[Wulf's BARAKUS FOLLIES] LOST CITY OF BARAKUS TPK...?

[Wulf Ratbane]

How commited to the dungeon are the drow?

They could simply get what they came for, steal the parties stuff and leave them in the dungeon alone, laughing as they leave...

THEN the Ghoul Rogue awakens, to stalk them through the dungeon, unarmed and unarmored...

Possible... but I don't see the drow just leaving them.

And although I don't know how the players would feel about it, that to me feels like a cop-out. It doesn't seem to have any verisimilitude or to advance the story any.

Dead or enslaved, that's the question.

I really do have to work that ghoul into the equation, though. The party just stripped his gear and left him lying in the corridor. (They never really cared much for the rogue, I will admit, but still...)

 

[ARandomGod]

Well, really it comes down to a question of insuring that everyone has fun.

I mean, everyone of the Drow.

....

They'll hate her with a burning passion by the end, if you do it right (and I know you will).

Yes. Yeeessss!

I not only recomend this. I personally demand that you do it.

For what it's worth, I expect a revolt if I take them prisoner and make them suffer any kind of abuse. Most players (myself included) would rather have their PC killed than enslaved, and I would certainly rather be dead than have my ass tattooed by some damned drow.
Wulf

Perfect. I mean, you're going to allow them to escape, right? They should be abused and humiliated. I mean, they've just been captured by Drow. This is the kind of thing that really makes stories good. Not just a 'you're dead', but a 'you're alive after suffereing a humiliating defeat, and escaping/recovering'.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It has great potential. The whole thing is shaping up (finally) with some great potential.

The former fighter-rogue emails me today, says he wants to play... well, ok, another fighter-rogue. Only this time, a dwarf.

Little more backstory:

There's this huge CHAOS ROCK in the dungeon, that gives you the infectious crazies. And once you're infected, you just want to protect it. Protect the rock.

So the party encounters this odd couple, a dwarf and an elf, and they try real hard to parlay, I guess, but... you know... the two NPCs are crazy. So it didn't exactly work out.

And in the ensuing fight, the paladin "thumped" the dwarf a little too hard, dropping him, and the dwarf bled out and died before they got the elf under control.

But they managed to get the elf back to civilization and get him cured. The elf gave them all of his own "loot" as a reward, but asked the party if they would return the magic dwarven waraxe they looted off his dwarf friend. The elf wanted to take the axe home, back to his dwarf friend's clan.

Against the protests of the party, the paladin gave the axe back.

That was several weeks ago, game time, and now I have a player who wants to play a dwarven fighter-rogue with a waraxe.

Very fortuitous. A grateful, but grudge-bound dwarf now comes to the party, back to take up arms where his cousin fell?

I tell ya, if I'm not careful, this massive dungeon hack has the potential to turn into a story.

 

[shilsen]

Tattoos are too easy to remove. Brand the party instead.

What he said. Just make sure it's on the inside

 

[S'mon]

I tell ya, if I'm not careful, this massive dungeon hack has the potential to turn into a story.

That's what I like about LCoB.

I've been running it a couple months now (4 sessions, PCs 2nd level). It's not a 'story' module but it includes loads of stuff that can turn into n numbers of great stories. It's the first time I can recall running a module and thinking "You know, I could run 4 different groups consequentially through this, and there'd _still_ be tons of stuff for the 4th group to do."

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

The party has been berated for not parlaying. They decide to parlay, but since they don't know anything about Drow, that makes them stupid? I disagree.

If the PCs have never encountered Drow, and don't know about them, they can't possibly know that Drow are not to be trusted. Unless they're meta-gaming. So I don't really see why this qualifies as "stupid" behavior. Uninformed behavior, yes. Ignorant behavior? Yes. (In my view, ignorant=uneducated=could improve; stupid=stupid=can't improve )

However:

Really, I think the dumbest part was just blurting out what they were down there for.

The die was cast at that point-- the drow were going to F them, someway, somehow, to get that magic token.

Yes, blurting that out was dumb, in any situation. Since they did that, you're kind of stuck as a DM, unless all the Drow suddenly put on Helms of Opposite Alignment!

I have a similar issue: inexperienced group and a slave is tagging along--who is really a doppelganger. How badly do I want to screw over new players? :\

 

[twofalls]

Hmm. One person said it, but the wrong way.

Well, really it comes down to a question of insuring that everyone has fun.

I mean, everyone of the Drow.

One of the first laws of GMing is, “what would be most fun now”, for your players NOT for your NPC's or monsters. I'm not suggesting you don't know this, I'm responding to the above quote.

How can this situation be turned into the most fun for the players? You are running the game to entertain your friends right? You can use logic and story to advance whatever plot it is that you have going and kill or enslave the party, but if in so doing you end up providing a game experience for your friends that leaves them feeling defeated and... well as you put it "stupid", how is that fun? You know your players better than I. I can say from experience that humiliating their characters by stripping them and tattooing them is not going to be a fun experience for them. Teach them a lesson? What lesson is that? To role-play better? Is this lesson you are planning going to accomplish this, and is it necessary to do it in this fashion?

I'm not playing devils advocate here, and I certainly don't know you or your players so please understand that I'm not making any judgment call about you as a GM. Based on your description of the naiveté of the players, I'd say that deciding that killing them or enslaving them is the only set of options is a mistake. If the players are unaware of the reputation of Drow (which seems hard to believe of anyone who has ever played D&D, or even spoken with others who have played the game) then keep in mind that all they know is what you have told them. Maybe there is miscommunication going on between players and GM, maybe even the “characters” might deserve to know a bit more about the Drow than the players do. Maybe one of the more social characters deserves a sense motive check... there are a lot of possibilities.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

You could always do the brand/tatoo thing... then march them into the Underdark. There's all kinds of ways a group of low level drow could get slaughtered down there. Leaving those poor PCs alone in the big nasty tunnels? It'd be an interesting place to run into the new dwarf PC?

Heh. Blurting out the truth... that's plain unfortunate. Wonder if it'll dawn on any of them before the next session?

I'm kinda suprised they didn't rest after seeing off the lord... was there a pressing reason for them not to?

 

[Vocenoctum]

Possible... but I don't see the drow just leaving them.

And although I don't know how the players would feel about it, that to me feels like a cop-out. It doesn't seem to have any verisimilitude or to advance the story any.

Dead or enslaved, that's the question.

Enslaved is easy to avoid doing, since it means the drow have to transport the prisoners to whereever they must end up.

Killing is the most logical, but then it kind of ignores the whole Drow Cruelty thing.

Maybe just strap them to a couple tables, torture them until the drow are bored, then the drow leave with them still strapped in.

THEN the ghoul arrives, drawn by the smell of blood?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'm kinda suprised they didn't rest after seeing off the lord... was there a pressing reason for them not to?

No reason but the usual: That insatiable desire to see what's in the next room.

Killing is the most logical, but then it kind of ignores the whole Drow Cruelty thing.

Well, I figure there must be a reason that every drow is equipped with sleep poison.


Wulf