of my players had been more of a royal pain to me. He's playing his Cleric of Iomedae as more of a "I know more than you and I'm better than you" sort of jackass who is constantly arguing with the NPCs over their security in the town. He also thought of the brilliant plan of going off and attack and/or enslaving the other goblin tribes in the area to try and turn them against the Thistletop Goblins. While the plan is admirable, I'm having to remind them over and over that the threat in Thistletop won't wait for that kind of sceeming. Plus, who in their right mind would honestly believe that the goblins of Golarion could actually be enslaved? It'd be like trying to get ferrets to actually do something useful besides move your garbage around.
One of my players had been more of a royal pain to me. He's playing his Cleric of Iomedae as more of a "I know more than you and I'm better than you" sort of jackass who is constantly arguing with the NPCs over their security in the town. He also thought of the brilliant plan of going off and attack and/or enslaving the other goblin tribes in the area to try and turn them against the Thistletop Goblins. While the plan is admirable, I'm having to remind them over and over that the threat in Thistletop won't wait for that kind of sceeming. Plus, who in their right mind would honestly believe that the goblins of Golarion could actually be enslaved? It'd be like trying to get ferrets to actually do something useful besides move your garbage around.
I'm not up to speed on the pathfinder dieties, but what alignment is this cleric of Iomedae and how does that church react to slavery would be my first questions. Slavery is a touchy subject and most Lawful Good types aren't usually big on it unless it's common, and I'm not sure how that even works with humanoids.... moral quandries are fun.
If you think of it in a medieval context, slavery isn't necessarily "evil", especially if you are enslaving things thought to be less than human or animals.
Spoilers for the AP:
So, by this point, I introduced a "Hellknight" angle, in that the Scarnetti's pushed for a Hellknight officer to look over the troops sent from Magnimar, to push the PCs to solve the problem so they could get rid of the Hellknight (the Shoanti paladin can't stand the idea, and the half-orc rogue from Korvosa isn't too fond of them either).
Originally, the half-orc rogue tried to convince the Sczarni to make the Hellknight "disappear," but Jubrayl was not going to do anything that overt, especially if it might bring down other Hellknights on him or the Sczarni in general.
So, after taking on the Catacombs of Wrath and not quite being sure what to do next, Belor called them to a "private party" at the Pixie's Kitten so he could discuss what was going on without Hellknight scrutiny, playing up that the Scarnettis were pushing for more power in town by pulling in the Hellknights to defend it.
Also, the half-orc fighter had taken to playing Tsuto's masterwork flute, untrained, in the streets, and got a few lucky rolls with it, so he's been approached by the owner of the Sandpoint Theatre for playing Belkzen in a opera about the founding of the hold that bears the orc warrior's name . . . Three (the fighter) was at a loss as to what he should say, but Gazdok (the half-orc rogue) immediately stated that he was Three's agent and that they needed to start talking percentages.
Three and Gazdok constantly have to be chided by the paladin about not eating the halfling and the gnome druid in the party, and the gnome has been obsessively making every conceivable kind of equipment he can think of, having taken points in every craft skill he can think of, and keeps trying to convince the paladin that poison isn't that bad.
The halfling, and elderly male cleric whose wife left him so he decided to go adventuring at his advanced age, was making very blunt but relatively respectful comments to the halfling entertainer from the Pixie's Kitten . . .
Scarus, the Shoanti paladin of Erastil, has decided that he will get Belor to marry Kaye, and will get Belor to reunite with his brother, as he is sure its Erastil's will, and has been working furiously to make this happen, going back and forth between the brothers and talking about how honorable the other is and what a good man they are, as well as talking about how good it would be for Belor to have a wife.
The party was going to take a fishing boat to scout out Thistletop, ended up running into the Bunyip, and killing it from the fishing boat (its amazing how effect a horde of druid conjured dolphins and two half-orcs can be at sea).
Gazdok wanted to scout out the fortress, and after they set the horse free to attack the goblin dogs in the "stables," Gazdok and the rest of the party got separated, the other went all over hell assuming that there was a simple, direct connection between where they were and where Gazdock was, and Gazdock tried to bluff his way into an "alliance" with the goblins.
On the way to the throne room, the gnome coup de graced one of the sleeping goblin pickle thieves, and Three decided to drown another in the pickle barrel, but Scarus stopped him, telling him it was dishonorable to kill someone in that manner, and while the two were talking, Sar, the gnome druid of Gozreh, slit the goblin's throat and ended the argument.
By the time the rest of the PCs got to Gazdok's location, they more or less blew the "undercover" bit by charging into the room in the face of the four goblin guards that were coming out to check on the commotion from the rest of the fortress.
Its been an interesting campaign so far . . .
If you think of it in a medieval context, slavery isn't necessarily "evil", especially if you are enslaving things thought to be less than human or animals.
Moses might disagree with you.
I'll have to start a new one of these once we shift into The Skinsaw Murders, but I had to post the link to my campaign log of this campaign.
My summaries aren't that big of a deal, but the missives written by one of my players, the player of one Nathaniel Pennywhistle, have had me rolling.
Keep in mind, Nathaniel is sometimes more lucid than other times:
I'll have to start a new one of these once we shift into The Skinsaw Murders, but I had to post the link to my campaign log of this campaign.
My summaries aren't that big of a deal, but the missives written by one of my players, the player of one Nathaniel Pennywhistle, have had me rolling.
Keep in mind, Nathaniel is sometimes more lucid than other times:
I am always lucid. Just because you are young and have no concept of memories being three times older than the time you've walked the earth (or driven in your fancy motor cars, what magic makes those thing move so quickly? I do admire their shiny colors and bright lights. Do you need to feed them? Or do you have wizards renew their magic periodically? Oh. I subscribed to the most interesting periodical a few years back. It concerned the mating habits of human males and females, and came with very complete illustrations of superb quality. Except for the bit of folded middle that always seemed to appear in the young lady's midriff) doesn't mean my thoughts aren't completely clear to me, or to any person with the proper frame of reference.
Oh, in case you might be wondering if the small illustration near this reply is a picture of me, of course it isn't. Why would you want to look at an elderly gentleman (however dashing I might be, and I do cut quite a figure.) when you could look at such a lovely young lady. She reminds me some of my mother, though I should mention that the thoughts I had for her were nothing like the carnal thoughts the above-mentioned illustration invites. This internet-thing seems quite full of inviting illustrations of human females displaying their wares with amazing skill. I shall investigate this matter thoroughly and report back with my findings.
She reminds me some of my mother, though I should mention that the thoughts I had for her were nothing like the carnal thoughts the above-mentioned illustration invites.
Make a bluff check.