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Hey everyone,
I'm running two iterations of CoT right now; we're not far into the story by any means. My one group has been pretty RP heavy, and have spent several weeks with the other members of the Children of Westcrown. They've taken a number of them under their wing, and have formed close relationships with most of them. They've helped to outfit the other rebels with gear, and made some minor renovations on the old temple to make it a better place to stay and train.
Catching wind of the bandit group calling themselves the 'Bastards of Erebus', they decided it was time to act as heroes and rid Westcrown of these fiends before they harmed any others.
They decided against bringing any of the untrained rebels with them on this mission, and opted to take only Janiven as accompaniment.
They weren't particularly stealthy in their engagement of the tieflings, and a full scale assault in section 10 ensued (a wounded Ostenso, Vethamer, Dravano, Palaveen, and 7 tiefling rogues stood against a handful of humans with poor light sources). One character charged into this mess despite the warnings of his comrades, and he was promptly knocked unconscious. Seeing the mass of cackling tieflings advance upon them, the rest of the party fled, their hearts heavy with loss. Janiven was quite emotional on the way home. Arael stormed out into the night when he heard the news. Many of the other 'Children' are now second-guessing what it means to be a champion of the people.
Here comes the hard part; in the night, Palaveen had the 'mummies' use their magic (Charm Person + opposed Charisma checks) to fish information out of the captured PC. (Who did a great job roleplaying being tied up and interrogated with enchantment, by the way). However, now the Bastards know all about the Children of Westcrown, their member base, and all about their headquarters in the abandoned temple of Aroden. I don't imagine it will be too long before they come to pay a visit to the 'Children'.
How do I play it out from here? What would Palaveen do with that kind of information?
I think it's possible that the Bastards will still be slightly reeling from the damage dealt to their hideout before the major confrontation, and will be too busy to confront the PCs for a few days (giving them time to act). It's also possible that they stage an all-out assault against the 'Children', in which case I have an interesting battle ahead of me.
The other option is that the PCs decide to temporarily disband the rebel group, and lay low. Or move the operation elsewhere; where would some other suitable places in Westcrown be found?
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Hey everyone,
I'm running two iterations of CoT right now; we're not far into the story by any means. My one group has been pretty RP heavy, and have spent several weeks with the other members of the Children of Westcrown. They've taken a number of them under their wing, and have formed close relationships with most of them. They've helped to outfit the other rebels with gear, and made some minor renovations on the old temple to make it a better place to stay and train.
Catching wind of the bandit group calling themselves the 'Bastards of Erebus', they decided it was time to act as heroes and rid Westcrown of these fiends before they harmed any others.
They decided against bringing any of the untrained rebels with them on this mission, and opted to take only Janiven as accompaniment.
They weren't particularly stealthy in their engagement of the tieflings, and a full scale assault in section 10 ensued (a wounded Ostenso, Vethamer, Dravano, Palaveen, and 7 tiefling rogues stood against a handful of humans with poor light sources). One character charged into this mess despite the warnings of his comrades, and he was promptly knocked unconscious. Seeing the mass of cackling tieflings advance upon them, the rest of the party fled, their hearts heavy with loss. Janiven was quite emotional on the way home. Arael stormed out into the night when he heard the news. Many of the other 'Children' are now second-guessing what it means to be a champion of the people.
Here comes the hard part; in the night, Palaveen had the 'mummies' use their magic (Charm Person + opposed Charisma checks) to fish information out of the captured PC. (Who did a great job roleplaying being tied up and interrogated with enchantment, by the way). However, now the Bastards know all about the Children of Westcrown, their member base, and all about their headquarters in the abandoned temple of Aroden. I don't imagine it will be too long before they come to pay a visit to the 'Children'.
How do I play it out from here? What would...
the best defense is a good offense. So the baddies know where you live? You are familiar with the concept of "no witnesses", aren't you? Sure, it's a little cold blooded, but if you go blasting in with "rescue" intentions, it's an easy sell.
Grab one of the Children - He's the new "missing pc", replaced with identical character (or similar, or what have you) until his original PC is found alive or dead. Have the Bastards gear up a bit, ramp the defenses a bit, but I personally wouldn't ambush them. That's a little heavy for low level characters, especially if it compromises their safehouse.
Such is the price of stupidity, I suppose. If you DID want to attack the safehouse, the nicest manner would be direct attack on the PC's. Mean could be poison, fire, disease, or similar underhanded tactics. I guess that's a style choice at your table. If you think they'll find the fight at the sanctuary exciting and not drive them insane with paranoia [ooc](my PC's have moved 4 times, in relation to attacks either in or near their base of operations. they dug a TUNNEL connecting one secret area to another secret area just to have an escape tunnel.)[\ooc] then have at you.
-t
I wonder if Palaveen wouldn't use the knowledge to try and make another ploy for the Council's attention, maybe making a bid for power by giving information about a forming insurgent group. It seems like he's looking for any way he can to get in good with them, even if what he perceives to be valuable information really means little to the well entrenched group. Disgruntled citizens are probably no surprise to them, and I imagine that they would demand that the Bastards deal with the problem themselves, do the job they're being paid to do, and to stop bothering the Council with such trivial matters. Meanwhile, the Bastards would have to be fairly mobile delivering messages, especially if such messages were deemed important.You could break up some of the Tiefling encounters into hit and run strikes while they were moving about, whittling their numbers before their "final assault" on the children.
I find it doubtful that Palaveen or any of the other Bastards would be able to secure the aid of the Dottari or Hellknights due to the group's murder-ridden reputation.
While I'm DMing my own CoT group, as a player I loved making up plans and using resources for defending a set area or "homebase". If your group is creative, allow them to direct the Children and whatever resources you give them to defend their "homebase" against a lesser humber of Bastards, maybe including Palaveen.
Anyways, hope this helps.