Varnhold "Loot" Kept by the PC

[Curghann]

So my PC's have finished VV and freed the 42 lost souls that were stored in Vordekai's soul jars.

The villagers pledged themselves to my PC's kingdom, but also asked them if they had recovered any of their missing possessions after taking stock of their ravaged town.

The PC's came up with the obvious coins that the Spriggan chieftan had in his bag of holding, but other than that they've kept everything else they looted from VH.

The scroll cache in the church of Erastil is mentioned as being intended for the PC's the take/use/keep, and with them having been hidden and the priest dead, no one would really be around to know they were gone anyway.

I'm feeling similarly about the potions of Waterbreathing in the blockhouse. The one I'm kind of stuck on is Maeghar Varn's sword. They saw his dead body in the feasthall and the party scribe immediately says "guess I'm moving that sword into the "sell" column". Similarly, the Folding Boat would be a somewhat noteworthy item than the town likely could make good use of.

I think the group is likely to keep the boat, but that sword is fairly notable and I think its sale would eventually get back to the VH'ers.

Should that trigger the 1d4+2 Unrest mentioned on page 24? I'm certainly not going to give them the +1 loyalty mentioned either way, but I dont want to hose them too badly. I already didnt gift them Skybolt because they simply freed Xamanthe and let her wander back home and the quest mentions "escort her back alive". I gave then the potions and the Stability bump, but Aecora didnt hand over Skybolt.

How did/would other DM's handle this? The sword is a fairly significant piece of treasure. I dont want to go so far as to have then VH'ers ask specifically for the sword as I dont like to lead my PC's around by the nose if I dont have to. I like to reward good thinking and ideas, but I also make sure poor decisions have ramifications as well.

[Andostre]

"Realistically," I see why you would want them to return the sword, but from a mechanics standpoint, I can see that this would frustrate the players. The game with standard rules already requires them to be scavenging grave robbers to be able to keep their power levels consistent with the campaign, so one random (to them) magic weapon causing unrest could be frustrating.

[JohnB]

If you have a 'standard' party you probably need to keep them somewhere near the WBL recommendations if they are to overcome challenges in the next part of the AP.

So if they miss out on both Skybolt and the sword - you might want to consider dropping something else for them.

Personally - I probably wouldn't penalise them for keeping the sword - UNLESS I could see a way to make that enjoyable. I tend to reward my players for good RP / decisions rather than penalise them for decisions that I don't approve of :) Lots of carrots, few sticks!

My current group haven't got this far yet, but my previous group returned the sword when Maegar Varn's adopted daughter turned up and claimed her 'heritage'. Then I was able to reward them for good RP. In that sort of case, I would probably find a cash reward from Jamandi Aldori for helping her out.

[Curghann]

I've got a group of 5 and I've been running the 6 player conversion as they crush the normal encounters. To that end I've been giving them the 6 player conversion loot.

They found both the +3 great sword in the wyvern laid and the grey flame sword in the elasmosaurus lake.

They're currently on pace to each have over 36k to spend after finishing Vordekai.

I definitely don't feel like they're WBL-starved by any means. Not selling the sword reduces their per-person wealth by ~1800gp.

Using it as a kingdom type event would be great but they're likely to sell everything the first chance they get. I don't want to just hand them a "return the sword for +1 loyalty" choice, but I'm struggling with how the issue/idea could come up organically before they sell it.

[JohnB]

Have one of Varn's relatives turn up to see what is going on :) That should nudge them a bit.

In the worst case scenario, they can buy him off with the sword, when he expresses an intention to take the holding over in the name on his dead relative.

[Spatula]

My group hasn't had any issues with WBL either, and they're even slightly over-leveled than they should be for where they're at, in that they've gotten XP for additional quests but not much in the way of loot.

WBL kinda goes out the window in Kingmaker in any case. By the end of VV, they should be able to easily draw out a few thousand GP from the treasury every month without causing any issues. It's more like "Wealth by Time".

In any case, I would wait a bit after they sell the item. Then someone who is either rich or powerful (or both), who bought the sword, comes through their territory and is accused of plundering Varnhold and stealing Maegar's legacy. The person, of course, bought it legit, but their citizens don't know that. Do they step in and protect him? Do they fess up? Do they let him take the fall for their misdeeds?

[JohnB]

"WBL kinda goes out the window in Kingmaker in any case."

I think that depends on quite how you run Kingmaker :)

[Curghann]

@#Spatula - I really like that idea of turning it into a kingdom event a ways down the road, but one that isnt necessarily simply negated with a loyalty or stability check. I'll have to work out some mechanics for if they simply want to say "screw that guy" where they can pass some checks without trying to buy back the sword or something and result in a small amount of unrest. There are a couple Events where even a success ends up in a little unrest.

I'm not running "stock" kingdom building so my players arent completely crazy wealthy from selling magic items, but they are certainly comfortable in their kingdom.

Between book 2 and 3 they took 2BP out per month to fund buying a scroll of Awaken for the druid's AC who is their kingdom's mascot (on the flag and everything). He has since become their royal enforcer.

The annexation of VH is going to slightly change things as their kingdom numbers swell, but they were only failing things on a 1 before and I think after their stability stays above their control DC, but their loyalty will be well below it. I imagine they will take steps to quickly remedy that.

[Curghann]

So they decided to keep the sword and give it to the king. I thought they were going to avoid the potential repercussions by also giving the king the sheath of bladestealth they found, but they decided to sell it instead.

So now the King is walking around with Varn's sword so I'll have it come up in a month or so.