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So I recently ran "Into The Haunted Forest" for my group, and to my surprise, my players refused to harm the final creature in any way! The module seems to be written with the assumption that the characters and the NPC's will pile onto the boss until it is defeated. Instead, when the NPC's turned their attention on the new threat, the PC's used the distraction to cut them down while the Inquisitor just walked up to the monster and started roleplaying, making one Diplomacy check after another. Since the creature's stat block states it attacks foes who use fire before anyone else, it was busy going after the NPC with the Burning Hands spell and paid no mind to the adjacent PC, who took this as encouragement to keep talking.
By the time all the NPC enemies were defeated, the entire party was intent on talking the monster down. Its stat block insists that it attacks relentlessly, but given that it has an Intelligence score, they were communicating with it in Sylvan, and had put their weapons away, I couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't be responsive or why it would keep attacking like a mindless creature.
The stats also say that it pursues anyone who takes the panoply out of the building, but it wasn't summoned to protect the panoply, only to help win a fight.
In the end, it let them go and take the MacGuffins in exchange for burying the remains of the person who summoned it.
Anyone else think this call was justified? I believe in rewarding good roleplaying, plus I'd hate for the attack to leave them afraid to communicate with creatures, lest they think it will just come at them anyway.
Anyone else run this encounter and have it go in a way other than the writer had planned?
I think your call was perfect. You are encouraging, by reward, exactly the kind of actions that you would like to see more often.
This is the basis of economics :)
I'd like to say my party did something other than kill the creature, but they are old school murderhobos through and through :D
Knowing nothing about the module in question, I think that sounds like a really fun ending!