Well that's interesting.

The group's just got to level 2 after a dungeon I'm not particularly proud of. The whole place was filled with combat encounters with a massive ton of monsters. I don't like how it turned out in practice (everyone was pretty burned by the end) but hey, live and learn, right?

The group wakes up in an inn, finding the town totally deserted. They follow a note they've gotten of the chief of police after he tried to kill them (a long story, I'll probably post it later) to find a person named rosemary. They get a hint that the Chief of Police (Chief Harkness) lived by an old herbalist shop run by a middle aged woman, and they find that her and this "Rosemary" are one and the same.

Well they walk up to Rosemary's house, and she opens the door a crack and sees the group.

Rosemary: "You some kind of traveling circus?"

Yoggx't: "No. We're adventurers, you see, and we're looking for something. We could use your help."

Rosemary: "Look, I'm kind of busy evacuating with my husband, I don't really have time for this." *shuts door*

They knock again, and keep talking to her, and casually drop the bomb that not only was her good friend the Chief evil, but also that he tried to kill all of them. She shuts the door again, finding this crap ridiculous.

At this point, Shadowsnake is tired of not really being involved. He's a bit of a min-maxer and a rogue, so he tries to climb on the roof and get in through the skylight. After he gets there, he pulls Fline up behind him and they start to quietly remove the skylight. Because he's put an insane amount of points into these things, he makes the appropriate checks, and announces that he's going in through the skylight.

I ask him to make a Perception check.17. I tell him he sees Rosemary leaning against the door, rubbing her eyes and looking very depressed. He tells me that he walks behind her and puts his knife to her back.



Rosemary's husband is a fifth level Evoker who has just rolled higher on his stealth check than Shadowsnake did on perception. It's all I can do at this point not to laugh.

Very luckily, he fails his to hit roll against Shadow with Scorching Ray, but instead burns a hole in the house. Shadow starts making demands, but before he can say too much, Rosemary's Husband nails him with a Color Spray and he goes unconscious. At this point, the crap REALLY hits the fan.

Fline looks in the skylight and sees Shadow getting tied up by these people. He immediately shouts to The Monk to bust down the door, and The Monk, not knowing anything about the situation does so. Yoggx't is mortified by this point and is just wanting to distance himself from the insanity around him, so he just says "I don't do anything." anytime his turn comes up.

Rosemary's husband starts chucking fireballs at anyone in sight and Rosemary has a knife to Shadow's throat. Yoggx't finally steps in and restores some semblance of order. Rosemary's husband starts telling them if they want to talk, this is how it's going to work, and starts setting up a scenario where he would have an advantage, but nobody has a knife to their throat. He wants this set-up so they can talk, but if he needs to protect his wife, he can.

At this point, Shadow wakes up and informes me he's going to make a sleight of hand check to move the knife away from his jugular. He passes the check. Rosemary gasps, and initiative is rolled, again. Rosemary's Husband understandably is UBER-PISSED at the gall of this dude, and sets him on fire before a very annoyed Yoggx't can return the group to order again.

To make a long story short, they get what they wanted, decide it wasn't worth it, and head back to their underground batcave-style HQ.

Kind of wordy, and I think I left out a few vital details, but I'll be letting the players themselves comment on it and fill you in on their opinions. Thanks for bearing with me.
                                                                                                             Yours Truly, D.M.