PCs vs. The Law -- my players stay out!!

[Conaill]

It is very plausible that a society with a decent level of access to raise dead might make heavy use of weregild.

An excellent point, and one that is often overlooked. We tend to immediately start discussing medieval justice systems, without considering how magic will upset the entire balance of society.

So how much is a human life worth, really? I'd say the minimum would be 5450 gp for a Raise Dead spell (including spellcasting cost for a 5th lvl spell). Of course, that will still leave the victim with the loss of one level or some CON. So for full restitution, you'd have to look at true Ressurection: 26530 gp. Add to that some other minor costs like compensation for business losses, pain and suffering, court expenses etc.

Also keep in mind that for anyone but the richest members of society, even Raise Dead is exorbitantly expensive. So if you kill a poor field laborer, his wife and children would be vastly better off getting the cash rather than having their husbandand father raised from the dead - and the laws of the land may very well reflect that! So, don't force the killers to actually get the victims resurrected, just have them fork over the cold hard cash. Those who are rich enough to afford their own Raise Dead or Resurrection can stipulate so in their will. Otherwise, it's up to the heirs to decide whether or not to bring back the deceased or to use the money for other purposes...

Some combinations of this are possible as well, of course. The penalty for killing a peasant may only be 1000 gp or a Raise Dead spell - which might come into play if the party is short on cash but has a scroll of Raise Dead. After all, the peasant's widow would probably still be better off with 1000 gp than with a live husband. And medieval-type laws may very well provide much less than full restitution for the victim, especially if the crime was commited by a person of higher class on one of lower class. After all, it's the higher class that makes the laws.

So where does that leave your party? For five minor dignitaries plus 4-5 guards, I think the party would be looking at around 100,000 gp at the minimum. And that's just for the restitution part, not including any actual punishment or deterrence!

Of course, in the end it's pretty much up to the BBEG to decide the party's fate at this point. He's holding all the cards now, and is in an excellent situation to be able to mold events towards his ends. If he's got even half a brain, he should be able to figure out a way to remove the party from action until it's too late for them to do anything. Having them rot away in prison for two weeks while the judges "prepare for trial" would be a good start.

As I see it, you essentially have three options for where to go from here:

1) BBEG wins, the even bigger BBEG is released and you pick up the threads after the apocalypse. The world is not really destroyed, because the EBBBEG realizes there's worse things than death and he enjoys seeing humanity suffer. How would you feel about playing a dark Midnight campaign?

2) The BBEG imposes some crippling penalty on the party but doesn't totally remove them from the picture. Considering how much power he holds over them right now and how tight the deadline is, it seems almost impossible the party would be able to stop his plan now. Trying to set up a situation where the party vanquishes the BBEG in this scenario may very well stretch the bounds of credibility.

3) The party manages to get away without the BBEG being able to impose any crippling penalties (with or without any outside help to allow them to escape). They would still have to deal with being outlaws and trying to fight the BBEG from hiding, but this shouldn't be quite as difficult as in the previous scenario (but much harder than where they were a week ago).


Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

[kigmatzomat]

So the situation is: BBEG must be stopped before he enacts the Lovecraft Protocol in 2 weeks. BBEG plans on faking his own death and doing his best to pin the deed on PCs' allies. PCs took the "burn the village to save the village" tactic, got caught in the conflagration and are waiting to find out how badly they got burned.

Hmmm. Well, there'd be a fast public trial, probably take no more than 1 day. Magic would be used to determine their motives but without proof they will appear to be paranoid and delusional. I'd probably have their gear sold off to pay for the restoration of the dead and as fines. Then a public execution, likely hanging or the axe.

A few nights later have them raised by the good priest, who also bought as much of their gear as he could afford. He provides some information about the weird stuff happening (side effects of the ritual's preparation), including the BBEG's death. The party now has to disguise themselves as best they can while trying to find out what is going on.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

So far, I'd say that the execution/resurrection of the PCs, or the weregild combined with service to the city are the best options. However, there might be a way for you to get a little more room to maneuver.

