Ok, so my party just stormed Castle Nearytar, with the help of the Lizardfolk as they rose up against the Bullywugs. Successful battles all round, they basically scorch earthed everyone that did not manage to flee through the portal from them. They find the portal...which I actually described as a permanent teleportation circle....and rather than going through it to track their quarry(Rezmir) they destroyed it. So now, they are in Castle Naerytar, checking in with the Lizardfolk to see how their fight against the Bullywugs went, and they start to wonder how to figure out where to find Rezmir. *facepalm* I mean....I tried to hint that they could go through....but they decided that they needed to break it so the cult could not come back through to the castle. So now, I am sitting here wondering "now what?" Without going through the portal, they don't really have a way to follow Rezmir and the other cultists that went through with the bulk of the loot now. They scorch earthed everyone they found in the castle, so there are no prisoners to tell them even. So, they don't follow through and find the lodge, or Parnast, or more importantly Skyreach Castle. How do I get them into the next stages without railroading them? Or just "you guys are summoned to Waterdeep" because right now there is no reason at all for the Council of Waterdeep to even know they exist, much less want to talk to them. ((FYI the first part of the adventure was different from the normal, as we came in off of doing the Lost Mine of Phandelver module, and they tracked the Cultists this far after raids on Phandalin and the area about there, so them taking down, or capturing Skyreach, and taking down, or capturing Rezmir, was what I had planned on using to get them even noticed by the Council of Waterdeep.)) Any suggestions? Anyone else have this sort of thing happen to them as well? And no, if you are wondering, I don't want to just go "ok, make new characters for the new campaign!" because we've already talked about this being a long term, one long adventure.
Knowing exactly zero about Hoard of the Dragon Queen could they:
Macgyver the portal and get it working again
Find some orders on a dead (or almost dead) captain or something that says where to rendezvous if things go bad.
Find a one off magic item on a body that teleports the party where ever they need to be.
I suspect you're going to have to do a tiny bit of railroading to get them where you need them otherwise they could go off the rails and go in a direction that you did not anticipate. You could even have the party suggest an idea and make that the solution. They are not going to know and are going to feel so smart for figuring it out.
I'd suggest finding something like papers hidden somewhere in the castle that offer some clue as to where the cultists might be. Even a shipping label on a crate of supplies that came through the portal labeld "Parnast General Store" might get them into the right general area.
However, you don't want to make it easy on the players. They need to learn that a scorched earth policy when they are trying to track down an opponent is generally not a good idea since a lot of their possible sources of information disappear this way. So, give them some weak hints about where to look if they investigate a bit.
If they don't investigate and just decide to give up and do something else, then have the cultists track down an ambush the party a few weeks later and see if that spurs them to greater efforts (it might also offer up some additional clues).
well I thought of that, the problem is that Parnast is like over 900 miles away from there, so a ground journey would be pointless, as everything would be over before they could get even close. LOL It's like a 2-3 day time window to get them there in time to actually fit into what is going on. So, I suppose my other option is to somehow come up with something completely different to give them something to do that will eventually lead back into what's going on, but I have a week to figure out how to begin that. And it still leaves the problem of figuring out how they would even be someone the Council would speak with/look at, as...everything that gets them known wraps up with Skyreach. Guess I just need to start from scratch and create an entire new storyline LOL
Screw the timeline. Easiest thing to do is to say that the bad guy's plans are disrupted somehow and that delays them. They decided to destroy the portal, make them SUFFER for that decision.
Give them a map to the lodge with a paper saying how horrible the trip is, expensive, and vile, thank GOD we built a portal. Have a friendly airship of some kind happen by. Have them travel there by the ship, arriving JUST in time as the bad guys finally recover from the disruption. Charge the crap out of them for transportation. In fact, make them work the voyage, and not fun body guard work, but slop work. Cleaning, etc. When they complain, have someone drag the story out of them and make fun of them for destroying the portal saying "Anyone with a brain would go THROUGH the portal before deciding which side you destroy it from."
