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Tough_Tonka
2007-04-08, 06:47 PM
This is possibly the ultimate experience of simple encounter meltdown I've experienced in my 5 years of DMing.

Background info:

Aelal: Male Raptoran Sorcerer 4 CN: This character joined the group recently; his player was a member of our DnD group but left to train in the navy and he returned a month ago. He hadn’t really distinguished himself in the party before this adventure. The only notable thing was he used an alternate build that let him get an air elemental familiar and he owned a pterodactyl.

Amadeus: Male Maenad Cleric 4 NG: this cleric has had to deal with ridicule from the power gamers since he choose to make a charismatic build in a dungeon crawling/ exploration campaign. He complains a lot, mostly about how he can’t ask for miracles from his gods at random moments in the game, other than his spells. He doesn’t like the fact that the group just thinks of him as bandage box and he has began to slip toward neutral, and possibly evil, in an attempt to be more useful in combat.

Caraga: Female Tiefling Rogue 3/ Wizard 1 CN: Her player joined this group early on since she’s the girlfriend of Amadeus’s player; I’d like to state for the record she has been a terrific role-player and problems solver for the group so far and I’m glad to have her here.

The Power Gamers: These two have shown very little concern about anything other than making their characters strong, and had little to no goal that wasn’t an attempted to gain wealth, EXP, or armed forces. The worst part is as people these two guys are my best friends in the group.

One: Warforged Barbarian 4 CE: A first One was a Warforged trying to make his mark in the world after being just another soldier in the Last War. It wasn’t long before he slipped from a wandering soul into a depraved sociopath. In the first encounter the party ran into a lone noble seeking shelter in some ancient ruins during a fierce storm; the first thing this player mentioned to the party was that he was easy pickings since no one would know what happened to him. Early on he pleaded that his actions were chaotic neutral as he only acted for his personal interest, but when he began to bite the fingers of his opponents, usually while they were alive mind you, it was obvious he was evil and since then he’s embraced his alignment whole-heartedly.

Tonka Goblin, Blue (Skeleton) Psi 3 LE: Tonka’s primary concern is the acquisition of power and since One was the strongest member of the party he decided to follow the path of darkness. Tonka is made to be the deadliest character possible and claims to have as few morals as possible. He’s the type of character that will kill the his employer after the mission to get any gold he might be hiding. Recently Tonka was killed by a Shadow but I allowed him to have him animated as a Karrnath skeleton instead of being paying for the expensive reanimate dead, though he did get a level adjustment for his character from this point on.

Here’s how I planned this encounter:

My party had just returned to Stormreach after an expedition into the depths of Xen’drik (In case you don’t know I was running an Ebberon campaign). Tonka, a goblin psion 3 who had recently been turned into a Karrnath skeleton, had been given a geas, by the necromancer that reanimated him, to pursue a member of the Emerald claw known as Demise (I basically used the 8th level NPC villain in the book with a few modifications.). While the party was in Stormreach his employer informed them that she a pleasant conversation with an elf named Demise, who was researching, “A lost society of Elven necromancers in the Ring of Storms”. Tonka asked her if Demise was interested in getting some assistance and she informed him that the necromancer was.

I planned them coming into the Inn and getting past the guards with some excuse, maybe they’d ask for her spell casting services are say they had an appointment. I figured once one of the characters reached the room they’d investigate the trunk by the necromancer’s bed and find the bugbear zombie inside arose the suspision of the guards and deal with the guards zombie inspect the room then run for it. A few men were on the bottom floor and would close and bar up the door so the PCs couldn’t escape easily and so the guards would have enough time to warn the necromancer not to return. Well that wasn’t going to happen.

