The High Street

Elowin channels Lunea into a Twilight Sanctuary. A sphere of dim light appears around her, enveloping the vehicle, the courtier, the party, and the first several ranks of people in the crowd. This causes some of the enraged citizens to lose some fervor so that they split off and go their different ways, and leaves the remaining citizens momentarily confused: only angry, not scared. Elowin gestures for the others to follow her and begins to leave with Findal.

Elysia hesitates, but urges Eozindra to accompany the others. Eozindra wishes her friend well, inspiring her with carefully-chosen words, then moves to leave with the gnome and his companions. But Bramlin stays by Elysia's side. "I'm sure you can handle yourself fine on your own," the human warrior says softly to the half-elven brunette, "But there's a bit more safety in numbers, and besides, I swore that I'm through with running from danger." Elysia turns to the courtier, asking what brought him here with the drow.

Sweating and relieved of anxiety about the situation by Lunea's presence, the gaudily-dressed courtier swells with pride: "I have been tasked by the Queen herself to escort these emissaries to the castle." He raises his voice so the crowd can hear. "It is my sworn duty to deliver them unharmed to the castle, and I mean to see it through!"


The people at the front of the crowd mill about, a bit muddled. They hate drow, yes, but they don't feel that hatred as keenly now that the fear has been removed from the equation. Some of them shake their heads and walk away. But then a cobblestone sails through the air from the back of the crowd and smacks against the lacquered panels of the palanquin. The courtier gives a little bleat of surprise, and the people at the front of the crowd move forward, shoved by the people behind them. "Burn them! Burn them!!!"

"Stay back! I'm warning you! I'm on Royal Business!" The courtier's voice is raised with the contempt he feels instead of fear. "Who are you all to block these Royal Guests?!"

"Those maggot elves aren't going to steal any more children - not in our city!!!" Someone near the front shouts, and the crowd inches forward some more.

Each of you can tell that violence is only moments away. What do you do?

They are freed from fear, but they remain angry. This is making the mob less dangerous, but not defusing the situation entirely. I tried to convey that the ones who were only afraid have left; I should have been more explicit that that was the good result of Elowin's actions. After the ones who were only motivated by fear left, the rest are not dispersing.

Since the crowd isn't dispersing, I thought you might be amending your action. If not...

...the attempt to Intimidate them isn't effective enough to do more than rile them up further. They are really angry about drow and the fact that, apparently, their leaders invited these necromancers into the city! So while they are normally afraid of the Duke, the absence of fear turns getting threatened in the Duke's name into resentment toward the Duke and his representatives.

One thing that's puzzling is the question of how the people knew that there were drow in this vehicle, with enough time to form a mob. It's not like the courtier was escorting them with fanfare and a parade...

"Fire!" A person cries in the rear, and several people brandish their torches as the crowd steps forward again.
"The Duke??" A voice shouts from the crowd, responding to Elysia's words. "The Duke is a maggot-elf lover!" The angry muttering rises in volume.
Another shouts: "Taking meetings with necromancers while the poor people starve!" The torches wave threateningly now, and the crowd takes two steps closer.
"It's time we show 'em!" Another yells, and there are grunts and shouts of agreement. "Show 'em we won't take it anymore!"
The courtier is looking around, trying to find a way out of this situation.
"Burn the decay from our city, burn it to make it clean!"
The people at the front of the crowd are adjacent to Elysia and Bramlin and the courtier, now, though all their ire seems directed at the courtier and the vehicle, for the moment. The courtier backpedals and stammers: I...I..." Then he turns tail and runs, shrieking "GUARDS! GUARDS!" One of the people in the mob aims a kick at his fleeing backside. The bearers of the palanquin have remained stopped, motionless and inscrutable in their leather wrappings, holding up the strange palanquin.

Leading Findal, Eozindra has ducked into an alley leading off of the avenue. Elowin, Adran, and Morik are closer to the alley than they are to the palanquin, Elysia, and Bramlin. Ishi, hearing the commotion, comes up the avenue behind the palanquin, and recognizes his previous acquaintances/friends in the street. It's obvious to everyone that violence will erupt in moments.

Findal nods at Adran's words, but then he looks back at the street and how the crowd is milling around the palanquin, its bearers, and the heroes Elysia and Bramlin. "You think they'll be well?" It's not clear whether he's talking about the drow ambassadors, the crowd of angry citizens, or the heroes.

Elysia berates the crowd.
The people hesitate at Elysia's impassioned speech, and for a moment there is quiet. But then the rest of the crowd continues to push forward, and another rock is thrown, which cracks against the black-and-red palanquin with a noise that echoes on the avenue. The noise galvanizes the mob, and they rush forward to attack the palanquin's bearers.

