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So my players just finished with the sawmill. Ironbriar escaped and the players released the raven etc...
So currently I've been playing up the paranoia. About who is or is not part of the cult. I've even had a small hit tried on them by assassins dressed in city watch clothes. They do have some support of a friendly guard sergeant but they are totally noobs here in the city. Anyways they are resting at least for 8 hours. In the mean time their talking about buying fly scrolls and just flying to the top of the tower.
So Xanesha was warned by Ironbriar. I was going to have Xanesha wait a few days then start hunting if they didn't get off their asses. Well now I'm a little worried that they'll bypass the Scarecrow and the Bell and aw wheres the fun in that.
I could of course limit what they can find in the way of scrolls. I have mentioned that the city is in the grip of fear. Not a lot of commerce has happened and when they did go shopping before they had a native guide who did intros and who is no longer around.
So my question is Is it a punk move to block them on this?
Flying to the top is a perfectly viable, if expensive move. In fact, it has been suggested here that PCs get a hint about 'Something crawling out of the top of the tower' so they are aware that they can climb or fly up.
Well that hint is suggested IF they talk to the locals of Underbridge. Which they have not.
I'm not against them climbing it. What I'm against is the notion that they can on short notice as noobs in the city go on down to Erpwins Scroll Emporium and buy a Costco blister pack of fly scrolls. I realize throwing money at a problem is a valid option but,...hmmm seems a little cheap
I'll tell you what happened to my group in case it helps you get some ideas.
My players levitated to the top of the tower. Caught me totally off guard. Fortunately, Levitate's a slow way to get there. So, the ranger goes up and faces off against the stalkers by himself. One of the stalkers hits one of the bells in an obvious signal pattern.
Down below, the oracle's only got the bard a quarter of the way up when the Scarecrow comes barging outside. She activates her wings of flame and slowly works both herself and the bard up while the bard wobbles around firing arrows at the golem. They didn't try to slow it with fire despite finding out about that with their knowledge checks, oddly.
The golem tries to climb up after them. He falls once, so the next time he tries I cheat and say he takes 10 when he normally can't and needs an 11 to make progress. I really wanted to set up what came next.
Back up top, the oracle helps the ranger finish off the surviving stalkers. The bard waits for the golem to get close to the top and greases the wall. Splat goes the Scarecrow.
But he didn't take enough damage to die. The ranger has spotted the weakened rope on the trapped bell, and hustles down the stairs to get the golem to chase him inside. Golem goes beserk and does so, the oracle burns through the rope and the bell gets dropped.
Unfortunately, I rolled badly for the bell and it missed the golem, so the ranger finished it off with arrows as it was climbing up after him.
Meanwhile Xanesha has been watching and realizes that the oracle is both the healer and the major magical threat, while the ranger should get the mask of the medusa.
About the scrolls, fly is only a third level spell. I don't think they'd have much trouble finding them in a large city like Magnimar. They can get spellcasting all the way to 8th level.
It's a big city, based on tariff free trade. Of course they can buy scrolls/potions/etc. In fact, in later levels, it's THE place to get such things, assuming they don't craft them themselves. It's a core assumption of the game, honestly. Even if they were wanted fugitives from justice, there is a tremendous black market fun by the Sczarni there, so they STILL should be able to get them.
Hitting Xanesha without wasting resources on the rest was almost a necessity for the 3.5 ed version of this fight. IMC, the party captured Ironbriar, bargained information for his freedom, and used fly/levitate/wildshape and ropes and jumped off the Irespan above and entered invisibly from above. Denied her forwarning and buff time, it was a doable fight, and that was under 3.5.
Ok point taken. If they want to spend the time to find them they can get them. The trade off being that she'll start hunting the party after a day or two.
Well, you're the DM, right? Hence YOU determine how long that will take, assuming your answer isn't "as soon as they can walk to the church/guild/market/fixer".
So are you going to let them have the items before you bring the TPK machine to their door?
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HAHAH it's prolly a moot point now. Where we left off last game the rogue said "Oh while the spellcasters are resting I'm going to disguise myself, leave my weapons with the spell casters (since it doesn't work with my disguise) and recon the tower". We decided to do this over email as I have their sheets in Hero lab. If the rogue was going to just check the outside of the tower no biggee but, no the player went in...
Whats even more awesome sauce is this player was our GM for 12 years till I took over. I can remember one occasion where I wandered off alone and my character was outright killed...
So the Scarecrow both out hid and out perceived our rogue (bad die rolls on rogues part). The Scarecrow grappled on the surprise round. Rogue has failed to break grapple. Scarecrow has tied up rogue.
What is going to happen next over email (our group gets together this Friday) is Xanesha is going to charm the hell outta said rogue (as said rogue has really crappy will saves)
Xanesha will prolly use the rogue for info as well as use the rogue in the more ahem broader sense of the term (Xanesha's opposed CHA check is pretty harsh). Then she'll use the rogue for bait...
It's good to be a gansta
DOH!
My God, players. Sheesh. Just asking to get ganked.
Actually this has turned into one of the best RP over emails ever. I actually decided to run her less vindictive and bitter but, still totally evil. I mean she'd be a super catch...She's hot and powerful. If only if she'd stop eating and/or sacrificing people. So our heroine Zenovia the rogue was grappled and tied up by the Scarecrow.
Knowing the predilections of the player I ended up google image searching for "Hot goth chick". I should mention you should never do this while at work (whoops).
Anyways Zenovia was charmed and actually got to see the interaction of Ironbriar (who lets face it is a tool) and X as X found a new plaything.
I ended up having to write soft core text based porn at work (again not really a good idea).
Anyways this also allowed me to have X receive her sisters letter and go off on a tirade about how she hates her sister and as all BBEG's talk about her plans for the Mayor.
I'm toying with a love interest angle here...
So if X TPK's the rescue party... the next group will have to fight her and her lover Zenovia.
If the party kills her Zenovia will find a love note in her possesions
If the party drives her off (which I'm hoping for) she'll go into hiding to avoid the shame to her sister and out of fear from her lord. If that happens she may pop up from time to time to seek out Zenovia.
All in all I'm actually really pleased and kudos to my player who went along with this. I think he's in love with her already...