Tough_Tonka
2007-04-08, 06:49 PM
Here’s What Happened:

The One walks into the bar with the Aelal’s air elemental to seem less suspicious. He as for a cup of wine and pours it down is mouth, because as he puts it, “He enjoys the warmth of the drink”. Caraga enters the building asking for the whereabouts of the Necromancer (asking if any elves room here) and she’s informed that one does room in the far room on the hallway. She walks down the hall and speaks with two of the necromancer’s personal guards; she speaks with them and asks to wait for her. Since my NPC doesn’t want anyone to know she has left her room she left the place and entered it with greater invisibility. The necromancer speaks with the guards that mention a suspicious girl (Caraga) has entered the room so she uses a ray of enfeeblement to zap her strength to zero (She was effective paralyze for the bulk of the encounter from this point on).

I allowed her the opportunity of screaming for help after while her strength was fading out of her and enough PCs make their listen checks to get the group aware of her. At the moment Amadeus and One are in the common room and Tonka and Aelal are in an alley at the side of the building. By this point the greater invisibility had faded and Amadeus and Tonka go upstairs to find Caraga paralyzed and the Necromancer and her guards standing to protect her. The Amadeus uses manages to bind her with a Hold Person spell, but she makes the save to get free on her turn (basically Amadeus stalled her for this turn). Thanks to Tonka’s clawfoot gets inside and crystal shards the ground of first floor guards at the by the entrance, (he didn’t know they were members of the Emerald Claw he just wanted to kill them for good measure). Aelal decides to guard the door to keep the bartender and the dwarves from leave, but decided to them with a flaming hands spell just to be safe (or so he thought).

Back to the second floor Tonka managed to get one of the soldiers at 0 HP with an energy ray, but One failed to bull rush the guards (he rolled a 7 they rolled a 17) so the necromancer was safe for another round. When the necromancer saw the skeleton she decided to cast command undead on him and ordered him to, “Attack that Warforged (One) with that fire attack of yours”. Opposed Charisma checks were rolled but Tonka had a Charisma of 8 and the necromancer rolled a 20. With the rogue undead psion Amadeus deeply contemplated the concept of turning the skeleton; instead he realized he has a scroll of dispel magic and broke the charm on Tonka. At this point the necromancer decided she wouldn’t take her chances and Dimension Doored out of the place. Then things got crazy.

With all this ruckus going on I decided a small patrol of half a dozen Storm Watch, and a crowd of onlookers decided to investigate the commotion in this Inn. When Tonka heard the guard come in he decided it would be best for him to be away from here so he cut a hole through the top floor jumped down on his raptor and escaped while the mob was still on the other side of the building. A few called for backup and medics which brought the attention of more people and when one of the watchmen healed one of the dwarves, the PCs thought were dead, the dwarf s pointed at Aelal and began screaming. This gathered the attention of the watch immediately. One went back to the top floor after she brought Caraga to Amadeus and began searching the Necromancers room. He found a bag of gold some onyx gems and a Hand of the Mage, as he was chewing on the hand one of the watch members investigating the top story ask him what, “What are you doing here?” One decided to kill him and jump out the hole Tonka made; when he cut the watchman in two one of the half fell out the hole attracting the attention of the mob that had formed around this strange hole by then. One basically jumped into and angry mob that began to beat him to death.

At this point Aelal ran outside and asked me where he put his pterodactyl; he didn’t mention bringing it so I told him you didn’t bring it. He whined about that being a gay assumption and I eventually let him call it and having it come in 1d4 rounds. Tonka decided to help One in his plight and ran back to Crystal swarm the mob. So on the mobs turn it enveloped him as well. One and Tonka were beat to their last HP, they were grappled it and when One broke free of the grapple he manage to save Tonka, who had less than 10 HP remaining, by tossing him outside the mob. Unfortunately he didn’t realize he couldn’t make a run maneuver in the same turn and the mob got him to -4 HP at the end of the turn. Amadeus attempted to escape by making another large hole for him to climb out of but as he saw One being beat to death he decided to make a diplomacy check to stop the mob; he rolled a 26 just enough to let the mob take him to the Storm Lords to face execution. Caraga attempted to sweet talk the closest watchman into letting her free but the closest one was a woman and didn’t dig this Tiefling rubbing up on her, so she grappled her and had the other watchman put manacles on her. Aelal mangae to get his pterodactyl in time to grab Tonka and fly off into the jungle; I ended there with Caraga and Amadeus heading to the precinct for questioning and Tonka in a box heading to one of the vaults of the keep.

