Hope w/ consequence

[Awakened]

I need a way to fairly resolve this conflict!
In my latest adventure, I ran a very long game where the party was duped by the mage (one of the party members) into making an attack on a dwarven mine full of innocents. Long story short, the group was pushed back in retreat to the forest, where their campfire was later miraculously spotted by the Dwarven patrol. They were defeated in combat, the mage was killed and the Paladin and the Ranger were imprisoned.
The dictator-dwarf of the town was bluffed into confusion by the Ranger and was left quite paranoid, and offered to allow the group to go free if they exposed the thieves guild they were working with (that the party actually had no alignment with). The paladin would not slander innocent names, but the Ranger did, and he was let go. The Ranger then talked a couple discontented grave diggers into letting him finish the mage's burial, and when no one was looking, he retrieved the body and hid it in the forest. All the while the dictator figured the paladin had more valuable information, so he brought the paladin to a private building to be tortured. The Ranger followed the manacled paladin and the torturers to the building, and struck at an opportune time. The paladin broke free and the two adventurers escaped the town. Now, the mage (9th level/1st level warmage) has been reincarnated as a half-orc. Yet when the party was apprehended, they had their goods confiscated and placed in a 'confiscation chest'. The paladin's horse was stabled with the intent to be sold, and basically the party lost nearly every important item. To make for his deception, the mage wishes to teleport back to the Dwarven town and single handedly retrieve the equipment. The guard force of the town was nearly decimated, and now only consists of 8 seasoned miners, the 10th lv Dwarven Cleric dictator, and a half-troll wyvern. The guard is still on look out for the escaped party, and I need a way to make it difficult for the mage to get everything back as it once was. They lost the battle and their should be repurcusions, I believe. I'm not sure how I should do this, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas. Thanks!

 

[Awakened]

Oh, and the confiscation chest is beneath the guard barracks where the jail cells are located. The town has some magical links but not much gold, so there probably are magical wards on the chest, just not powerful ones.

 

[DragonOfIntellect]

It sounds like the party has already suffered enough, and the Paladin should be very displeased with the Mage. Not to mention he will have to atone to regain his abilities, as the rules for Paladins state that even when Paladins are duped into doing Evil actions, they still lose their powers. This is part of the reason Paladins have the "associate only with worthy people" clause in their code.

If the Mage can pull it off without dying, he deserves to get the items back. Just run the defenses you have set up without bias. Don't hold back, but don't go out of your way to punish them, either, as that will lead to disgruntled players and a bad gaming experience.

 

[Mac Callum]

I think the best consequence should be to remove the Paladin's powers and let him know it's the Mage's fault. The Paladin & Ranger can then atone to the Dwarves (somehow) to get their stuff back.

How did the mage not lose his spellbook?

 

[Awakened]

oops

 

[Awakened]

Thanks for the feedback- the town (Otriug) is a mining settlement with only one sorcerer and a couple adepts, and is fairly isolationist. The cleric of the town buried the mage with his possessions (due to the fact that he hates the dictator and wanted to honor the potential usurper) besides items of violence, and an old, worn book seemed harmless to the cleric, I reasoned.
The perplexing piece of this story is that I am sure the party will just say "Uhh, I'm never going back to that town again. Problem solved," while major crimes have been committed. I think I'll slowly take away the Paladin's powers, and charge him no experience penalty for the atonement spell, as the spell description warrants xp loss only if the subject has carried out "deliberate misdeeds and acts of a knowing and willful nature".
The best solution may be to communicate to the paladin and ranger that they have destroyed the lives of innocents, and that they should try to act accordingly. I feel no inclination to punish them for their escape, however,as the dictator is a horrible man. I think I'll have the paladin lose his ability to smite and detect evil until he has properly atoned.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

If a good character is tricked into killing innocents, the blame lies with the person who did the tricking, not the good character. Certainly, a truly good individual will feel great remorse at his part in the act, but I can't imagine a paladin's god removing his powers because he failed to see through the subterfuge of an evil mage.

I can't help thinking that the death of the party mage, and the incarceration of the rest of the party, isn't "consequences" enough, without making certain they can't get their equipment back.

Me, I'd leave the equipment placed where it would logically be, given the town as I'd already established it, and let the mage do what he will. If he's successful in recovering the equipment, good for him. The party was lucky this happened in a community without more powerful resources.

 

[Awakened]

Good point. I've already taken away the paladin's powers once in the campaign, and taking them away again due to the mage's deception would result in probable interparty conflict. Now that I've had a few days to think about it, maybe I'll just forcefully point out to the party that they've just slain mostly-innocent mine workers that had families to support. THEN, if the paladin refuses to talk the party into doing something about their grave accidental misdeed, well then would be the time to take away the paladin's powers.
I have a good group so I'm confident they'll try to save their names, and even the mage is just roleplaying his part (in my campaign if true ressurrection is cast on a character, they're soul belongs to the deity of the ressurrectionist. The party happened to get a very bad cleric to raise the mage, and that cleric makes him dark offers of power and evil at times in exchange for deeds. This time the mage dragged the party into his debased affairs and exposed himself). I just hope that the fear of re-entering that dangerous town won't outweight their morals.