It is a dark time for my PC's

Erebus

Mongoose
Well it seems as though my PC's are in the "Empire Strikes Back" part of the campaign. They kind of went there on their own accord. I'll explain.

The group consists of a Black kingdoms Barbarian, Stygian Noble, Zamorian Thief, female Zingarian Pirate, Turanian Nomad, and a Scholar from Khitai.

The campaign recently moved into Shadizar with an audience with the king. They had recently defeated Yara and had no qualms telling everybody in Arenjun what they had done. They ventured to Shadizar from Stygia, the Nobles family palace, and received a hearty reward from the King. Which brings us to the next part of the campaign.

After purchasing and reading the Shadizar box set I decided to make a few changes and fit it into my Campaign. The players have bought a manor house in shadizar, made some local contacts (as per the box set), and then proceeded to drink and wench the rest of their money away :) .

From the adventure I have made Lady Nehira the kings daughter, a few levels higher in scholar, and gave her a different agenda (she's an Evil B*tch).

They went through the adventure in the box set fairly unchanged. The ending did not have Kara Prima (I'm using her someplace else) and the party "rescued" Nehira from the clutches of the evil cultists just in time. This was planed by lady Nehira, she was hoping to weaken them and then defeat them and use them for her own sinister purposes in a story arch I won't bother getting into right now.

Now down to the situation at hand.

She seduced and enslaved the Noble as per the spell. The PC playing the Noble had no idea, had him roll a saving through later for what he thought was a completely different reason. The noble was the one that led the PC's into the trap.


Some time passed and they continued their socializing in Shadizar


Nehira then tried to seduce and enslave the Scholar. Unfortunately for her he had cast Calm of the Adept earlier and he was completely immune to her charms. Nehira didn't know this and told him most of what she planned to do. She also sent them up to a northern encampment of Assassins to steal a ceremonial dagger from a nearby Sorcerer’s tower.

The scholar told the rest of the PC's everything, the Noble and the Barbarian were to the south checking on the Nobles recently acquired commission to lead a small retinue of the Kings army (The players for those two characters weren’t at the last session). Oh ya :) forgot to mention the Noble was given a command from the King, another long story.

They succeeded in stealing the dagger for her and the Zamorian Thief hid it so she wouldn't find it.

Nehira send four of the "Kings own" guard with them to help steal the dagger, to support their efforts, one survived. The Scholar tried to intimidate him into serving him, it worked, but he was enslaved to lady Nehira himself. He reported back to her that the PC's know everything, this was not good!

Lady Nehira requested their presence. She sends the guardsman to retrieve them. The PC's using sense motive figured out he was holding something back (The fact that he told her everything). The proceeded to walk right into her temple and into a trap :roll: She had 6 of the Kings own guard that were loyal to her, and had summoned an Earth Elemental she was keeping hidden in the room beyond the worshiping chamber. She had also through her Demon patron performed a ritual preventing the PC's from harming her or her followers in her temple, (Will save DC20 or could not follow through with an attack) home brew spell like unhallowed ground, but more powerful.

The ensuing fight was that of legend :lol: .

The scholar was immune to the unhallowed because he cast calm of the adept and the unhallowed ritual was from the school of hypnotism.

He was able to cast greater warding on the thief freeing him of the spell and defensive blasting 3 guardsman before they took him down to -4 HP.

Lady Nehira laughed and commanded the Elemental to attack, which burst very dramatically out of a set of double doors in the back.

The Elemental brought the thief down to 16 hp. I allowed him to use his last fate point to shrug off the massive damage save he failed, thought I would be nice.

Lady Nehira ran into a backroom to escape and let her minions kill the party, laughing all the way knowing that she had them right where she wanted.

The thief gave chase.

Nehira defensive blasted him with her 11 remaining power points killing him, no fate points, no left for dead maybe, dead :cry: .

The Zingarian and the Turanian got the front doors open and escaped to the street. The guardsman caught and arrested the Turanian but the Zingarian escaped by hiding in the garden outside her manor, later climbing the wall and escaping via the waterways in the city.

Nehira then killed a slave girl for power. Got healers to attend to the
Scholar. Then cast Greater warding, entrance, dominate, and enslave on the scholar (all his saves failed). I allowed him to use a fate point to succeed at the enslave save, only partially enslaving him

So were left with the remaining party as such:

1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house.