Maybe they only thought they destroyed the portal, but when they go back to check on it it’s working properly. Or the guy had an invisible servant who fixed it. Or one of the NPCs knows how to fix it.
Screw the timeline. Easiest thing to do is to say that the bad guy's plans are disrupted somehow and that delays them. They decided to destroy the portal, make them SUFFER for that decision.
Give them a map to the lodge with a paper saying how horrible the trip is, expensive, and vile, thank GOD we built a portal. Have a friendly airship of some kind happen by. Have them travel there by the ship, arriving JUST in time as the bad guys finally recover from the disruption. Charge the crap out of them for transportation. In fact, make them work the voyage, and not fun body guard work, but slop work. Cleaning, etc. When they complain, have someone drag the story out of them and make fun of them for destroying the portal saying "Anyone with a brain would go THROUGH the portal before deciding which side you destroy it from."
Mostly this, honestly. Your party made a huge mistake. They failed. It wouldn’t be fun for that to be a game-ending failure, but they should understand that they failed, or else they’ll know it doesn’t matter what they do, you’ll just make it all work out somehow.
Impress upon them that their failure means lost time, which means consequences. Destroy a city or something, whatever’s appropriate to your story, something that they’ll know they could have prevented if they hadn’t been so reckless. Still give them away forward, but make them feel bad about it.
99% of the time, failures and mistakes should be recoverable, so they shouldn’t mean a Game Over screen. But if they don’t feel like failures, then it’s not really possible to fail at all, and then nothing matters.
The time impact can be worked into the story. The flying castle is essentially an armored car. The cultists are attacking towns to steal gold in order to raise Tiamat. That stolen gold is funneled to a central point, where it is loaded into the flying castle and transported. (Remember, the cultists are attacking all over Faerun, not just the Sword Coast) The treasure in the flying castle is not the total of the cultist's stolen gold, just a part of it.
As suggested, have some info in Dralmorer or Rezmir's rooms that give them clues in the swamp castle. Flat out give them the info that the flying castle is being used to transport the treasure. They should take whatever info they find back to Leosin. Have the NPCs (Leosin, the Harpers, etc) explain the cost of noir following through the portal. "This delay has resulted in several more shipments of treasure being shipped via the flying castle." Also, make it a negative on the scorecard if you want. But then, have the Harpers (or Lord's Alliance) offer up a transportation circle to get them where they need to be and pick up from there. Could be outside of Parnast, or the Hunting Lodge. (There are stones near the lodge that can be used to tie this in)
Maybe they only got through the portal with some of the gold, scorched earth really does leave less people to carry stuff, so maybe they find crates full of gold and artifacts that couldn't be carried through the portal. They could return it to the various ransacked villages and towns to get noticed or keep it to make themselves filthy rich which would also get them noticed. the first way the Waterdeep council notice them and contact them for help and give them a reward for their generosity. The second way the council notice them and give them a choice sort shit out or get locked up for profiteering.
Either way don't punish them for doing something like destroying a portal, did they know how important it was to the plot?? Or were they making the sensible choice at the time ie if it's broke we can't be attacked through it!
Maybe there is a second portal in the castle somewhere secret that only Rezmir knew about. You're the DM the book primarily is a guide so use it as a guide and fill in the blanks as you go.
Yeah, their thought was "we break this, than the cultists that went through already can't come back and hit us from behind while we search the rest of the Castle for others, also we break their transport line for treasure." They hadn't really encountered anyone of import other than Azbara Jos and Dralmorror Grayborn(other than Lizardmen and Bullywugs) before they found the portal. The problem comes in that Rezmir scurried away as soon as she knew anything was up and so they didn't realize they weren't going to find her on this side now. Also, I think they thought if they went through it would be a trap.
Yeah, their thought was "we break this, than the cultists that went through already can't come back and hit us from behind while we search the rest of the Castle for others, also we break their transport line for treasure." They hadn't really encountered anyone of import other than Azbara Jos and Dralmorror Grayborn(other than Lizardmen and Bullywugs) before they found the portal. The problem comes in that Rezmir scurried away as soon as she knew anything was up and so they didn't realize they weren't going to find her on this side now. Also, I think they thought if they went through it would be a trap.
