I think you may have gotten mixed up in the difference between the temple and the church/cult.
Probably. I assumed "temple" meant "place of active worship", not "place off in the middle of nowhere that used to be a place of worship". So, going back to the original problem:
When the spirit sends out its message of "Kill the nonbelievers", well, it's not really a problem if it only reaches the temple, but if it reaches the church, presumably the church will proceed to attack the nonbelievers. If the PCs immediately chase down the spirit and defeat it finally, that will probably get aborted before too much damage is done. If they take a short rest, there's potential for a lot of damage to be done (and, the spirit might be empowered by the kills it got). Take a long rest and the situation could be very bad.
So... do you think your PCs can sprint through the dungeon without taking any rests? If they can, not a lot of consequences for ignoring the side quests. If they can't, they may regret their decision. Note that if you decide to follow a path like this, you should be clear on the consequences of delay.
The party could chase down the spirit and defeat it then and there. Im also sure they could do it without resting. The downside is, getting back to the city before killing the entity would give them more resources to spend in a fight if they are going to immediately engage the cult. Making it possibly easier to do so. If they choose to destroy the entity first, they could return to the city with very little reasources left. The cult does have reason to continue the fighting, this has to do with the overarching bbeg of the campaign at large not just this arc. So they would somehow have to overcome the cult regardless. The state in which the party is, and the state in which the cult and its followers are may be very different depending on their choices. The cult could begin to lose not only their divine blessings and some of its followers upon the defeat of the entity, but the party would be in a worse state both resource and time-wise. Alternative, the party could return with more and better resources, but with the entity still alive they would contend with a cult that still has very loyal followers and divine blessings. They could try to conserve their resources as much as possible ofcourse in their fight against the entity to save them for their return, but then the fight will undoubtebly be harder.
We play with rules that doesn't allow the party to gain the full benefits of a long rest if the area they are resting is is unsafe. This makes it so that a single long rest will not fully revitalize them.
I would understand that, but I still want to show the party that their efforts still have meaning. Yes I want the conflicts to escalate, but I don't want to make the party feel like them doing what they think is best is only giving them negative effects. What they have is a plan, and it isn't completely nonsensical. So I want them to feel like they accomplished things while also feeling the consequence of ignoring the side quests.
Nothing should escalate, unless the part leaves it for weeks or months. It sounds like the party is going to this temple directly and it's only going to be a couple of hours detour. I'm assuming the temple is in the city. If weeks or months go by then escalate each conflict to its natural conclusion.
The temple is about a 16 hour walk away from the city, which ment it took the party about 1.5/2 days of travel to arrive at the temple. Returning may not take nearly as long because of the party's high level and access to stuff that would either allow them to travel faster or instantly return through a teleportation spell.
I did consider not doing anything to the conflicts the party ignores, but if I don't do that Im sure the part will feel as if their choice had no real stakes. I could see doing that for the duergar maybe, but it has been foreshadowed that the duergar are infected by mindflayer's so it wouldn't come completely out of left field if the duergar are suddenly more mind flayery after being left alone. As for the cult, I could not imagine that would be the same if the party fully defeats the entity. It would either have collapsed entirely or gotten violent because of the murder of the thing they worshipped and believed was keeping them safe.
Not having anything change would maybe make the players feel like their choices don't matter at all. Which is one of the worst things to do I think.
2 day trip back? They aren't going back because logic would dictate they can finish the temple in less than 2 days.
You are right, the two-ish day trip back could be a very good reason for them to want to engage with the entity right then and there. But the trip doesn't have to be that long. Considering this party is 14th level, they have other viable means of transportation. Such as teleportation. Which Im going to assume is still going to be available to them if they don't completeley blow through their resources in the first stage of the fight. In previous boss fights they didn't, so I have reason to believe they wouldn't either this time. But even if they did have to travel the full walk back there would be downsides, and upsides, to going after the entity first.
