So in my campaign my due to some bad surrounding explanation by me , and through even terrible party decisions. The group decided to run away from 50 plus duergar in the middle of and open cavern, inside of a duergar strong. Players were captured within minutes by the overwhelming duergar forces. Now here's the problem one player's characters left the group before this all happened, and so missed the entire chain of events, and the other was druid who managed to beast shape into a rat a hide. The party is level 2, slaves the the duergar, they had escaped, (unowning the duergar) went back for a quest point then bam. The part consists of 7 players. 5 are captured by the duergar (one is a new person, so he has his own thing but still). So this leaves the problem the two characters who wiggled away now are doing the main quest, but the rest of the part now of no ability to go to that point now, and being whisked away to a different plot point due to unfortunate chain of events. The group of 5 are being integrated by the duergar, and most likely will be shipped off into gladiatorial arena rather being placed back into the mines, but some of the players cooperated with the duergar on getting information, so logical they would be released back into the mines, rather than being "killed" off in the arena. But that would split up the party even more, and sense this is a larger party of 7 people, it would create multiple plot points and conflictions. The 2 players who are going on the main quest, will get their weaponry (Their are slaves don't have anything, main quest was to get them their items), so currently they are unable to go and attempt to free their friends. What I am thinking is sense the duergar know that the other 2 players are missing, and where apart of the escape plan, I was thinking of having the duergar capture them, to get the part back together, but I don't want force the game to go in a direction. I want their to the possibility that they don't get captured by the duergar.
I'd start by contacting the 2-person group, in between sessions, and ask them what they plan to do. You might even let them know, that, after their experiences in the mines, they'd expect the party to be shipped off to fight in the arena. Do they want to go mount a rescue attempt or continue on with the mission. Nine times out of 10, they'll want to do the rescue.
And I'd definitely keep the other group together. yes, some of them helped, but the duergar can easily say, thanks, but we still don't trust you not to try and escape again, off to the arena with you. Then you at least have all of them in the same building. From there it should be easy enough for the two on the outside do something to free their companions. What the something is, is up to the players to figure out.
Now, if the other two don't want to do the rescue, that gets to be a tough nut to crack. The thing that would make most sense would be to run separate sessions, since otherwise you have players sitting around doing nothing while one group plays. But that's not really practical or very fun. You could always just ask them to. Just say, guys, we're a bit off the rails here, and I'm hoping you can help us get back on track by rescuing your friends.
One of the issues with having 7 players is that it will often seem odd to have them in the same location at all times. Remember that you are the DM, and therefore can twist the story in any way that you see fit. Something could happen to the duergar that doesn't have anything to do with the PC's but gives them an opportunity to escape. Maybe an enemy of the duergar come to pay them a visit? Maybe a fight breaks out and the PC's have an opportunity to escape, or even make new allies? Think outside the box. The players don't know what your story entails, so anything that happens will be seen as something you had planned all along! Hindsight is 20/20 though, and I would recommend putting obstacles in the way of a PC who wants to go in a direction that would make your life harder.
I think you need to work on fixing the cause of this situation as much or more than coming up with a solution.
1) The easy part is the solution.
- there are several approaches
A) explain to the two that escaped that their chances of recovering the stuff is very small without the rest of the party - they are likely to be recaptured. This should get them to pivot towards rescuing the rest of the party. You could say that the room where the equipment is kept has 4-6 duergar guards on rotation, some of whom will likely be invisible. In addition, mention that the duergar appear to have some trained animals guarding as well, perhaps a cat and an owl. The problem with the animals is that they are much more likely to notice an errant mouse or other wildshaped creature. The pets are there to help spot invisible creatures since, considering every duergar can turn invisible, it could be a problem. They are also very familiar with invisibility and would defend against it. However, the pets are also a protection against wild shapes so that a wild shaped druid won't be able to slip in, change, grab most of the gear, wild shape again and sneak back out. So - the group needs to get back together.
