Recently, my group and I started running the Carrion Crown adventure path. I’m GM of this particular campaign, and we’ve decided to utilize the house rules that I’ve posted before on this blog (here, here, and here). Something very fun and interesting happened this weekend (we usually game on Saturday or Sunday), and I thought I’d share it with my “fans”.
I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free.
First, the basics: Our group composes of a Samurai from another planet (still a standard samurai, just a character ported from another campaign), a Barbarian whom both respects and fears spirits, a Ranger who has yet to do anything of note, a dwarven bard dedicated to a god of battle and good times, and a very tricksy and whimsical ninja (calling himself a Spirit Assassin). Thus far, their method of dealing with the adventure has been divide and conquer. They usually encounter enemies in pairs, rather than all-at-once, which has made for some interesting encounters, and their personalities are…at odds to say the least.
Here’s an example…
The adventure is taking place in the town of Ravengro. This is important for later. Our party is staying in the manor of one of the major characters in the adventure, a young woman named Kendra. Each has their own room, which is well because they all have very different ideals and values. No more so do these values differ than between the Samurai and the Ninja. The samurai is honor-bound and lawful to the core. He is constantly acting as deputy for the local sheriff, and performs religious rites every night, dedicated to his ancestors. More than anything else, he believes that his swords and armor represent his honor, and would be willing to kill himself, should they be lost or damaged. Last week, when he chased the drunken barbarian into the river and returned to the shore to find his armor stolen, he nearly killed the young man who stole it, knocking him out with the butt of his Katana (which knocked his head into a stone wall. Concussion followed). I knew at this point that messing with his stuff was not a good idea.
The ninja, however, thought it was hilarious.
During the game today, the ninja’s player passed me a note, stating that he wanted to hide the Samurai’s katana under his bed while he slept. I had him make the appropriate rolls, and he succeeded. The samurai woke to find his sword missing, and promptly tore his room apart trying to find it, tearing doors off hinges and ripping up floorboards.
Again, the ninja thought this hilarious.
A few nights later, after the samurai had been through a particularly trying ordeal involving some skeletons in the local graveyard, the ninja wanted to go one step farther. You see, the samurai had grown to enjoy the company of the young woman in whose house they were staying, to the point of taking a romantic interest in her. The ninja saw this, and decided to play on it. Another series of rolls and the samurai’s armor found its way into Kendra’s room. In the samurai’s room, all that remained was a note, in Kendra’s handwriting (forgery is fun!) that said “We need to talk. –K”. The samurai went to her room, and after retrieving his armor and realizing the prank that had been played, deduced that the thief was likely the ninja.
So he donned his armor and went to town, hunting.
He found the ninja in a local money-lender and outsourcer, whom he was paying to import some black silks, that he might make a new stealth suit for himself. The samurai drew his sword, called out the ninja’s name, and promptly thrust the blade through his gut. Taken by surprise, and not willing to tangle with an angry samurai, the ninja tumbled outside while the shop-owner called for the sheriff.
Thus began the chase scene. The samurai hounded the ninja as they rushed up the northern road toward a patch of trees and brush, where the ninja hoped to hide and avoid the samurai’s wrath. The other members of the party, in town on patrol for the sheriff or getting breakfast, all except for the dwarven bard, whom chose to leave the house just now, all let this go on without a hitch. Not their business. The sheriff chased down the pair as they rushed toward the forest, however, hoping to calm down the samurai.
The ninja reached the woods first, and was successful in hiding. The samurai, not to lose his quarry, began chopping at the woods and calling for the ninja to reveal himself. The sheriff arrived not long after this began, and called for the samurai to come out, else he would be arrested and sent to Lepistadt (another, larger town, with a bigger prison. See, I told you it would be important to know where they were).
The samurai denied this, and continued his hunt. And so the sheriff went back to town and began gathering a posse. All party members joined in (the dwarf having reached town by now) and marched up the main road toward the samurai and his prey. During this time, unfortunately, the samurai found the ninja, and struck him down with one final blow. Luckily, the sneak-thief survived, if only just.
Unfortunately, he was bleeding out. The samurai dragged his body from the woods and knelt beside it, his weapons sheathed and sitting before him, his hands together and ready for manacles. His honor had been restored.
So the posse marched onward, the bard choosing to cast expeditious retreat on himself so that he could reach the scene first. Lucky that he did, because as he arrived, pouring a potion of cure light wounds down the throat of the ninja, the thief was one hit point from death.
And so, as the rest of the posse arrived, the samurai surrendered and the ninja was rushed to the local temple of Pharasma to be healed.
The samurai’s player is currently building a new character—an Oracle of Life, dedicated to the will of Pharasma. His samurai is, next session, getting shipped to Lepistadt, where he will await trial for attempted murder and evasion of local authority.
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Huh, that was fun. I think I might do this again, should another intriguing and amusing tale come to light. Hope you all enjoyed.
-Chris
Glad I can help
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