Getting back to the city before killing the entity would give them more resources to spend in a fight if they are going to immediately engage the cult. Making it possibly easier to do so. If they choose to destroy the entity first, they could return to the city with very little resources left. The cult does have reason to continue the fighting, this has to do with the overarching bbeg of the campaign at large not just this arc. So they would somehow have to overcome the cult regardless. The state in which the party is, and the state in which the cult and its followers are may be very different depending on their choices. The cult could begin to lose not only their divine blessings and some of its followers upon the defeat of the entity, but the party would be in a worse state both resource and time-wise if they choose to go after the entity first. Alternative, the party could return with more and better resources if they return quickly, but with the entity still alive they would contend with a cult that still has very loyal followers and divine blessings. They could try to conserve their resources as much as possible ofcourse in their fight against the entity to save them for their return, but then the boss fight would undoubtebly be harder.
We play with rules that doesn't allow the party to gain the full benefits of a long rest if the area they are resting in is unsafe. This makes it so that a single long rest will not fully revitalize them.
I would understand that, but I still want to show the party that their efforts still have meaning. Yes I want the conflicts to escalate, but I don't want to make the party feel like them doing what they think is best is only giving them negative effects. What they have is a plan, and it isn't completely nonsensical. So I want them to feel like they accomplished things while also feeling the consequence of ignoring the side quests.
Nothing should escalate, unless the part leaves it for weeks or months. It sounds like the party is going to this temple directly and it's only going to be a couple of hours detour. I'm assuming the temple is in the city. If weeks or months go by then escalate each conflict to its natural conclusion.
The temple is about a 16 hour walk away from the city, which ment it took the party about 1.5/2 days of travel to arrive at the temple. Returning may not take nearly as long because of the party's high level and access to stuff that would either allow them to travel faster or instantly return through a teleportation spell.
I did consider not doing anything to the conflicts the party ignores, but if I don't do that Im sure the part will feel as if their choice had no real stakes. I could see doing that for the duergar maybe, but it has been foreshadowed that the duergar are infected by mindflayer's so it wouldn't come completely out of left field if the duergar are suddenly more mind flayery after being left alone. As for the cult, I could not imagine that would be the same if the party fully defeats the entity. It would either have collapsed entirely or gotten violent because of the murder of the thing they worshipped and believed was keeping them safe.
Not having anything change would maybe make the players feel like their choices don't matter at all. Which is one of the worst things to do I think.
2 day trip back? They aren't going back because logic would dictate they can finish the temple in less than 2 days.
You are right, the two-ish day trip back could be a very good reason for them to want to engage with the entity right then and there. But the trip doesn't have to be that long. Considering this party is 14th level, they have other viable means of transportation. Such as teleportation. Which Im going to assume is still going to be available to them if they don't completeley blow through their resources in the first stage of the fight. In previous boss fights they didn't, so I have reason to believe they wouldn't either this time. But even if they did have to travel the full walk back there would be downsides, and upsides, to going after the entity first.
Getting back to the city before killing the entity would give them more resources to spend in a fight if they are going to immediately engage the cult. Making it possibly easier to do so. If they choose to destroy the entity first, they could return to the city with very little resources left. The cult does have reason to continue the fighting, this has to do with the overarching bbeg of the campaign at large not just this arc. So they would somehow have to overcome the cult regardless. The state in which the party is, and the state in which the cult and its followers are may be very different depending on their choices. The cult could begin to lose not only their divine blessings and some of its followers upon the defeat of the entity, but the party would be in a worse state both resource and time-wise if they choose to go after the entity first. Alternative, the party could return with more and better resources if they return quickly, but with the entity still alive they would contend with a cult that still has very loyal followers and divine blessings. They could try to conserve their resources as much as possible ofcourse in their fight against the entity to save them for their return, but then the boss fight would undoubtebly be harder.
