Players gone wild in Hommlet - RTTOEE

[Zouken]

Hey borders, I'm looking for some advice on how to handle a certain situation in RTTOEE. Possible spoilers below
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The party consists of a psycopathic elven barbarian, halfling rogue, human cleric of boccob, and human fighter. They have pretty much cleared out the majority of the Moathouse suffering 1 character death in the process (the player with the human fighter lost a human paladin to some cult clerics), and head back to Hommlet to rest and split of treasure. The party has discovered some of the cult in Hommlet and are a bit paranoid so when the halfling hears some town gossip about a halfling shop keep the party heads over to talk to him about it. The barbarian busts in the shop door, starts busting up his shop and the cleric casts detect thoughts while the shopkeep is cowering in the corner, wondering what the heck is going on. At about this time the town guard and sheriff arrive, tell the party to stand down, make them pay for the damages and warn them that causing problems and roughing up townfolk without any hard evidence will get them thrown out of town.

The party now has few allies in town and is subjected to dirty looks from many of the townsfolk.

At this point they head back to the moathouse find some cockitrices and the barbarian gets petrified. Using some spells the party gets the petrified barbarian back into town and convince a high-ranking priestess (Y'dey) to unpetrify him (she was reluctant because she saw him as a trouble-maker).

The halfling heads out to do some scouting at the mill at around this time.

The rest of the party hangs around town and notices a new woman hanging around the inn. They starting talking with her and they beginning discussing the moathouse and the players mention the cult and start questioning the woman. She claims to not know anything about the cult, but the cleric casts a Detect Evil on her she looks offended (and is evil) and the barbarian draws his greatsword and murders her. The barkeep and cook have already run out the back at this point to summon the watch.

The sheriff and watch burst into the common room and order the party to drop their weapons and surrender. The barbarian charges the sheriff get's smacked, but kills him, the fighter subdues the 3 watchmen that are attempting to grapple him, and the cleric wips out a wand of burning hands and fries 1/2 of the rest of the watchmen. Burne and Rufus (local quasi-rulers of Hommlet a powerful Wizard and Fighter) have been notified and head down to the Inn with a cadre of 15 armed men.

In the meantime the cleric stabilizes the Sheriff and the watchmen that are still unconcious and able to be saved. The human fighter help and the barbarian keeps his sword pointed at the sheriff.

The rogue is now on his way back to the inn, sees Burne, Rufus, and their troop heading for the inn and slips out of town. Burne, Rufus and co. arrive at the inn and order the murderers to surrender themselves. The cleric slips out the back, the fighter walks out the door and surrenders himself, and the barbarian pores a potion down the sheriffs throat and starts threatening him. The mage orders the barbarian to come out and surrender. The barbarian runs out the back to find Rufus the fighter standing there who promptly orders the barbarian to surrender. The barbarian attempts to intimidate and threaten Rufus who looks annoyed and again orders the crazy barbarian to surrender. The barbarian attacks Rufus gets smacked down and awakens to find himself in a loincloth and chains in some dungeon.

I was very tempted to leave the barbarian down and let him bleed to death, but decided that since Rufus is lawful good he would have wanted this man, though he is obviously some type of lunatic should stand trial for his crimes and suffer the concequences.

I have 2 questions:

What would you have done?

What would you do with this character at this point?

Thanks

Zouk'

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Take the next logical step. Have the barbarian tried for murder, found guilty, and then executed.

Then out of character tell the barbarian's player to roll up a new character and try acting like an adult.

 

[Storm Raven]

What would you do with this character at this point?

What do you think would be done with a group of crazed people who wander through town apparently breaking into shops and homes whenever they like, murdering people at random and attacking the recognized members of the local government when they tried to apprehend them?

Prison for life is probably the minimum punishment I would think appropriate. An execution would probably be fully warranted in these circumstances as well.

And not just for the barbarian. His accomplices (especially the guy who fried a bunch of the town watch with his wand) are also culpable, and would have to face some form of punishment.

I'd probably tell them that after a short trial, they are sentenced to death or life in prison for their egreigous crimes. Then have the players make new first level characters.

 

[Thorntangle]

Was this disruptive behavior fun for the players involved? If so, get them out of that campaign and into another where they don't come into conact with any sort of civilization. Maybe a lost world environment where they can hack first, slash later, and never ask questions.

 

[Skald]

Execute the barbarian. No questions.

