Futile Messenger

[hisnamehere]

<adventure spoilers>

I'm DMing Eberron's 'Forgotten Forge.'
To progress the plot, two Warforged opponents are equipped each with a 'final messenger' Warforged component. Upon their defeat, these tiny magic items fly off to warn their co-conspirators of that defeat.
They are incredibly hard to hit (AC 26) for 1st level adventurers.
Now, if the first is somehow crit'ed (and destroyed), I can just say that the confrontation with the PCs was fairly public, and that the conspirators learn of the PCs whereabouts by other means.
But, what if the 2nd one gets crit'ed (yes, it happened, and by the same PC), what's a DM to do? I feel such results warrant reward, but does Sabre appear anyway? Maybe at a later date?

I'd appreciate the Playground's advice, especially if you've a better familiarity with later events.

Cheers.

[Gildedragon]

Sabre will find out his henchforged have been stopped when they fail to report.
So he might ambush the PCs on their way out of the "vault" as he goes looking for his men.

I, personally, am retooling things a bit so as to add other players: a Radiant Idol cult that wants the old schemas, believing them to indicate how to construct a mundane flying machine...
Maybe the LoB faction is out of the race... For now.
Or a rival Cannith faction.
Or a ward on opening the door is tripped and other folk trying to keep the forgotten forge forgotten arrive.

[barakaka]

Saber is a man of war. He's no idiot, so if he doesn't have enough intel on the enemy, he'll bring more firepower. Toss in an arcane ballista (around page 154 of the Eberron book Forge of War). If not that, just add a few other warforged bodyguards. If that's too tough for your PCs, then find a way to throw the fight in their favor. Maybe have him and the ballista also attacked by a swarm of scarabs, or a horrid rat. Maybe a warforged who doesn't see eye to eye with the Lord of Blades attacks the ballista, sacrificing himself for the party.

An alternative is finding other ways to gather information on the party. Umbral spy (Forge of War around page 159) serves as the perfect bug, listening in on all the juicy details. I threw 4 of these little guys at the party yesterday, and it created a lot of hilarious paranoia (one guy bought a poor residence, and when they finally got away from these spies, he had to sell it at reduced price and buy another).

[hisnamehere]

I don't think I want to bring in any (other) rivals for the schema. There seem to be enough hands grabbing at it already. (And, as I've said, I'm not very familiar with the next parts of the campaign, and how new additions would interact in the future.)

I really feel this turn of events should be rewarded. I mean, we play to be rewarded for good/lucky play, don't we? So turning an already dangerous ambush into something more lethal with ballista and/or bodyguards seems counter to my desires.

So I think I'm going to have Saber confront the party soon after they exit the dungeon crawl (glossing over exactly how he would find them). He'll be having a crisis of faith, having his companions so easily thwarted by what his Lord has been calling 'weak flesh.' Depending on how the party conducts themselves, he'll either attack them out of desperation or the lack of any sane options, flee, give up some intel on the Lord of Blades' agenda before fleeing, or become a (possibly) recurring contact.

Thoughts?

[Gildedragon]

I don't think I want to bring in any (other) rivals for the schema. There seem to be enough hands grabbing at it already. (And, as I've said, I'm not very familiar with the next parts of the campaign, and how new additions would interact in the future.)

I really feel this turn of events should be rewarded. I mean, we play to be rewarded for good/lucky play, don't we? So turning an already dangerous ambush into something more lethal with ballista and/or bodyguards seems counter to my desires.

So I think I'm going to have Saber confront the party soon after they exit the dungeon crawl (glossing over exactly how he would find them). he finds them because he knows where his minions were headed to.

He'll be having a crisis of faith, having his companions so easily thwarted by what his Lord has been calling 'weak flesh.' Depending on how the party conducts themselves, he'll either attack them out of desperation or the lack of any sane options, flee, give up some intel on the Lord of Blades' agenda before fleeing, or become a (possibly) recurring contact.

Thoughts?prolly just observes them without engaging... might be curious as to why they're so strong. (maybe a flesh warforged is in the works?) Later on maybe they get a hireling that's reporting to Saber.
Or follows them to their inn and stages a night attack/raid while they sleep.