Does this seem like a reasonable action?

[holywhippet]

In our last few sessions some of our party members got arrested by the city guard and while being taken to prison one of them got pick pocketed and had a magical owl figurine stolen. After we got out we managed to track down the kid who stole it who admitted to selling it to a local fence. We went to the tavern the fence frequents and learned he is only there early in the day while we were there late at night.

I figured we could just come back in the morning but the rest of the party seemed to have other ideas. The party fighter made a comment that he was going to kill the fence in front of the bartender. They later tried questioning the bartender who said he didn't know where he lives. Another tried questioning a barmaid who said she didn't know the fence at all (insight checks said she was lying). She went into the back of the tavern and one party member snuck after her and first grabbed her around the neck then karate chopped her out cold. Hearing this the bartender tried to help but another player had his cleric hold the bartender in a headlock and forced him to drink a cup of really strong booze which knocked him out. Another barmaid ran out to fetch the guard so the party rogue spiked the door shut.

My bard, figuring a battle with the guards was likely and that the whole exercise was pointless just left and went back to the ship we owned. Some of the other party members when they eventually returned (carrying the unconscious barmaid) complained when they came back feeling I should have stuck with them. They had also considered burning down the tavern and said as much.

Was it unreasonable for me to just leave like that? I know don't split the party is a general rule but I don't think following them on the path of crazy destruction is mandatory either.

[Sidson]

You did the right thing.

When party is messing with city guards or attacks barmaids and wants to burn tavern down - you have every right to step back and go away. In my opinion it would be better to try to stop them from doing harm to everyone around them, but I wouldn't blame you at all. However, their characters should blame you, if you did nothing to oppose them in the first place.

[JellyPooga]

So your party;

- Assaulted and kidnapped someone
- Assaulted a business owner
- Damaged property
- Planned arson

These are the actions of criminals. If the guard turned up and they fought and killed them, they'd also be guilty of murder. It's perfectly reasonable to distance oneself from people prone to such actions, "party cohesion" be damned. By leaving when you did you expressed your disapproval of their actions and they should be mindful of that statement more than you should be worried about their criticism of you as a team-mate.

[Unoriginal]

What you did was reasonable, what they did was not.

Though maybe you should have told the players something like "if your characters do this dumb thing, my character will leave you to fend for yourselves". In any case, they might dig their graves if they want to, but you were under no obligation to share it.

You can expect everyone in the group but you to be wanted criminals in this city, now, and the fence probably left as soon as they heard about the psychos who were after them.

With a rare wonderous magic item, this fence could become incredibly rich. Heck, with a giant owl as mean of transportation, they could transport most of their valuable goods with them and flee the city.

[hymer]

I agree with the two* previous posters. But I'll add another thought:

You and the other players don't seem to be on the same page. Odds are the DM's patience is also being tried. It would seem appropriate for you all to discuss what sort of game you want and can all agree on. It may be that you simply need to make a psychopathic, greedy, moronic murderer of a PC, who will stick by the party through anything until you all get yourselves killed. But then, it may not be required.

*Edit: There were only two when I started typing.

[Sorlock Master]

Yeahhhhhh...

You made the right choice.

If your DM is even remotely like me your party is already screwed. They had already been arrested and now have commited a serious crime plus additional lesser crimes. People are going to be looking for the barmaid and if they let her go shes going to tell the authorties who kidnapped her. Not to mention the bartender knows who kidnapped her, and you apparently arrived on a ship which is going to have a log of all the persons on the ship. Which means a day or two tops before the local guard is scouring your ship for that girl. They are going to end up in shackles or they are going to kill a contingent of guards and have to leave very quickly. Best case senario you leave as soon as they get to the ship, drop the girl off at another port not to far away. Give her gold for travel back to where she lives plus lost wages plus troubles, and tell her this was one giant misunderstanding, and that your all very ****ing sorry. Oh and never go back to that city...ever.

[sithlordnergal]

As with all the other posters, you were 100% in the right. Honestly, I would have dropped a Calm Emotions in the middle of the group in order to stop said fighting, since it literally does stop people from fighting. I ave had to back off from a group when they chose to do something stupid. My most recent case was when we were playing Oh, We're In It Now, the final part of A Night To Remember. We had escaped the building, and the Yuan-Ti who had poisoned/tricked us came out to greet us. He gave us an offer, ally ourselves with him r accept some gold and we could leave. Or we could fight him.

The DM had been laying down some heavy hints that fighting this guy was suicide, so I refused to fight. The rest of the party charged the guy, despite my protests. I could only watch as the guy changed into a giant Yuan-Ti monster, and K.O.ed every party member in two shots or less. The only thing I did was shake my head, and stabilize everyone. I didn't bother wasting potions to fully heal them, as I figured they'd just throw themselves at the monster again. The party wasn't happy, but I flat out told them that:

1) It was obviously a suicide mission to fight the guy

2) I never wanted to fight him in the first place.

You were completely justified in your actions of leaving that party behind.

[Asmotherion]

Did they blame you out of game or in game?

If out of game:

You did absolutelly nothing wrong, and you actually merit some bonus XP if I was DMing. You role-played your character instead of blindly going by the motion of "hey, you know what? since we're already in for it, let me yolo it as well and butcher someone wile I'm at it". What you did is called good RP instead of noobish RP. Not that what they did was wrong (if that's what their character would have done in a normal circumstance), but if your character is not a Chaotic Neutral with Chaotic Evil tendencies Sociopath, you role-played your part very nicelly.

If complains were in-game:

You rip what you sow. You're in a party of Chaotic Evil Sociopaths that bully and abduct people just because they suspect that they might not tell them the whole truth about knowing who powned the magical item (wanting to kill that person) that was pickpocketed from them from a 3rd party. Be glad they don't want to throw you to the sharks or something. If they were not at the very least trying to throw a dagger or two at you after that (till they calm down), it would be bad RP on their part.