AndrewNotes/Avalon/01_Arcs/Gang Sidequest.md

> **Current position in timeline:** Immediately after the **party fight** at Ben’s house. Most guests fled. There are **5 dead teenagers** in Ben’s living room. The PCs are still on-site, processing aftermath and deciding next steps.

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## 0) Core Players & Terms

### PCs
- **Ben Mulkerberg (“Lil Stinky”)** — rich kid posing as block dealer; primary target of Pip’s grudge.
- **Joe Football** — co-conspirator/escalator; pragmatic and willing to do violence if framed as “pre-empting a threat.”
- **Soren Silversong** — volatile ally; arrived to help after the Circle explosion fallout; tends to solve problems through intimidation and chaos.

### Antagonist / Gang Thread
- **Pip Tumblefoot (“Pip”, halfling teen)** — Circle kid / small-time criminal; manipulative; has a grudge against Ben and now blood in the water.
- **Pip’s crew / goons** — teens and adjacent scumbags; not all are Pip loyalists, but they travel in the same orbit.

### Location Anchor
- **The Circle** — gas station / hangout / informal meeting point where Ben first got set up and later caused the explosion.

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## 1) Session 1 — The First Circle Incident (Ben Gets Marked)

### 1.1 Setup at The Circle
- **Ben is hanging at The Circle** killing time (he has no car yet).
- A **small, swarmy halfling** approaches and asks if he’s “Lil Stinky.”
- Ben clocks him as an easy mark and starts posturing:
  - brags
  - tries to pressure for a discount / plays dealer hardball
  - attempts intimidation/social dominance.

### 1.2 The Trap Reveal
- The halfling smirks.
- **Three sets of headlights** come on — Ben realizes he’s been had.
- **Intended vibe:** “you’re not in control, you’re being sized up.”

### 1.3 Insight Branch (You ran a fork here)
- Ben makes an **Insight check** to interpret the halfling’s intent.
  - **Success:** Ben realizes this is not a negotiation; it’s a setup → **RUN**.
  - **Failure:** Ben believes it *is* a negotiation and might talk his way out / “work together,” which opens comedic RP where Ben tries to bargain while being actively boxed in.

**Outcome (established truth):**
- This encounter marks the start of Pip’s leverage over Ben.
- Ben is now “the kid who wants to be scary” in the Circle orbit — a perfect target.

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## 2) Between Session 1 and the Big Pivot — Pip Gains Leverage

### 2.1 The “I Know Where You Live” Move
- Pip later **sends Ben a photo of Ben’s house.**
- This matters because it establishes:
  - Pip can cross the boundary from “gas station beef” to “family/home threat.”
  - Ben’s biggest vulnerability (being rich + his parents) is now in play.

### 2.2 Stakes Clarify
- This conflict becomes **more than reputation**:
  - retaliation can hit the house
  - Ben’s parents are potential targets
  - exposure of Ben’s “W-block lie” becomes a pressure point.

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## 3) The Circle Explosion — The Point of No Return

> This is the moment the sidequest stops being “high school gang antics” and becomes **felony-grade magic violence** with real bodies.

### 3.1 Return to The Circle (Ben + Joe)
- Ben and Joe go to the Circle together.
- Joe chooses to **hide** rather than approach openly.

### 3.2 Joe’s Threat Read → Trap Prep
- Joe passes an **Insight check** recognizing danger centered around a car (people waiting / ambush feel).
- Joe then makes:
  - **Sleight of Hand check** (silent placement)
  - **Tools check** (trap rigging)
- Joe rigs a **trap near the passenger-side door** of the car and places a **puddle of oil/accelerant** beneath/near it.

### 3.3 “Intentions?” → “Cooking Them Out”
- You ask Joe: **“What are your intentions?”**
- Joe clarifies: **“I’m cooking these fuckers out.”**
- Joe fails an Intelligence/Wisdom-style “sanity of plan” check (rolled **5**) and narratively locks in that Joe thinks it’s one of his best ideas all year.

### 3.4 The Signal → The Fire Goes Up
- Ben accepts a “deal” / engages socially while Joe waits for a trigger moment.
- Joe asks if “that’s the signal.”
- Joe hits exactly the DC; you let interpretation be up to him.
- Joe ignites the accelerant.

### 3.5 Escape Window
- You tell them they have **2 turns to get 120 ft away** (dash/dash).
- Both PCs escape.

### 3.6 Casualty Reveal
- Ben sends raven familiar to recon.
- The familiar finds:
  - **Charred teen remains** — leg stuck in Joe’s trap.
  - **Two unrelated civilians** inside the gas station who got **liquified** in the explosion.

### 3.7 Immediate Threat
- Ben receives a message from Pip: **“you’re fucking dead.”**
- Ben and Joe contact Soren for help.
- **Soren arrives at Ben’s house** (this becomes the party’s staging location).