B) OR ... allow the druid to wild shape into the storage room, grab most of the gear and wild shape back out. In this case the party will have most or at least some of its gear when they try to escape from the cells in the arena. You could even do this off camera by email with the two players and start the next session with the rescue and escape.
2) However, the real issue is "So in my campaign my due to some bad surrounding explanation by me , and through even terrible party decisions." There is a clear lack of communication and understanding between the DM and the players in this case. Either the players did not understand the situation or they just decided to get recaptured or sacrifice themselves. Assuming that the players enjoy the game and their characters, I would think that the entire situation is due to a fundamental misunderstanding.
The DM though KNOWS when the party doesn't understand something. If the party is making a "terrible" decision from the DMs perspective then the most likely reason is that the party does NOT understand. The DM could assume the party is just made up of folks who make terrible decisions but in my experience that is very unlikely. So, unless there are obvious signs that the party is intentionally making terrible decisions for role play reasons or just to be irritating, then it is the responsibility for the DM to find out what the players do not understand about the situation.
For example, " The group decided to run away from 50 plus duergar in the middle of and open cavern, inside of a duergar strong." ... how did this happen? Were the 50 plus duergar invisible? Did the duergar enter the open cavern after the player's did? Why did the players decide to cross a big open cavern and if it was empty when they started how did it suddenly fill with 50 duergar? The CHARACTERS would take one look at the situation and say "Hey! That cavern has 50 duergar, walking out into the middle of it is a bad idea". A reasonable character would not walk into that situation, if the players decide to do so anyway then there is something they likely don't understand. However, let's say the cavern is empty and the players decide to take a chance and quickly cross - I have to ask, in the 30 seconds it takes them to cross - where did 50 plus duergar come from? That one is on the DM, setting up a situation where they know most of the characters would not escape.
Basically, the situation leading to the current predicament should never have happened and it likely occurred due to a communications or awareness issue that needs to be resolved even more than rescuing the current plot line since if it isn't, it will likely happen again.
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So in my campaign my due to some bad surrounding explanation by me , and through even terrible party decisions. The group decided to run away from 50 plus duergar in the middle of and open cavern, inside of a duergar strong. Players were captured within minutes by the overwhelming duergar forces. Now here's the problem one player's characters left the group before this all happened, and so missed the entire chain of events, and the other was druid who managed to beast shape into a rat a hide. The party is level 2, slaves the the duergar, they had escaped, (unowning the duergar) went back for a quest point then bam. The part consists of 7 players. 5 are captured by the duergar (one is a new person, so he has his own thing but still). So this leaves the problem the two characters who wiggled away now are doing the main quest, but the rest of the part now of no ability to go to that point now, and being whisked away to a different plot point due to unfortunate chain of events. The group of 5 are being integrated by the duergar, and most likely will be shipped off into gladiatorial arena rather being placed back into the mines, but some of the players cooperated with the duergar on getting information, so logical they would be released back into the mines, rather than being "killed" off in the arena. But that would split up the party even more, and sense this is a larger party of 7 people, it would create multiple plot points and conflictions. The 2 players who are going on the main quest, will get their weaponry (Their are slaves don't have anything, main quest was to get them their items), so currently they are unable to go and attempt to free their friends. What I am thinking is sense the duergar know that the other 2 players are missing, and where apart of the escape plan, I was thinking of having the duergar capture them, to get the part back together, but I don't want force the game to go in a direction. I want their to the possibility that they don't get captured by the duergar.
I'd start by contacting the 2-person group, in between sessions, and ask them what they plan to do. You might even let them know, that, after their experiences in the mines, they'd expect the party to be shipped off to fight in the arena. Do they want to go mount a rescue attempt or continue on with the mission. Nine times out of 10, they'll want to do the rescue.
And I'd definitely keep the other group together. yes, some of them helped, but the duergar can easily say, thanks, but we still don't trust you not to try and escape again, off to the arena with you. Then you at least have all of them in the same building. From there it should be easy enough for the two on the outside do something to free their companions. What the something is, is up to the players to figure out.
