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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 7976380" data-attributes="member: 6879661">So I would agree with posters who say this is no big problem and instead sounds interesting and exciting. You don’t have a car crash on your hands but instead some opportunities for memorable situations.My first advice is don’t get bogged down with  strict interpretations of alignment or lofty thoughts about GM vs Player narrative drive... these are age old debates that depend entirely on you and your tables approach and will only complicate things and derail them further. Instead I will offer you some thoughts based on my opinions of The North setting for SKT and the context of the action.1. The North is a brutal and barbaric place, full of wandering tribes, dangerous weather and monsters. There a small bastions of civilization like Silverymoon and Sundabar but largely these are the exception not the norm. These groups are loosely allied through the Lords Alliance whose agents try and keep the individual settlements working together... however the distance and the danger means that this is difficult. There is no overarching authority to condemn the PCs.2. The majority of folks don’t have organized police forces, there is no FBI to cross state boundaries. People would rely on a Lord’s action or the equivalent of a bounty hunter for justice. Maybe an adventuring party would be asked to help. I’m not sure which settlement the Riverboat heist took place in but it’s reasonable for the lord of that settlement to seek to bring the party to justice. How they do that and what agents they have to enact that justice is difficult. However dispel notions of a modern police force and justice system from your mind. If they leave that settlement then rumour may have spread but there is no automatic assumption that the guards of sundabar would know the details of a crime in silverymoon. To do that the authorities in Silverymoon would need to be persuaded that the crime was serious (probably is) that the party was responsible (depends on their actions) and that then they would need to task agents to travel to every other location to warn them that the party is loose and more so persuade each settlement that they also need to expend time and resources to apprehend the party. This could take months. Hastily copied descriptions, and hand copied sketches of players are the best that can be expected. In the North don’t expect to see Wanted Posters on every tree!3. Remember this is in a land where zhentarim, dragon cults, orc invasions and rampaging monsters are regularly killing whole villages. More so the North is currently undergoing a spate of giant attacks... it is quite possible the agents of the Lords Alliance have other things on their mind. Keep this perspective in mind when describing NPCs reactions to the party if the rumor comes out. Also don’t forget that plenty of NPCs are not paragons of virtue themselves. Maybe they need to go to the Zhentarim for supplies and weapons. When giants are flattening villages you may have to work with some people you don’t like.4. The party were certainly bloodthirsty in killing the noble and the guards. However keep this in perspective. Proprietors of gambling halls are rarely the most innocent of individuals. Such places are magnets for crime, desperate people and extreme wealth rarely brings out the best in people. Some things to think about... why is the gambling on a boat, is it disapproved of by regular folk? If the Lord has knowledge of the giant attacks but hasn’t shared it, why? Was he trying to profit off the attacks in some way... loaning money to people whose homes have been destroyed. A plausible story for why the party attacked might be sufficient to allow them to justify their actions. Maybe not in the settlement itself but certainly 100 miles away in the next settlement.5. As a general rule, outside Waterdeep adventuring parties (certainly ones of their level) are almost impossible for authorities to catch. They would rely on other adventurers to do the dirty work and apprehend them. There are plenty of situations in frontier life where known murderers were able to function normally because people were scared of them. Until someone more dangerous came along (pretty much every Wild West film conceived!)6. Justice is generally up to a lord or council. Formal codes of law are rare. That’s why Waterdeeps Code Legal is printed, because it is unusual. Most legal systems depend on a lords justice (or the equivalent). A practical lord may decide to commute an unenforceable sentence on the basis that the giant threat is greater and agree to pardon their crime provided they serve the greater good. (That doesn’t stop individual nobles wanting revenge). Plenty of adventure start with this plot hook... it is refreshing to see in this case the party willingly went into it rather than being tricked.7. Lastly as this post is getting long. The party can own it. Geralt of Rivia is called the Butcher of Blaviken, it doesn’t stop people associating with him or asking him for help. In fact it gives him an edge. Do the party do enough good things to make some people give a different story. Do they make contacts around them that mean they have people who will help them, or give them a second chance.The giant threat is getting worse and is a real and immediate threat to life. By focusing on this goal, the party can still be successful and not get derailed. The Riverboat massacre can certainly add complications but doesn’t need to end the campaign. Of course the suggestions above are just my impressions. In your world there might be printing presses, regular magical communication and the Lords Alliance might be like the federal govt with a good well funded crime agency. That’s your call. Good luck and if you get chance tell us how it was resolved. We rarely get to here that bit!</blockquote>

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