Question to people who've played The Horn of Aroden (spoilers)

[doc the grey]

So did anyone else just not give a s#&& about the little princeling and him living out his delusion dreams and potentially getting himself killed, how did you you guys handle dealing with him, and was any of it particularly cool and creative?

Seriously, for those checking in I'm expecting spoilers so if you want to know nothing heading forward don't you should stop now.

[Kristen Gipson]

I have GMd this, but have not played it.

:

When I GM this I noticed that this was how the players felt. So to keep it from going down the very disastrous and inevitable path that it was headed, I had him start to ignore all the PCs that were asshats to him and he started talking to the no social skills fighter (he wasn't saying anything), that did well in the werewolf fight. Before long, the fighter buddied up to him and even sparred with him. The fighter really played up the whole situation. He "explained" that adventurers do not remove their armor when nature calls, to properly loot a corpse you cannot forget to look in their bum, and other remarks like that. In the end, they convinced him he is better off in court, and the fighter agreed to become his new instructor.

[doc the grey]

Kristen Gipson wrote:

I have GMd this, but have not played it.

** spoiler omitted **

Lol that's great, another life saved due to rectal exams.

With us it went down something like this:

I was sitting at a table surprisingly packed with new players this week playing my Motherless Tiefling two-handed fighter alongside a knifemaster, a gnome sorceress, a pregen cleric, and a rogue monk. We clear everything getting to this kid and the party had done well but after hearing their mom's explanation my fighter was not wanting to put up with this noble who could get himself killed and the party dead. We ended up getting him free from the chest and after his "warm" thanks to us my fighter just starts tying up his arms so he could just bind bind him to himself and walk his ass home. The noble doesn't take this too well and starts shouting all manner of things most unpleasent which the rest of the party doesn't seem to take too well and whatever friends he had made quickly turn. After that I just bind him from head to foot to keep him from getting into more trouble, he swears some more, and proceeds to act like a noble with no good sense even after we show him the evidence of his friends betrayal. At that point we just throw him back in the trunk and I drag him back to his mom. The best part though was as he starts shouting all his noble rhetoric about how he should be handled and belittling the party my fighter just asks him, "Would you like to be treated as a noble or an adventurer?" His response was of course, "An adventurer." and my fighters response was to just slug him and follow it up with, "Adventurers don't get to say things like that to strangers without bruises."

That might have been the most satisfying hit I've gotten in a pfs game lol.

[FranKc]

When I played said scenario.

Spoiler:

Our party's samurai wanted to gag him and drag him back home but luckily he was the only one. My ranger thought that he could benefit from experiencing things first-hand. We failed the first three attempts to improve his attitude but got through to him in the end. But oh those glorius battles the young lord came across...

When I ran the same adventure later.

Spoiler:

Tier 4-5. Party of an oracle, a ranger, a druid and a wizard. Adventurers managed to get a hunch that the blacksmith was hiding something and pondered that the lordling has been under his influence and that would je the reason he's been acting up. Dame Lebeda had said that his people have gotten Lander to return for brief periods of time so it was pretty clear that gag-n-smack would not be the best option.

They were set to show him the error of his ways. And I abused the ®¢*t out of the situation. :D

I won't repeat all the insults and battlecry-ish things Lander let loose during the long trip back home. He did fall to negative hit points twice at least but actually solo'd the atomie with some helpful buff spells from the PCs. The ranger challenged him to a duel and beat him in two rounds even while using non-lethal damage. They gave him the axe beak's egg after the last fight so he did come to his senses in the end. Players did enjoy the scenario and all of the PCs got to participate in one way or another.

Both times 2pp and some gold missing from the chronicle.

[doc the grey]

FranKc wrote:

When I played said scenario. ** spoiler omitted **

When I ran the same adventure later. ** spoiler omitted **

Both times 2pp and some gold missing from the chronicle.

Yeah we debated walking him back but after the smarm and choice words to the party (including the rather large qilppoth tiefling wielding a bec di corbin, the 3 diplomats, and the knife master) we just decided on our choice was faster and safer for him.

[ja'alur]

with us, yeah we did not care for him

Spoiler:

we knocked him out, locked him in the chest, beat him down, and delivered him unconcious (as a rogue I kept him sap'd the whole trip)

[TriOmegaZero]

My party was very unenthused to be babysitters, but I had a fighter whose backstory was specifically a former guard of House Lebeda and managed to convince him to come home 'parading the bandits to justice for the people to see'. The rest of the party gritted their teeth and made snarky remarks along the way.

[FranKc]

I didn't mention it before but there was plenty of snark around both times. I am kinda wondering though, was it characters or players who opted to sap'n'gag in so many cases?

Most of my characters would not have liked the man but to just beat an npc who is basically a child (at least that was my impression) sounds a really murder-hoboiy thing to do. Especially since his mother wanted the PCs to make him chance his mind.

[David Neilson]

I am just curious what the little nobles exact manner of address was in setting terms. He is not a knight so Sir is not proper, and he seemed to low ranking for 'Your Excellence'.
In Character the only really irritation was he was calling my character peasant, which since he is a citizen of Magnimar is incorrect factually, and as he is also in no way the little princlings vassal seems to be over reaching for the little guy.
Oddly despite this I do sort of hope to see the little sprat again. Since I am curious how the average reaction to him went.