Don't forget to put the cleric on trial for the multiple murders of the town watchmen, possibly charging him with arson also. Execution for him should also be enforced, and his church superiors should condemn his actions, excommunicate him, and not vouch for him in any way. Boccob himself should also refuse to grant this wayward priest any spells as punishment for his sins.

The fighter who surrendered should get multiple years in a dungeon for being an accomplice to every murder even though he didn't actually murder anyone. He did nothing to stop the murder of the woman at the inn, and likely didn't try to stop the cleric from frying several of the town guard. He shouldn't be executed, but could likely face at least 5 years in a dungeon per person murdered due to his moral and lawful negligence. Do the math there.

A posse could be gathered to start tracking down the "halfling companion" that was seen as being a part of the group also. He didn't murder anyone, but could suffer some other consequences just by having that association. This rogue is not likely to suffer a dungeon sentence, but will bear the reputations his companions worked quite honestly and successfully to attain. Other rogues who hear of him may not want anything to do with him either since he'll be seen as a "badfella" who attracts too much attention. No training, no job offerings, and no help either.

 

[Holy Bovine]

*Whew* that is one ugly scene you've described.

I would recommend death for the Barbarian and life imprisonment for the Fighter and Cleric (if the Cleric actually got away I would say that Burne and Rofus would track him down and attempt to capture him).

Either way the Barb and Fighter player will need new characters (and the Cleric player too if they want to continue with RttToEE).

The Rogue I could see coming back to Hommlet with a new group but he would still be viewed with strong suspicion if not outright hostility.

All in all I from what you have described you handled that very well. A measured and reasonalbe response first from the initial warning not to cause trouble to the Sherrif & watch arriving to arrest the PCs for the murder, to finally a showdown with the 'heavies' that the PCs really had no hope against.

Also how did the players view things? Did they feel you were heavy handed? (and could I smack them upside the head for playing Chaotic Crazy characters? )

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Unless town law says otherwise it is not illegal to sit back and watch.

It may be immoral but not illegal.

One has to actually participate to get hit with aiding and abetting which is what you are trying to railroad the fighter into a charge of. All the fighter really did was defend himself from attack and even then as the origional post says he only struck to subdue.

I would bet that the two quasi-elders as former adventurers will look on his actions as simple self defense in a no win situation.

Execute the barbarian. No questions.

Don't forget to put the cleric on trial for the multiple murders of the town watchmen, possibly charging him with arson also. Execution for him should also be enforced, and his church superiors should condemn his actions, excommunicate him, and not vouch for him in any way. Boccob himself should also refuse to grant this wayward priest any spells as punishment for his sins.

The fighter who surrendered should get multiple years in a dungeon for being an accomplice to every murder even though he didn't actually murder anyone. He did nothing to stop the murder of the woman at the inn, and likely didn't try to stop the cleric from frying several of the town guard. He shouldn't be executed, but could likely face at least 5 years in a dungeon per person murdered due to his moral and lawful negligence. Do the math there.

A posse could be gathered to start tracking down the "halfling companion" that was seen as being a part of the group also. He didn't murder anyone, but could suffer some other consequences just by having that association. This rogue is not likely to suffer a dungeon sentence, but will bear the reputations his companions worked quite honestly and successfully to attain. Other rogues who hear of him may not want anything to do with him either since he'll be seen as a "badfella" who attracts too much attention. No training, no job offerings, and no help either.

 

[Skald]

As an afterthought concerning the rogue, should he attempt to seek hiding with any fellow thieves, perhaps they would also consider doing the law a favor by getting rid of him.

Poisoning him, chopping up and feed him to a sty of starving pigs, strangling and stabbing him to death, and other effective means of disposing of loose ends and cannons are all viable fates for the halfling.

 

[Dieter]

If Rufus is the preciding "law of the land", his LG alignment would not condone execution. At most the barbarian would serve a very long life imprisonment, perhaps being paroled after a certain amount of time served.

This is D&D, so magical punishments such as high-level curses could be a semi-permanent solution.

However, I would again emphasize that a LG-based society would not condone execution. Make the punishment harsh enough to reflect the severe nature of the offense.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Doc the Fighter did actively resist arrest and was part of the group that murdered the woman. In the eyes of a 'frontier' town like Hommlet is susposed to be I would say that is more than enough to make him an accomplice to murder.

Probably in today's society a case could be made that the Fighter didn't do anything and is therefore not responsible for the actions of his friends but I just don't think that would stick in this case.