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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8157839" data-attributes="member: 20564">Last session was a lot of fun, and a reminder a long veteran player can be surprised by new players.  (In a good way.)  Though it ended up rather short.So, session opened up with the party getting "invited" to pay tax/tithe to  pirate captain in the middle of a public bazaar after a day of shopping and selling off loot.   A bit of set-up:  as  DM, I throw more plots at the players than they have time for, and what they choose to focus on and what they don't shapes the world as time passes.  They are low level, in a little podunk town that's only remarkable aspect is that it's the northern-most port on the west coast of the continent, as winter is hitting.  A pirate ship has been using it as a wintering base for the past few years, with the pirates being relatively law-abiding towards the townfolk due to the presence of a strong and unbending dwarven sheriff and her two deputies.  Well, one of the hooks they didn't go after had the sheriff looking for help apprehending an escaped bandit leader who they were worried would bring her band to the town for a bit of revenge (and looting).  The party ended up going on other quests instead, and the sheriff has now been missing for over two weeks after leaving to apprehend her.  Well, one of the repercussions of that is that as the only organized armed force in the town, the captain decided it was "their town" now.  Mostly letting the local be, but taking cuts from the businesses that dealt with real coin and such.  As well as lots of drinks.And then the party walks back into town with three brass dragon wyrmlings and starts trading gems and jewelry for coin, armor and other supplies.Which the pirate captain wanted a slice of.  Especially she wanted a wyrmling.  Because, how cool is that?  Be the envy of other pirate captains.So she came after in force, "asking" for "taxes".  In front of a whole bunch of the town.  And the party did as you'd expect a party would - parlayed for a bit and then there was initiative.The party actually has gotten pretty scary, in the actually scare you meaning as opposed to being tough.  The wild magic sorcerer accepted a pact and now throws out tentacles and such.  The drow-ish* rogue critted on intimidation during the parlay.  The dragonborn barbarian is rather rage-filled.  And the Eladrin Bard rounds things out with Dissonant Whispers and the like.Well, during the combat they managed to scare off every normal (read: fodder) pirate, and the crowd of townsfolk.  Trouncing the opposition played a part, and the pirates weren't looking for a battle to the death, just some easy shakedown. The pirate ship's mage was ready to bolt and the first mate called "Do you want to have to tell Her sisters that you ran and left her?", talking about the captain.In the end, when the first mate ran away due to dissonant whispters, the ship's mage broke, and the captain had been reduced to single digit HPs (which they could get from the descriptions of how hurt she was).  And she just gracefully conceded to the party and started to walk away.And they let her.So in the end, not a single pirate was actually killed, even the instigator.  No treasure was found (which is okay, I'll make that up other ways - I make sure when I run you don't need to murderhobo to get rewards).  And if they leave, which they intend to, the pirates could take over the town again.  At the least they have a gentleman enemy in the pirate captain.And it's so fun - usually she'd be dead if she tried that "to save the town".  But that isn't the default for the new players.  They've asserted dominance over her, and while I could have it come back and bite them, I can also end up being a blessing for going the deathless route.Looking forward to next session.</blockquote>

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