Everyone, please roll initiative for your characters, and declare what each one is doing in the first round that the mob is attacking the palanquin. Bramlin will go after Elysia.Three things to note:
1) Map details: These are standard 5' squares. There are more than forty people still in the crowd, after about a fifth left due to the party's earlier actions. The people in the mob are shown on the map as "top-down" figures. By contrast, each party member has a circular token with the character's name under it ("FDF" stands for Findal Dinfizzle Findazzle). The six leather-wrapped palanquin bearers also have circular tokens, but no names.
2) Ishi, Eozindra, Morik, Adran, Findal, and Elowin are not engaged with any bearers or people in the mob, so they could slip away...but Elysia and Bramlin are getting surrounded, and it will be harder for them to leave without help. The crowd is crushing in like a mosh pit.
3) This first round, the mob has DISADV on attacks from missing the people who left in Lunea's presence. A charismatic leader might be able to extend that with sufficient rhetoric (action to make a CHR Performance check, DC14). Characters can support one side or another, or decide to just work on getting free and away. If it does come to fighting, note whether you are attacking in earnest, or trying for non-lethal damage. If you decide to defend the drow ambassadors and their bearers, note that I'm going to resolve any action to dissuade or turn aside the crowd as if it were an attack, reducing the mob's collective "HP" to represent people leaving the mob. If you decide to join the citizens in expelling the reviled foreigners, the bearers can only be dissuaded by actual attacks.

No, they're not mutually exclusive.

Here's how the mob works: mechanically, it is treated like one giant organism with a lot of HP and a single big attack. But thematically - in the narrative - it is a large group of individuals. So both non-lethal attacks and arguments will reduce the mob's HP, whether that is by knocking some of the people down or by changing their minds about their actions, the result is the same: some of the individuals that make up the large mob are leaving/being removed, which is represented by the mob's HP going down. So you all could stick to one type of action, or every turn you could alternate argumentation, physical force, and intimidation, ridicule, and/or whatever else makes sense to you to reduce the "strength" of the mob. You are all doing great so far!

ROUND ONE

Elysia continues to try to talk some sense into the frenzied mob, accompanied by Eozindra's delightful flute music. She gets through to a few of them, who turn and walk away to re-examine themselves and their motivations.
Elowin pushes past the others and out of the alleyway, invoking the spirit of Lunea to befuddle her ally Bramlin's enemies.
On the other side of the stopped palanquin, Ishi recognizes that his old acquaintance Elysia is in danger, and the blood begins to roar in his ears once again. The last of his tribe strides up to the mob and shoves a path through the crowd so that Elysia can get out if she chooses. Adran hustles Findal further down the alley and away from the confrontation.
A small shutter opens in the palanquin, revealing a pair of large, dark, and expressive eyes that gaze intently at Elysia. A graceful, pale lavender hand emerges and drops something that bounces and rolls to a stop at the half-elf rogue's feet.
Everyone can hear raised voices of Grayhaven Guards calling to one another in the distance; the defenders that the courtier left to find will arrive in the next rounds.
Having followed Elowin to the mouth of the alley, Eozindra plays her flute and then addresses the crowd with an impassioned plea for compassion, tolerance, and understanding. Another person leaves the group, but most of the people in the mob are snarling and growling in their rage, looking for an external target to pin it on.
Not understanding the nature of the blessing he'd been given, Bramlin punches his way through the mob, toward the alley and the others.
The mob surges forward and attacks one of the bearers, beating the leather-wrapped figure savagely with torches, clubs, and fists. Sparks fly as torches impact with the leather and the figure staggers under the blows, sending the palanquin rocking.
The palanquin descends as the bearers set it down, and then each bearer turns its leather-wrapped face and moves purposely forward to attack people in the mob. Ishi immediately smells that these bearers are unclean things: they reek of death and magic. Each of the six bearers grabs a person in the mob and inexorably begins punching and/or throttling them.
Morik rushes forward, puts his hand on the ground, and calls upon the memory of green growing things in the earth. The cobblestones shift and twist as long grasses, vines, and strands of cleavers erupt under and around them. The plants snake around the legs and feet of the angry citizens, grasping at their limbs and restraining the mob.

MAP:What do you do next?

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24 - Elysia
23 - Elowin
20 - Ishi
20 - Adran
18 - drow
18 - courtier
14 - Eozindra
14 - Bramlin
13 - Mob
12 - bearers
8 - Morik