Children of Fear Chapter 2 fun anecdote (spoilers)

[klecser]

Reporting on a fun game last night (Children of Fear spoilers) @Lynne H

 

Last night my players took the Silk Road from Sian to Tun-Huang and The Cave of a Thousand Buddhas. The initial interaction with Langdon Warner went well. His character description lists him as "brash," so I essentially played him as a J. Jonah Jameson derivative. They enjoyed it. It did really help in selling the mystery of the letter being vague and an "emergency," because they chalked it up to him being super conceited. They had come all the way from the States, so it seemed odd to them that Warner would invite them.

 

I was getting ready to bring Wang Yuanlu into the mix when one of my players, who had observed Warner being wary of Wang finding out his aims, decided to take action. My players and their characters are not a fan of European pillaging of cultural treasures, so one of the players went to the nearby village where Wang lives and contacted him. He explained to Wang that he was suspicious of Warner attempting to break down a wall within a barrier and was not following the local laws. The players had already found the recess between the Buddha and Caravan at this point with Warner, and Warner had asked them to return in the evening. Wang said that he would come up in the evening to surprise Warner.

 

At this point I had a moment of silence in which I was carefully reading the text of the Chapter to see if it said anything about the investigators turning Warner in to Wang. This is something I rarely do as a Keeper and my players noticed and said:

 

"Crap, we broke the encounter." 🤣

 

I laughed and said no, but decided that the only response to this would be the Tokabhaya killing Wang to prevent the investigators from not discovering Tenzin Kalsang.

The player noticed Wang not coming as promised and immediately got concerned. They found him in his home, hand clutching his chest, with a terrible shocked look on his face, dead.

 

And now they suspect that Warner did it, and knocked him out just as he opened up the first secret room. LOL. We ended the session with Tenzin Kalsang awakening.

So, great night.

 

They also took a really long time to enter the two hidden rooms because they were worrying about salt acid traps (one character is Egyptian, so totally in-character to worry about it). They actually looked at Kalsang's room from ABOVE before looking through the crack!

 

Your players will never do what you expect and you gotta roll with it!

Edited November 21, 2021 by klecser

[rsanford]

2 hours ago, klecser said:

Reporting on a fun game last night (Children of Fear spoilers) @Lynne H

 

Last night my players took the Silk Road from Sian to Tun-Huang and The Cave of a Thousand Buddhas. The initial interaction with Langdon Warner went well. His character description lists him as "brash," so I essentially played him as a J. Jonah Jameson derivative. They enjoyed it. It did really help in selling the mystery of the letter being vague and an "emergency," because they chalked it up to him being super conceited. They had come all the way from the States, so it seemed odd to them that Warner would invite them.

 

I was getting ready to bring Wang Yuanlu into the mix when one of my players, who had observed Warner being wary of Wang finding out his aims, decided to take action. My players and their characters are not a fan of European pillaging of cultural treasures, so one of the players went to the nearby village where Wang lives and contacted him. He explained to Wang that he was suspicious of Warner attempting to break down a wall within a barrier and was not following the local laws. The players had already found the recess between the Buddha and Caravan at this point with Warner, and Warner had asked them to return in the evening. Wang said that he would come up in the evening to surprise Warner.

 

At this point I had a moment of silence in which I was carefully reading the text of the Chapter to see if it said anything about the investigators turning Warner in to Wang. This is something I rarely do as a Keeper and my players noticed and said:

 

"Crap, we broke the encounter." 🤣

 

I laughed and said no, but decided that the only response to this would be the Tokabhaya killing Wang to prevent the investigators from not discovering Tenzin Kalsang.

The player noticed Wang not coming as promised and immediately got concerned. They found him in his home, hand clutching his chest, with a terrible shocked look on his face, dead.

 

And now they suspect that Warner did it, and knocked him out just as he opened up the first secret room. LOL. We ended the session with Tenzin Kalsang awakening.

So, great night.

 

They also took a really long time to enter the two hidden rooms because they were worrying about salt acid traps (one character is Egyptian, so totally in-character to worry about it). They actually looked at Kalsang's room from ABOVE before looking through the crack!

 

Your players will never do what you expect and you gotta roll with it!

Well done on your part! Sounds like everyone is having a good time. I still need to pick this book up and spring it on my players!

[SunlessNick]

16 hours ago, klecser said:

And now they suspect that Warner did it, and knocked him out just as he opened up the first secret room. LOL. We ended the session with Tenzin Kalsang awakening.

So, great night.

Keep a note of this, to revisit later, whether or not they get suspicious again.