I am currently running my players through the Crown of the Kobold King, Revenge of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears modules. They are about half way through Revenge and I know they are going to want to kill Kreed at the end. The only one of the players who might have a remote objection to this is the cleric (and I doubt that as he is a very proud dwarf who will be exceptionally angry at being betrayed to the point of attempted murder).
I don’t have a problem with this series of events. I do however would like to know if anyone else has encountered this. I have already figured the recourse being taken by the lumber consortium, the population of Falcons Hollow, and the world at large.
I plan to let them run this course of action after Carnival of Tears. I feel that the investigation into the “evil approaching on the horizon” will be a good way for the PC’s to lay low for a bit.
My question is has anyone else had this happen and how did it turn out for the group?
Really? Never crossed anyones minds?
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This is my plan.
The Lumber Consortium send in a new guy.
He brings some lackeys in and re-appoints some locals.
There is violence and uncertainty as people lose out in the jostle for a place in the pecking order.
He is different to Kreed in some particulars but not in outcome (i.e. more patrols but less guards with individual camps, less prostitutes but more gambling dens, less crooked trials but more rough 'justice').
Ultimately my plan is that the party will have to face down the Lumber Consortium if they want to clean up Darkmoon Vale.
They should have some advantages to doing this after completing all of the modules set in the area.
- support of the townsfolk who have suffered
- support of local fey
- support of some local loggers
Unfortunately the Consortium is powerful, I'm willing to see how my players set things up before the Consortium make their move - should be an escalation (LC sends thugs, then mercenaries, then adventurers, then tries to use the law). Once the party have to prove to major figures in the government and military that the LC are acting unacceptably it will be interesting to see how things go - my guess is that they'll take the 'look, production is better now that we're in charge - happy lumberjacks get more done' approach to persuasion. (I'm expecting them to be level 15/16 before they truly take on the LC as they will have some unexpected challenges before then).
This is pretty much the overriding objective of the heroes in the second PF campaign I'm running. The heroes left FH with the intent of returning to bump of Kreed as soon as they could.
I'd be surprised if Kreed and his boys survive many FH campaigns. I can't imagine most mid-level parties of good-minded players and characters putting up with his antics. (His tendency to rape people gets a lot of my players in a murdering mood as soon as it is mentioned...)
I think the consortium would indeed send someone else, but as long as the profits keep rolling in I can't see them caring too much.
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I vaguely remember something about Kreed actually a lesser evil than what came before him, and what the Lumber Consortium would likely replace him with. I believe he had some dirt or somesuch that he was blackmailing the Consortium with to hold onto his position as well.
Maybe the players could be given an opportunity to pull the same stunt on Kreed, to rein him in.
Or if they take him out, instead of just having his replacement be even more of a villain than Kreed, have him be neutral(or even good) and dangerously incompetent.
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I used this as an opportunity hook for Tower of the last Baron. The Group killed Kreed although they provoked him to send his bullys at them first.
Since they befriended the Sheriff, he looked the other way, then come after the battle to arrest them to turn them over to the Eagle Knights (the cheracters were aware of this plan, hoping that the court of Andoran might judge in their favor, being local heroes and cooparating with the force of law).
The Eagle Knights, having hear of their actions prior to killing Kreed (and being no friends of the consortium, although ordered to suffer it) present the PCs an opportunity to do some dirty work for them (Tower of the last Baron).
If the succeed, the Eagle Knights will present the characters as associates and the lumber consortium, knowing that the Knights are Andorans Heroes for the common people, will likely not press charges for Kreeds death, as long as they keep falcons hollow.
I haven't decided about the replacement yet. Since I want my players to feel they could change something (and since the campaign will end soon after Chimeras Cove or perhaps Fellnight Queen), the new boss might be a little better than Kreed (hard but fair). If I decide to do one more adventure in which the PCs have to face the consortium (maybe inspired by Timber Rivalry from Glades of Death), he might be worse...
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Well, if they kill mighty kreed in front of witnesses, they probably will be chased and arrested by guards, then trial, then gallow, if you like to play in an authentic world. :)
Fortunately your level 7 characters will be able to shrug off Kreeg's lackeys, the Sheriff won't mind what they have done and by the time any Eagle Knights turn up they'll have gone through Kreeg's records and found enough proof of his crimes to drop Kreeg and the Lumber Consortium in a heap of trouble.
Or, y'know, however you want to GM it...
Well, last week, the party managed to take out Kreed.
SPOILERS MAY BE HIDDEN HERE!
But first, they got the Sherriff and Magistrate "on their side".
On their way back to Falcon's Hollow from Absalom, they stopped along the way to get the general "feel" of the Lumber Consortium and how other members felt about what was going on in FH.
Then they got back to town, took some time to see how the wind was blowing, and managed to get Kreed to move against them. Before that, however, they visited some of the other movers and shakers who worked for the Consortium (Logging Site Foremen, Taskmasters, etc.) and picked out who they wanted to replace Kreed.
In the end, what they wanted to do was remove Kreed, Payday, and Bloodeye (for other reasons) and replace them with people who would still keep the Lumber flowing and the money coming in. (They even gave all of Kreed's Loot to the Sherriff without being asked.)
One of the characters even managed to get a rumor started by implying that maybe the Consortium would send a group of adventurers to remove a Lumber Boss if he started getting too abusive. Discipline is fine, but raping and beating the employees just to feel power destroys morale and drops productivity and all that.
It took several game sessions for the party to arrange, but so far they've pulled it off. (After removing Bloodeye, they put Ralla in charge of running the brothel, hoping that she would make sure the girls were treated a bit better and paid a better share without actually removing the profession from town.)
They even got Kreed's son all of his father's belongings before sending him off to stay at the temple until the chaos is over. A few choice suggestions about what would happen to anyone who tried to take vengance on the boy has helped smooth things out.
I haven't run COKK, ROKK, COT or HARD yet. (Party is 4th level). Though I'm levelling up COKK for the party soon...now that they've met all of the kids, it should be more interesting.
Right now, as long as they keep helping to keep the lumber flowing to the Consortium, I'm not planning too many adverse effects. There will probably be an inquiry, but, though the LC probably doesn;t approve of people "retiring" their Bosses, as long as the party took the time to protect the company assets and money, there will probably not be much of a problem.
Yet.
(Oh, and the party has come across one of those Black-Speckled White Dragon Hatchlings mentioned in AP 5...that should cause some additional chaos eventually.)
Basically, I would assume that Kreed and his boys die in almost every version of FH. (Especially after some of the events in ROKK)