darni
2012-10-15, 10:17 PM
In a game I ran, the PCs got into a complicated situation and would like to hear creative suggestions for following the plot
short version: half my party was captured, unconscious, trying to break into the local assassin's guild. I'm not sure what to do next with them.
Longer version, with plot details: The party is working for an NPC who is a powerful businessman (businessdwarf, actually) in the big local port city (from now on "Dwarf VIP"). Dwarf VIP has some enemies (political struggles as such), so hired the party to look for his son (he suspected a kidnap). They found the son (from now on "Evil Cleric"), who wasn't kidnapped but instead getting into evil cult stuff, and tried to bribe the party into killing his father, Dwarf VIP (he hates him and could really use the inheritance money for cult-stuff). When the party refused, evil cleric threw a few undead to them and fled. The party tried to return to warn dwarf VIP but got trapped/distracted with a few sidequests which helped reveal the evil cleric plan's (finishing a half-completed ritual that the cult leader was making to achieve lichdom 800 years ago).
So, to the current scene: the Evil cleric got to Port City before the party, hired the assassin's guild to murder his dad, and went away in a ship (the ritual must be finished somewhere else). The party got just in time to kill the killer; they didn't know that evil cleric hired the killer, but they half suspect him... most city rumors instead say that it's a political assassination attempt). They started tracking back the killer (asking a lot of questions), which worried the people of the guild, who sent a guy to follow the party. The guy was spotted and interrogated, finally pointing them to where to find more about the guild, some tavern in the shady neighborhoods of the city.
The party (Cleric/6, Ftr/5, Sorc/6, Drd/5) and a 4 mercenaries hired by Dwarf NPC went into the tavern to "investigate". The druid stood outside (the player was out of town, so she asked for that to be put aside of the action). The sorc entered invisible, and sneaked through a backdoor, where there was some kind of illegal gambling place. Unable to get through another inner door, she ended up blowing the door up, the patrons running away, the rest of the party+mercenaries-druid bursting in, and a lot of bad guys started pouring out, and then a high level guild member (Ftr/7 + Rogue/5) started beating them; they kept trying to fight but eventually the fighter and the cleric went into small negatives; seing this, the sorceress managed to fly away.
So in my next session, I have to decide if/where the Cleric and fighter wake up alive, and what options do the Sorcerer and Druid (she'll be back) have.
Here's what I've been thinking, but I'm interested also in ideas outside what I have, because nothing makes me fully happy
a) Cleric and fighter die, make up new characters. It's a bit anticlimactic, but it's a possibility my players and
b) Somehow they manage to escape/be rescued. I can't think of a way to do this without making the Guild look weak (it's not supposed to be)
c) They ask for ransom to Dwarf VIP. They have been following the party so they probably know they are affiliated. This goes well with the Guild (they are not killer psychos, they are evil for the money). However being an NPC sounds like a deus-ex-machina solution, I'm solving the problem for them
In options b) and c) I'm probably considering taking all their stuff, which might be quite harsh, but not uncalled-for; but it feels like mere punishment without adding to the fun. It will also impact the fighter much more severely than the cleric.
So, what would the playground do? :smallsmile:
[This is a PF campaign, but I'm posting in the general forum because the opinions I need are not system specific]
short version: half my party was captured, unconscious, trying to break into the local assassin's guild. I'm not sure what to do next with them.
Longer version, with plot details: The party is working for an NPC who is a powerful businessman (businessdwarf, actually) in the big local port city (from now on "Dwarf VIP"). Dwarf VIP has some enemies (political struggles as such), so hired the party to look for his son (he suspected a kidnap). They found the son (from now on "Evil Cleric"), who wasn't kidnapped but instead getting into evil cult stuff, and tried to bribe the party into killing his father, Dwarf VIP (he hates him and could really use the inheritance money for cult-stuff). When the party refused, evil cleric threw a few undead to them and fled. The party tried to return to warn dwarf VIP but got trapped/distracted with a few sidequests which helped reveal the evil cleric plan's (finishing a half-completed ritual that the cult leader was making to achieve lichdom 800 years ago).
So, to the current scene: the Evil cleric got to Port City before the party, hired the assassin's guild to murder his dad, and went away in a ship (the ritual must be finished somewhere else). The party got just in time to kill the killer; they didn't know that evil cleric hired the killer, but they half suspect him... most city rumors instead say that it's a political assassination attempt). They started tracking back the killer (asking a lot of questions), which worried the people of the guild, who sent a guy to follow the party. The guy was spotted and interrogated, finally pointing them to where to find more about the guild, some tavern in the shady neighborhoods of the city.
The party (Cleric/6, Ftr/5, Sorc/6, Drd/5) and a 4 mercenaries hired by Dwarf NPC went into the tavern to "investigate". The druid stood outside (the player was out of town, so she asked for that to be put aside of the action). The sorc entered invisible, and sneaked through a backdoor, where there was some kind of illegal gambling place. Unable to get through another inner door, she ended up blowing the door up, the patrons running away, the rest of the party+mercenaries-druid bursting in, and a lot of bad guys started pouring out, and then a high level guild member (Ftr/7 + Rogue/5) started beating them; they kept trying to fight but eventually the fighter and the cleric went into small negatives; seing this, the sorceress managed to fly away.
So in my next session, I have to decide if/where the Cleric and fighter wake up alive, and what options do the Sorcerer and Druid (she'll be back) have.
Here's what I've been thinking, but I'm interested also in ideas outside what I have, because nothing makes me fully happy
a) Cleric and fighter die, make up new characters. It's a bit anticlimactic, but it's a possibility my players and
b) Somehow they manage to escape/be rescued. I can't think of a way to do this without making the Guild look weak (it's not supposed to be)
c) They ask for ransom to Dwarf VIP. They have been following the party so they probably know they are affiliated. This goes well with the Guild (they are not killer psychos, they are evil for the money). However being an NPC sounds like a deus-ex-machina solution, I'm solving the problem for them
In options b) and c) I'm probably considering taking all their stuff, which might be quite harsh, but not uncalled-for; but it feels like mere punishment without adding to the fun. It will also impact the fighter much more severely than the cleric.
So, what would the playground do? :smallsmile:
[This is a PF campaign, but I'm posting in the general forum because the opinions I need are not system specific]