I often don't know where my campaigns will lead as I never railroad. I play the NPC's to the best of my ability utilizing their powers. I don't pull punches, what’s the point. But I also (I think) give the PC's every opportunity to succeeded, like:

1. They new the guardsman sent to retrieve them was holding back something, they even mentioned that he probably told Nehira everything.

2. They new the difficulty of the battle at the beginning, they knew within the first round of combat that evil enchantment was on the temple and they found it hard to attack Nehira and her guards.

3. They new they were outmatched and outgunned, even after walking into the trap they could of escaped by trying to get out the front doors! Nehira confidently proclaimed at the beginning of the battle "Nothing can harm me while I reside in the Temple of Bel, NOTHING! Bowu ha ha ha ha. hint, hint, HINT!

4. Nehira was still trying to hide her evil ways from the rest of the hierarchy of Zamora; if they got out of the temple they probably could have killed the guardsman. The Elemental was instructed not to leave the temple, ever (I would doubt the nobles of Shadizar would like to see a large stone monster running around the street). Nehira still doesn’t want to tip her hand to the general public of her power or what she is capable of.


What did they do?

They stayed and fought it out until all hope was lost, then two tried to escape. One succeeded.


F.Y.I. :arrow: I made Lady Nihera lvl 14 scholar, lvl 2 noble. She had some summoning (elemental of coarse), a few more skills etc, but pretty much the same as stated out in the Shadizar box set.

Thank you very much for reading this post (if you got this far :D). My question is this; What should I do now with. . .

1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house

Any suggestions, campaign ideas, anything? I would appreciate some input.

The player who lost the thief is making up a new character, I think a soldier.

Now what? Nehira now controls two partymembers indirectly. The scholar knows he's enslaved but can't do anything about it (made save). Nehira has one in the dungeon(Turanian). I think she will have the Scholar "escape" to help find the Zingarian(the only one who escaped).
How are they going to get out of this mess :roll: . Suggestions please :) ?
 
Okay, the way I read it, she has:

Enslaved Noble
Barbarian Bodyguard
Enslaved Scholar
Turanian Nomad
Dead Zamorian Thief

under her power.

The Nomad and the Barbarian should be served a hearty meal of stew with lots of tender veggies, chunks of spiced meat and thick broth.

The Noble and the Scholar should be served an extravagant three course meal complete with thick steaks, racks of barbequed ribs (well, two racks anyway), kebabs, a large roast and other meaty dishes. Breads, fruits, meat pastries and sweets, etc. should also abound.

If at any point, they enter the kitchen, they find the body of the thief, butchered and stripped of meat...

Dinner is Served!!! :twisted:
 
Darth Mikey said:
If at any point, they enter the kitchen, they find the body of the thief, butchered and stripped of meat...

Dinner is Served!!! :twisted:
Hey, you been reading my Story So Far thread? I see Ebola's influence is spreading.... :p
 
At the moment no suggestions from me, but thanks for sharing this funny session with us! I think one or two elements will see use in my campaign, especially the Enslaving without the character knowing it at all... :twisted:
 
Well, it depends on how you want the campaign to go. It's hard to gauge without knowing the personalities of the characters, but if you don't want to have to reboot the campaign with all new (or potentially only 1 or 2 surviving) characters, I would suggest the following:

Option 1: Allow the pirate to elude pursuit long enough to heal to at least 75%. Find a hole and crawl in it. Presumably, contacts were made during all of that socializing. It's time to either call in some favors or establish some IOUs (which can set up subsequent adventures). Perhaps the pirate and/or Turanian arranges for the Noble and Barbarian to be kidnapped by some of the seedier contacts. I'd have the kidnapping occur off-camera in order to ensure that the pirate and Turanian gets the opportunity to converse with the noble and barbarian. Hopefully, at a minimum, the pirate, Turanian, and barbarian discover the noble's enslavement. This might seem to utilize player, rather than character knowledge, but given how poorly things went for the pirate and Turanian's group, a little paranoia is justified. This could be a prudent course of action if the surviving characters fear that the noble and barbarian are under surveillance. You mentioned a "no railroading" philosophy and I think my suggestions will stay true to that, but this is defintely working to preserve the current campaign.

