Get rid of NPC in HMM

[Chewbacca]

I am now DMing HMM and now that my players have freed the remaining black arrows, I am left with 4 NPCs (Shalelu + 3 Black arrows) to play with my 5 PCs.

Really that's a pain in game flow during combat and I don't really like to have Cohorts and so on.

SO i'm thinking about getting rid of them or at least some of them. May be not kill them but well.

I already got the black guy poisoned and taken away to turtle ferry with Kaven...

Shalelu I think is the moot point. OK I understand what she wants to do at Fort Rannick but well I wish I had never brought her at start.

So I want to get rid of her ASAP.

Thanks If you have some ideas.

[TBA]

I'd ask where you are in the adventure... have they just been rescued?

Work out who you want to survive and plan it out from there.

So, for me, I wanted Shalelu and Jakardos to survive, as they'll move to the Sandpoint region after the adventure (Shalelu and the party druid starting to form a relationship), as I'm having about 9 months between HMM and FotSG. Vale, I want to survive, as he'll end up as captain to the retaken fort. Kaven won't survive, as I have no use for him.

Once I'd worked this out, it was fairly easy to plan it. The group was infiltrating the Fort, Shalelu and the Black Arrows were acting as a diversion. In the ensuing fight, Kaven fled, and the others went to ground. Kaven fled to Hook Mountain, where Barl had him executed. The party will find his corpse there.

Shalelu, Jakardos and Vale have been tracking the ogres since then, and will open up the route to Hook Mountain for the party later. This way I don't have to run combat for these guys :)

If you really want to kill off Shalelu, have them offer to be a diversion if your party is going for the fort. While the PC's are busy, have the diversion go bad in some way. Otherwise, have them investigate Skulls Crossing, Hook Mountain or the forest with the nymph and have her killed there...

[Chewbacca]

They have just been rescued...

The diversion is a good idea indeed yeah.

It's been a nightmare in the graul house since it was 9 people to play.

I think they will make a diversion and then they will keep the fort in order to avoid retaking by the ogres.

[Evil Lincoln]

Bwahah, I killed 3 NPCs in Ft. Rannick, plus 1 PC.

Let's remember, it's not the ogres who are the "massacre" in "Hook Mountain Massacre".

Tear these NPCs apart before the player's very eyes. Let them see the joy with which ogres regard gore as a plaything. Brutalize them.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I think it's odd that Shalelu has turned out to be such a popular character. In one debased 40K-obsessed corner of the internet, she's a freaking celebrity, a sort of Burt Gummer, but for goblins instead of Graboids. Sounds like she's become a beloved character in most RotRL and SD games.

[Ravenot]

In my campaign, the three black arrows were far too weak from starvation to fight right away after rescue. The party took them back to the church in Turtleback to rest then continued clearing the house.

Once rested, the black arrows have pledged their help with retaking the fort. Any other side quest the party goes on they have no interest in accompanying the party with. They want revenge, not adventure. Kaven himself is only bluffing all of this and will actually just run away during the distraction of the first battle once the party reaches the fort, probably fleeing the region.

Once the walls and courtyard is taken, Jakardros, shalelu, and vale will ask to stay on the walls and secure the area from possible returning patrols, leaving just the party to clear the inner keep.

In this way, I only am dealing with extra npcs in the outer keep fights, which I deem as necessary to give the pcs an edge to help retake the fort against the hordes of ogres in there. After that they are on their own.

[Chewbacca]

Thanks for the ideas !

EVIL LINCOLN > You are EVIL ;o)

For me the diversion will be the best thing... And since KAven is not a good ranger, he will guide the PCs in the castle. I'm sure something baaad will happen to him !

GRIN.

Once rannick is freed the rest will probably stay to defend it.

Thanks again.

[Joseph Reynolds]

Evil Lincoln wrote:

Tear these NPCs apart before the player's very eyes. Let them see the joy with which ogres regard gore as a plaything. Brutalize them.

I like your thinking. I will be doing this in my campaign!!!

[AsmodeusUltima]

In my campaign the rangers were too weak to help when first rescued, so Shalelu stayed behind to protect them (the players rescued them before going into the main house). They then helped with retaking the fort, which was a good thing because the paladin royally screwed the pooch on his stealth roll and they had to fight almost every ogre on the first floor at once. Vale, the paladin, and the druid almost died. The only one who did die was poor Kib. :( To this day the other players keep telling the sorcerer/barbarian that he should have given the bear mage armor.

After that Kaven was exiled instead of executed since he helped out in retaking the fort, and the others stayed on to help secure the area/guard the fort. I had Barl and his ogre army (including Xanesha, who escaped at the end of SSM, and the Runebound King's animated corpse as a mobile siege platform) attack the fort instead of yet another dungeon crawl (I mean, the PCs have a fort, they should get to use it!). When last we left off the PCs, Shalelu, Vale, Jak, and the paladin's cohort and followers were fighting for their lives. I like having the extra NPCs there for an encounter like this so that I can make the battle a little more epic without overwhelming the PCs. Due to stupid heroics, it looks like Vale might not survive this one, which would be fine with me.

Anyhow, that is how they worked out for me. If you are not interested in larger scale combats like that, the idea of having them be a separate force that gets massacred sounds like a good one.