Greenfield
Adventurer
Have you ever had on of those adventures where the players spot every clue, ask pretty much all the right questions, use all the right skills, and dig up every piece of your evil plot?
It's actually a pretty good feeling, isn't it?
What happens when they look at all the pieces of the plot, laugh at the strange coincidences, and have their characters go to bed?
PCs are in a time pressure race to meet someone on the slopes of Mt. Olympus. The opposition has tried to delay them. They'd kill them if they could, but PCs have a nasty habit of surviving things and situations that they shouldn't, so this time they'd be happy if they could delay them.
Last week the party took rooms in a reasonably nice inn, well above the usual dives they normally go for.
The opposition tossed a fireball into the front room, hurting and killing people, and incidentally setting the building on fire.
The PCs moved out, encountered a dozen rogue types trying to get accepted into the Assassin PRC (you have to do at least one assassination, simply for the money. PRC prerequisite.) The Druid threw Quench while the rest moved out and cleared the alleys and streets in record time.
The actual Assassins (a group of Halflings known as the Red Masque) had set a secondary ambush, to take anyone who ran out the back. Nobody did.
Some PCs stayed inside and did healing on the NPCs who were caught in the blast, and the party came out looking pretty good.
This week they filled out reports with the Captain of the Guard, and *finally* shared some important information with the authorities (info they've had for months.) This is knowledge they gained straight from the gods, in a world where the gods aren't answering prayers for knowledge or guidance, and are pretty much absent. The info they shared is pretty world shaking to Empire, and explains to them what's actually going on.
Then they hurried on their way. It was clear that at least one of the gods was fudging the rules of The Great Game: Poseidon/Neptune was facing off against his opposite number from the opposing side, to keep the seas too stormy for an enemy fleet to land troops, yet he managed to maintain a small area of smooth sailing for the PCs ship. (I'll explain later, if anyone cares).
So they land safely in Greece and come ashore in a small port close to Mt. Olympus. It's about mid-day, but they find that they're expected. Someone, they don't know who, left a message with the port master that their accommodations had been made in advance at a place called the Red Dancer.
They decide to spend the night, though the Druid/Ranger decides to take his animal companion out hunting (a week on a small ship is a strain for a Tiger). Pcs spot that the inn, whild superficially glitzy, is actually actually pretty tacky, but in a well funded way.
They note that the doors and shutters are unusually heavy for such an inn, with complex puzzle locks. After not very long someone realizes that this place is an up scale thieves hangout.
The party's main Rogue and his fighter buddy exchange sign with some of the locals, they compare a few tattoos, and they're treated like old friends.
The figher buddy notices the odd coincidence: The group that tried to kill them in the other city was a Thief/Assassin group called the Red Masque, and here they were in a thieves den called the Red Dancer.
They finally got around to asking who had paid for their rooms, and were surprised to discover that it was done in cash, no names, by an "elf" boy who was no taller than a Halfling. He'd left a list of people in the party, several of which weren't present, or had did, and that didn't include all of the current members. They had to push for the information about just how young/tall a boy that runner was, so I could tell they were getting suspicious, putting pieces together.
When closing time came the party Rogue watched the innkeeper work the puzzle-locks, and commented that if there were a fire in here, you'd have a hard time getting out. Then he joked about selling the innkeeper fire insurance.
("Wait, what now? You're betting that I won't have a fire, and I'm betting that I will? What sort o' nonsense is this?")
So after tying together all the pieces, that their enemies had wanted them to stay at this particular inn, that the place was fortified not against monster but to delay the police in case of a raid, and after they found the secret escape hatches in a couple of rooms, and after commenting on how hard it would be to get out in case of a fire, they laughed and went to bed. Nobody on watch.
I wanted to laugh and scream all at the same time. They'd done everything right, and decided to leave off adding 2 + 2 until morning.
