Epinephrine
2009-12-04, 03:06 PM
So, I'm running Age of Worms, and the players are invited to a grand celebration of the 20th anniversary of the liberation of a town.
Now, the feast is macabre, and the invitation they received refers to the slaughter of avians. The prince holding the feast is a tyrant. He wants to meet the PCs, but he's also prone to taking offense, having people killed, etc.
The whole point of this chapter is for the party to attend the event and have a chance to meet various people who will be important later, to gain authority points based on diplomacy and so on throughout the evening. I've been looking forward to running this heavy roleplaying portion of the campaign since the beginning.
Instead, the party wants to use their diplomacy skills to spread the word that the evnts at the party are barbaric (they are, of course) and that they find it repulsiive - in the hopes that the prince will change the events.
The prince certainly isn't about to change things to please upset nobles. He's already demolished a section of the city that held the houses of nobles (with no or little compensation) in order to build his "great project". I suspect that Zeech would simply order the party killed, or at least turn them away at the gate, declaring that they are trying to crash his event. Since he's particularly cruel, if he knew that the party was upset by the proposed events, he'd simply do even more of it, to bait them.
This whole thing will potentially derail many things - I don't want to railroad them into attending and doing the diplomatic thing, but at the same time I've been looking forward to running this portion - I like the diplomacy (as do my players, normally - it's just that one of the characters has a flaw against cruel treatment of animals, etc.). As well, it's instrumental in getting the party to meet with another main character (of course, I can hodge-podge that part together), and would expose them to some fun adventure ideas, as well as giving them some XP.
Should I let them try to poison popular opinion against the prince's celebration? Should the prince try to kill them for their efforts, or simply welcome them each to the feast with the impaling of a kitten or something? He's cruel, a blackguard with a nasty temper. He has a legion of Erinyes (advanced with the Mortal Hunter class) to patrol his city, and at a previous feast they roasted centaurs, then animated them as tasty zombies that would serve the diners from their own herb-crusted flesh. Not a nice guy. If I send a squadron of Erinyes after the party it could potentially wipe them, especially as they have a smite mortal ability (in Pathfinder, the smite powers are much tougher, affecting all your attacks until your foe dies).
Any ideas on how to handle it so that I get to have the diplomacy session I was looking forward to, without railroading the players into it, and without betraying the personalities involved? As it is I'm starting to prep for the following chapter, since I may just have to chase them out of town.
Now, the feast is macabre, and the invitation they received refers to the slaughter of avians. The prince holding the feast is a tyrant. He wants to meet the PCs, but he's also prone to taking offense, having people killed, etc.
The whole point of this chapter is for the party to attend the event and have a chance to meet various people who will be important later, to gain authority points based on diplomacy and so on throughout the evening. I've been looking forward to running this heavy roleplaying portion of the campaign since the beginning.
Instead, the party wants to use their diplomacy skills to spread the word that the evnts at the party are barbaric (they are, of course) and that they find it repulsiive - in the hopes that the prince will change the events.
The prince certainly isn't about to change things to please upset nobles. He's already demolished a section of the city that held the houses of nobles (with no or little compensation) in order to build his "great project". I suspect that Zeech would simply order the party killed, or at least turn them away at the gate, declaring that they are trying to crash his event. Since he's particularly cruel, if he knew that the party was upset by the proposed events, he'd simply do even more of it, to bait them.
This whole thing will potentially derail many things - I don't want to railroad them into attending and doing the diplomatic thing, but at the same time I've been looking forward to running this portion - I like the diplomacy (as do my players, normally - it's just that one of the characters has a flaw against cruel treatment of animals, etc.). As well, it's instrumental in getting the party to meet with another main character (of course, I can hodge-podge that part together), and would expose them to some fun adventure ideas, as well as giving them some XP.
Should I let them try to poison popular opinion against the prince's celebration? Should the prince try to kill them for their efforts, or simply welcome them each to the feast with the impaling of a kitten or something? He's cruel, a blackguard with a nasty temper. He has a legion of Erinyes (advanced with the Mortal Hunter class) to patrol his city, and at a previous feast they roasted centaurs, then animated them as tasty zombies that would serve the diners from their own herb-crusted flesh. Not a nice guy. If I send a squadron of Erinyes after the party it could potentially wipe them, especially as they have a smite mortal ability (in Pathfinder, the smite powers are much tougher, affecting all your attacks until your foe dies).
Any ideas on how to handle it so that I get to have the diplomacy session I was looking forward to, without railroading the players into it, and without betraying the personalities involved? As it is I'm starting to prep for the following chapter, since I may just have to chase them out of town.