Ursus the Grim
2011-05-03, 07:50 AM
Hello again, Playground.
When my group gets a new DM, the veteran players often consider it their duty to prepare them for what could happen, including worst-case scenarios, unconventional strategies, and unforeseen character goals.
The Characters
The DM's already proven herself willing to homebrew. Aside from the small-scale campaign, she's handed us all custom npc characters. As some background, I play a level 5 Medicine Woman/Herbalist with the Witch spell list. The other veteran has a level 3 Merchant with ranks in every knowledge skill he could. Another new player works with a level 3 Guard (Warrior) and the last plays the mayor, a level 3 Aristocrat.
The DM said anything not listed already was up to us to decide, so I settled on a cozy little alignment of LE, deciding that as the town's sole healer, no one could argue with me when I "couldn't save" someone. Being told I had to worship a female diety, and Ehlonna being good, my options were somewhat limited, so I chose Nerull. People are suspicious of my magic, apparently, so I figured I'd give them a good reason. It also fit nicely in with my character's youth, charisma, and hobby of seducing young men and women and then poisoning them before I had my fun. I suspect the merchant is running with a less suitable Chaotic Evil alignment, attempting to bribe the local adventurer into running away and abandoning us instead of either getting help or helping defend.
The Story so Far
The mayor, the herbalist, the guard and the merchant are all old friends and meet at the mayor's house regularly as her council. Apparently the regular merchants have not visited Blackdeer Barrows (our town) in some time. As we're discussing this, not surprisingly, a guard runs in, informing us the town is *gasp* under attack. So under attack, actually, that they are directly outside our door.
A handful of kobolds are outside, scribbling and scratching. None of us had any weapons or armor, not even the PC guard, so the mayor tosses us some simple weapons and we go to town. A couple notable events in combat. First, the merchant lures them closer with a few shiny gold pieces and a solid bluff/diplomacy combo before whacking them with a club. Second, my herbalist commanded one to walk towards her, past the other half-dozen characters out there, provoking attacks of opportunity from each one. Also, there was a succesful crit.
Eventually, we are informed that despite loss of multiple limbs, and being prone they are doing their best to attack us. Also, there is no blood. None of us were certain how to point the discrepancy out to the DM. Attempting to be subtle, my herbalist points out that, judging by the lack of blood, these kobolds are deceased, and yet my enchantments worked on them. We work our way out to the rest of the town, give a failure of a speech to the citizens and make rounds attempting to heal survivors.
Apparently Blackdeer Barrows is a river port town. This is where I think we reached out into what the DM wasn't expecting. We payed the sailors a modest sum to begin ferrying the civilians to a nearby, well-guarded city that we have good relations with. Each trip takes two days and clears out one hundred or so of the remaining 3000 people.
We're pretty sure the DM expects us to simply travel to the nearby graveyard and attack the necromancer behind all of this. Our current plan is to fortify the town and hold out while noncombatants are evacuated. We're no adventurers, we're NPCs, after all.
The Question
So the question I have, given the background above, is how else should we throw monkey wrenches at this adventure without being overly difficult. Overly difficult means, say, enchanting my fellow players to do suicidal things, sabotaging the ferry boats, and leading the kobold undead right into the weak spot of town. What should we consider doing to help the DM take things into consideration for later adventures that they might not think of otherwise?
When my group gets a new DM, the veteran players often consider it their duty to prepare them for what could happen, including worst-case scenarios, unconventional strategies, and unforeseen character goals.
The Characters
The DM's already proven herself willing to homebrew. Aside from the small-scale campaign, she's handed us all custom npc characters. As some background, I play a level 5 Medicine Woman/Herbalist with the Witch spell list. The other veteran has a level 3 Merchant with ranks in every knowledge skill he could. Another new player works with a level 3 Guard (Warrior) and the last plays the mayor, a level 3 Aristocrat.
The DM said anything not listed already was up to us to decide, so I settled on a cozy little alignment of LE, deciding that as the town's sole healer, no one could argue with me when I "couldn't save" someone. Being told I had to worship a female diety, and Ehlonna being good, my options were somewhat limited, so I chose Nerull. People are suspicious of my magic, apparently, so I figured I'd give them a good reason. It also fit nicely in with my character's youth, charisma, and hobby of seducing young men and women and then poisoning them before I had my fun. I suspect the merchant is running with a less suitable Chaotic Evil alignment, attempting to bribe the local adventurer into running away and abandoning us instead of either getting help or helping defend.
The Story so Far
The mayor, the herbalist, the guard and the merchant are all old friends and meet at the mayor's house regularly as her council. Apparently the regular merchants have not visited Blackdeer Barrows (our town) in some time. As we're discussing this, not surprisingly, a guard runs in, informing us the town is *gasp* under attack. So under attack, actually, that they are directly outside our door.
A handful of kobolds are outside, scribbling and scratching. None of us had any weapons or armor, not even the PC guard, so the mayor tosses us some simple weapons and we go to town. A couple notable events in combat. First, the merchant lures them closer with a few shiny gold pieces and a solid bluff/diplomacy combo before whacking them with a club. Second, my herbalist commanded one to walk towards her, past the other half-dozen characters out there, provoking attacks of opportunity from each one. Also, there was a succesful crit.
Eventually, we are informed that despite loss of multiple limbs, and being prone they are doing their best to attack us. Also, there is no blood. None of us were certain how to point the discrepancy out to the DM. Attempting to be subtle, my herbalist points out that, judging by the lack of blood, these kobolds are deceased, and yet my enchantments worked on them. We work our way out to the rest of the town, give a failure of a speech to the citizens and make rounds attempting to heal survivors.
Apparently Blackdeer Barrows is a river port town. This is where I think we reached out into what the DM wasn't expecting. We payed the sailors a modest sum to begin ferrying the civilians to a nearby, well-guarded city that we have good relations with. Each trip takes two days and clears out one hundred or so of the remaining 3000 people.
We're pretty sure the DM expects us to simply travel to the nearby graveyard and attack the necromancer behind all of this. Our current plan is to fortify the town and hold out while noncombatants are evacuated. We're no adventurers, we're NPCs, after all.
The Question
So the question I have, given the background above, is how else should we throw monkey wrenches at this adventure without being overly difficult. Overly difficult means, say, enchanting my fellow players to do suicidal things, sabotaging the ferry boats, and leading the kobold undead right into the weak spot of town. What should we consider doing to help the DM take things into consideration for later adventures that they might not think of otherwise?