Then, sometime after midnight, somebody dropped a few flasks of Alchemical Fire down the chimney, splashing liquid fire all across the wooden floor.
The Barbarian/Wizard's familiar woke him up. He smelled smoke, checked and found that the door to his room was hot to the touch. He also found that the shutters to his room had been quietly secured from the outside.
He opened the shutters with a lightning bolt, and that woke up a lot of other people.
The party Rogue and his fighter buddy smashed their way out of their window, and the Rogue slipped out under invisibility. The fighter and the Barb/Wiz both did the hero thing, waking people up and getting them out.
The Barb/Wizard wanted to Alter Self to a winged form to work his way around the building from the outside, but the alley by his window didn't have room for him to spread his wings so he went with Levitate instead.
The Half-Dragon fighter just walked the halls, counting an a 5 point fire resistance to protect him from the worst of it.
I had them roll Initiative against the fire, as a way of determining how quickly they could get to people. (It was as good a way as any.) The fighter rolled well, the Barb/Wiz didn't. Besides, he was moving slowly, dragging himself around the outside of the building and breaking shutters open.
Finally they got the place pretty well cleared when they both realized something: All their gear was still in their rooms, which were on fire.
Fighter got back and grabbed his pack, but finally succumbed to the smoke on the way out.
Barb/Wiz heard the big guy collapse, or more specifically heard him crashing around and coughing and yelling at people, then suddenly *not* coughing and yelling, so he went to his rescue.
Suffocation rules caught the guy by surprise, even though I'd had him making Fort checks for a while. He was laughing at the odd point of fire that got through his resistance and ignored what I was telling him about smoke, and it being very hard to breathe.
I almost killed a PC with this one, which surprised me.
The Barb/Wiz almost lost his Handy Haversack, and it needs some repairs. It has two hit points left.
We all laughed about it afterward, that they'd realized it was a setup, that their enemies had planned it, that it was very similar to the trap they'd used in Rome, just executed with more planning and better patience, and that they'd actually joked about someone trying to burn the place down. And then ignored all the clues and went to bed.
Crazy good fun though.
It's actually a pretty good feeling, isn't it?
What happens when they look at all the pieces of the plot, laugh at the strange coincidences, and have their characters go to bed?
PCs are in a time pressure race to meet someone on the slopes of Mt. Olympus. The opposition has tried to delay them. They'd kill them if they could, but PCs have a nasty habit of surviving things and situations that they shouldn't, so this time they'd be happy if they could delay them.
Last week the party took rooms in a reasonably nice inn, well above the usual dives they normally go for.
The opposition tossed a fireball into the front room, hurting and killing people, and incidentally setting the building on fire.
The PCs moved out, encountered a dozen rogue types trying to get accepted into the Assassin PRC (you have to do at least one assassination, simply for the money. PRC prerequisite.) The Druid threw Quench while the rest moved out and cleared the alleys and streets in record time.
The actual Assassins (a group of Halflings known as the Red Masque) had set a secondary ambush, to take anyone who ran out the back. Nobody did.
Some PCs stayed inside and did healing on the NPCs who were caught in the blast, and the party came out looking pretty good.
This week they filled out reports with the Captain of the Guard, and *finally* shared some important information with the authorities (info they've had for months.) This is knowledge they gained straight from the gods, in a world where the gods aren't answering prayers for knowledge or guidance, and are pretty much absent. The info they shared is pretty world shaking to Empire, and explains to them what's actually going on.
Then they hurried on their way. It was clear that at least one of the gods was fudging the rules of The Great Game: Poseidon/Neptune was facing off against his opposite number from the opposing side, to keep the seas too stormy for an enemy fleet to land troops, yet he managed to maintain a small area of smooth sailing for the PCs ship. (I'll explain later, if anyone cares).
So they land safely in Greece and come ashore in a small port close to Mt. Olympus. It's about mid-day, but they find that they're expected. Someone, they don't know who, left a message with the port master that their accommodations had been made in advance at a place called the Red Dancer.
