The Watch

I had an idea I wanted to write down, so it goes up on here!

The Watch will work in twos, so players can't just murder them individually. Using the waypoint settings in ToEEWB, they can wander around patrolling the Keep. If attacked, they will firstly send out an alarm: reinforcements will arrive in 'x' rounds, and a variable will begin to count. If the combat is still going when the variable reaches 'x', the reinforcements will spawn nearby and enter combat. If the Watch r killed before that, the 'x' value subtracted from the variable will be used to determine the distance from the party the reinforcements will spawn, and of course they will KOS (but combat will not be active: the party will be able to avoid them if canny enough). Of course, if the Watch are murdered without getting a go, they will not send out the alarm.

The Watch will have 3 settings: note party's presence when near, detain on sight (initiate dialogue), kill on sight (initiate combat).

Should the party murder some lonely shopkeeper (or whoever), a flag will be set (by san_dying) and a time_event will be added (probably 8 hours). This is the period until the body is discovered (less if out in open on Keep map, for instance if it is one of the traders near the fountain - come to think of it, the length of time will probably be dependant on the map). During this time, if the party go near a member of the Watch (INCLUDING those on the walls) their presence will be noted in the heartbeat and when the time_event occurs, if the 'party's presence noted' flag is set (set in the heartbeat of the Watch by the combined presence of the 'just killed someone' flag and the triggering of the 'find near' thing) then the party will be considered to be 'under suspicion' due to having been seen out and about at the time of the murder. If they are on the same map (just stayed where they were, in the now-empty shop or wherever they performed the murder, or returning to the scene of the crime) they will be considered to have been seen at the scene and will be 'accused'. If they are flagged 'under suspicion' more than once they will be flagged to be detained and be questioned, if they are flagged 'accused' they will be flagged to be detained and imprisoned (Lord Spike will take the story from there ;)) Of course they can be under suspicion for more than one reason (pickpocketing, burglary, breaking curfew etc). Again, if the players sneak around or are invisible - avoid detection - they can carry out dastardly deeds and still remain above suspicion: but each deed may increase the number of the Watch (particularly murdering Watchmen - they will get a KOS flag, not a detain flag, if accused of this!) and add to a global variable which will add to the listen / spot checks of the Watch to demonstrate increased vigilance during the PC's 'crime wave'.

Murdered members of the watch, btw, will simply be replaced by the many guards in the Guardhouse / Fortress (there r 24 guards in the former and 30 cavalrymen in the latter to provide a large, if finite, pool of replacements).