Tough_Tonka
2007-04-08, 06:58 PM
The reason I'm posting is simple:

This bizarre event seriously mest up the plot I prepared for in this campaign. Two of my characters are fugitives, two have been sent to prison and One is more than likely going to be sentenced to death. Since my fugitives are an undead Goblin and a Raptoran I figure they stand out quite a bit, and most of the parties equipment has been pu into custidy.

What do you think I should do about the Warforged murderer?
What kind of punishment should Amadeus and Caraga face? (If the watch figures out their involvement with One and Tonka and if the watch doesn't find out about it.)
What about the fugitives who should I handle them coming back to town, and should I give the party a good chance of escape?

And last but not least WHAT KIND OF XP AWARDS DO I GIVE THE PARTY!?

DaMullet
2007-04-08, 07:04 PM
Give them standard XP for anything they defeated, as per DMG. Also, as far as the plot goes, make those imprisoned either stage a breakout or make new characters to meet up with the fugitives and break their old characters out.

melchizedek
2007-04-08, 07:17 PM
First off, I'd decide if you want your player to be able to keep the One around. If you don't think he'll have to big of a problem, I'd have his character be executed. This will show them that their actions do have consequences and that they need to do a better job of planning things out.

Aelal and Tonka are likely going to have the biggest problems. They fled the scene of a crime after being involved in some serious combat. They are quite definitely fugitives, and are going to have to tread carefully anywhere near the city where these events took place.

Amadeus and Caraga might actually be able to talk their way out of things. So long as they have a reasonable excuse for going to see the elf, they can claim that she attacked them first. The reaction to this might depend on the law in your current city, but I'd say they have a shot of getting out with a stiff fine.

Dark_Wind
2007-04-08, 07:34 PM
The necromancer speaks with the guards that mention a suspicious girl (Caraga) has entered the room so she uses a ray of enfeeblement to zap her strength to zero (She was effective paralyze for the bulk of the encounter from this point on).

Boldface mine. I realize I'm deviating from the topic at hand, and I apologize, but ray of enfeeblement imposes a Strength penalty that cannot reduce an affected creature's Strength below 1. Had to point that out.

As to the problem of what to do with your party, I'm afraid I'm at a loss.

Tyger
2007-04-08, 08:05 PM
realize I'm deviating from the topic at hand, and I apologize, but ray of enfeeblement imposes a Strength penalty that cannot reduce an affected creature's Strength below 0. Had to point that out.

Actually, I believe you meant that Ray of Enfeeblement can't reduce below 1, but that's another story entirely.

To the OP, your options are still pretty wide open. A lot really depends on what you want to happen. Do you want them to get out of prison? If so, the aforementioned assistance from inside is always nice. Better yet, have a group of renegades (freedom fighters, insurgents, terrorists, whatever) stage an attack on the prison to free their leader, the PCs just get out by happenstance, but are now indebted to the group... makes it look like you planned it all along.

In the alternative, the two in prison could, as noted above, quite conceivably argue their way out. The Necromancer is a) a necromancer and thus probably not that trustworthy, if she even shows up to testify and b) did attack them first. They could argue that everything that came thereafter was self defence, plain and simple. If that's the route you want them to go, and they don't think of it themselves, then their court appointed legal council can point it out to them.

The options are as open as you want to make them. In the alternative, let 'em rot. Time to re-roll. There are consequences to actions like they took. :) But of course that's a last resort.

martyboy74
2007-04-08, 08:13 PM
It could've been worse, like this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1073051&postcount=7).

Lemur
2007-04-08, 09:20 PM
You could always opt for "community service" if the PC's fail to escape through other means: Their crimes will be ignored if they go and complete Ridiculous Quest X. It's kind of weak in terms of believability though, so save it as a last resort.

