A Wise Choice

Unfortunately, I had a little too much work over the week so I’ll have to delay making a pantheon for a little while longer. But I don’t want to leave folks empty handed so here’s a fun story from a campaign I ran last year.

The party was attempting to infiltrate Estrelin’s capital during the height of the Civil War. They were working for Reyalen at the time and planned on causing as much havoc as they could without getting caught. Unfortunately the Fighter and the Paladin got caught during their high jinks and were put on trial for crimes against the crown.

Because the Paladin was of noble birth they could only be put on trial by the King himself. Lord Vanon the Third stood as judge for a trial that was most certainly rigged against them. The players knew they had to break them out otherwise they would most certainly die, so they turned to the Paladin’s brother for help. The brother was named Ernest and was the heir to his family, he also had a way with words which made him strong at leading troops and infiltrating protected cities. Ernest agreed to come to his brother’s rescue but he felt like there was a special opportunity to this circumstance. He told the party to sneak into their trial and await his signal, then they’d strike and try to end the war then and there.

The party hid themselves in the crowd as their comrades crimes were counted. Attempted murder, robbery, treason, impeding the war effort, and the Fighter was also accused of “threatening the tranquility between Estrelin and her neighbors.” The Fighter was training to become an inquisitor of Greyden, which had backed off from its militaristic streak of the last few centuries. Which made the accusation feel even more scathing, it wasn’t like Greyden was running around starting wars over rich nobles clamoring for a crown. The Fighter was amazed that these people still put up with this crap.

But as they were judged to be guilty and awaited their sentence, the doors of the hall flew open and whatever whispers in the audience were immediately overcome with a wave of enchanted awes.

Ernest strolled into the hall, his cape billowing behind him, before he gave a mocking bow to the King and saying, “I realize my brother and his companion are a troublesome bunch, but I’m the only one in the world who is allowed to make his life miserable.” And with that several members of the crowd drew concealed swords, including the other party members as their players cheered on their defiant ally.

The ensuing brawl was a chaotic mess with pockets of soldiers fighting each other while the King’s royal guard flocked to his side. The Wizard and Bard casted spells across the hall to try and support the offensive, while the Ranger and the newest party member, a Monk fought their way up to the two prisoners. They met up with them just as Ernest did and they quickly tossed weapons to them so they could join the fight. All the while, the King was beginning to withdraw from the hall along with his guards. Ernest warned his brother that they needed to leave even though he did hope for a chance at regicide.

But then the Paladin looked to the Fighter and a look of mischief came over the two of them. All the Paladin asked was, “Should we?”

To which the Fighter grinned and said, “Absolutely.”

And then they charged the King. While all of their other allies were running away in the opposite direction. They performed well, even pushing the King into death saves, but before they could kick him while he was down, his royal guards swarmed the two and knocked both of them down as well. This left the two targets of the rescue mission bleeding out because they didn’t go along with the rescue mission.

The situation was dire and the party knew they wouldn’t have enough time to get both members out quickly. So, the Monk climbed onto the balcony, grabbed one of the long banners and asked if they could use a ki point to swing to the two of them. I agreed and they rolled to see where they landed, they hit just outside of the mob of guards and they ran into the center of the group.

Now, because they were new they didn’t know if they should hate the King or not. They then decided that it wouldn’t be a smart idea to steer the course of history over a rescue mission so they performed a medicine check on the King while their other two party members were also bleeding out and they stabilized the King. The royal guards, and I for that matter, were confused by this choice of action before the Monk picked up their friends with a good athletics check and burned another ki point to run off with them.

Later the players found wanted posters for the Paladin and the Fighter, both wanted for “Attempted Regicide.” Right next to them was a picture of the Monk who was wanted “For Questioning.” It got a good laugh out of the party and was probably the origin of what would become the Ad Hoc Committee on Regicide. More on what that means later….