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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orichin" data-source="post: 1921876" data-attributes="member: 25226">The main problem I see here is (I'm not flaming anyone here) a DM who's too nice to run a 'gritty' game full of evil.  If you're trying to be realistic about the game, send the party's enemies after them with as much animosity as they would feel.  The new mayor would have the PC's pictures posted all over town and post a reward for his father's murderers-preferably dead.  The clerics would employ whatever assets they felt were necessary, and scrying is very cheap and an incredibly useful tool.  (un)Holy warriors of Iuz, mobs of supplicants in a preacher induced frenzy, or calling in favors are all equally cheap (if not free to the church) methods of eliminating the PC's.  Historically, as in many campaign settings, slavers make LOTS of money, and are greedy enough to a)sell human lives and b)protect their interests with a vengeance seen only in organized crime.  Your PC's have committed several high-profile assassinations and murders of powerful people.  It would be utter stupidity for them to stay where they are.  Other powerful NPCs will view the PC group as a potential threat, one they may not wish to be on the business end of.  As I see it, the PC's have only a few options open to them.  -Settle down in their community of free slaves and hope their enemies will forget about them (unlikely), or go down in a blaze of glory when the place is razed to the ground by their enemies (more likely).-Stand and fight their enemies like any self-respecting hero would do in a different game (TPK in this case, looking at the odds).-Run.  Run like the outnumbered, outclassed, surrounded dogs they are, and live to the next session (those last 5 words are key to a gritty game).  You as the DM may have unintentionally led them into it, but the PC's have dug themselves a grave in Stoink.  You can try to hand them a way out like a nice DM, or you can throw a nearly insurmountable challenge at them and see if they can deal with it (IMHO a more rewarding style of play so long as PC death isn't a way of life).Regardless of what your group decides to do, this situation will make them better players.  They'll remember what happened last time they made enemies they couldn't handle and didn't count on-which is the essence of a 'gritty' game.  Organizations are tremendously powerful enemies simpley because of the vast resources they have at their disposal-this is the only warning I'd give the PC's, then see where they take the game from there.As far as realistic and/or gritty solutions to the problem?  The PCs could arm their city.  Make it so their enemies would have to spend more money to kill them than to defend against them.  A 3rd party could intervene, offering the PCs protection of some sort in return for their services, or for an unnamed price to be collected at a later date.  The 3rd party may not be a 3rd party at all, but say, operatives of the slave guild luring the PCs into a false sense of security before they strike without warning.Let the PCs get utterly roasted by their enemies.  Destroy everything they worked to create.  Then raise them as undead servants in the thrall of Iuz's church.  It may take a couple sessions for them to find a way to release themselves or return to life, but when the game finally gets back on track, the players will have a newer, healthier respect for their opposition, and more importantly; a vendetta.</blockquote>

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