Players Do The Darndest Things

[Olaf the Stout]

I had the weirdest thing happen in my game last night. So far in a campaign that has been running for over a year and a half the party has been rude, arrogant and threatening to a lot of NPC's, some of them bad but most of them good.

Last night the party was attacked while they were asleep in their beds at an inn by 5 female assassins. The assassins had been hired to kill the party by both the local Thieves Guild and Merchant Guild. One PC only survived due to a very liberal use of action points to keep him at death's door (he was at -15 but used AP's to emulate a feat that gave him enough HP's to take him above -10 until the Cleric could heal him) and the a couple of other characters got into single digits. The party managed to take all 5 of the assassins into the negatives, then tied them up, healed them and questioned them. The assassins told the party who had hired them, where they were meant to meet them for payment, etc.,

After finding out all this information, the party decides to get the assassins to meet up with the Thieves Guild to collect payment for completing their job, splitting the money 50/50 with them. In addition the assassins are allowed to keep all their weapons, equipment and gold. In order to "prove" to the Thieves Guild that the assassins had killed the PC's, the party also gave them their main weapons to take, which included 3 Weapons of Legacy!

I was shocked (and so were the assassins!). The party is rude to most NPC's that are generally trying to help them (although not always exactly as the party would like). Yet when the party is attacked in the middle of the night by assassins hired to kill them they are not only nice to them, they let them keep all their weapons and equipment, help them get more money and trust them with their most valued pieces of equipment!

So what unexpected things have your PC's done that have thrown you for a loop?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Yalius]

Last night the party was attacked while they were asleep in their beds at an inn by 5 female assassins.
Olaf the Stout

There's your reason. Your players were thinking Elektra or Lady Deathstrike or Jinx from Die Another Day. Hot female assassins FTW.

 

[Creamsteak]

Did nobody in the group argue about this? Crazytalk!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Did nobody in the group argue about this? Crazytalk!

Out of the 4 players (one player missed the session but his character was there) only 1 player thought that it was unwise to give the assassins their weapons back. He thought that the should at least keep their gear in exchange for the attempt on their lives.

Another odd thing, the PC that almost died developed a crush on the assassin that pretty much gutted him as he admired her skill.

Another PC managed to disarm both of his attacker's weapons, taking only 2 points of damage in the process. This PC is normally the angry one in the group. Since he had been barely scratched by his attacker he held no animosity towards her, after all it was just a job. He asked her if she would like to meet him for dinner once this was all over.

The players of these 2 PC's are both over 30 and relatively mature. One is married and another is in a long-term relationship so there was none of the "roll to see if I do her" crap that you might expect from a less mature game. As a DM I was definitely surprised by what happened, especially taking into consideration what the PC's have been like in the rest of the campaign.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

There's your reason. Your players were thinking Elektra or Lady Deathstrike or Jinx from Die Another Day. Hot female assassins FTW.

Maybe, but still, these girls didn't try and smooth talk the PC's. I imagine if they did they wouldn't have gotten out of it as well as they did. For the most part they simply went along with whatever the PC's wanted. It was an entirely voluntary decision by the party to give them back all their weapons and eqiupment. The assassins never mentioned it (nor did they expect to get them back). They were just as surprised as I was, to the point of wondering if the party was pulling one over them somehow.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Yalius]

Maybe, but still, these girls didn't try and smooth talk the PC's. I imagine if they did they wouldn't have gotten out of it as well as they did. For the most part they simply went along with whatever the PC's wanted. It was an entirely voluntary decision by the party to give them back all their weapons and eqiupment. The assassins never mentioned it (nor did they expect to get them back). They were just as surprised as I was, to the point of wondering if the party was pulling one over them somehow.

Olaf the Stout

I'd be a LOT more surprised if they had shown the same mercy and gallantry to male assassins; it's kind of a staple of modern fiction that the female assassin is never really all that evil, and can be, um, persuaded to be more friendly. The fact that one PC developed a crush on his would-be eviscerater and the other asked out the one he disarmed, well, I can't say I'm really surprised.

Now, you know you have to have the assassins stick it to the PCs; I mean, it's a given that you're going to have them abscond with the trophies and leave the PCs in the lurch, right?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'd be a LOT more surprised if they had shown the same mercy and gallantry to male assassins; it's kind of a staple of modern fiction that the female assassin is never really all that evil, and can be, um, persuaded to be more friendly. The fact that one PC developed a crush on his would-be eviscerater and the other asked out the one he disarmed, well, I can't say I'm really surprised.

Now, you know you have to have the assassins stick it to the PCs; I mean, it's a given that you're going to have them abscond with the trophies and leave the PCs in the lurch, right?

No they won't be. The assassins treat their work as just a job. They're smart enough to know when they've met their match. They attacked the PC's when they were unarmoured and unprepared and still lost. Despite that they still ended up alive, with all their eqiupment and made some money out of it. That's good enough for them. They'll just find an easier prey for their next assignment.

Besides, so far in the campaign the PC's have been double-crossed so many times that I think I'd stop the players (no matter what PC's they played) from trusting anyone in the gameworld ever again!

Olaf the Stout