They decide to spend the night, though the Druid/Ranger decides to take his animal companion out hunting (a week on a small ship is a strain for a Tiger). Pcs spot that the inn, whild superficially glitzy, is actually actually pretty tacky, but in a well funded way.
They note that the doors and shutters are unusually heavy for such an inn, with complex puzzle locks. After not very long someone realizes that this place is an up scale thieves hangout.
The party's main Rogue and his fighter buddy exchange sign with some of the locals, they compare a few tattoos, and they're treated like old friends.
The figher buddy notices the odd coincidence: The group that tried to kill them in the other city was a Thief/Assassin group called the Red Masque, and here they were in a thieves den called the Red Dancer.
They finally got around to asking who had paid for their rooms, and were surprised to discover that it was done in cash, no names, by an "elf" boy who was no taller than a Halfling. He'd left a list of people in the party, several of which weren't present, or had did, and that didn't include all of the current members. They had to push for the information about just how young/tall a boy that runner was, so I could tell they were getting suspicious, putting pieces together.
When closing time came the party Rogue watched the innkeeper work the puzzle-locks, and commented that if there were a fire in here, you'd have a hard time getting out. Then he joked about selling the innkeeper fire insurance.
("Wait, what now? You're betting that I won't have a fire, and I'm betting that I will? What sort o' nonsense is this?")
So after tying together all the pieces, that their enemies had wanted them to stay at this particular inn, that the place was fortified not against monster but to delay the police in case of a raid, and after they found the secret escape hatches in a couple of rooms, and after commenting on how hard it would be to get out in case of a fire, they laughed and went to bed. Nobody on watch.
I wanted to laugh and scream all at the same time. They'd done everything right, and decided to leave off adding 2 + 2 until morning.
Then, sometime after midnight, somebody dropped a few flasks of Alchemical Fire down the chimney, splashing liquid fire all across the wooden floor.
The Barbarian/Wizard's familiar woke him up. He smelled smoke, checked and found that the door to his room was hot to the touch. He also found that the shutters to his room had been quietly secured from the outside.
He opened the shutters with a lightning bolt, and that woke up a lot of other people.
The party Rogue and his fighter buddy smashed their way out of their window, and the Rogue slipped out under invisibility. The fighter and the Barb/Wiz both did the hero thing, waking people up and getting them out.
The Barb/Wizard wanted to Alter Self to a winged form to work his way around the building from the outside, but the alley by his window didn't have room for him to spread his wings so he went with Levitate instead.
The Half-Dragon fighter just walked the halls, counting an a 5 point fire resistance to protect him from the worst of it.
I had them roll Initiative against the fire, as a way of determining how quickly they could get to people. (It was as good a way as any.) The fighter rolled well, the Barb/Wiz didn't. Besides, he was moving slowly, dragging himself around the outside of the building and breaking shutters open.
Finally they got the place pretty well cleared when they both realized something: All their gear was still in their rooms, which were on fire.
Fighter got back and grabbed his pack, but finally succumbed to the smoke on the way out.
Barb/Wiz heard the big guy collapse, or more specifically heard him crashing around and coughing and yelling at people, then suddenly *not* coughing and yelling, so he went to his rescue.
Suffocation rules caught the guy by surprise, even though I'd had him making Fort checks for a while. He was laughing at the odd point of fire that got through his resistance and ignored what I was telling him about smoke, and it being very hard to breathe.
I almost killed a PC with this one, which surprised me.
The Barb/Wiz almost lost his Handy Haversack, and it needs some repairs. It has two hit points left.
We all laughed about it afterward, that they'd realized it was a setup, that their enemies had planned it, that it was very similar to the trap they'd used in Rome, just executed with more planning and better patience, and that they'd actually joked about someone trying to burn the place down. And then ignored all the clues and went to bed.
Crazy good fun though.
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