My Savage Tide group consists of 3 neutral and 3 evil characters. So far however they have been very civil in cities and villages, only demonstrating their evil when they were in the wilderness.
This changed last Friday evening.
They were really bothered by the election plotline in Farshore, especially when they discovered with gather information that Manthalay probably would win. They had not done anything so far that would help Lavinia in her campaign. I had played Manthalay as a very obnoxious character, even ignoring a PC's suggestions that he and Lavinia should work together, not against each other (do you still believe that this is an evil group?). They were also using Olman to upgrade Farshore's defenses, and at one point Manthalay was so obnoxious against the Olman that they went on strike and refused to work any longer. The group had to mediate again. They were totally fed up with Manthalay.
They still had about a month to go until the elections, and they had discovered that Manthalay had uncovered some juicy bits about the past of some of the PCs and was planning to use these in his campaign (claiming Lavinia was an innocent who was misused by a number of evil advisors, which was actually not that far from the truth).
So one of the players (who plays one of the neutral characters) suggested a coup. On a specific day at midnight they would silently kill Manthalay and some other enemy NPCs I had introduced in Farshore, all in the same night, so that they could blame one for killing the others. It took this player a week to convince the others (communicating via e-mail). Three of the players were against it, one would like to do it because his character was CE, but was afraid of the consequences, and only the final player (also a CE character) agreed to the plan at once. But finally they did it, since "now we are playing a N and E party, and we have never done this before, so this is a great chance to play something else for a change."
They planned things carefully. They had discovered an assassin, who was after one of the PCs, and managed to ambush and kill him. Then they forged evidence framing him for the murder of Manthalay and an ally of Manthalay, who frequently met in the evening to discuss the election campaign. They actually used the trap this assassin set up for the PC and modified it in order to trap Manthalay and this ally. It worked. With the following results:
The residents of Farshore were rudely awakened by an explosion. It was a warehouse near the bay where they stored oil and gunpowder. When they had doused the fire, they found the burned bodies of Manthalay and his ally. They also found letters in Manthalay's house, luring Manthalay and his ally to the warehouse. There was a trail to a room in the inn, which had been rented by the assassin.
Of course the PCs arrived, as if just out of bed, in their nightgowns. Of course nobody noticed one of them was a major image in order to hide the fact that one of them was still sneaking around in Farshore. The PCs rush to the inn, where the sixth member is hidden in the assassin's room, where he had deposited the assassin's body (which was hidden in a bag of holding). Of course the PCs take control, and warn everyone not to follow them to the room, since this assassin is very dangerous. They rush upstairs and stage a fight, making a lot of noise, pretending to defeat the assassin in order to explain the body. In the room they find more (forged) evidence.
They also added a lot of little details to make this story even more convincing. Needless to say, it worked!
So no elections, Manthalay gone, and Lavinia for lord major. Now they are writing speeches for the next playing session where they want to incite the crowd to appoint Lavinia as lord major. Of course they will tell the crowd that the assassin was after Lavinia, too.
It was a wonderful session again, with the players in constant fear that their ruse would be discovered. It was really nerve-wracking. This is such a great campaign with so many possibilities.
Nice!! Points to the group for cleverness and gratz on not getting caught. It would have screwed them pretty bad if they'd fumbled at this stage :)
Yes, and they were aware of that. That was why they were so hesitant at first. But wanting to play evil finally made them go ahead with it. It was great. Even the preliminary negotiations were great.
One of my players now wants to build a "cultural centre" in Farshore, which is actually meant as a cover for all kinds of criminal activities.
She asked Lavinia for financing, and Lavinia answered that she would think about it and would appreciate it if they would call it the "Meravanchi cultural centre".
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. >:}