My players are going to hate me...

[Lonely Tylenol]

Now, I've never played with KM, but I've read his posts for a few years here, and I can tell you he just isn't that kind of guy. Maybe I should have brought that up earlier. You get a kind of feel for people's style on ENWorld over a time, and KM just doesn't strike me as the railroady and vengeful DM that you're seeing.

Look at the banana. Is that not the friendliest banana you have ever seen? Watch it dance. Dance, banana, DANCE!

 

[lukelightning]

As far as I know it is impossible to do sneak attacks through a window; it either provides cover or concealment or both.

Maybe I'd allow it with a high-powered modern rifle, but not with a D&D fantasy gun.

 

[iwatt]

As far as I know it is impossible to do sneak attacks through a window; it either provides cover or concealment or both.

Apparently it's possible in KMs world. Which is the only thing relevant for this discussion.

Now, after the exposition on medeival windows (cool stuff by the way) I'd agree with you . But when I say window to my players, they think late 20th century. So unless I go to the trouble of explaining how the window actually is two inches thick, and not very clear, they will probably suppose that you can snipe through a glass window.*


*This is specifically reinfored by all the movies were assasins pull of mile long shots, through cross winds, through glass, etc.. Ah, and they all are perfect headshots. I'm no sniper, but from what I understand, almost all Hollywood "death attacks" are well nigh impossible. But hollywood reinforces this, which makes it "expected" for most players.

 

[StupidSmurf]

I'd quibble about this. The party may be the lightning rod but it is the Cyrcists to blame for most things. The party upset the Cyricists, which probably means they did good deeds. They killed an assasin, which is probably another good thing. They protected the town from a ghost and, incidentally, from a band of cyricists. I'll point out the players may think that the ghost is responsible for the burning of the town if they don't investigate enough to realize it was people. Even then, it could have been roving bandits under the influence of the ghost.

if the party is smart they will contact the Lathanderites and the Harpers (or whoever is in charge in the Marches). Someone (not the party) defiled a temple of Lathander. Someone (not the party) animated a graveyard full of dead. Someone (not the party) turned an elder Paladin into an undead. Someone (not the party) burned a village to the ground. Oh, and there's a ghost, to boot!

This should be enough to get some serious firepower on the party's side. The fact that no one was hurt and only property was lost should keep them in the town's general good graces.

James
You are absolutely correct. The town won't hold it against them. It's just that my players not only have big consciences, they like solving problems in such a way that it causes the minimal amount of grief to anyone around them (a lot of them are Chaotic Good).

I probably should have done a better job of implying that this is a case of the players beating themselves up (right on the heels of them thinking they're so clever...bwahaha), rather than the NPCs calling the PCs on the carpet. I know them well enough that they'll view the destruction of the town as a failing on their part.

My campaign is truly open-ended enough that if they wish to go to Waterdeep and notify the church of Lathander there, or go to Silverymoon and contact Lady Alustriel, they certainly can do that. Thus far, the idea hasn't even come up; they're a real DIY group!

Interestingly, one of the town's NPCs, a halfling named Tessie Dropkicker, has a cousin who's a Harper Scout. So there's the Harper contact, but the party is as of yet unaware of the connection. And even the townsfolk of Fellwood, secure in the Keep, have no idea that their town's now a heap of rubble. The ghost's window of opprtunity is a tenday period, and there's six days to go.