Option 2: Or, provide a side encounter for the noble and barbarian that allows them to hear snatches of rumors regarding the fates of their comrades. Again, hopefully, the barbarian sees the danger in blindly following the noble and seeks out his surviving comrades. This perhaps provides the opportunity to be "the man inside" amongst the sorceress' minions. If the players are looking for some payback, this could let them turn the tables!

Option 3: Let things play out. Put it all on the player's shoulders. Know what the soreceress' plans are in advance, then ask the players "what do you do?". Your players will likely surprise you with their ideas and take the campaign down further unexpected paths, but be prepared for this particular story/campaign to end abruptly. It's very conceivable the pirate and Turanian may decide just to get the hell out of town and the noble and barbarian meet gruesome fates. If the remaining PCs get captured, I'd at least give the pirate, Turanina, and barbarian a chance at escaping, probably from some gruesome sorcerous sacrifice where they may have to fight their enslaved comrades!

Even though the session played out different than expected, it was an entertaining read and it sounds like a great game of Conan!

Azgulor
 
Bregales said:
Darth Mikey said:
If at any point, they enter the kitchen, they find the body of the thief, butchered and stripped of meat...

Dinner is Served!!! :twisted:
Hey, you been reading my Story So Far thread? I see Ebola's influence is spreading.... :p

No, I haven't checked those out yet. Sounds like I'll have to do that!
 
Sounds like a very interesting session and good fun, to be fair though players very rarely know when to run!!!

I was thinking maybe the thief’s new soldier could be one of the Guards she thinks is loyal to her, maybe even one of the guards who was in the temple, thus he would know what’s going on.

He is in fact working for and loyal to king or country etc, or working for a 3rd party which has their own agenda and would like this young lady dealt with.

So he could contact the remaining party, whoever he is working for could agree to help break the enchantments for the players if they agree to do a job, kill the sorceress etc.
 
Thanks for all the input! It really helped.


The Nomad and the Barbarian should be served a hearty meal of stew with lots of tender veggies, chunks of spiced meat and thick broth.

The Noble and the Scholar should be served an extravagant three course meal complete with thick steaks, racks of barbequed ribs (well, two racks anyway), kebabs, a large roast and other meaty dishes. Breads, fruits, meat pastries and sweets, etc. should also abound.

If at any point, they enter the kitchen, they find the body of the thief, butchered and stripped of meat...

Dinner is Served!!!


Great idea! I never would of thought of that. I'm definitely going to use it! Just for the Turanian, after a week or so starving in the dungeon :twisted:


I think one or two elements will see use in my campaign, especially the Enslaving without the character knowing it at all...

Great fun the enslaving thing. Phonremeck the Noble was trying to seduce Nehira and rolled a 20 on his diplomacy. Ended up with 30 something. Phonremeck has been trying to climb the corporate ladder any chance he can get, and hooking up with the Kings daughter seemed perfect. Some time later I had everybody roll a Will save against a perceived area effect type of spell. I only wanted to know the Noble's result; the rest were rolling for subterfuge. I rolled Nehira's magic attack, and the Noble failed, without knowing what he was rolling for. Nobody was the wiser until it was too late. He started attacking the party in Nehira's worshiping chamber :twisted: . When the player asked why his character was doing this, or anything peculiar for that matter. I simply told him some irresistible pull made his character do it. Knowbody knew what was going on :D .


Well, it depends on how you want the campaign to go. It's hard to gauge without knowing the personalities of the characters, but if you don't want to have to reboot the campaign with all new (or potentially only 1 or 2 surviving) characters, I would suggest the following:


Thanks Azgular! I will be using a combination of all three of your suggestions.


Sounds like a very interesting session and good fun, to be fair though players very rarely know when to run!!!

Too true, It's because of too much D&D. Most games of D&D the players are subjected to challenging but winnable encounters. I have, in the past, mentioned how on many occasions Conan has had to run for his life. I'm trying to run a very Conan fell game, of coarse, which means the players have to gauge which encounters they can and cannot win. I guess I should have reminded them before the last session :) .


I was thinking maybe the thief’s new soldier could be one of the Guards she thinks is loyal to her, maybe even one of the guards who was in the temple, thus he would know what’s going on.

Good idea, I'll suggest this to the player of the dead thief, see what he thinks.


Thanks again, next session is this Sunday. It will be fun :D
 
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