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So the wife and I are co-GMing the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path. She's much better at the RPing and social interactions so she is handling that, while my combat tactics are much more of a challenge for our players. The result has been quite enjoyable for our group. But we have had a...umm..."situation" develop during our latest session in which we were closing out the Hellfire Compact adventure.
Our party consisted of a Swashbuckler, a Sorcerer, a Druid with cat pet, and a Lawful Evil "Tyrant" Antipaladin. They had a great time playing at hired thugs and rampaged through most of the adventure. The final assault on the Court of Spears was a hard fight for them, with the confrontation with the Dryad being very touch and go. But they made it through and the final confrontation with the Angel Knight started.
They had been anticipating this and as expected it came down to a "mutual smiting" duel between the Antipaladin and the Angel Knight with the rest of the party trying to (and eventually succeeding in)taking down the badly wounded Hound Archon who had retreated to the shrine. It was an epic fight with the higher damage output of the halberd wielding Antipaladin being kept up with by the self-healing Paladin. In fact at the climax of the duel the evil Druid stepped in and dropped a couple of heals on the Antipaladin before being driven off by a hard hit from the Angel Knight. Yes, bad form, but they are an evil party after all! Both duelist were down to low single digits in hit points when the Angel Knight landed and critical hit on the Antipaladin! The near max damage critical hit plunged the badly injured evil combatant down to almost negative 30 and she dropped stone dead!
The Angel Knight popped her last Lay On Hands and used her second Smight Evil on the Swashbuckler. Although they had taken down the Hound Archon the rest of the party were all badly hurt and pretty much out of resources. So they cut and ran. Being faster than the victorious Angel Knight, they got clear of the treehouse complex and (to quote the Sorcerer) "didn't stop running until they got back to Longacre!"
It's not supposed to end that way, right? ;-)
In any event, the players (including the dead Antipaladin) still had a blast. The epic nature of the final fight made up for the character death in their eyes. But the wife and I are brainstorming as to how to proceed now. The rebellion has been shattered by the player's efforts, but the Angel Knight is still at large.
So how would you handle this defeat as a GM? How should Archbaron Fex receive news of their failure? Surely the Angel Knight will return to seek retribution at some point. We plan on playing the rest of Adventure Path, so how should this effect future events?
On a happy note the slain Antipaladin will be back. In our game the players executed both of the twins in the town square. (by burning them at the stake...yikes!) So we altered the story in having the rebellion send their mother two resurrection scrolls instead of the stated one. After the botched resurrection attempt and the death of the priestess, the remaining scroll fell into the hands of the party. So we have already decided that somehow the party will find a Cleric of high enough level to cast the spell...at a price of course.
Anyway, thanks for your input and thoughts on how to turn failure into a growing experience. I also hope this post does not enter into "TL;DR" territory! ;-)
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A few options I think:
1.) Lawful Stupid Showdown: Have the Angel Knight, who presumably has lost most of his allies, show up and challenge a member of the party to single combat. Having lost everything and his effort a shambles he might just want to honor his goddess by trying to get justice on one of the villains and their horrible antics.
2.) Resurrection... or not?: The Angel Knight seeing his effort's failure (and this might prove my lack of knowledge about Hell's Vengeance since I only played through the first section before our game ended)... the bodies of all his allies etc he realizes that his goddess truly isn't with him and snaps. Instead of having the antipaladin raised the Angel Knight is corrupted and renounces Iomedae for Asmodeus, becoming a Tyrant Antipaladin played by the player who lost his character.
3.) The Angel Knight flees after losing all of his supporters and becomes a recurring foil that pops up in later parts of the adventure. Without people to back him up in Longacre his efforts are still thwarted and the party gets to grind their teeth at the fact that you get to throw him at them again.
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The angel knight is a SHE, just thought you'd want to know. :-)
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Heh.
Beat me to it. Yes, the Angel Knight is a woman. So is our late antipaladin. This fact led my wife to joking about the "armoured cat fight"!