Now, if the other two don't want to do the rescue, that gets to be a tough nut to crack. The thing that would make most sense would be to run separate sessions, since otherwise you have players sitting around doing nothing while one group plays. But that's not really practical or very fun. You could always just ask them to. Just say, guys, we're a bit off the rails here, and I'm hoping you can help us get back on track by rescuing your friends.
One of the issues with having 7 players is that it will often seem odd to have them in the same location at all times. Remember that you are the DM, and therefore can twist the story in any way that you see fit. Something could happen to the duergar that doesn't have anything to do with the PC's but gives them an opportunity to escape. Maybe an enemy of the duergar come to pay them a visit? Maybe a fight breaks out and the PC's have an opportunity to escape, or even make new allies? Think outside the box. The players don't know what your story entails, so anything that happens will be seen as something you had planned all along! Hindsight is 20/20 though, and I would recommend putting obstacles in the way of a PC who wants to go in a direction that would make your life harder.
Hi!
I think you need to work on fixing the cause of this situation as much or more than coming up with a solution.
1) The easy part is the solution.
- there are several approaches
A) explain to the two that escaped that their chances of recovering the stuff is very small without the rest of the party - they are likely to be recaptured. This should get them to pivot towards rescuing the rest of the party. You could say that the room where the equipment is kept has 4-6 duergar guards on rotation, some of whom will likely be invisible. In addition, mention that the duergar appear to have some trained animals guarding as well, perhaps a cat and an owl. The problem with the animals is that they are much more likely to notice an errant mouse or other wildshaped creature. The pets are there to help spot invisible creatures since, considering every duergar can turn invisible, it could be a problem. They are also very familiar with invisibility and would defend against it. However, the pets are also a protection against wild shapes so that a wild shaped druid won't be able to slip in, change, grab most of the gear, wild shape again and sneak back out. So - the group needs to get back together.
B) OR ... allow the druid to wild shape into the storage room, grab most of the gear and wild shape back out. In this case the party will have most or at least some of its gear when they try to escape from the cells in the arena. You could even do this off camera by email with the two players and start the next session with the rescue and escape.
2) However, the real issue is "So in my campaign my due to some bad surrounding explanation by me , and through even terrible party decisions." There is a clear lack of communication and understanding between the DM and the players in this case. Either the players did not understand the situation or they just decided to get recaptured or sacrifice themselves. Assuming that the players enjoy the game and their characters, I would think that the entire situation is due to a fundamental misunderstanding.
The DM though KNOWS when the party doesn't understand something. If the party is making a "terrible" decision from the DMs perspective then the most likely reason is that the party does NOT understand. The DM could assume the party is just made up of folks who make terrible decisions but in my experience that is very unlikely. So, unless there are obvious signs that the party is intentionally making terrible decisions for role play reasons or just to be irritating, then it is the responsibility for the DM to find out what the players do not understand about the situation.
For example, " The group decided to run away from 50 plus duergar in the middle of and open cavern, inside of a duergar strong." ... how did this happen? Were the 50 plus duergar invisible? Did the duergar enter the open cavern after the player's did? Why did the players decide to cross a big open cavern and if it was empty when they started how did it suddenly fill with 50 duergar? The CHARACTERS would take one look at the situation and say "Hey! That cavern has 50 duergar, walking out into the middle of it is a bad idea". A reasonable character would not walk into that situation, if the players decide to do so anyway then there is something they likely don't understand. However, let's say the cavern is empty and the players decide to take a chance and quickly cross - I have to ask, in the 30 seconds it takes them to cross - where did 50 plus duergar come from? That one is on the DM, setting up a situation where they know most of the characters would not escape.
Basically, the situation leading to the current predicament should never have happened and it likely occurred due to a communications or awareness issue that needs to be resolved even more than rescuing the current plot line since if it isn't, it will likely happen again.