So they made sound logical decisions based on the information they had to hand. Don't punish them, use the power granted to you as DM and create an option for them. They could find an older teleportation circle hidden in an abandoned secret area of the castle. One that even the cultists didn't know about.
I was thinking, if a DM had designed this situation homebrew, we'd be criticizing them for there only being one way forward and it being a railroad. We'd say, you should have considered the possibility that they don't, for whatever reason, go through the portal. I agree with the above posters that there should usually be consequences, but it seems in this case like there was a flaw in the way the whole thing was designed.
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Ok, so my party just stormed Castle Nearytar, with the help of the Lizardfolk as they rose up against the Bullywugs. Successful battles all round, they basically scorch earthed everyone that did not manage to flee through the portal from them. They find the portal...which I actually described as a permanent teleportation circle....and rather than going through it to track their quarry(Rezmir) they destroyed it. So now, they are in Castle Naerytar, checking in with the Lizardfolk to see how their fight against the Bullywugs went, and they start to wonder how to figure out where to find Rezmir. *facepalm* I mean....I tried to hint that they could go through....but they decided that they needed to break it so the cult could not come back through to the castle. So now, I am sitting here wondering "now what?" Without going through the portal, they don't really have a way to follow Rezmir and the other cultists that went through with the bulk of the loot now. They scorch earthed everyone they found in the castle, so there are no prisoners to tell them even. So, they don't follow through and find the lodge, or Parnast, or more importantly Skyreach Castle. How do I get them into the next stages without railroading them? Or just "you guys are summoned to Waterdeep" because right now there is no reason at all for the Council of Waterdeep to even know they exist, much less want to talk to them. ((FYI the first part of the adventure was different from the normal, as we came in off of doing the Lost Mine of Phandelver module, and they tracked the Cultists this far after raids on Phandalin and the area about there, so them taking down, or capturing Skyreach, and taking down, or capturing Rezmir, was what I had planned on using to get them even noticed by the Council of Waterdeep.)) Any suggestions? Anyone else have this sort of thing happen to them as well? And no, if you are wondering, I don't want to just go "ok, make new characters for the new campaign!" because we've already talked about this being a long term, one long adventure.
Knowing exactly zero about Hoard of the Dragon Queen could they:
I suspect you're going to have to do a tiny bit of railroading to get them where you need them otherwise they could go off the rails and go in a direction that you did not anticipate. You could even have the party suggest an idea and make that the solution. They are not going to know and are going to feel so smart for figuring it out.
Good luck!
I'd suggest finding something like papers hidden somewhere in the castle that offer some clue as to where the cultists might be. Even a shipping label on a crate of supplies that came through the portal labeld "Parnast General Store" might get them into the right general area.
However, you don't want to make it easy on the players. They need to learn that a scorched earth policy when they are trying to track down an opponent is generally not a good idea since a lot of their possible sources of information disappear this way. So, give them some weak hints about where to look if they investigate a bit.
If they don't investigate and just decide to give up and do something else, then have the cultists track down an ambush the party a few weeks later and see if that spurs them to greater efforts (it might also offer up some additional clues).
well I thought of that, the problem is that Parnast is like over 900 miles away from there, so a ground journey would be pointless, as everything would be over before they could get even close. LOL It's like a 2-3 day time window to get them there in time to actually fit into what is going on. So, I suppose my other option is to somehow come up with something completely different to give them something to do that will eventually lead back into what's going on, but I have a week to figure out how to begin that. And it still leaves the problem of figuring out how they would even be someone the Council would speak with/look at, as...everything that gets them known wraps up with Skyreach. Guess I just need to start from scratch and create an entire new storyline LOL
Screw the timeline. Easiest thing to do is to say that the bad guy's plans are disrupted somehow and that delays them. They decided to destroy the portal, make them SUFFER for that decision.
