For some reason, my players are hellbent on tracking down and slaying Barnabas Harrigan.
Once they captured his Cabin girl and heard that his ship was in port, there was a mad dash to go and slay him.
Then, after the Free Captain's Regatta they tried to kill him and his crew again!
In the former situation, I told them that the ship had left port and they had missed their opportunity.
In the latter situation, it was anything I could do to keep them from attacking Harrigan DURING the race and essentially destroying the entire premise of the next module.
When I told them that he had once again given them the slip, I started facing accusations of railroading.
How do I keep Harrigan alive until the final encounter with him in module X? What reasoning might I be able to give to my players that won't lower their opinion of me as a GM?
Have you had any players that acted like this in your adventure? How did you handle it? Why were they wanting to go after him?
In my game Harrigan hasn't really done anything to the player characters to earn their enmity except for press-ganging them in the first place (which was more his crew then him) and attacking them during the final stretch of the race. So why do you think they are all out for blood?
We've just finished the third module and I have not had the opportunity to read any of the next three.
Help.
If this is what my players really wanted to do then I would let them. Of course, my players already know that I don't adjust encounters to make them tier-appropriate, so they'd be wary. I also went out of my way during the first part of chapter one to show that Harrigan is personally quite powerful, and I suggest at least anecdotal evidence of some sort to hint to your players about the challenges facing them.
The need for Harrigan to stay alive is based on the necessity of driving the PCs to storm Gannet Island and learn about the Chelish armada. He'd be a ridiculously tough opponent for characters just out of chapter three, but the big reason they can't just fight him is that they don't know where he is. They have visitors to deal with in chapter four, but if they want to intersperse their hosting preparations with research into Harrigan's home base then there's no reason they can't do that.
If they attack Gannet Island early then its defences will probably drive them away. The big risk is that they'd just get TPKed, so as long as you let them take things cautiously then they should be able to run away and try again later.
Having an antagonist be this hated by the PCs is a wonderful thing. I'd milk it instead of trying to prevent them from pursuing him. If they manage to catch him away from his base and dispatch him you can always have Luccaria or Gilbrok or someone try to punish them for it and drive your group to attack Gannet Island that way.
I'm with tbug on this - I think you should reward your players' spite. You note that Harrigan hasn't done anything to them since the regatta: maybe it's time he took notice of their attempts to kill him. Poison their grog; attack them when they're at anchor; capture their crew and ship (to replace the one they cost him) when they're adventuring ashore, provoking a rescue mission. Make him into the villain they want him to be.
Don't forget, too, that the villains we hate most are the ones that keep getting away. If it's important to you to set up the planned confrontations with him, let them fight Harrigan - but give him ways to escape at the last moment if they pull it off. Dust of disappearance, potions of gaseous form or fly, all sorts of shenanigans could hold off his death until it makes narrative sense.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
You could always let them kill him.
He has a Sorcerous lover/shipmate who has access to the Teleport spell to make off with his body and the Chellish empire have invested enough in him to make resurrecting him worthwhile - maybe even bring him back with a Fiendish template. Alternately you could have that Sorcerer or another NPC take up his mantle and his role in the campaign with a REAL reason to come after the party.
It might be tricky to manage, but how great a moment would it be for your PC's to discover a villain long-thought dead has been behind the scenes pulling at strings with revenge in his black heart?
You haven't mentioned it, but I would seriously like to recommend switching the events that take place in books 5 and 6. Its what we did and that was probably the best decision I made apart from having Aron Ivey be found alive.
I have pretty much the same problem, book 3 and the players want to kill him. They do have a plan though. They decided to save Giles rather than kill him once they had got the info they needed. They spared his life with the offer of a contract.
Yep, they want to use Giles to kill him.
Now this was such an expecected idea it kind of threw me but having thought about it I intend to let them have a go. They have laid the ground work, they need to contact Giles, pay him 20k in gold and they can supply the poison.
It is possible that Giles could kill him if they use the correct poison and he throws well. I intend to play this out and let the players throw for Giles whilst I play ot Harrigan.
No idea when this will happen or if they will do it but the idea has taken root.
The way I see it is that if they manage it before book 5 things are going to get interseting and may have serious repurctions on the story. The way I see it if they kill Harrigan too early they will not know about the invasion and its likely that the invasion will storm through The Shackles laying seige to Port Peril. Im not sure how I would deal with it to be honest but the AP may finish early. It could mean some rethinking and maybe have the players leading a resistance. Who knows.
I think the main thing is to at least let them try if they want, I see no harm in it other than changing the story.
Yep. Gonna use that.
