ZEITGEIST ZEITGEIST- Taking out Lorcan Kell

[Sound of Azure]

I've been impressed by my groups good sense of when to fight and when to work with others, even in when dealing with people the law of the land disagrees with. After an action-packed night, my group's loyal constables are now calling in all the favours they've earned to try and take out Lorcan Kell.

They met him at the start of the session, managing to get him at least partly on side by not visibly objecting to his "entertainment" (I altered the entertainment to to "prize fighters" taking turns beating a Nettles resident for protection money). This especially annoyed the party's cleric.

The party's team leader, an elf vakeshi monk fought a prize fight against the two brawlers in exchange for information on Dr Recklinghausen, as well as some art objects given to the party to win him over by Renard Woodsman, from the Fog of War encounter.

Kell, of course, betrayed them to the Ob when they came knocking, the party just picking that up from one of Quital's off-hand remarks in the Weight of Crumbling Stone encounter.

Having got on the good side of Gale, Morgan Cippiano, and the remnants of the the Cloudwood and Nettles brigands, the party wants to use their allies to assault Kell's theatre with firebombs, druids to help the fire along, and fusil fire from the brigands.

The party will be inside meeting with Kell again, having promised to return after going to the Nettles Church, warning of an impending attack. They plan to force Kell into his armoured carraige with them and a couple of his bodyguards on board, drawing him away from the bulk of his men (who are concentrating on repelling the attack). Family Bravuras will be lying in wait further along the nettles roads and funnel the carriage to a set location in Parity lake, where the party can take Kell out and some of his top men.

The hope is that Morgan Cippiano will bring a more stable presence to the townward part of the Nettles, and the druids will ensure the hill side and forested parts will get the quiet they wish and have as little to do with town as possible.

I want to make these scenes as exciting as possible, and reward the party for their planning and thoughtful approach. Should I create some sort of chase scene, or just narrate the parts in between the initial attack and the big fight at the end? Does anyone have any ideas on how to complicate things, or help bring out the team's tactics? I'm also interested in people's ideas on framing each encounter. Is this even feasible?

As an added note, the party has only just rescued Dr Recklinghausen, and is under Gale's protection. Quital knows the party got away with him.

The party consists of:
Elf Vakeshi mystic Monk (Jaded, tough team leader)
Human Spirit Medium pacifist cleric (Idealist, but getting more cynical by the day)
Half-Orc Hybrid Artificer/Barbarian, alchemist theme (worried about how dangerous his job is getting lately, and implications of witchoil)
Elf Gunsmith Rogue (Quiet sniper type, loves conflict)

Yep, a Striker/Leader party.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RangerWickett]

First off, Kell does play a background role in adventure 3, but if he's gone, it's easy enough to have one of his lieutenants take his place. In fact, taking out Kell might lead to a horribly bloody turf war. Depends on how you want your party's actions to play out.

Why would Kell trust them, though? He just sold them out, and now they conveniently show up to warn him of danger? Nuh uh. Plus he'd probably want to make a stand, Tony Montana style, and would only let the PCs anywhere near him after they've killed a few of the attackers to prove they're not in cahoots.

If he is overwhelmed, though, if the PCs make sure that one of his lieutenants and whoever is driving the carriage are in the pocket of the Family, they could steer him in the right direction. But he gets a whiff it's an ambush, he'd stab the driver in the back through the wall of the carriage, then jump out.

I intended to stat him as, basically, this guy:

 

[Sound of Azure]

Well, it is true that the PCs have an inflated sense of how much Kell trusts them. The leiutenants certainly do not. Great idea for proving their loyalty by killing the "attackers".

For the turf war, I can definitely see there being consequences. The forces being brought together aren't natural allies the way I've portayed them, and the Family is likely to expect authorities to look away as they consolidate their power in the south. None of the PCs' allies will be particularly impressed if a lot of their people get killed.

Additionally, the party leader is trying to keep their involvement in this quiet and off the record, which is giving the cleric and alchemist pause.

I'll see how thorough the PCs' planning is and go from there. If their plan is good, I'll make it tough, but fair. A poor plan will go very, very badly for them. Kell's not a man to underestimate, after all.

 

[skotothalamos]

The party consists of:
Elf Vakeshi mystic Monk (Jaded, tough team leader)
Human Spirit Medium pacifist cleric (Idealist, but getting more cynical by the day)
Half-Orc Hybrid Artificer/Barbarian, alchemist theme (worried about how dangerous his job is getting lately, and implications of witchoil)
Elf Gunsmith Rogue (Quiet sniper type, loves conflict)

Yep, a Striker/Leader party.

off-topic, but my group is also three strikers and a leader. And also a Vekeshi Monk and a Gunsmith Rogue. Something about Zeitgeist seems to bring out the strikers.

 

[RangerWickett]

My party has a technologist wizard, a skyseer sentinel druid, a gunsmith thief, a yerasol veteran knight, and a pixie hexblade with a non-Zeitgeist theme.

