Digging for Lies, some thougths about it.

This weekend I have finished running “Digging for Lies” and I would like to share some thoughts about it:

The group really enjoyed the first part of the adventure, the arms fair is a great environment and a big opportunity to run buffer adventures or develop some extra cool side stories. Capturing Kaja Steward didn’t gone as planned, the group followed a suspect who arranged for a meeting with Kaja instead of arranging the meeting on their own and after the deal they followed Kaja until she went inside the most dangerous part of parity lake.

They used the new Vekeshi power to track her; it seemed way too powerful for an investigation campaign like this. Not sure if I have to change it a bit.

So after that, they tracked the buyer and arranged a meeting capturing Kaja. My group is also a bit paranoid about prisoners dying before they can talk with them so instead of killing Kaja I had Saxby ordering she was moved to Slate where she would be interrogated by experts in Planar physics. This way makes more sense with the group being pushed away of McBannin investigation. Of course the transferral is a lie, Kaja was handled to Lorcan Kell men and delivered to the Obscurati but the players won’t discover it until the end of the adventure.

Kvarty Gorbaty part didn’t played well also, the group put Rock Rackus under house arrest and there wasn’t much interaction with the killer.

After that the group moved to the ziggurat. They really liked some good-old fashioned dungeon crawl. Lucky for me with all the mess about the rainbow puzzle they took the other way. The Hallucinatory Room particularly was amazing fun to play. During the course of the exploration two players who were exposed to Distant Madness on the Fair encounter moved to the final stage of the sickness. I don’t like the way the sickness affect the players so instead of applying it as “combat hindering” I used a more role-playing approach. They both gained a mind scar, with the group ranger having the urge to play with his pet at inadequate moments and the rogue discovering that there was a conspiracy of Alien-body snatchers working for Danor!. They played their craziness all over the adventure and the result was really fun. The voice of the rot part also plays quite well.

Back to Flint, they quickly followed the Apet energies; find Doctor Xambria missing and Bergeron’s death. At this point they were almost 99% sure Doctor was possessed by an evil alien entity but they are not sure why Bergeron’s people are looking after Golden Seals or what does the gold ring of Caius mean.

I played the promotion part (which surprised my Yerasol veteran player, a Deva swordmage) and I also have the Vekeshi letter delivered but the Vekeshi mystic didn’t paid much attention, only having an interview with Rock Rackus to alert him about a risk on his life.

Rock Rackus is a nice character to play and my group moved from the impression that he was a buffoon and a liar with all his travelling stuff to realize that maybe he is telling the truth.

I will have a report of the second part of the adventure soon.

Hitomi Camacho said:

Rock Rackus is a nice character to play and my group moved from the impression that he was a buffoon and a liar with all his travelling stuff to realize that maybe he is telling the truth.

Click to expand...

My group absolutely loved Rock Rackus. Can't wait for him to return to the campaign.

Always good to hear how another group responds to each adventure.

Thanks for the feedback.

I admit that when I wrote it killing Kaja was more about keeping the PCs engaged than thinking about how the real situation might play out.

Glad the ziggurat went well.

And it sounds like Rock Rackus played out as planned. I enjoy throwing in NPCs that subvert the heroes' expectations.

MatthewJHanson said:

Thanks for the feedback.

I admit that when I wrote it killing Kaja was more about keeping the PCs engaged than thinking about how the real situation might play out.

.

Click to expand...

As I said, Mc Bannin already died in jail, and forcing a "suicide" at the jail would make the dead of Fionna seem like bad DMastering to me, something like "hey, we catch someone we wasn't supposed to catch so the DM is killing them... once again"

Hitomi Camacho said:

As I said, Mc Bannin already died in jail, and forcing a "suicide" at the jail would make the dead of Fionna seem like bad DMastering to me, something like "hey, we catch someone we wasn't supposed to catch so the DM is killing them... once again"

Click to expand...

My players are now paranoid about keeping prisoners, and how all their prisoners die in custody has become a running gag at the table; despite my pointing out all the prisoners they took who haven't died in custody.

One of my PCs decided to become mayor of The Nettles to replace Macbannin, mostly just so he could get some fame. He even managed to jiujitsu Lady Saxby's hatred of more popular people by promising to owe her multiple favors, get out of politics after just a year, and tell everyone that the security of Cauldron Hill depended on the steady leadership of the RHC Chief Inspectress.

Then he announced that any prisoners they take would be kept in 'the dungeon': the mostly-wrecked, accessible only via amulet and rusted ring gate, former laboratory under the garden shed on Macbannin's manor. Which is now his manor.

When they captured Kaja they were convinced she knew some great secret, and really worked at her a long time, not quite getting my cues that they should probably take what leads they had and follow up. Finally after an hour it was me who broke and made something up so they'd stop asking questions. (See kids; this is why torture is unreliable.) The best 'revelation' I had for them was that Kaja and Kell wanted to keep working for 'the bad guys,' Kell for the money, Kaja for the chance to do research. Once they knew Kaja's real motivation (mad science!!!!!), they figured she might as well become an asset. They're making arrangements for her to become a double agent to spy on Kell, and in exchange she'll get to work on a real Risuri military project.

