Funny you should ask, we just played last night. I can honestly say it went nothing like I anticipated.
The party received a note indicating they should come to the orphanage at noon the next day or they city would, in effect, be destroyed. Short, cryptic, but enough to get them interested. They had an inkling this was from the puppetmaster of the weird things that had been going on around town. For that reason they didn't notify the town guard right away, wanting to take care of business themselves.
They arrived at the orphanage a little early and scoped things out, seeing a normal orphanage. They alerted the neighbors that "something strange is going on at the orphanage", thinking that they would evacuate the kids to the neighbors care and then deal with whatever was left. The neighbors were instructed to investigate the fenced-in buidling 5 minutes after the party talked to them. In addition, the sorcerer sent his rat familiar to the nearest guard station with a note encouraging the guard to come to the orphanage. So far, I'm rather impressed with the forethought of the group. That was to end soon.
The divine mind was turned invisible and flew around the back of the building, while the ranger was invisible and climbed over the wall. The cleric, sorcerer, and rogue knocked on the front door. A 14-old on the roof (dominated) told them to come in; when they refused he threatened to drop the baby he was holding. What they didn't know was that there was a second dominated boy with a second baby crouching down on the roof (my "back-up"). The divine mind cast a confusion-type spell on the second boy, causing him to set his baby down on the roof and run away. The DivMind then circled around to catch baby #1 which the first boy dropped in surprise. I allowed a Ref save to catch the baby, but the player rolled a 1. Baby #1 didn't make it.
Unfortunately, the sorc only saw Boy #1 drop the baby (remember the DivMind has Greater Invis on), so he throws a fireball on the roof. Boy #1 and Baby #2 are now charcoal. The 12 kids in the play area out front are startled now that the roof is on fire, and the gnome rogue has the presence of mind to shout "fire!" and evacuate 10 of them. 2 shout out "you killed Jimmy!" and moved to attack the gnome.
The cleric and gnome check on Baby#1, and deal with the two attacking children. The sorc and invisible ranger head inside. The sorc walks down a hallway and gets surrounded by kids who run out of their rooms. They attack, aiding each other, but do negligible damage. The sorc falls back, past the ranger. The kids, naturally, press the attack. However, moving past the ranger provokes an attack of opportunity. Now, I should point out that the ranger isn't exactly a combat machine at this point. As the only real meatshield, he's spent a number of combats getting beat on and not dishing out much damage. I think he was just excited to be a dominant force in a combat for once. Long story short, he takes the AoO and deals lethal damage. A lot of lethal damage. To a 0-th level 12-year old. Everything sort of degenerated after that.
At the end of the day, the neighbors all showed up and expressed shock at the carnage (no more kids bought the farm, but a lot of them were unconscious). The woman who ran the orphanage (my little tsochar) promptly accused the PCs of storming in, demanding money, and killing kids when the didn't get it. Since she's an upstanding member of the community, the authorities gave her word a lot of weight (against the arguments of the party) and arrested everyone but the sorc who used gaseous form to get away. The truly maddening part (for me anyway) is that the party didn't even make it to the office area to encounter the lady/tsochar! The entire "fight" consisted of whacking kids! The PCs dug their own hole; the tsochar wasn't going to expose itself since the city guard would likely kill the PCs for it. Now its main impediment to implementing its dastardly plan are in jail, likely to be executed really soon.
The frustrating yet entertaining bit is that I have no clue how I am going to salvage this little excursion. Shoud be a fun exercise. I can honestly say this was one of the most fun DMing jobs I have ever done. As the players got themselves in deeper and deeper, everyone around the table was practically rolling on the floor realizing how totally screwed they were. I believe I've secured the RBDM moniker from them. Score!
The party received a note indicating they should come to the orphanage at noon the next day or they city would, in effect, be destroyed. Short, cryptic, but enough to get them interested. They had an inkling this was from the puppetmaster of the weird things that had been going on around town. For that reason they didn't notify the town guard right away, wanting to take care of business themselves.
They arrived at the orphanage a little early and scoped things out, seeing a normal orphanage. They alerted the neighbors that "something strange is going on at the orphanage", thinking that they would evacuate the kids to the neighbors care and then deal with whatever was left. The neighbors were instructed to investigate the fenced-in buidling 5 minutes after the party talked to them. In addition, the sorcerer sent his rat familiar to the nearest guard station with a note encouraging the guard to come to the orphanage. So far, I'm rather impressed with the forethought of the group. That was to end soon.
The divine mind was turned invisible and flew around the back of the building, while the ranger was invisible and climbed over the wall. The cleric, sorcerer, and rogue knocked on the front door. A 14-old on the roof (dominated) told them to come in; when they refused he threatened to drop the baby he was holding. What they didn't know was that there was a second dominated boy with a second baby crouching down on the roof (my "back-up"). The divine mind cast a confusion-type spell on the second boy, causing him to set his baby down on the roof and run away. The DivMind then circled around to catch baby #1 which the first boy dropped in surprise. I allowed a Ref save to catch the baby, but the player rolled a 1. Baby #1 didn't make it.
Unfortunately, the sorc only saw Boy #1 drop the baby (remember the DivMind has Greater Invis on), so he throws a fireball on the roof. Boy #1 and Baby #2 are now charcoal. The 12 kids in the play area out front are startled now that the roof is on fire, and the gnome rogue has the presence of mind to shout "fire!" and evacuate 10 of them. 2 shout out "you killed Jimmy!" and moved to attack the gnome.
The cleric and gnome check on Baby#1, and deal with the two attacking children. The sorc and invisible ranger head inside. The sorc walks down a hallway and gets surrounded by kids who run out of their rooms. They attack, aiding each other, but do negligible damage. The sorc falls back, past the ranger. The kids, naturally, press the attack. However, moving past the ranger provokes an attack of opportunity. Now, I should point out that the ranger isn't exactly a combat machine at this point. As the only real meatshield, he's spent a number of combats getting beat on and not dishing out much damage. I think he was just excited to be a dominant force in a combat for once. Long story short, he takes the AoO and deals lethal damage. A lot of lethal damage. To a 0-th level 12-year old. Everything sort of degenerated after that.
At the end of the day, the neighbors all showed up and expressed shock at the carnage (no more kids bought the farm, but a lot of them were unconscious). The woman who ran the orphanage (my little tsochar) promptly accused the PCs of storming in, demanding money, and killing kids when the didn't get it. Since she's an upstanding member of the community, the authorities gave her word a lot of weight (against the arguments of the party) and arrested everyone but the sorc who used gaseous form to get away. The truly maddening part (for me anyway) is that the party didn't even make it to the office area to encounter the lady/tsochar! The entire "fight" consisted of whacking kids! The PCs dug their own hole; the tsochar wasn't going to expose itself since the city guard would likely kill the PCs for it. Now its main impediment to implementing its dastardly plan are in jail, likely to be executed really soon.
The frustrating yet entertaining bit is that I have no clue how I am going to salvage this little excursion. Shoud be a fun exercise. I can honestly say this was one of the most fun DMing jobs I have ever done. As the players got themselves in deeper and deeper, everyone around the table was practically rolling on the floor realizing how totally screwed they were. I believe I've secured the RBDM moniker from them. Score!