[Scaramanga_]

Dueling:

My group spent time discussing the current state of affairs for an hour with "the box" Then as negotiations failed we resorted to showing first hand the life and its glory. We did enact certain provisions and a pledge of honor to hold our claim. I myself dueled him twice, first laying him out in a single round with my pistol. Then rehealing him and dueling via sword which I still nearly killed him, but taking a dive is not the least of the crimes I will commit for the Decemvirate and for Taldor.

[Veja Halfblood, Snowmask Sister]

Ha! He cared not for the finer qualities of flame, so I had little to teach him. Fortunately, one of my companions at the time was a Talden noble woman who was quite skilled with the sword. After they sparred, he had great respect for her and we enjoyed our time with the lordling.

[Zach W.]

Veja Halfblood wrote:

Ha! He cared not for the finer qualities of flame, so I had little to teach him. Fortunately, one of my companions at the time was a Talden noble woman who was quite skilled with the sword. After they sparred, he had great respect for her and we enjoyed our time with the lordling.

This. My privateer captain enjoyed the noble only because he was pretty. Choice words fromt he Taldan Noble and the rest of the party kept the little naive lordling in line. We had a nice jaunt back to the city, enjoyed our time "teaching" the young boy what we could, telling stories of past exploits.

[Samish Lakefinder]

It seems to me that Pathfinders should be well trained in tolerance. You have necromancers hanging out with clerics of Pharasma, pirates from the Shackles and Hellknights, and barbarians from the Land of the Linnorm Kings and Irrisen witch all managing to work together. But that one noble kid manages to ruin everything.

It would be funny if the NPC in 5-08 Confirmation was played like many of you handled the prince. Anyone who was uppity for a low level character gets knocked out and the rest get to carry him.

[David Neilson]

Well the thing is the NPC in the confirmation is *competent* and gives you useful gear to boot. The little Lordling is not, and rather full of himself.

[Ashr Talunt]

Zach Williams wrote:

Veja Halfblood wrote:

Ha! He cared not for the finer qualities of flame, so I had little to teach him. Fortunately, one of my companions at the time was a Talden noble woman who was quite skilled with the sword. After they sparred, he had great respect for her and we enjoyed our time with the lordling.

This. My privateer captain enjoyed the noble only because he was pretty. Choice words fromt he Taldan Noble and the rest of the party kept the little naive lordling in line. We had a nice jaunt back to the city, enjoyed our time "teaching" the young boy what we could, telling stories of past exploits.

Tsk. I told you all, I'm not a fancy-pants noble. I'm just a simple shipwright from Cassomir. And the kid wasn't that bad, after I beat him with his preferred weapon of choice. I guess it also helped that I went to that weird library before I went up to Brevoy. It's not my fault that you all didn't earn his respect.

[Chris O'Reilly]

While I think we did everything wrong we could have, my valley girl/totally not lumpy space princess nagaji druid wasn't letting a (maybe?) rich guy go without trying to make friends. Anyway we would have failed if not for the pregen bard. Go Lem, you da real mvp. I guess the closest thing to something interesting was

Spoiler:

Lander got suggestion'd by the carbuncle but we lied through our teeth to convince him that he went into some sort of battle trance and won the fight single handedly

[Cire]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

My party was very unenthused to be babysitters, but I had a fighter whose backstory was specifically a former guard of House Lebeda and managed to convince him to come home 'parading the bandits to justice for the people to see'. The rest of the party gritted their teeth and made snarky remarks along the way.

Second group I ran this for did something very similar. Let him take all the credit for defeating the werewolf and discovering the bandit leader's identity.

Both groups I have run this for have discussed just leaving him in the trunk before even talking to him. One group considered putting him back in the trunk after letting him out.

Both groups wound up making him friendly in the end though. I rather enjoy seeing groups struggle with how to deal with this one.

[Kamen Rider W]

When my group played this, we had a great time, and while we didn't particularly liked the princeling, we were all characters that cared enough. We had a blast, as we taught him the dangers of being Pathfinders, and ultimately, the GM handled him realizing that he needs more training and practice before just trying to be an adventurer really well, and I think it's mostly party and GM variance that has led to poor experience in the past.

[Misroi]

I played in this a few weeks ago with my stone mystery/deaf curse oracle.

The Nitty Gritty:

Yes, he was an ass, but most of us realized we were going to have to suck up his pompous attitude and convince him that adventuring isn't as glorious as he seemed to think it was. It helped that we all realized that he wasn't the one making the decisions here, but Mom was, and since Lady Gloriana wanted us to leave here with a positive experience, that meant we couldn't just beat him unconscious with saps and bring the box back to town. While four of us were playing nicey-nice, the barbarian and ninja were undermining everything - being snarky if not out-and-out rude to him. While we gained a bunch of bonuses to the Diplomacy roll, we also earned a bunch of negatives, and the potential bonuses from RP were counteracted by the penalties we earned. Fortunately, our paladin's Diplomacy check went well, so we didn't have to go adventuring for awhile before we could reign him back in.

[Malag]

The worst part of scenario for me was losing half of scenario gold on bird eggs in the forest? That just didn't make any sense. We even roleplayed trying to avoid killing birds because we didn't wish to hack & slash everything. It was probably GM's fault on that.

Adam

[Finlanderboy]

The DM says we rocks the diplomacy roll for him and we made him a temp pathfinder and he even helped us in the fight against the ax beak things.