How much do the players know about what's going to happen? You probably have a timeline worked out for the ritual, and how the world will end, etc etc. But if that information hasn't made it to the PCs yet, then there's no reason you can't change your plans to work around these recent events. If all the PCs know is that the cult will lead a ritual soon to summon their master and/or bring about the end of the world, that's pretty vague.

The evil one could be summoned but take on a subtle, humanoid form, instead of striding forth to destroy the land in one fell swoop. The ritual could simply be the first step in the end of the world, rather than the final stroke. The cult could be looking for a slow erosion of life, morals, goodness, or even reality itself. In the Call of Cthulhu source material, at least, the King in Yellow was always much more interested in corruption, madness, and personal apocalypse than in mass destruction and murder. Those things could certainly occur as side-effects of what he does, but they're not the end goals.

So, I would say you also re-examine your plans for the campaign, and see how much leeway you've left yourself to change things. Nothing is actually set until the characters are informed that it happened. Even then, there's always a chance that their information was wrong, or that the cultists misunderstood the nature of the ritual, or something similar. Doing this, and then deciding how you want the campaign to proceed from here, should give you some idea of what your next step should be.

 

[atom crash]

I'm running a modified version of Green Ronin's Freeport setting. On the night of the next full moon (2 weeks to the day), the Sea Lord and his cronies will christen the newly finished lighthouse as dignitaries from around the world look on in awe. When the light is turned on, the Yellow Sign will be displayed across the night sky and onlookers will go mad. Once someone goes insane, they'll spread the insanity to everyone they contact. When the insanity hits critical mass (maybe a week or two tops; I'm taking a cue from Stephen King's The Stand and the film 12 Monkeys for how long it might take a highly infectious disease to spread across the world through a busy port city), He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will be drawn forth from an alien realm to walk the world again.

The PCs at this point have circumstantial evidence against the Sea Lord. He has a mark of the Yellow Sign on his thigh; he claims he was caught by pirates and branded as a young man. They don't have anything but a hunch, though, that pegs him as the head honcho of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign. Little do they know he's not even the head cultist; they haven't a clue who's really pulling the strings. The PCs have decided that the Sea Lord is the BBEG and all else be damned.

What troubles me most is that even if they could convince everyone that the Sea Lord is a genuinely evil person with really bad plans for everyone, they have indiscriminately killed several people (guards attempting to protect the Sea Lord and innocent bystanders as well) to get at the Sea Lord. So they pull a really stupid move at a gala society ball, no less, meant to celebrate how wonderful the lighthouse will be and to honor the PCs with medals for service to the city. I just don't see anyway of pulling this one out.

The Sea Lord is the most powerful person in the city. He's supposed to be untouchable. But the PCs just don't get that. And he doesn't have to prove that he's innocent. He's protected by the law. His law. And it's no secret among the city's people that he's a crooked player when it comes to politics. But that doesn't mean he deserves to die.

It seems there's only one recourse. The captain of the guard is a fighter/paladin who doesn't know his boss is crooked. But even if they can convince him that the Sea Lord is a bad dude, he won't be very forgiving of the murder of several of his guards and several more innocent bystanders.

If the PCs die, no one is going to resurrect them. Campaign over. I'll take blank character sheets with me to the session so they can roll up some new characters.

Few people would have the resources for resurrection. And after they've shown they have no respect for the law -- or the city's elite -- the few people who would have supported them won't touch them with a 10-foot pole now. If they are sprung from captivity before being executed, they could possibly stop the plot, but they still wouldn't be welcome in town. And I'm afraid they'll try to fight their way out, killing more people who are just doing their jobs and not really part of any secret evil plot.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

I'm running a modified version of Green Ronin's Freeport setting.

Ohhhh, You're running the Death in Freeport Modules? With Sea Lord Drac & The Valusians?

Well, are your players incapable of subltety, or are there characters? If you've got hack this, slash that, take the loot players. The Freeport series ain't really going to work real well.

You can:

1. Alt-Ctrl-Del and start over from scratch with a different sort of game.

2. Find a copy of Death Row the RPG.

3. Curl into the fetal posistion crying 'Why won't the ever not try to kill EVERYTHING'.

4. Make them suffer through a world gone mad.

I think this may be a conflict with the module's style & your players style. Which could mean one of them has to change.