Also, the tiefling automatically failing to talk to the guards seems rather arbitrary, since realistically she would have realized the guard she was after was the same gender.

Dragonmuncher
2007-04-08, 09:42 PM
Wait... I'm confused. Wasn't the plan to ask the necromancer for assistance, or a job, or the like? And the girl asked the guards if she could wait for him?

Why did the necromancer attack as soon as he heard a girl was in his room? His guards let her in.

Kel_Arath
2007-04-08, 09:52 PM
hehe, dissasemble the warforged

Tough_Tonka
2007-04-09, 08:59 AM
Wait... I'm confused. Wasn't the plan to ask the necromancer for assistance, or a job, or the like? And the girl asked the guards if she could wait for him?

Why did the necromancer attack as soon as he heard a girl was in his room? His guards let her in.

Well the main reason is Caraga failed a secret bluff check I secretly rolled. The second reason is this Necromancer is a member of the Emerald Claw a terrorist organization with plans close to world domination. She's not just Jane the necromancer for hire, she note generic crimanal who will go anything to make a quick buck. Does, "Could go to this dark alley with me to cast Speak with Dead on some skeleton", not sound a little suspicious to someone who knows she has bountys on her head.

The necromancers goal was to find out who told Caraga of her location, who sent her, etc.

Tough_Tonka
2007-04-09, 09:19 AM
Also, the tiefling automatically failing to talk to the guards seems rather arbitrary, since realistically she would have realized the guard she was after was the same gender.

The reason she failed to convince is that she didn't bother to remember or ask if the closest guard to her was a woman. These kind of I did of stuff happened all throughout that adventure as a matter of fact. Aelal didn't remember to bring his pteradactyl and complained and said I should just assume its next to the building. When One attacked the mob his character said, "I hack my way through the mob" he attacked but made no move action for 2 turns and once he realized it he demanded he get a to move actions before the start of his third turn.

I told the party if its already happened I'm not going to change the timeline for your convience. This at least turned to be in One's favor since I only read the trample damage of 2d6 I thoughts thats all the damage they could do, until I read they do 5d6 normally. I also didn't know they could grapple and attack for two rounds. So he took 4d6 worth of damage in two rounds when he should have taken 10d6 and had to make 2 grapple checks.

ravenkith
2007-04-09, 11:29 AM
If this person was a known member of a terrorist organization, I'd imagine that the city watch wouldn't shed too many tears regarding her death.

The death of the guard at the hands of the warforged, represents a problem, however, and would most likely result in the termination of the warforged, especially if they analyzed his stomache contents and found bit's of humanoids contained therein.

The warforged is dead.

Unless his fellow players want to go and break him out of prison.

Tallis
2007-04-09, 01:06 PM
Give the prisoners a chance to escape, but don't make it too easy and be sure they know the consequences of failure. That way it won't feel so much like you arbitrarily killed them. If they do manage to escape hopefully they will have learned a lesson in discretion.
As far as the two that escaped, they had better learn the diguise skill and are probably better off avoiding the city altogether. If they're really smart they'll find a way to shift they blame either to the elf or to someone else, but don't suggest it to them. Let them figure out how to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Aquillion
2007-04-09, 01:42 PM
The reason she failed to convince is that she didn't bother to remember or ask if the closest guard to her was a woman. These kind of I did of stuff happened all throughout that adventure as a matter of fact.Eh... don't take this sort of thing too far. Yeah, players shouldn't be allowed to always say "Of course I had my sword drawn" or whatever, but they shouldn't have to state every obvious action and check, either. If a PC says "I start walking forwards", the correct response is never "Oh, you forgot to ask if there's a cliff over a pool of acidic lava there. You die." I can easily see something like this happening:

"Ok, is the guard nearest me male?"

"Yes!"

"Ok, I seduce him."

"The guard, who is old enough to be your grampa, slaps you and puts a gag in your mouth."

(next time)

"Ok, is the guard nearest me male and about my age?"