@rkotitan- Yes, pretty much anyone overtly associated with the rebellion both in Longacre and at the terrorist's hideout is either dead or safely locked up in jail. So the Angel Knight has little to work with at this point.
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Ah yes, see we got through most of the first adventure and our only interaction with the Angel Knight was that so-and-so bard... who didn't come to a good end. Now that I think about it her name was mentioned a few times so I should have known that.
Apologies.
The more I think about it if I were running it I would definitely go with my third option. That is why my players will pull out all possible stops to prevent my villains from escaping.
No problem. :-)
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Heh. No worries. I'm politically incorrect enough I don't worry too much about "misgendering" real people, let alone fictional characters. I was pulling your leg more than anything else.
Anyway..
Yeah our players were not amused by the bard's stunt either. I don't recall his stats, but you can't be too intelligent to think that pretending to be a rebel leader is a good idea in a town that's currently run by a band of murderous sociopaths! He got taken down hard and won't be singing any more....
We have pretty much decided on that route for the Angel Knight herself. She will certainly pop up again (at an increased level) looking for payback in another couple of books when the party has forgotten about her.
But how the party's employers will view their incomplete victory and how it will effect future events is what we are still trying to work out.
Well, it is not a complete failure.If it were, the party would have to start working towards a completely different objective - extricating themselves from the mess they got themselves into! Now that can be fun - nothing like all your former allies wanting to kick you when you are down for a change of pace.
In your case, though, I imagine a recurring foil would make the most sense. There's plenty of mischief to be done, and now some of it got a bit harder.
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I'd have her show up later in the AP, maybe a bit more powerful, helping the Glorious Reclamation elsewhere. She doesn't seem to be stupid, so if her entire rebellion network is smashed, it stands to reason she'd link back up with the rest of the GR... and would love to deal with her unfinished business with the scum who kept Longacre under the boot of Thrune!
Fex is likely to take it relatively well- I mean, yeah, she got away, and the common folk may still whisper of her heroic deeds, but if the PCs have a lid on the actual rebellion in Longacre, then all is survivable. Youmay want to have their deployment in the next adventure be a bit more pointed, though... "Hopefully THIS won't be beyond your abilities."
I'd have her show up later in the AP, maybe a bit more powerful, helping the Glorious Reclamation elsewhere. She doesn't seem to be stupid, so if her entire rebellion network is smashed, it stands to reason she'd link back up with the rest of the GR... and would love to deal with her unfinished business with the scum who kept Longacre under the boot of Thrune!
I like this idea. You could easily bring her back in the third instalment of the AP, still operating from the Whisperwood, and adding her to one of the GR camps inside the woods.
I'd have the Angel Knight flee and reappear later in the adventure, especially if everyone else at the Court of Spears was dead.
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Heh. No worries. I'm politically incorrect enough I don't worry too much about "misgendering" real people, let alone fictional characters. I was pulling your leg more than anything else.
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Was curious how they handled the trap door? My players are half way thru the tree fight and im already dreading putting them against the hound and paladin with the trap door? The hound can easly draw the pcs anitpaladin in then drop the trap door and then just greater teleport back up? Leaving the tank on the ground below
My players meta'd the trapdoor cause I had a mark on the map... lol. That careful placement of "no-no we dont rush in this time. Weee... umm... stay safely at the room entrance. YES! YES! Ya know... precautions..." That said they had already fallen off those trees twice and they weren't having fun with the 'get-back-up' bit. So I let it slide.
I'd suggest you either remove it or cut the fall. Ask for a reflex save and, unless they roll something you cant save, fake something like "You grab hold of a branch and swing to a platform right below. You need 1 round to run back up". If they roll low ask for a second reflex and give them a "2 rounds to return to battle branch" etc. Cause otherwise whoever falls is out of the battle.
So your goal is to make it exciting but make sure theyre back fast and well... try not to make it to obvious what you're doing. Really thick folliage or whatever... lol