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Hey everyone, it's been so fun to read through other's tellings of this story!
TL;DR This is my first campaign as a GM that really took off, and I've super enjoyed it, but I'm a little out of my depth. My characters did almost everything in one day, so they're exhausted and dailys have been spent, but they've set me up perfectly to run zap zap and the Jincheroga bridge takeover. They're at level 2, so I think they can survive it, but I'd love to hear if anyone has other ideas.
My PCs are the following:
Tiki- shirren priest, healer, trusting
Sheshka - vesk bounty hunter, obsessed with grenades, lizard mom tank
Arliss - halfling operative, paranoid private investigator
Vari - lashunta mechanic, happy-go-lucky young adventurer
So apologies in advance for the length of this, this is about 6 sessions smashed into one.
We've flown through almost all of Part 2. After being asked to investigate Algiada's death by Benjam, they grilled him about the relic, so they discovered his psychic blank space. They immediately after went to the cargo bay to look for it, and encountered the incapacitator robot and fake Trostinek. After interrogating him, Arliss handcuffed him and was going to gather everyone together in the Dining Hall to get alibis and get everything out in the open.
Instead, (this is where I maybe effed everything up) I decided to have fake Trostinek run away. We started the session with the PC's heading towards the dining hall with Trostinek in manacles. As they reached the ladder between decks, Trostinek ran over to the ladder and started climbing down. Arliss jumped after him, but T had disappeared by the time Arliss got to the bottom. I had Yox squeeze into a vent grate at the bottom, go to the Bridge to tell Qub he was in trouble, and then Yox travel into Trostinek's room to resume Trostinek form.
The PC's still gathered everyone together, including the Captain (who knows they need to make sure the disguise stays intact), and the Captain suggests checking Trostinek's room.
When Captain Rameem opened the door to Trostinek's room, it seemed like Trostinek was waking up. He said he was sleeping, and the PC's verified that he seemed to be telling the truth (low roll, high disguise). Trostinek was wearing different clothes and wasn't bruised like the PC's had seen him earlier that morning. Tiki did not find any evidence of the same psychic blank space in Trostinek's mind (since the astrazoan is real). Trostinek agreed to go out to the dining room with the other crew and passengers so everyone could keep an eye on each other.
And then my characters decide on, get this, ANTISHAPESHIFTER MEASURES. They gathered everyone in the Dining Room. Everyone must travel in groups of three. Everyone will be marked with a number on his/her upper arm, covered by a piece of cloth. No one will know their own numbers/marks. People are to travel in groups of three or more, and police one another, in the interest of not leaking information to the shapeshifter. In the event of an identity dispute, crew/passenger's numbers can be referenced on the master sheet that can be used to confirm everyone's identity. Anyone that is traveling alone or trying to uncover information about the numbers (their own or anybody else's) will be suspect of being the shapeshifter or working with the shapeshifter.
After this, my PCs split up (getting Jincheroga to let them borrow some goblins to make groups of three). Some went to visit Kiiv, found the sabotage to the ship, found the murder weapon with Kasathan blood, the others went to Algiada's room, found the datapad, Lozu's debts, and Algiada's plot to kill the captain. They haven't asked Lozu about the payment, so they think this was payment to get rid of the Captain. The PCs all came back to see Benjam, found out about Algiada’s brother, then broke into the Captain's room, found the blackmail info, and then went into Lozu and Grath's rooms (I put a moonshine still in his desk). THIS WAS ALL IN ONE DAY. They're convinced there's a shapeshifter, they're reasonably sure it's the captain, so they gathered everyone in the Dining Hall.
Tiki decides to go rogue and psychically communicate everything he knows to Grath and Kiiv, unbeknownst to the other PCs. Arliss decides to get everyone's attention and say, "Who all knew about the plan to kill the Captain?" and we ended session.
In all reality, Jincheroga would absolutely attack at this point, since she actually wants to take the ship and kill the Captain. Since she doesn't know/care about any of the shapeshifter stuff, so she’d be assuming the PCs are talking about her. I think my best option is to have her immediately pull out the map, give it to the goblins, and they leave to find the smuggler compartment. She then shapeshifts in front of them (hopefully temporarily throwing the PCs off), and then attacks in the Dining Hall. I’m hoping that after the fight, the PCs will chase after the goblins after the fight, and find them in front of the smuggler compartment door and running that fight there.
These PCs are at level 2, so they may be able to survive, I’m just nervous. I’m looking for validation, is this what you’d do in this situation?
Sounds to me like you did a great job overall! Your players have found out a lot and are seriously paranoid and getting creative. Everyone is having fun, it seems, so mission accomplished as the GM!
Back to your current situation: I don't think you should spring the Jincheroga encounter on them if they have already exhausted most of their daily resources. It is a CR 4 encounter, which is APL+2 and thus a Hard encounter, even assuming full strength. Find a way to stall. Play out the tense situation but don't let Jincheroga attack the same moment. She is probably smart enough to bide her time a little bit longer until she can take the bridge without having to deal with the rest of the crew and passengers. Move the event to the early morning or just past midnight and give your players a full night's rest.
