The tower was subsequently demolished by locals who feared it was haunted, revealing an inviting staircase down into the "underworld".
Naturally, our adventurers were drawn to the site like bees to honey and one of their first encounters was with a young, human wizard (with a bodyguard) who claimed to be the legendary "Zenopus" (pictured right)... and the players bought this hook, line and sinker.I guess they had no reason not to take him at face value - although he certainly didn't appear over a 100 years old and never, actually, demonstrated any magical prowess in their presence!
In a world where powerful magics are possible, what should the players believe and what should they doubt?
I loved the fact that, without me even saying much beyond a basic description of this man calling himself "Zenopus", the players feared him!
In fact they were so shaken by the "potential threat" that they offered their sword arms to his service before he could say much more.
What could I do, but run with this juicy ball the players had just handed me!
Eventually, after the wizard had had a chance to consider this most generous offer, he sent his bodyguard after the party with a job offer - they were to retrieve "his" treasure from some pirates who had invaded the tunnels from an adjoining cave complex.
It was only once our heroes returned, laden down with chests of treasure - but with the pirates in pursuit - that they began to smell a rat.
Well, one of them did: Steve (playing Red the Ranger) began to quiz the "mighty wizard" on why he was so nervous about facing the pirates? Surely if he had the power to build this dungeon a few pirates shouldn't be much bother?
The wizard fled in his cart and although Red gave chase, the wizard - as a major non-player character - was able to play a "hero point" (a house rule) to give Red the slip (it helped that Steve subsequently rolled a fumble on his pursuit check).
Red, and the party, now have a nemesis and I have a major NPC to use as a recurring villain.
Red, investigating further after the characters returned to the nearby town, now believes this magic-user is called Magoo The Magnificent and is, in fact, an amoral rogue and a charlatan. Sure, he has a good, but limited, portfolio of spells (Red got zinged by a couple of magic missiles) but beyond that the players know very little about him... or when he will next appear.
As an NPC, Magoo was inspired by the gnomish thief/illusionist Jonid Coincrawler from Knights of The Dinner Table.
While Jonid has a decent suite of illusionist spells to continually thwart the Untouchable Trio (Plus One), Magoo will probably end up relying more on his wits and charm - but the idea of setting the party up against a character who is intent on relieving them of their "hard-earned" loot was too good to pass up.
I had ear-marked several places through the dungeon where the group could have picked up clues to Magoo's deceit, but they kept missing them - not through any poor roleplaying or even bad die rolls - and so it took almost three sessions for them to twig that something was rotten in the state of Denmark.
I never lied to them - although Magoo did - just presented the evidence that was before them and let them make up their own minds. Now, I believe, some games would have me revealing this con to the players from the off and then encourage them to "role-play" it out - which I think is daft.
We're not hard core role-players, anyway. This is a monthly game played for old school, hack and slash fun, not an exercise in improv or psychological studies.
And there was a feeling of great satisfaction for the players to have unmasked "Zenopus" for the fraud he was, which certainly wouldn't have been there if they'd all been in on the gag in the first place.
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4 persons have something to say about this!:
Very interesting and revealing. Players can sometimes help a GM play out something he/she didnt expect to jhappen and it makes for a great session or 2!
So true - the players made what would have been a solid, but mundane, encounter into the driving force of three sessions of play!
It's an old cliche that no GM's plan survives contact with players - but sometimes that can be a good thing :-)
Ha ha! That's great! Is that the first time you've had an NPC deceive the players? I wonder if they were caught out because they are relatively innocent as players and from now on they are going to be all suspicious and untrusting.
One thing that wasn't clear, did Magoo get away with some of the treasure they brought back?
Ahh, the treasure!
In his haste to get away Magoo managed to leave behind the two chests of treasure and Feng Ying nabbed the sword and belt that Magoo had somehow got from his 'vanished' bodyguard (the players believe he may have been shapechanged into the giant ape).
So, in the end he came away pretty empty-handed - which is probably why he will come back to haunt the players again!
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