Legacy of Fire: Need Some GM Advice

[Keneth]

I don't usually do this, but I could use some advice on how to proceed with the story. Here's some quick background: My players have just started chapter 2 of the Legacy of Fire adventure path (House of the Beast), they have traveled to the temple and proceeded to infiltrate the complex. By some stroke of dumb luck, one of the first things they've decided to do is enter the central minaret of the three standing minarets in the courtyard which leads directly to the Carrion King's bedchamber. I knew they wouldn't be able to handle what's below right off the bat, so when they reached the midpoint (the door that opens into a collapsed passage), I decided to have some rocks from the blockage fall down across the steps and onto the floor of the lower level where they would raise an alarm. I figured that after hearing the howling and commotion below, they would hightail it out of there and try to approach things differently, but being stupid, like all players are, they came to the conclusion that it was too late to go back out, waited until the first enemies started appearing (because fighting in the middle of a staircase is apparently an excellent choke point), and then started heading straight down. It went about as well as you can imagine and now they're all critically wounded, running back up the stairs with two hyenadons on their tail and a group of gnolls waiting for them outside.

Now, I'm no stranger to curve balls, I don't think I've ever GM'd an adventure path that went about the same as it was written, and that's okay with me. I simply adjust the story accordingly and slowly nudge them back toward the right path, but this time I'm honestly a bit stumped. I don't really want a TPK on my hands, since those are hard to recover from if you want to continue the story and the current party has a pretty good thing going, but I can't think of any solution that doesn't scream deus ex machina. I've got Blobog and the troglodytes to work with, but the party hasn't met either, so it's a bit ham-fisted to have them appear as an ally in the eleventh hour. They've found the escaped slaves, but they're unequipped and terrified, so they wouldn't be much good even if they had the inclination to help. There's also an emergency DMPC somewhere in the temple, but that would seem like even more of a deux ex machina, especially since she's not really that strong. The party is out of healing items, they have no consumables that could facilitate their escape, and I'm not sure they would even survive a single round if they tried to charge through (not to mention the gnolls would hunt them down like animals).

What do I do? I could have them captured to be sacrificed to Thkot Tal, but getting them out of there doesn't seem any easier than getting them out of the tower. The pit does have an escape route, so I could maybe do a chase scene with the giant stegocentipede to give at least someone a chance to escape (possibly with some help).

Anyone got a better idea?

[rockdeworld]

Unfortunately, I haven't DM'd or played that, so I don't have any specific suggestions. You said the pursuers were coming up from below, right? As in, there isn't anything at the top of the stairs waiting for them? Here's some chase rules (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/house-rules/chase-rules) that at a casual skim seem to work. I'd have them end up outside the dungeon when they've "lost" the pursuers.

[Keneth]

I clearly stated they were threatened from within and without. I thought I described the scene pretty well. If a chase scene was an option, I would have done it. :smallconfused:

Anyway, they decided to make a run for the window and then charge through enemy ranks. A futile attempt, but I indulged them.

After they were chased down and captured, I had them sacrificed to Thkot Tal as one final chance to get away alive (ironically enough) and they managed to pull it off with only one of them becoming worm food (or centipede food, as it were). With a little help from the Whispering Stalker, they made their escape through the warrens and back to freedom, with the gnolls none the wiser.

Funnily enough, the AP does actually describe what to do if the PCs are captured, which I must have missed when I read it the first time, but I wasn't particularly fond of the proposed solution anyway. That's usually the case in every AP, which is why I mostly just skim through them instead of meticulously perusing them. We'll see how things go from here.

[marphod]

I, personally, would have just swapped minaret (unless there was a story based reason that the central spire HAD to be that bad).

What level are the PCs? What resources do they have left?

Could they find an heretofore unknown passage out of the complex or around whatever is at the top of the stairs? Could the rock fall open up a sink hole or ancient structure that the temple was built atop of? Do they have anything of extreme value to their pursuers that they could trade or threaten?

[rockdeworld]

I clearly stated they were threatened from within and without.
As the reader, I disagree.

But in any case, congrats on a successful resolution.

[Keneth]

I, personally, would have just swapped minaret (unless there was a story based reason that the central spire HAD to be that bad).

If I knew they were gonna be that clueless, I would have just locked the doors or collapsed the stairs. In hindsight, it was my own fault for expecting they'd have the good sense to run away after getting the gnolls' attention, instead of trying to make some kind of desperate last stand in the middle of a tower. I don't know what kind of outcome they were expecting, especially since this is a temple, and they've already encountered carrion guards, so it stands to reason that it won't just be gnolls with swords neatly lining up to die. They didn't even last long enough for the spellcasters to appear.

Oh, and the maps are already drawn, so rearranging structural features is slightly problematic.


As the reader, I disagree.

I'm not sure how much clearer "two hyaenodons on their tail and a group of gnolls waiting for them outside" could be, but whatever. I did actually use a chase scene after they broke through the ranks outside. They are, after all, the staple of any action-packed story, so I use them whenever possible to keep the tension going. :smallsmile:

[rockdeworld]

You could be clearer like this:

tl/dr:
-The party is on a stairwell
-At the top a group of monsters is waiting for them (made of up of X, Y, and Z)
-At the bottom, another group of monsters is waiting for them (made up of X, Y, and Z)

No walls of text, no extra words

[Keneth]

The "extra words" were not irrelevant to the solution. I was asking for GM advice, not player strategy. Don't blame your functional illiteracy and/or reading laziness on me. :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, it doesn't matter now. The survivors are safe, the dead character has been rerolled, and we're back on track. Sort of.