That..... is awesome. My group will be mythic by the time this comes around, dealing with that before Harrigan would be a perfect challenge.
My players have decided that they wanted to go after Harrigan in tempest rising. They managed to find the location of harrigans island, it's a party of three level 7s. I think it's going to be a tpk, and I'm thinking I should just let it be. They wanted a challenge above their pay grade, and just lost their magical support. I don't see this ending well for them but they want to do it against recommendation. Any thoughts as to how to fix this outside of a total party kill?
My players have decided that they wanted to go after Harrigan in tempest rising. They managed to find the location of harrigans island, it's a party of three level 7s. I think it's going to be a tpk, and I'm thinking I should just let it be. They wanted a challenge above their pay grade, and just lost their magical support. I don't see this ending well for them but they want to do it against recommendation. Any thoughts as to how to fix this outside of a total party kill?
I can offer some advice on how to forestall the group, how to keep the situation from turning into a TPK, but I'd need more information - have they already begun the attack? Are they aboard ship or on foot on Harrigan's Island? You say that they 'just lost their magical support', which makes it sound like they're in the thick of things already...
We actually had a situation where the PC's were captured by a rival pirate captain and imprisoned (not Harrigan, but were to be delivered to Harrigan) and were eventually rescued by members of their crew and who managed to sneak into where they were being held - I thought it better for them to lose most of their gear than to lose their lives and have the entire campaign de-rail. Members of their crew petitioned Tessa Fairwind for aid and Pegsworthy lent a hand as well, further bolstering those alliances for later in the campaign.
It actually led to a funny line that was one of our favorites from the AP - Mardus Siggs, the boy from the Rock, had been taken as a sort of hostage by our captain and was serving as a cabin boy aboardship where he had shown a real flair for piracy. He had an infatuation with the group's Rogue, a vicious woman known for her coarse nature and unpredictability - she of course couldn't take the teen-aged boy seriously and regularly made him the butt of her jokes. Well, Siggs was the one who led the rescue party to free his captain and her officers, and on the way out our Barbarian First Mate leaned in grinning and told her:
"You know, you're going to have to throw a leg over him after this..."
to which she replied grudgingly
"Yeah, I know."
The magical support retired, and the rest are sailing straight to harrigans the party rogue has the means to save herself, (a scroll that can get her out if she chooses to use it. I think she will.) so we'd actually only be losing the fighter and the marksman.
The funny thing is the retired char was the captain the letter of marque was issued to, so the other chars are no longer operating under it. If Harrigan gets them he gets off Scott free from the council. And since they didn't even bother with investigating the spy ring for Tessa and took their sweet time on a side quest for a month and a half in game, Harrigan would have his reinforcements. And since most of the crew was loyal to the captain many of the significant NPCs have left. I don't even think they could get past the sea serpent at this point.
I suppose they could just get captured and can be rescued with the rest when they are strong enough to actually fight him. Might even work out better to have the two disruptful chars out of the picture for a little bit.
I suppose they could just get captured and can be rescued with the rest when they are strong enough to actually fight him. Might even work out better to have the two disruptful chars out of the picture for a little bit.
If you have it, I would recommend checking pp. 44-45 of Chapter 5:
I would like to point out I never said what condition they would be in when rescued. On the fair side though. That's pretty demented. >_<
I would like to point out I never said what condition they would be in when rescued. On the fair side though. That's pretty demented. >_<
Just throwing this out there - it can be a little cheesy if not done right (and might be anyway), and its a well you can't really go to more than once, but in the past when a group has been hell-bent on a course of action that could only lead to a TPK, and a TPK would likely mean the end of the campaign, I've had them do it and then, after the inevitable wipe, had one of them awaken as if it had been a dream... perhaps one God-sent in an effort to forestall such foolishness.
As I said, might seem clichéd, but better a cliché than the end of an entire campaign everyone is enjoying.
I'd make the sea serpent encounter really hard but escapable, so they could go off and lick their wounds and plan how to get past it (and gain levels in the meantime). This way it would feel like they've made a tiny bit of progress in their goal (by gaining intel) but would keep them moving forward rather than wrecking the game.
Okay had a nice long talk with the player that retired the magic user, (the sole voice of reason in the party), the problem is no longer insurmountable, although as her deity is Desna and she is in good standing, that does give me an in for a dream if they do screw up, since she wants to rejoin the party. Thank god.
Things might actually get back on track, or at least as close as they will ever get with my players. I really do like them but they sure don't make it easy on me. Thanks for the help Story Archer.
"Baranbas Harrigan" is an assumed nom de guerre. His lack of Polyglot as a known language is probably just an oversignt. Add it in. Why not?