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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1089515" data-attributes="member: 9410">The End!Well, Gentle Reader, the above may seem a bit disjointed, at times, but that's because it was done online, in a message-based forum, like this one...  The places where things seem repeated, it is because I was describing the same scene to different PCs.Also, actions sometimes seem a bit "out of sync", because a poster will reply to notes days apart, in the order they're posted!  So, for the big blow-up, here's what happened...Why exploring the Custodian's Manse, the person playing "Ox" decided to leave the group, and run off by himself...  He visited a cottage (briefly), and then Pott's barn.  In the barn, the bull began causing a ruckus, which attracted the others...  When they arrived, Ox LIED about it, claiming that he had been transported by the goat-headed altar in the shrine.Sorrow, who had seen him leave, knew that he was lying, and shook his head to Karl, attempting to silently communicate that it was a lie, and motioned for silence...  Now here's where my big mistake came in!I slipped up!  Instead of forwarding the note only to Karl's player, I accidentally sent it to THE WHOLE GROUP!  Hammer's PC read it, and thus the post about him not being sure of Karl and Sorrow.Sorrow, who had the Scrutiny ability, was able to overhear the comments of Hammer and Potts, hence his big blow-up.  The party demanded the magical items Sorrow had found, said that they were now running the show, and that Karl and Sorrow would now do as they said.Sorrow (who didn't trust any of these people, anyway, except Karl - a little bit!), hit the fan over the other PCs' distrust of the only PC he felt he could trust!...  So, he threw the magic items at Hammer (who he'd been trying to help), and basically said: "You don't want me in the party?  Fine!  Here's the items - that I found - that you do want, and if they turn you evil, it was your choice!  I'm done trying to help you guys!"  He then left the party.I sent notes to the players, letting them know that I would happily run the four of them into encounters designed for the six of them, and if they all died, no sweat off my brow...  Hence the sudden running around trying to get back together, again.Sorrow was having no part of it...The Sorrow PC was designed, in part, to make the adventure easier on the PCs.  He could detect magic within 20 feet, if he concentated, expended AEPs (Activation Energy Points), and made a skill roll (which he was pretty good at).  He was also a paranoid, and always trying to DO something, and the other players/PCs seemed to hate him for it.It was only after he left the group that they started talking about sticking together.  They didn't, however.  Hammer (who was tired of getting nothing done) went off by himself almost immediately.  He visited one cottage, was told to leave his weapons in the box outside, did, and got some useful information!  He then went to a different location, was told to drop his weapons, did, and had them taken from him!Potts' player, who had "gotten into it" with Sorrow's, quit the game immediately after Ox had tried to cast spells, and couldn't (the "Nobody up there loves you, anymore!" comment).  I had to get a new player for his PC, and dropped Buck's not too long after, for not having read/posted messages for days.Meanwhile, the other PCs were running about (one telling more lies to get things moving)!  At one point, every single PC in the game was off running around by themselves!  (Can you say "GM Headache"?)  During this period, almost NOTHING was accomplished!Eventually, I got new players for Hammer, Potts, and Buck (Ox I'm not sure about).  Sorrow's PC finished checking "The Four's" places for magic, wrote Karl the note, and got outta Dodge!The four bodysnatched PCs then started working together (although they kept going back over places previously searched because they thought "something might have been missed").  By the time they got down to the acid pit with the ghouls, they were acting like a team!Meanwhile, Karl was off by himself, looking for Sorrow.  Hammer was off talking to the cottagers, and losing his weapons.  Then, he met Karl, and they went and got a spear, then went and tried to get Hammer's weapons back (no dice)!  Karl, the only PC with money, wasn't willing to pay it all to get them back.Pentultimately, Hammer & Karl heard sounds of battle coming from under the Manse, but by the time they got there, it was over.  They eventually made their way down there, met up with the rest of the party, and got in on the fight with the last remaining ghoul.Eventually, time ran out.  While the module said to give the PCs a week to solve the mystery, I messed up and only gave them two days.  Oh well...  In any case, the fiendish four came back and kicked "the good guys" out of their bodies, leaving only the long-gone Sorrow, and the lonely Karl to continue to oppose them...Karl finally found Sorrow's note, and five of the eight items, in his saddlebags, but by then, he was so disgusted with the party (and the town!), that he simply got on his horse, and headed out.The fiendish four stopped him.  They wanted their stuff back!  To my surprise, he handed it over!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  I hadn't expected that!Some of the headaches in the game (the ones that Ox and Sorrow had) were from low AEPs.  In other words, they ran out of "spell points".  Sorrow was a psychic (LA's psionics), and was constantly searching "the four's" places for magic.  Ox's headache occurred because he ran off, trying to kill "Baldy" for no reason...  His god took a dim view of that!  Karl's headache, on the other hand, was his player's idea...  Stress, I think!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />So!  To this day, the Fiendish Four rule the former Fair Crossings, and no one know what evil lurks underneath the dying little town, or what ever happened to the old lord's lovely daughter!So if you're ever in the woods, gentle reader, and you come upon the strange little town of Forlorn Corners, turn around and run the other way!  And whatever you do... don't talk to any shopkeepers!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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