Oh. The Mutant Edict. If it is no longer de jure criminal to be a mutant in imperial society, then the Red Crown loses one of its primary tools for compelling the membership to remain in place and open to their proselytising. If one of the mutants gathered here reached out to their former community, to the friends and family they once had, and were greeted with anything less than total hostility, the mere idea that they have options could proliferate through the ranks. And so their more militant members take steps to remove that choice once more - being a mutant is not a crime, but being an arsonist and murderer is, as is providing aid and shelter to those wanted by the law.
You've seen similar techniques employed by criminal gangs and extra-legal groups of all persuasions, and even if the majority of those down there are not directly involved… how many will choose the authorities over their newfound kin, if put to the test? How many among the authorities can be relied upon to draw a distinction, especially given the prevalence of hostility towards mutants of any description?
Article: How do you choose to proceed?
[ ] Attempt Negotiations
Herzen is not here, but these mutants will know where she went. You will leave your companions to watch and fetch reinforcements in case things go sour, and approach under the flag of truce. There may yet be a way to mitigate the fallout of this mess.
[ ] Rally Reinforcements
Whatever their circumstances, these mutants are criminals and cultists of the dark gods both. Return to town and share your findings, exonerating the dwarves and allowing you to return and clear the encampment by force. You will find your evidence in the aftermath, or by interrogating prisoners.
[ ] Write in
You may also submit a sub-vote for one of the above options, if you prefer.
OK people, let's get tactical. We have the following situation:
-At least "a score" of mutants (i.e. >20) in a hideout. Of these, "a minority" (anywhere from 6-9) are murderers and Chaos cultists. They
will fight us, because even if we don't get involved the Watch or the local farmers will see them dead for murder.
-The others
may fight us, depending on the situation. Alternatively, they will become embroiled in fighting and force us to intervene because of these horrible attacks of conscience we keep having.
-Our actual target - remember, the one who
must be caught and killed without confessing to others, or else we end up on a pyre - is either not here (in which case she'll get spooked and run) or is here and busy (in which case we get to fight a rogue witch on top of everything else).
Again, let me reiterate:
there is no way to resolve this without violence. 'Knut' and his posse have killed a bunch of innocent people, and have earned death several times over. We know it, they know it, and they know
we know it too. Even
if the other mutants are convinced to not fight - and that's a big 'if,' given we're operating against their well-earned prejudice and without particularly amazing diplomatic skills - then we'll still have to duke it out with a large group of killers who seriously outnumber us. Depending on negotiations our options are therefore either a) negotiations succeed, and we fight a bunch of killer cultist mutants with (presumed) innocents in the line of fire, or b) we flub our diplomacy roll, the second mutant group sides with the baddies out of fear, and we have to deal with over twenty people trying to murder us. These outcomes are, to put it bluntly, Not Great.
We tried guileless diplomacy back in Bogenhafen, against the Town Watchmen who had no special prejudice against us and were merely guilty of really liking getting paid by merchants. This backfired so spectacularly that we nearly had a Bad End GG No Re situation, and had to get bailed out by the grace of the GM and by Ranaldian cultists (that we now owe a major favour to). Here, now, we're up against mutants - people
not inclined to trust a Witch Hunter - many of whom
will try to kill us on sight, what with us being a Witch Hunter and them being guilty of murder. If we're going to negotiate, let's do so from a position of strength rather than going 'just trust me bro it'll work out.' Write-up incoming for this option.
[X] Rally Reinforcements