 

[Numion]

Just a reminder: Raise Dead and Resurrection aren't automatic. The Resurrectee gets to choose if he wants to come back. Whose to say that a common city guard doesn't find afterlife much better place than his earthly life? Or maybe his soul is already hijacked by demons and he cant come back.

Maybe the dead guards souls can be contacted and asked if they want to come back, or if they want the resurrection money for their families, but for the people in real world the effect is the same though - he stays dead, killed by the adventurers. Thus, resurrection should not be an automatic get out of jail for murderers. Another point is that it would allow people to murder away, and then only resurrect those they get caught on, not really deterring crime.

The complexities of resurrection also mean that death should not be the ultimate penalty for the resourceful adventurers. They could have themselves resurrected in case of execution. (If they took precautions to that effect, which the judges and lawgivers wont know for sure.) Its much safer to lock them away until the end of their natural lives.

 

[atom crash]

I don't think it's the players, really. They are capable of subtlety. They've been doing a good job of trying to make allies, gather information, getting more and more paranoid all the way. They think everyone is out to get them. Hmmm, maybe they're just playing their characters as if they are slowly going insane (like in our Delta Green campaign). They've just managed to screw everything up with one disastrous choice.

The entire fight was precipitated by one character's actions. "I draw my weapon and attack the Sea Lord." Everyone else reacted off that. They just didn't think through the consequences. I think they assumed that if they could take out the Sea Lord, everything would be ok. One player even said, "Now we'll see who our enemies are." They figured anyone who attacked them would be part of the plot, without considering that of course the guards would do what they're paid to do and protect the Sea Lord, and that other people might jump into the fray for whatever reason while the real bad guys sit back and enjoy the chaos.

1. Alt-Ctrl-Del and start over from scratch with a different sort of game.

I'm considering it. I just don't like a hack-and-slash game.

2. Find a copy of Death Row the RPG.

3. Curl into the fetal posistion crying 'Why won't they ever not try to kill EVERYTHING'.

It might not help, but it may make me feel better for a few minutes.

4. Make them suffer through a world gone mad.

They wouldn't suffer. They'd fit right in.

Like most other DMs. I find myself running to catch up to the players most of the time, as they've gone in an unexpected direction. But they seem to think they are capable of handling anything I throw at them. And they're lucky enough to survive most of the time. The real culprit here is the assumption that I wouldn't pit them against something they couldn't possibly overcome (I would).

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Like most other DMs. I find myself running to catch up to the players most of the time, as they've gone in an unexpected direction. But they seem to think they are capable of handling anything I throw at them. And they're lucky enough to survive most of the time. The real culprit here is the assumption that I wouldn't pit them against something they couldn't possibly overcome (I would).

I've said it twice and I'll say it one more time: let the bad guys win. You want them to realize you would pit them against something they cannot handle? Then do it. If you are determined to find an "out" for the party, then you will only reinforce their belief they can do whatever they want and still succeed.

If you want to give them another chance, you can slow down the spread of this insanity plague and let the players have to try and deal with clean-up first, and then taking care of the BBEG. A tragic feel as the party has to hunt down insane innocents in order to stop the maddness (literally). Of course to do this there has to be some resistance to this plague. If it is a guarantee that each person contacted goes insane, then it is endgame as soon as that light shines.

Also, you didn't directly answer Byrons_Ghost's question about how much the players know. Is there any reason the ritual has to happen in two weeks, other than you decided it would? Why not in six weeks at the following full moon? You are the DM, you can change things however you need them to be changed. Say, the PCs attack on the Sea Lord disrupted a small part of his plan and now he need extra time to recover, whatever You can rationalize about any excuse if you really want to keep this campaign alive. If you are determined to keep to your script, then let the PCs witness the end of the world and make them understand that for different choices, they might have averted it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

*chants*
TPK
TPK
TPK
TPK

 

[jasper]

tpk
tpk
tpk
tpk
tpk
then loot the bodies.