Give them a map to the lodge with a paper saying how horrible the trip is, expensive, and vile, thank GOD we built a portal. Have a friendly airship of some kind happen by. Have them travel there by the ship, arriving JUST in time as the bad guys finally recover from the disruption. Charge the crap out of them for transportation. In fact, make them work the voyage, and not fun body guard work, but slop work. Cleaning, etc. When they complain, have someone drag the story out of them and make fun of them for destroying the portal saying "Anyone with a brain would go THROUGH the portal before deciding which side you destroy it from."
Maybe they only thought they destroyed the portal, but when they go back to check on it it’s working properly. Or the guy had an invisible servant who fixed it. Or one of the NPCs knows how to fix it.
Mostly this, honestly. Your party made a huge mistake. They failed. It wouldn’t be fun for that to be a game-ending failure, but they should understand that they failed, or else they’ll know it doesn’t matter what they do, you’ll just make it all work out somehow.
Impress upon them that their failure means lost time, which means consequences. Destroy a city or something, whatever’s appropriate to your story, something that they’ll know they could have prevented if they hadn’t been so reckless. Still give them away forward, but make them feel bad about it.
99% of the time, failures and mistakes should be recoverable, so they shouldn’t mean a Game Over screen. But if they don’t feel like failures, then it’s not really possible to fail at all, and then nothing matters.
The time impact can be worked into the story. The flying castle is essentially an armored car. The cultists are attacking towns to steal gold in order to raise Tiamat. That stolen gold is funneled to a central point, where it is loaded into the flying castle and transported. (Remember, the cultists are attacking all over Faerun, not just the Sword Coast) The treasure in the flying castle is not the total of the cultist's stolen gold, just a part of it.
As suggested, have some info in Dralmorer or Rezmir's rooms that give them clues in the swamp castle. Flat out give them the info that the flying castle is being used to transport the treasure. They should take whatever info they find back to Leosin. Have the NPCs (Leosin, the Harpers, etc) explain the cost of noir following through the portal. "This delay has resulted in several more shipments of treasure being shipped via the flying castle." Also, make it a negative on the scorecard if you want. But then, have the Harpers (or Lord's Alliance) offer up a transportation circle to get them where they need to be and pick up from there. Could be outside of Parnast, or the Hunting Lodge. (There are stones near the lodge that can be used to tie this in)
Maybe they only got through the portal with some of the gold, scorched earth really does leave less people to carry stuff, so maybe they find crates full of gold and artifacts that couldn't be carried through the portal. They could return it to the various ransacked villages and towns to get noticed or keep it to make themselves filthy rich which would also get them noticed. the first way the Waterdeep council notice them and contact them for help and give them a reward for their generosity. The second way the council notice them and give them a choice sort shit out or get locked up for profiteering.
Either way don't punish them for doing something like destroying a portal, did they know how important it was to the plot?? Or were they making the sensible choice at the time ie if it's broke we can't be attacked through it!
Maybe there is a second portal in the castle somewhere secret that only Rezmir knew about. You're the DM the book primarily is a guide so use it as a guide and fill in the blanks as you go.
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Yeah, their thought was "we break this, than the cultists that went through already can't come back and hit us from behind while we search the rest of the Castle for others, also we break their transport line for treasure." They hadn't really encountered anyone of import other than Azbara Jos and Dralmorror Grayborn(other than Lizardmen and Bullywugs) before they found the portal. The problem comes in that Rezmir scurried away as soon as she knew anything was up and so they didn't realize they weren't going to find her on this side now. Also, I think they thought if they went through it would be a trap.
So they made sound logical decisions based on the information they had to hand. Don't punish them, use the power granted to you as DM and create an option for them. They could find an older teleportation circle hidden in an abandoned secret area of the castle. One that even the cultists didn't know about.
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Yeah, I think you find a way to help them.
I was thinking, if a DM had designed this situation homebrew, we'd be criticizing them for there only being one way forward and it being a railroad. We'd say, you should have considered the possibility that they don't, for whatever reason, go through the portal. I agree with the above posters that there should usually be consequences, but it seems in this case like there was a flaw in the way the whole thing was designed.