"Yes!"

"Ok, I seduce him."

"The guard, who is a Warforged, conks you unconsious and drags you to the station."

(next time)

"Ok, is the guard nearest me male and about my age and human?"

"Yep!"

"Ok, now I seduce him."

"The guard's wife, who is hanging onto his arm for some inexplicable reason and has twice your charisma modifier, slaps you unconsious."

Etc, etc. Asking a player for more information is one thing, but unless a character has a subpar int or wis you should never assume that they do something stupid.

As DM, you want your PCs to act believably. You want them to behave their alignment and ability scores. You should be trying to make things run smoothly, not playing "gotcha" with your player's actions. This goes doubly in a case like this--as DM, it is your responsibility to describe the basic, immediately obvious details of scene. The fact that she didn't know that the guard was female was entirely your fault, not hers.

Now, if she had a wisdom of 3 or something I can see that happening, but otherwise, you should just tell a player when their actions conflict with details you haven't mentioned. Just because the DM can't describe every little obvious detail the PCs see doesn't mean they don't see it; you should always point it out when it becomes relevent.

(Also, are there no lesbian guards in Eberron? Just a thought.)

raistlin807
2007-04-10, 03:01 AM
Okay, I am the player who runs the barbarian One in this campaign and I thought I could clarify a few points that seem to have been clouded on our end of the game. First of all to the people who clamour for my character's execution (well deserved though it may be :D) I say that it was by no means caused by a lack of role-playing in favor of super-munchkining. I have been trying to play one as sort of an analoug to Lor (Data's bro from Next Gen) where the hollowness that comes with being manufactured for war, as well as the inherent doubt as to weather or not he even has a soul, has caused him to resent the living and place VERY little value on human life (or the lives of any other "squishies). So what might at first appear to be me just solving every problem with a sword is actually an attempt to get inside the mind of PTSD, racism and self doubt. (the finger thing is just for fun) Second, despite the fact that for the most part, the members of the party are evil sociopaths and/or mass murderers, the cleric does NOT need any pity. The reason we mock him is that he picks incredibly STUPID charachter builds i.e. selecting a weapon focus feat for a weapon he thought would look "cool" that in no way mattered to his faith or charchter background. Second he is loutish (sexually assaulting our rouge in game despite her lack of interest) as well as disruptive and downright incompetent when it comes to pre-planning. While the rest of us are talking strategy (somthing that all the other players involve themselves with) The cleric will walk away, check his email or make stupid coments or questions, usually involving him asking his god for divine intervention or bringing up some completely irrelevant bit of info from unrelated games or venues.

I know this is off topic but I felt that the group and my soon to be executed charachter deserved an obtiuary written by someone who knew them.

Beleriphon
2007-04-10, 03:46 AM
I suppose I should mention this, but Stormreach as whole is pretty lawless, so breaking out of prison, hiring a ship and hauling ass to Sharn isn't exactly unreasonable. If you meant Stormholme, being House Lyrandar's primary holding in Khorvaire, then yeah the character's are boned. You don't mess with a megacorp.... er Dragonmarked House on their home turf and live to tell the tale. Unless thats the point of the game, at which point you live to tell the tale but seriously regret your actions.

JadedDM
2007-04-10, 04:52 AM
If a PC says "I start walking forwards", the correct response is never "Oh, you forgot to ask if there's a cliff over a pool of acidic lava there. You die."

I've heard tell of games where the DM's response to the announcement "I walk through the door" is "You slam into the closed door and take 1d4 damage."

Matthew
2007-04-10, 03:57 PM
*Snip*
Ah, the other side of the story. So rarely heard, but always present.

Aquillion
2007-04-10, 03:59 PM
I've heard tell of games where the DM's response to the announcement "I walk through the door" is "You slam into the closed door and take 1d4 damage."Well, if they're playing a half-ogre or something along those lines with 5 wis and 20 str, "You walk through the door, picking bits of door off of you as you go" is an entirely approprate response. :smalltongue: