So it turns out the elves were less than truthful. Apparently, the Yuan-Ti have actually defeated the Elves, mostly because they were able to magically age the Elven King, and seal the cave which contained the cure to all who dwelled in the Elven City of Yarauna. Using the gold collected from the party to purchase magical items, the Elven King, Arch Mage and High Priestess bribed the Yuan-Ti "diplomat" that was at the party to get the location of the cave, then transformed themselves into magical items, powered by their essences, which they had presented to the party as the items they had purchased. This allowed them to bypass the wards which prevented them from entering The Clockwork Cave. After fighting their way through the cave, defeating the Time Dragon at the Heart of the Cave, and two of their party being aged significantly, the elves revealed their deception, and offered a reward for the party's service, explaining that the could not reveal the truth of things before because of the presence of the Yuan-Ti hidden throughout the city, who were monitoring them for signs of treachery.
Now, at this point, I expected the party to be... upset. They had been running around with Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a Long Bow of Accuracy and a magic axe that returned after it was thrown, all of which a) they had paid for, and b) they no longer owned. In addition, it turned out that the Limited Resurrection spell hadn't been limited at all, the Elves had just told them that to get them to brave the Cave. But, as I said, the elves were genuinely regretful of the damage they had caused the party and offered a reward.
I expected them to be upset, I expected them to fuss.
I didn't expect them to try and kill the King of the Elves.
Tsk. Players are by nature misanthropic, violent and idiotically self-destructive. Always expect them to try and kill the King of the Elves.
ReplyDeleteMis-gauging player reactions is fun - is it not? I would have sworn that the party in our SWN game would have hated Captain Bif. Go figure. :)
ReplyDeleteJudging from your post here, I'd say part of it was miscommunication. You never got it across (to me at least) that:
1) The King had been magically aged, or
2) That the Yuan-ti had made it difficult for the elves to speak truthfully to the party, or
3) That the elves had any regret at all for what they had done.
I don't know that it would have helped, though. The anger mainly resulted, I think, from the dawning realization that:
1) The elves had forcefully shaved a dwarven party member, and
2) The elves had stolen every last red cent of the party under false pretenses, and
3) The elves had sold the party magical items that didn't actually exist, and
4) The elves had lied to the party, saying that their loved ones were in danger, when they were not, and
5) The elves convinced the party that the only way to save their loved ones, who were not in danger, was to put them into danger, and
6) The party's loved ones were permanently damaged as a direct result of the elves' lies.
Trusting that people who have stolen from you, lied to you, and who have hurt your family will all of a sudden turn a new leaf and give you a nice shiny prize is somewhat foolhardy. Their actions certainly were not good ones. At such points, an arrow to the neck is usually a perfectly appropriate response.
I know I was certainly pissed off. No role-playing necessary. The shit-eating grin on your face during the reveal probably didn't help at all, btw. You need to work on your poker face better. ;)
After a good night's sleep, Chartreuse will be more apt to start up a vindictive letter writing campaign, exposing the elven council's treachery to all their citizens and the neighboring lands with the desired goal of discrediting them and seeing them run out of town on a rail. Regretfully, however, Chartreuse cannot read or write - so it's probably back to the bow for her.
But at least The Boy kept a level head and didn't seek revenge. Okay, that was probably fear. But still . . . :)
Looking forward to see what happens next.
- Ark
Well, in fairness, you were a bit distracted last night, engaged as you were in side conversations, but yes, there probably was a breakdown in communication on my end as well, I was pretty tired too.
ReplyDeleteAnd the beard shaving was his own fault and noone else's :)