We play with rules that doesn't allow the party to gain the full benefits of a long rest if the area they are resting in is unsafe. This makes it so that a single long rest will not fully revitalize them.
The character has a single 7th level spell slot to cast Teleport. In any situation where the characters need to retreat back to the city, the PC has probably already used their 7th level slot (And if you are the kind of DM who runs the spell as written, its not even safe to teleport back to the city). unless they are the type of player who holds on to it, just in case they need to retreat. Granted I don't know your players. But I think there is a good chance they rest, even outside the temple, in a Tiny Hut or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion (granted the issue with the 7th level spell slot still remains) could be an issue. (Technically Magnificent Mansion should bypass the "unsafe" clause.) I feel like there is a very good chance they are going to precede on, and not care about the town, because its just going to be a day.
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The party could chase down the spirit and defeat it then and there. Im also sure they could do it without resting. The downside is, getting back to the city before killing the entity would give them more resources to spend in a fight if they are going to immediately engage the cult. Making it possibly easier to do so. If they choose to destroy the entity first, they could return to the city with very little reasources left. The cult does have reason to continue the fighting, this has to do with the overarching bbeg of the campaign at large not just this arc. So they would somehow have to overcome the cult regardless. The state in which the party is, and the state in which the cult and its followers are may be very different depending on their choices. The cult could begin to lose not only their divine blessings and some of its followers upon the defeat of the entity, but the party would be in a worse state both resource and time-wise. Alternative, the party could return with more and better resources, but with the entity still alive they would contend with a cult that still has very loyal followers and divine blessings. They could try to conserve their resources as much as possible ofcourse in their fight against the entity to save them for their return, but then the fight will undoubtebly be harder.
We play with rules that doesn't allow the party to gain the full benefits of a long rest if the area they are resting is is unsafe. This makes it so that a single long rest will not fully revitalize them.
You are right, the two-ish day trip back could be a very good reason for them to want to engage with the entity right then and there. But the trip doesn't have to be that long. Considering this party is 14th level, they have other viable means of transportation. Such as teleportation. Which Im going to assume is still going to be available to them if they don't completeley blow through their resources in the first stage of the fight. In previous boss fights they didn't, so I have reason to believe they wouldn't either this time. But even if they did have to travel the full walk back there would be downsides, and upsides, to going after the entity first.
Getting back to the city before killing the entity would give them more resources to spend in a fight if they are going to immediately engage the cult. Making it possibly easier to do so.
If they choose to destroy the entity first, they could return to the city with very little resources left. The cult does have reason to continue the fighting, this has to do with the overarching bbeg of the campaign at large not just this arc. So they would somehow have to overcome the cult regardless. The state in which the party is, and the state in which the cult and its followers are may be very different depending on their choices. The cult could begin to lose not only their divine blessings and some of its followers upon the defeat of the entity, but the party would be in a worse state both resource and time-wise if they choose to go after the entity first.
Alternative, the party could return with more and better resources if they return quickly, but with the entity still alive they would contend with a cult that still has very loyal followers and divine blessings. They could try to conserve their resources as much as possible ofcourse in their fight against the entity to save them for their return, but then the boss fight would undoubtebly be harder.
We play with rules that doesn't allow the party to gain the full benefits of a long rest if the area they are resting in is unsafe. This makes it so that a single long rest will not fully revitalize them.
The character has a single 7th level spell slot to cast Teleport. In any situation where the characters need to retreat back to the city, the PC has probably already used their 7th level slot (And if you are the kind of DM who runs the spell as written, its not even safe to teleport back to the city). unless they are the type of player who holds on to it, just in case they need to retreat. Granted I don't know your players. But I think there is a good chance they rest, even outside the temple, in a Tiny Hut or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion (granted the issue with the 7th level spell slot still remains) could be an issue. (Technically Magnificent Mansion should bypass the "unsafe" clause.) I feel like there is a very good chance they are going to precede on, and not care about the town, because its just going to be a day.