OMG! The PCs are murderers! Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

[Bullgrit]

This just came to me out of the blue: The "bad guys" in the module The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh may not be bad guys.

My old modules are packed away, so I can't check this out, but maybe someone here remembers or can look it up. The plot for SSS is that the PCs hear about a haunted house and decide to go investigate. In the house they discover some smugglers. The PCs defeat the smugglers and discover an incoming ship of smugglers. The PCs board the ship and defeat the smugglers there.

Now, since in D&D, "defeating" the enemies usually means killing them in battle, the PCs in this adventure kill a bunch of folks whose only apparent crime is smuggling weapons to a lizardman tribe (whom it turns out, in the next adventure, are not bad guys). There's no evidence, that I can remember, of the smugglers having done anything evil.

Am I forgetting some of the plot? I think one or two of the smuggler leaders might be evil (I'm pretty sure the illusionist is), but are the regular smugglers? And other than two gnolls, are there any evil humanoids in the operation?

Bullgrit

 

[DaveyJones]

the house is potential an inheritance for one of the PCs.

also the smugglers have taken a sea elf prisoner.

the alignment of most of the smugglers is evil.

 

[Crothian]

The illusionist is CE, the smugglers are CN. The gnolls are non magically hypnotised and I'm not seeing an alignment for them. The assassin is NE.

The guys on the fishing boat are both good.

Captain, Mate, and Bosun of the Sea Ghost are all evil. unnamed smugglers are all CN as above. Magic user is NE, Lizard men are not given an alignment that I see.

 

[Bullgrit]

The illusionist is CE, the smugglers are CN. The gnolls are non magically hypnotised and I'm not seeing an alignment for them. The assassin is NE.

The guys on the fishing boat are both good.

Captain, Mate, and Bosun of the Sea Ghost are all evil. unnamed smugglers are all CN as above. Magic user is NE, Lizard men are not given an alignment that I see.

OK, that's satisfactory. The bad guys are evil, even if the PCs don't know it and just assume it (even if they see no evidence before attacking).

Convenient.

Bullgrit

 

[frankthedm]

Now, since in D&D, "defeating" the enemies usually means killing them in battle, the PCs in this adventure kill a bunch of folks whose only apparent crime is smuggling weapons to a lizardman tribe (whom it turns out, in the next adventure, are not bad guys). There's no evidence, that I can remember, of the smugglers having done anything evil.

Supplying weapons to man eaters makes them enemies of humanity.

 

[Crothian]

other than? Willing association with gnolls is enough.

Technically, they enslaved the gnolls which I guess would also make them evil.

 

[frankthedm]

Technically, they enslaved the gnolls which I guess would also make them evil.

I edited that part of my post out after I saw your description of the situation since that changed things a bit.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The PCs are murderers? Ah. Erm. Well. Yes, yes they are in almost every campaign I've played, run or heard about. Frankly I think the game world should consider itself lucky if they're not genocidal maniacs. In fact in the Saltmarsh series don't they end up going on to wipe out a local Sahuagin tribe? Yeah OK, I know the Sahuagin deserve it, what with being cannibals and genocidal maniacs themselves but it's still ethnic cleansing.

Just trying to put it into context is all.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Asmor]

I'm not familiar with the module in question, but it sounds like they had loot and thus are fair game to be killed. Really, the PCs were doing them a favor; if not for the PCs, they'd probably be killed by bandits who wouldn't do as professional a job and lead to undue suffering.