How to negociate with a posse

We were a bit tired and crook. One player had been doing a security course that day.

Knock knock
"who is there?"
"the sheriff of Greenfen Village"
"I don't recognize your authority in this village - go away!"
"I need to question you regarding the murder of our barkeeper"
"Tell us how much money you want and we will slide it under the door"

The posse have an argument. They talk terms with the so called heroes and carry off a wagon of pornographic furniture and erotic dark elf tapestries back to Greenfen village.

The heroes leave short on cash (or things they can sell to country folk). They reconnoiter a new village Thingfall. It is a lost frontier town of all rogues and warriors, even the villagers. They even meet a gnome, a dwarf and and elf and find an elf body. The team head for the hills and attacked a cave lair of the local batrider clan of goblins. Coping well with the goblins the find a demonic statue which they strip of jewels and smash. The Druids brown bear knocks it over easy. The find a well full of corpses and Pug the sorcerer senses a magic thing. So the priest and the thief go down ready for undead. A shadow attacks but the priest turns it into a corner and the thief flees screaming "dooooom!"

Which panics all the usually reliably henchmen warriors. The druid jumps down to help the priest and the priest is drained dry. The reluctant wizard and sorcerer jump down and burn their fighting spells and kill the horror, as a new one arises from the dead priest Sontag. Luckily the new Shade was weaker than its maker and only lasted a few rounds.

The wizard was heart broken as the other lawful good party member was dead. She is considering converting to chaotic to cope with her peers better. His ogre convert will probably react to the news too. He had just agreed to 70 years of service for his 3 generational crime spree too.

They found an elf sword and some potions, then collected their friends corpse and marched back to town. Also they are all going on 4th level.

Well they survived low level and officially are tough enough for the most horrible city in the world.
Under my rules if they stick to class proficiencies they level up in 3 days of contemplation. Or they can learn exotic cross proficiencies and pay big cash to learn other skills. This will take 3 weeks instead.They will need a teacher or expensive books too. I can see some characters doing different things so id better finish my time to kill tables. I should look for my old thieves world and a RQ2 city table book both using really good city tables.

The druid who learned longsword to use a cold-iron and silver quality sword, now wants to learn to use an elven long bow+1. Recent experiences with goblin archers may have prompted this. The party have a +1 black sabre which never makes a noise and a pre-human elf spear +1 and a short sword defender+1 so several players may choose new weapons. Pug the sorcerer has short bow skills already are deadly, but Ulf the horse archer is better by far as a warrior he should be.

The followers are all uneasy with profit losses, party alignment shifts from recent death and legal trouble will challenge their loyalty. But the main player characters, their pets and new followers should make a survivable team at 4th. I always admired Ars magica for running all parties as magicians with flunkies.

Will be some Space Cthulhu coming soon here soon and ive gone back too doodling my Gamma World universe.....