The Story

[Eric]

From the beginning, then...

The journey, for this group, began when they each individually walked through the door under the Odd Jobs sign back in Astangard. Once inside, they learned the doorway was a front for an operation called the Black Crocus, a sort of mafia-esque shadow gang of criminals who were able to work outside the authoritarian constraints of the Astan war machine. The characters were all read into a sort of security agreement that said, in essence, "we know you're desperate to make money for survival, and therefore we expect you'll do everything we say. If you don't, or if you talk about our existence at all, you're dead."

Each of them probably suspected, at the time, that the organization was not really what it claimed to be. If I did my job correctly, those doubts should have grown over the course of the game as the group found itself in increasingly obtuse, pointless, difficult, and just plain nasty missions. Whether it was rooting out a dragon in an obscure mine distant from the city, or looting the catacombs beneath the Temple of Water in Stony Ford, burgling a noble's manor with intent to harm, or breaking through the army's lines to deliver a message to a Crocus operative in River Forge--even to the current mission of tracking down ancient Elven heirlooms from a ruined palace in an occupied city--none of these really seemed like they were going to be money-makers for the Crocus.

All true.

The Crocus was in fact operated by the government as a means to identify and silence dissidents. While this was ostensibly the purpose of conscription into the army, the Crocus work was aimed at particularly capable dissidents, the type who might be able to pull off actual partisan operations or even outright rebellion. Those that were slightly capable would probably end up dead over the course of their "jobs", while those who were significantly capable (such as your group) but few in number would eventually be given a join-or-die ultimatum.

Naturally, there were some of those capable dissidents who made it moderately far into the organization as job-handlers or -runners without realizing what the game was. The Crocus encouraged that, since it helped keep others in the dark. This was intended to be reflected in the sometimes confusing and/or contrary directions; it also allowed the party to subvert the assigned path, such as when they managed to turn the tide of the battle for River Forge by disrupting the Astan army's infiltration tactic. There were also those who knew the game and were playing against it, such as the Water priestess in Stony Ford and Karn's drunken buddies in River Forge.

Assuming the group completed the current assignment to loot the ancient Elven crown jewels, it would have been choice time:

(a) Finish the job as assigned, bringing the items to the Crocus. In this case, the cloak-and-dagger would have continued, with the party headed back to Astangard for another prove-your-worth funnel mission.

(b) Take the artifacts to the Elven court (a course Layna would have recommended). In this case, the party would have learned from a third party about the Crocus's duplicity, and then could choose whether to try to escape the Crocus's reach permanently, or to start the revolution.