Agreed. Find a way to stall if you can, or deus ex machina some support for them. In the game I'm running, back during this sequence I almost had multiple players' characters die, but b/c of the rigged simulation aspect, decided to keep them going with unexpected support from NPCs or suddenly convenient Serums of Healing. During my Jincheroga fight, immediately after the party dealt with 3/4 goblins separately, I needed to sacrifice the pilot NPC, Grath, to give a last-ditch heal to two players, and I also had Lozu providing harrying or covering fire for most of the combat.
But yeah, Jincheroga is a tough fight. The goblins not as much, but don't underestimate their action economy.
Thank you both so much, it so helps to talk with people who are as familiar with this as I am, and likely more so!
Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind about timing, if I could go back, I’d be more mindful of it. I’ll certainly work more timing details into my narrative going forward. Thanks for that!
Ok, so maybe Lozu gets involved, defending the captain, and asks the PCs to speak privately with her. Or Benjam gets flustered and apologizes to everyone publicly, and announces that he hired the PCs to investigate Algiada.
OR the goblins start a food fight. Heheh, that might work. They were just singing a rousing goblin drinking song, Grath is tipsy, Yox is motivated to encourage distraction, Song has a temper, so, that might actually work!
I hope that’ll be enough of a distraction to have some characters slip away, or at the very least go back to quarters to change and clean up. The captain has been accommodating so far with these restrictions, but the NPCs have been getting restless, so I think Qub is about to get dismissive and authoritative.
This has been a total breakthrough, it’s been a few days of thinking through this situation, and I finally feel like I have some solid ideas to build upon! Thanks again for the advice and the votes of confidence!
Those are all fantastic ideas to pump the brakes a little bit!
Let us know how it went!
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Update! I really had to switch some events around to keep up the intrigue and suspense. But I'm proud of my PCs and we're almost done with Chapter 1!
So from everyone gathered in the Dining Hall, I started with a goblin food fight, but that did nothing to dissuade my PCs from going to bed. They talked to Lozu, Grath, and Trostinek, trying to figure out who is on their side. They're suspicious of Trost, but they ultimately couldn't confirm any BS from him, so they're reluctantly trusting.
They then decided to outright accuse the Captain. At that point, the only thing I had left to do was have Jincheroga shapeshift right there in the Dining Hall. She gave the goblins the pillowcase and told them to search the ship. Trostinek called out, "I'll go after the goblins!" I gave super basic stats to Song, Benjam, and Grath (tipsy, so he couldn't do much), to participate in the fight, and had Kiiv go back to Engineering, and Lozu leave with the Captain. I actually forgot that Jincheroga had DM/5 magic, so the fight was much easier than it would have been. My bad, but actually none of my PCs have magic weapons, so it would have been almost impossible for them to fight her.
One of my PCs followed the Captain and Lozu up to the crew quarters, where Lozu was escorting the Captain to his room. Lozu defended the Captain, saying it was part of her job to protect the Captain, even though she knows the PCs suspect that he's not who he says he is.
After the fight was over, Kiiv called from Engineering, the goblins were fighting Trostinek. The PCs came down and fought in front of the hidden door. After the fight was over, they discovered the panel and secret room. The Captain's body was there, and Kiiv and Trostinek there watching. We've established there's Space Skype (Spacetime heh), so they told Kiiv to call Lozu. Two fighting Lozus answered the call, crying, "Help!" then the call dropped.
The PCs ran to the Captain's quarters, they found Lozu handcuffed to another Lozu, and after confirming who was who using their anti-shapeshifter system, they shot Yox point blank in a coup de grace. Trostinek was there at this point, and stayed in the background, watching, not doing anything, to report all of this to Wem.
Lozu took command, told them to get some rest, and the PC's can continue to figure out what happened to Algiada in the morning.
I had a low key breakfast, where Lozu appointed the PCs as temporary Security Team for the duration of the flight (with compensation, of course). Lozu had a "hints of reality" moment, where she stared blankly at the wall, before saying she "spaced out". The PCs were sooo paranoid at this point, they were so fixated on the wall, something in the wall, something magical/invisible, etc.
They then went back to the smuggler's compartment, didn't find the relic, and left everything there. Then they heard an explosion, and our next session will be fighting space pirates.
I'll run Space Pirates in the Cargo Hold, they'll find the relic there, and then Lozu will call the team up to the Bridge where we'll see Algiada and the Captain. They'll fight Qub and Wem there in a final confrontation. The ship will explode, hazards, then escape pod insanity.
I didn't have the PCs fight Trostinek/Qub in the smuggler's compartment, as the PCs were much more suspicious of the Captain/Yox. It would have given away that there are 2 shapeshifters onboard. So I decided to play Qub a little smarter, he'd have motivation to get on the PCs' good side so he can report to back to Wem, my designated "leader" instead of Yox. In the end, the PCs will fight Qub/Algiada and Wem/Captain together as a final confrontation, minus a space pirate or two. I've been giving extra experience for coming up with anti-shapeshifter measures, and I'll give experience for finding the relic, so everyone should still be at level 3 by the end of the chapter, assuming they'll be able to get to the escape pods.
This was super fun! Definitely different from what was written, but going offbook and tailoring it to the PCs' story was absolutely necessary, and I learned SO MUCH about how to be a GM.
Thanks again for the help!
Wow, I think you're a natural, babyGM! Took me years to get to that level of flexibility. Sounds like you did a fantastic job! By all means, tell us how the grand finale went!