**Resulting status after this pivot:**
- Pip is injured but alive.
- Pip knows Ben is connected to the explosion (even if no one else can prove it).
- Ben’s house is now in the crosshairs.

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## 4) Fallout Begins — The World Reacts (Without Derailing the Campaign)

### 4.1 Planned Cold Open Idea (News Segment)
- You considered a TV news cold open:
  - explosion at The Circle
  - **3 dead** (1 teen + 2 adults) and **1 injured** (Pip)
  - magical arson suspects: trap + accelerant found at origin.
- You also wanted Pip to say something **coded** in the interview that Ben/Joe would understand (not “W block” explicitly).

*(You revised location naming to match Avalon setting — not real-world Sahuarita/Green Valley.)*

### 4.2 Retaliation Stakes
- You set the intended next-stage conflict:
  - Ben’s goal: **get parents out / keep house safe**
  - Pip’s goal: **burn the fucker down with them in it** (mirroring Joe’s tactic).
- You debated how Ben learns “when” the attack is coming; you leaned toward Pip being out of commission, threats being vague, and Ben needing to prep without perfect timing.

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## 5) Ben’s Counterplay — “Throw a Party” Trap Plan

> Player-driven escalation: Ben decides to use social chaos as a shield and recruit NPCs as “extra bodies.”

### 5.1 Ben’s Plan
- Ben proposes throwing a party at his house to:
  - lure retaliation into a controlled environment
  - get as many NPCs as possible on his side
  - create plausible deniability via crowd/chaos.

### 5.2 Prep Mechanics You Ran
You introduced a simple “prep action” structure for the PCs before the fight.

**Soren’s prep actions:**
- **Success:** greased all the doorknobs (environmental hazard / comedy)
- **Failure:** caltrops all over the carpet (hazard that backfires / messy house)

**Ben’s prep actions:**
- **1 for 1:** secured drinks
- **Other result:** worst playlist ever (tone + distraction / comic utility)

**Joe’s prep actions:**
- **Passed both:** trapped the perimeter (defensive advantage / early warning)

### 5.3 Notable Guests Present
- **Bobby Poets** (formerly “Bobby Rapist,” had an in-game redemption / reframing last session)
- **Chaz Ironwick**
- **Fouadriel Al-Mir**
- **Seb Castillo**
- **Jax Hollow**
- **Sumri Tord**
*(Other guests may have been invited earlier but these are the ones confirmed “notable” in the party scene.)*

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## 6) The Party Fight — End-of-Last-Session Combat

### 6.1 Fight Trigger (Your current direction)
- You planned that **Pip himself might not show**, but his goons would.
- Reasonable enemy objectives you floated:
  - **kidnap Ben** (cleanest “we win without burning the house down”)
  - **torch the place** (parallel to Circle)
  - (You rejected “ash tag / long-term marking” as too slow.)

### 6.2 Combat Outcome (What is now true)
- The fight breaks out at Ben’s party.
- Most guests flee mid-chaos or immediately after.
- **5 teenage bodies** are left in Ben’s living room by the end of the session.

*(You didn’t specify exact identities of the dead teens in chat; log this once you decide: goons vs guests vs mixed.)*

### 6.3 Present End State
- The PCs are still in Ben’s house.
- Living room is a crime scene:
  - bodies
  - party wreckage
  - evidence of defensive traps/hazards
- The guests who fled now become:
  - rumor vectors
  - future witnesses
  - potential leverage for Oversight / admin / Pip survivors.

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## 7) Open Threads / Immediate Next Beats

### 7.1 “Heat” Consequences (without derailing)
This sidequest is now too loud to ignore forever, but you want a middle ground:
- Not “constant police scrutiny every session”
- Not “no evidence survived”
Suggested framing:
- **short-term shock + rumor wave**
- **selective attention** (one lead detective / one Oversight agent tracking patterns)
- the school wants it quiet; oversight wants it contained; parents want answers.

### 7.2 Pip’s Status (unknowns to lock)
Decide and record:
- Is Pip still hospitalized, or mobile now?
- Did Pip’s goons act under orders or freelance revenge?
- Does Pip know the party fight happened / how soon?

### 7.3 Ben’s Parents (current status)
- They exist as stakes but are not confirmed present during party fight.
- Decide:
  - were they away?
  - asleep in bunker?
  - evacuated?
This affects the next session’s emotional fallout.

### 7.4 Evidence & Witness List
- Who fled that can talk?
  - Bobby, Chaz, Seb, Jax, Sumri, Fouad (and any minor extras)
- What did they see?
  - fire, spells, bodies, traps, “who looked guilty,” etc.

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## 8) Summary (One Sentence)
Ben’s fake-block weed hustle got him marked by Pip at The Circle; Joe escalated the feud into a gas-station bombing with civilian casualties; Pip threatened Ben’s home; Ben responded by turning his mansion into a trap-party — and now there are five dead teenagers in his living room and the campaign has a volatile “heat” meter that can collide with the leyline arc at any time.