I run a game with two other friends, one plays a Lawful Good Paladin while another plays a Chaotic Neutral Wizard. These two budding adventurers (level 2) were on their main mission when a possible side-quest presented itself in the form of a map looted from bandits. The map pointed to a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, saying there was treasure there. They searched the nearby town for information and learned that there were rumors that a witch lived in a tower in the middle of a cornfield some 200 years ago. Children went missing during that time and the town back then hired adventurers to take care of business. The adventurers went and came back, saying the witch was dead. The rumor also states that the "Dread Fields" were dangerous and nobody that goes in comes back. They chose to check it out.
Long story short, the witch was not dead. She bound the souls of evil people to scarecrows, binding them to the field and channeled their life-force for her magical research as a form of eternal punishment for their deeds. The previous adventurers learned that the culprit of the child kidnappings had been an evil wanderer that was then caught by the witch and turned into a scarecrow. They figured it would be best to say she was dead so people would leave the cornfield alone as they thought she was doing good work.
Cue the new adventurer duo. They entered the field and had a fight with a scarecrow, killing it and freeing the imprisoned soul. Hurt but still on their feet, they were chased by other scarecrows into the tower, where they broke the lock to go in. Inside they triggered a trap that sent a swarm of crows after them. At the time, the witch was in the middle of a ritual and unaware of everything going on in the tower. They found her library and the wizard immediately stole as many books as she could. The paladin heard the witch's chanting in the upper floor, but fearing that she was evil and they were too hurt, she didn't want to go up there. They then found a map leading to a secret basement (killing a map mimic in the process) and went down there to search for the treasure, which they found. After fighting the shadows guarding the treasure, they were nearly dying so they opted to have a long rest.
During the long rest, the witch finished her ritual and found her home broken into. She found the duo in the basement (they tried to hide but the wizard rolled incredibly low). The witch was livid that they broke into her home, freed one of her trapped souls and tried to steal her stuff. She demanded that they return what had been stolen immediately. The wizard had a nasty attitude, feeling entitled and saying that they weren't at fault because they were attacked and only acted on self defense. When the witch pointed out the stolen goods, they said that they would return it and that it should all be alright. The witch decided to see if they were evil people worthy of replacing the soul she lost. She used magic to see their alignment (basically to see if they were evil enough). When the results came back that they weren't, she told them to apologize and compensate her. The wizard still said she thought she was in the right, stating that they thought the witch was dead and as a fellow magic user, she should understand the lust for knowledge one has. She was acting too arrogant and the witch blasted her, putting her to sleep. The paladin apologized, but she too was not sincere at all (the player sucks at being good, always has, but I love her anyway)...as in she still believed that what she did was alright. The witch, tired of their attitude, marked the paladin and said that if they do not bring an evil soul for her within a week (very doable in that area), that she will be getting one of their souls. The session ended with them leaving the tower (and plotting to go back and killing the witch it seems).
The players then told me afterward that they believed the side-quest was a waste of time, since they got nothing from it (aside from enough experience to level up) and that the witch was irrational, going overboard with the punishment since they did nothing wrong and returned the stolen goods. I personally believe that, if someone strode into my home, breaking locks, stealing my stuff, killing my guard dog and then acted like they were in the right, that I'd be pissed too.
However, I wish to know an outsider's opinion...did I make the witch go overboard or are they just mad because they got caught? Also...should I change their alignments after this?
Long story short, the witch was not dead. She bound the souls of evil people to scarecrows, binding them to the field and channeled their life-force for her magical research as a form of eternal punishment for their deeds. The previous adventurers learned that the culprit of the child kidnappings had been an evil wanderer that was then caught by the witch and turned into a scarecrow. They figured it would be best to say she was dead so people would leave the cornfield alone as they thought she was doing good work.
Cue the new adventurer duo. They entered the field and had a fight with a scarecrow, killing it and freeing the imprisoned soul. Hurt but still on their feet, they were chased by other scarecrows into the tower, where they broke the lock to go in. Inside they triggered a trap that sent a swarm of crows after them. At the time, the witch was in the middle of a ritual and unaware of everything going on in the tower. They found her library and the wizard immediately stole as many books as she could. The paladin heard the witch's chanting in the upper floor, but fearing that she was evil and they were too hurt, she didn't want to go up there. They then found a map leading to a secret basement (killing a map mimic in the process) and went down there to search for the treasure, which they found. After fighting the shadows guarding the treasure, they were nearly dying so they opted to have a long rest.
During the long rest, the witch finished her ritual and found her home broken into. She found the duo in the basement (they tried to hide but the wizard rolled incredibly low). The witch was livid that they broke into her home, freed one of her trapped souls and tried to steal her stuff. She demanded that they return what had been stolen immediately. The wizard had a nasty attitude, feeling entitled and saying that they weren't at fault because they were attacked and only acted on self defense. When the witch pointed out the stolen goods, they said that they would return it and that it should all be alright. The witch decided to see if they were evil people worthy of replacing the soul she lost. She used magic to see their alignment (basically to see if they were evil enough). When the results came back that they weren't, she told them to apologize and compensate her. The wizard still said she thought she was in the right, stating that they thought the witch was dead and as a fellow magic user, she should understand the lust for knowledge one has. She was acting too arrogant and the witch blasted her, putting her to sleep. The paladin apologized, but she too was not sincere at all (the player sucks at being good, always has, but I love her anyway)...as in she still believed that what she did was alright. The witch, tired of their attitude, marked the paladin and said that if they do not bring an evil soul for her within a week (very doable in that area), that she will be getting one of their souls. The session ended with them leaving the tower (and plotting to go back and killing the witch it seems).
The players then told me afterward that they believed the side-quest was a waste of time, since they got nothing from it (aside from enough experience to level up) and that the witch was irrational, going overboard with the punishment since they did nothing wrong and returned the stolen goods. I personally believe that, if someone strode into my home, breaking locks, stealing my stuff, killing my guard dog and then acted like they were in the right, that I'd be pissed too.
However, I wish to know an outsider's opinion...did I make the witch go overboard or are they just mad because they got caught? Also...should I change their alignments after this?
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