Good PCs Attacking a Neutral Temple

[Retreater]

I started DMing a published adventure last session, and I'm trying to remain as vague as possible about the details of the adventure so as to not post spoilers. The session, set up mostly as an investigation, took a very chaotic and violent turn, which concerns me because all of the characters are good-aligned (and some of them are lawful good).

The basic set up is that a temple devoted to the worship of a neutral god of magic has opened in the town. A traveling priest who worships the same god (but is not a member of the temple) contacts the party because he has a vague feeling of something not being right there and even claims that he was attacked by the temple guards upon his visit.

So the party went to investigate. They found that the priests were generally very helpful and answered all of their questions. The paladin tried to detect evil, but found none. So far as the party could tell, everything was on the up-and-up. Even throughout the town, with the guards and all documentation of the temple, everything was clear.

The sorcerer and cleric decided to take part in a retreat offered by the temple to aid in their understanding of magic. At the end of the retreat, the sorcerer showed enough magical aptitude to continue magical training in sequestered study in the temple, but the cleric was shown the door (because he didn't fully trust the clerics of the temple).

What happened next was completely unexpected. The party's cleric (lawful good) came back with the party's rogue, second cleric (lawful good), and barbarian, and demanded access to the monastery. The party's paladin and fighter (lawful good) decided to summon the town watch, telling them that their comrades are planning on attacking the temple. So the cleric leads the band into the temple's courtyard, full of witnesses, and demanded the sorcerer leave his training to rejoin them. The head priest of the neutral temple said that he would speak to the sorcerer and ask if he wished to do that. The party's cleric said that wasn't good enough and demanded to enter the inner temple. He was told to leave the property or be arrested. He began trying to bash down the front door with his hammer.

He was intercepted by guards who started attacking. To cut the long story short, the party hacked down 4 neutrally aligned security guards and a neutral cleric in front of a courtyard full of commoners. The party's cleric also used magic to destroy the wall of the Inner Temple so the party could charge inside, ready to kill even more security guards and priests.

During this time, the paladin and fighter are retrieving the town guard, who obviously want to protect the priests and the commoners of the town (the party has only been in town for a day, so they don't know anyone).

Early next session the town guard will arrive with the paladin and fighter and they will see what was done to the neutral temple. There are more than enough eyewitnesses to describe what happened.

What should happen to this party of "heroes" that launched a more-or-less unprovoked, deadly assault against seemingly innocent people?

Retreater

 

[billd91]

String them up. Murder of priests would almost certainly be a capital offense. A perfunctory trial, with the use of detect lie or a zone of truth cast by the town's main lawful temple, should establish the truth of the matter easily enough and seal their fates.

The only PCs who should get off are the sorcerer and the ones who went to get the guardsmen in the first place since they obviously didn't commit the crime.

The neutrality of the targetted temple should have nothing to do with the application of the law on the 4 murderous PCs.

 

[hong]

I think getting the players' version of events would be helpful as well.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It sounds like there may be problems that can't be resolved purely in-game. Was there some player vs. player tension? That the party was so split up is a bad sign. Were the players just bored? They may have been expecting action instead of investigation.

 

[GreatLemur]

Personally, I think this is a great demonstration of why the whole alignment system is a bad idea. The actual story of what's happening here sounds really dramatic and interesting, but you're getting distracted by the moral checkboxes of the parties involved.

That said, your Cleric does sound pretty nutty, and--if you've gotta go with the alignment system--might have a little difficulty qualifying for Lawful Good. I mean, maybe there's some definition of "law" that makes this okay--say, if he follows a god with a relentlessly paranoid nature--but it doesn't sound likely. And, either way, it seems to me the prosaic Law is gonna have to throw the book at him.

The neutrality of the targetted temple should have nothing to do with the application of the law on the 4 murderous PCs.

Extremely good point. The temple and the people running it could be utterly evil, and the Cleric still would have illegally attacked the place and then killed people when they (quite legally) tried to make him leave.

 

[Land Outcast]

Perform an exorcism on the offending cleric, if that doesn't work sign him up for Live Organ Donation.

 

[DreadArchon]

Make them foot the bill for resurrecting the guards.

They have to buy scrolls, or they have to pay for someone else to cast it, or they have to be able to cast it (and provide the expensive components), or they at the very least have to raise the guards as sentient undead (not that I would suggest that for a *good* party), or something like that.

 

[frankthedm]

Edit, misunderstood, comment withdrawn

 

[LostSoul]

Sounds cool.

I would do a few things:

1) I'd make some notes about the PCs now being enemies of the neutral temple. Have them send out some bounty hunters to bring the PCs to "justice". (The quotes mean it's only the NPC's idea of justice.) That could be a cool encounter, just don't overdo it, using bounty hunters over and over again (unless the players like it).

2) I'd have the offending PC clerics churches call them up. "We got a nasty letter from the church of [neutral god], and they're threatening political action if we don't do something to you. You must stand trial." The stakes would be something like having them turned over to the other church or getting kicked out of their own church if they can't successfully defend themselves.

I would make sure that the players know they can do whatever they want - go to the trial, plead innocent, guilty, not go to the trial, give up their faith, or whatever - and they won't be penalized for it. (i.e. They won't lose access to spells, unless they want to. I'd make that a player choice.) They might have to find a new god to worship, and that would be cool to play out.

3) I'd try to avoid dividing the party unless the players wanted to explore that sort of thing. I'd make sure to talk it over with the players before the game.

 

[Vanye]

Given the temples connections to the local government (I recognize this module description, as I"m preparing to run it for my players ) I'd say reread the section on how the town reacts to the party. It details some stuff in there about how the town reacts.

The party is in some pretty deep PR muck.