It's a GM forum, so I assume a spoiler warning isn't necessary.

My players are going through Dead Cities, and just played through the attack on the Clockwork Court. Unfortunately (for me), one of them raced after the Risen going after the Governor (along with Skarmen). I didn't want to railroad too much, as this would clearly tip the players off that something shady was going on. For that reason, I allowed the player to catch the Risen and battle it. Skarmen "fought" too in order to maintain his cover. Long story short, it was a hard fought battle but the players were victorious. Skarmen actually struck the killing blow against a Risen, again to maintain cover once it became clear that the battle was lost for him.

So here's my conundrum - the Governor is still alive, and has his two mirror pieces. I've played it so that he is convinced that the Undertow is responsible for the Risen and is clamoring for war (although the players will try to talk him out of it). I could just arbitrarily have the Governor killed by a second group of Risen or something similar, but that seems arbitrary and not very satisfying. After all, the player did something heroic and saved the Gov.

I'm looking for any advice to get the train back on the rails, so to speak. In-game, Skarmen will still want the two mirror pieces that the Governor possesses - how might he try to get them now that the frontal assault didn't work?

Hi Teneb,

first of all, good decision not to railroad the players.

About the Governor going to war: Have the pc roleplaying there arguments, and ask for some social skill test and/or plain Fellowship at the end of it. Allow the pc to assist this test with other skills like "Logic" etc. Perhaps make it a full blown meeting, with some advisors (reads: lackeys) on behalf of the Governor. Note there level of success (if any) in secret. Then, off-screen, Skarmen will have a word with the Governnor as well. He will not speak out openly and directly against the pc, but will rather subtely nudge the Governor towards war, with some rumours, findings and opions underlining the threat of the undertow. Make a skill test for Skarmen as well. If he has more success, the Governor will do something ...

I imagine that the governor will now want to ramp up his bodyguards (as most of the other would-be-victims) and security is doubled. Perhaps he will even go so far as giving the acolthey a "pager" so he can call them in " to thwart further attempts to destabelize imperial rule of this world by ending my life ". Will be interesting to see the pc acting on this one...and it would underline the selfishness of said noble.

Skarmen and the Governors shards: He will not attempt anything now. I could imagine that as soon as a real riot breaks loose or if he grows desperate at some point he might simply walk to the now holed-up Governor, wanting to speak with him "in privat about matters most dire". The rest will be a matter of quick strangler or a silence weapon up close. He will quickly take what shards he can find with the Governor and leave his estade. Of course things will be discovered 10 minutes after his exit and of course the pc will be warned now.

Grant the pc with some household-soldier of the Governor for storming the Tower in the final. The pc died a good job.

Yes, this is still "rail roading" the pc a bit, but at least they managed to avoid civil war (if they can talk down the Governor).

You mean Damned Cities with Dead Cities and the Judiciary with the Governor?

Skarmen is very obsessed with getting all the mirror fragments, so he would no doubt send a second party of Risen to procure it from the Judiciary. However, his chances have not improved.

He must probably create new Risen and this will take time. The Judiciary has been warned and security will be beefed up a lot. Maybe Skarmen must get this fragment himself, as the Judiciary will trust him and not be suspicious when Skarmen calls for a private security meeting. Or he could convince the Judiciary to go into hiding or relocate to a safer place, which gives him the opportunity to arrange a new ambush at the new location ...

If the Risen go for the Judiciary twice, the acolytes should not take long to find out he has something that they want, if they haven't already.

Alternatively, the Judiciary might be persuaded to hand over his mirror if he knows the killers are looking for it, for example, to the players ....

Hmm well you seem to have changed to premise of the encounter totally. It's not a race between the Acolytes and the Risen, as the latter are already inside having done their job even before the PCs encounter them. Although this is railroading due to the fact there is no way for the acolytes to pre-empt the Risen, it's not that bad since Skarmen has orchestrated the whole event and thus could easily delay the acolytes long enough. Since the acolytes in my game came to him and pretty much demanded a meet, he was able to set up the exact time and they travelled together to the location.

The only way I can see this being bypassed is if the acolytes food Skarmen into beliving they will be at the Court later than they actually will, or have a very quick way of getting there.

There are of course ways around this like greg posted, but generally it is easier not to change such premises unless you think they are too silly and/or railroady.

@TLG: I didn't even notice the mistake myself

At everyone. argh I hate not being able to read the OP when replying...

@ TLG - hah, thanks for the clarification. I was typing late last night after the game and mixed up Dead Stars and Damned Cities. Oops! Also, yes Governor = Judiciary. My players aren't very familiar with 40k and "Governor" was more intuitive for them to understand that "Judiciary" for the gentleman's profession.

FotD, I may not have run it exactly "by the book", but I don't think the PCs constantly arriving just after the nick of time is very satisfying. I honestly didn't think the one character would chase after Skarmen and Constantine since Skarmen essentially said "we've got this, protect everyone else". Apparently being a paranoid player can be a positive thing sometimes :-)

Some good ideas here. We'll see if the players can convince the Judiciary to avoid war, while Skarmen suggests an Arbites safe house.

Teneb said:

You know that you are playing DH when the term Paranoia does not show up on the Table of possible Madnesses but on the table of aquireable bonus Talents!

It really doesn't sound like a problem to me either.

Eventually the players will realize the importance of the shards, which means they will have to take action. There is nothing wrong with letting the players obtain one or more mirror fragments at some point in the game. It does not really change the final confrontation too much, and is probably preferable. If Skarmen obtains all the shards well ahead of time, and manages to free the Daemon, the battle at the Folly can escalate rather dramatically...

Teneb said:

My players tried to follow him even though I never gave them the chance ,) Paranoid players are the norm at my table, no the exception. Not very satisfying maybe, but the point there was to face the Risen and win, not to save the Judiciary. Just like there is no way the acolytes can prevent the assassination of Bal Grey, since they haven't arrived yet.

But back to being constructive: The Judiciary may be a puppet but does not consider himself so. I'm not sure he would go into hiding at all, although he might accept a small contigent of Arbites guards not that they have anything to spare. I wouldn't think they have safe houses anyway, after all they are just restablished at the Folly.

A more likely scenario would be that the Judiciary retreated to his own manor were he probably would feel safe. Skarmen would probably want to get the other Shards first.