 

[Bruize]

I just wanted to point out that my party's leader is also a striker, a rogue in this case. It was funny how it happened because he started talking back to Delft early on and the other PCs were like, "He's saying everything that I wanna say!"

In my experience, the party's commander usually turns out to be the most vocal person at the table that has GOOD ideas.

 

[RangerWickett]

So, any word on how this went [MENTION=40749]Sound of Azure[/MENTION]?

 

[Sound of Azure]

So, any word on how this went [MENTION=40749]Sound of Azure[/MENTION]?

Sure, no problem. This all happened a couple of months ago, so my recollection will not be perfect. The party threw nearly every resource they had toward the operation, which was great to see.

Firstly, the party requisitioned Valando's Staff of Arson, and called in a favour from some constabulary alchemists under the direction of Geoff Massarde and the party's alchemists. They'd be working overtime using the alchemy supplies they received from Massarde and from Heward Sechim toward making incendiary fire bombs, and less dangerous, but more flashy flash-fire bombs.

They also organised through Cippiano to buy off as many of the low level street thugs as possible. The party's sniper used some of his smuggler contacts to hire the services of Isolde, one of Kell's lieutenants I'd established during their previous encounter- as well as some of her crew for the night of the operation and two days after. This was in exchange for a season-long exclusive contract with the Flint constabulary's supply office for fusil parts.

Finally, they rallied their available allies - the Cloudwood Brigands and their druid allies, a small detachment of Nevard Sechim's ranger allies, a couple of dozen family bravuras, and a small mob of dockers (courtesy of Thames Grimsley).

The party organised for the Cloudwood brigands and Family to spend two days engaging in low-level attacks targeting Kell's gang members in the border regions of the Nettles, thus raising tension in the gang. Using the intelligence they'd gathered regarding Kell's escape method and likely destination, they would go to "warn" Kell of an impending attack by the Family, get Kell to retreat in his ironclad autocarraige, and try to force the carriage to a place of their choosing.

The attack and subterfuge went well (the players' dice for the operation set up skill challenge went really in their favour), since the druids, Gale and her operatives made great use of the Staff of Arson, in concert with their military-grade incendiaries meant the Theater of Scoundrels was in trouble.

The Monk and alchemist managed to tag along with Kell, his bodyguards and two of his lieutenants as they retreated through secret passages below the Theater to his waiting autocarraige down the road. The cleric had to fend for herself amid the chaos of the firefight in the burning building. She was eventually able to hide amongst the panicking floor staff that were evacuating through the back of the theater and rendezvoused with the assault team across the road, and the repaired carraige belonging to Renard Woodsman.

Bravuras lay in wait along several of the possible crossings across the Bosum Strand Canal. Between the bravuras' fusil fire and the alchemist's visually impressive, but mostly harmless incendiaries, Kell and his subordinates were kept tense enough for the carraige to go where they wanted. Upon seeing the mob of Dockers clashing with the Bosum Strand police department (blocking several streets), Kell made the autocarriage come to a halt and disarmbarked, preparing to weave through the alleys around the riot and toward the last of his escape routes.

It wasn't long before the net of Bravuras closed in (thanks to the party's good planning), and the monk and alchemist revealed their intention to bring Kell to justice. A fierce battle ensued, with Kell dealing bucketloads of damage in combination with the two deputies he brought with him. Back up in the form of the Cloudwood brigands (with the cleric and rogue) arrived 5 rounds into the combat, allowing the party to rally and finish Kell and one of the lieutenants. The remaining deputy managed to slip away across the rooftops.

Their plan had gone well, but they'd lost half a dozen Family men, and used a lot of resources and favours. They'd also managed to barely use any 'official' methods, though they did confide in ACI Delft, who agreed to keep it under wraps. For the Dockers' sacrifice, The party then went home for a well-deserved rest.

I was quite proud of my players' ingenuity, though in hindsight I would have made Kell tougher and more brutal (I used stats for a level 7 Elite Brute), and introduced a few more complications along the way. The party couldn't really relax afterward though, since they now had clearance from ACI Delft to move on the MacBannin arrest.

The party owe a lot of people favours now, and it will be interesting the see the repercussions during Digging for Lies. In the conclusion to the adventure, the party's leader (the monk) met with Lady Inspectress Saxby to reveal her plan for Gale.

The party would publicly "arrest" Gale, and she would then go into "protective custody", becoming a resource in service to Risur. In reality, Gale would go free and into hiding. Remaining in custody would be a disguised (via a requisitioned Hat of Disguise) elf ally (in fact, an Unseen Court operative- this was not revealed to Saxby). Saxby could then satisfy the city leaders calling for Gale's arrest, it would satisfy the monk's Unseen Court allies (who wanted Gale's allegiance), and Gale could remain free, satisfying her as well. The monk is hoping to get Saxby as on side as Delft is, by appealing to what seems to be important to her (politics).

Whew, that was long!