Second part

Off to Ber, players got the Impossible by their side but the ship got no cannons! Worried about what they might find, sailors of the Impossible told my players they shouldn’t worry,” If there’s a enemy ship, they only need to get close enough and Captain Smith will bore them to death speaking about philosophy”



So when I described the Crisillyiri ship (12 cannons) they were absolutely terrified at the idea of sailing against it. Problem, as described on the adventure a crucial element is on the ship, Caius letter, so I had to find a way to solve that.


My players took the easy way so they went underwater and had an easy time dealing with Fiona’s team and never opened the portal to Mavisha, I really suggest to open the portal at the end of the encounter, otherwise is a quite easy one. Adding 4 more minions would also help.

While they were underwater returning to the Impossible, the Obscurati ship seeing that the archeological team didn’t return neither gave signals attacked the new comers ship. (Seems quite logical to me) The Impossible fled as the players had planned in case of attack, the idea was to go shore, contact by sending rituals and then arrange a pickup at night. At night Impossible returned but when the players made signals Dragon di Mer was waiting and attacked the Risuri ship. So Impossible managed to rescue the players but took two cannon hits and was boarded. They captured the enemy ship, wasn’t that difficult with the help of the Impossible crew.

About Xambria’s part: They believed the doctors cover of having the amulet of Apet. My group was almost sure Xambria was possessed but what they couldn’t imagine was that the evil spirit just erased memories and gave her compulsions so most of the time she acted quite normal. So after the interview they thought that maybe they have left the monster at Flint. Anyway my players considered Xambria worth of watching and keep her and Fionna under surveillance (once again the paranoia of losing prisoners) so the night attack worked perfectly as a distraction and when they discovered Fiona’s death and Xambria missing they were really angry.

Back to Flint, it’s quite remarkable how my group reacted when the word “Obscurati” appeared for first time. The paranoia level went crazy. With already one character mind scarred about a conspiracy, the problems with the authorities and the dead of prisoners that was the straw that broke the camel's back!. Now everyone around them could be part of this conspiracy, Stover Delft, Saxby, Governor Stanfield, mates from the RHC, even Rackus! It was really a good moment to throw the name.


Before the final big show we needed to finish several threads. Rackus was waiting for trial and the RHC agents were called to testify. Agents declared in favor of Rackus and he was released of charges after paying a big amount of money to the family of the dead bystander. So, with all the expectation outside the court with the press and the Dockers waiting Rackus the opportunity was perfect to run the assassination attempt … so it went something like this

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xU7Lhd7Wwo[/ame]

With the exception that the assassin missed the shot and Rock punched him in the face. The repercussions of the assassination attempt where postponed until the end of the adventure. Rock went to Thinking Man Tavern to celebrate his freedom and made a public statement to run for Parity Lake Mayor.
A day before the Ancients Gala the audit was closed, almost all the group did well but the rogue was accused of stealing money from the Smugglers Night encounter at adventure II. He actually took like 50.000 gp in paper money. Difficult to prove but was a discrepancy with the smugglers testimony. Also, deals with Morgan Cippiano came up and the fact they were not reported to superiors. Nigel Price Hill was a bit disappointed, it’s going to be some kind of punishment but I have not decided yet, any suggestions are welcomed.


And the great final! The players got surprised by Sijhen trick at the RHC office and when the energy blast came I gave each of them a mind scar. I thought the whole shifting really was going to be hard to run but it went smoothly. They took the assassins quite easy, but the encounter with Saxby was a difficult one, she could have killed half of the party at that moment. Fortunately some great diplomacy checks and the intervention of Delft convinced Carlo and his mates to subdue the inspector for further interrogation.

In the end they came following Sijhen ritual, not sure if the adventure says something but I find no way for the adventurers to get to the train rail other that gliding through the rock while the world was transparent.

They didn’t believed Sijhen plea of leaving him time so he can just go back to his world and attacked, very lucky for them, the Swordmage went first, made an arcane check and realized he would need the lanterns to shut down the portal. He shouted this all loud so all the ranged attack specialist in the group concentrated their fire at Sijhen, they managed to kill him before the Thing from Beyond was released.
Xambria consciousness was transferred to the group Spirit Medium who was actually the only woman around. That character, a half-elf, (half-crazy sorcerer) always wanted to have a spirit friend so she is very happy with another voice inside her.

Not time to plan the movements before Always in Time, have to show the consequences of the failure at the Vekeshi plot, the punishments of the audit, and what to do with Saxby.

Falkus said:

My players are now paranoid about keeping prisoners, and how all their prisoners die in custody has become a running gag at the table; despite my pointing out all the prisoners they took who haven't died in custody.

Click to expand...

Funny, I have the exact opposite problem. My players tend to kill first and forget to ask questions later. They're been berated and threatened with jail time at this point. When they actually did try to bring McBannin in alive, he took a killing blow from a hypnotized kell guild scoundrel. Whoops.

As I prepare to start running Digging for Lies I would be interested in hearing how people role played Rock Rackus. Is there another fantasy character you based him off of? I'm torn with how to approach roleplaying him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZp4yhzjws