[Spoilers] Princes of the Apocalypse Issues

[SpikeFightwicky]

Howdy folks,

I'm just going to wrap the whole thing in spoiler tags just in case.

Ok... so my party bought the Feathergale Knights' story hook, line and sinker. The party seems more interested in the delegation than the knights (which is fine), so they never asked any questions that would raise suspicion, and Savra stumped the one character that tried to get more information (my story for that hook was that Savra's aunt was concerned because Savra ran off to avoid an arranged marriage to a Waterdeep noble house, so the entire party was extremely sympathetic and didn't question further). So now they're headed to the Sacred Stone monastery. They have the leads to Womford and the trajectory of the delegation caravan, but they seem to be operating on whatever clue they received most recently - Thurl mentioned the Sacred Stone monastery as a source of trouble, as indicated in the book, since the characters were courteous and 2 of them participated in the manticore hunt. They just found the Reaver ambush, so I'm hoping the evidence they find will point them towards Rivergarde Keep instead.

Other issues:

They're avoiding towns. They've returned to Red Larch once, but have been trekking the Sumber Hills since then. One person suggested checking the caravan route, but the consensus was to check the Spire first, which hinted at the Monastery. I'm not sure how to get them to check in on a town without metagaming.


Feathergale Ambush will get them back to the spire, but currently, Thurl feels like they don't suspect a thing, and wants them to attack the Monastery before doing anything. So I figure run that ambush after the Monastery.


I feel the Monastery will TPK them, so hopefully they check Womford after searching the Reaver Ambush site. I ran the ambush near the Stone Bridge instead of the normal area to hopefully redirect the party. Any feasible ways to direct them to Rivergarde?


If they don't return to Red Larch (or... any flipping town!), how do I get them the location of the Scarlet Moon encampment? They're working for a Mirabarran merchant who hired them to find the delegation and has set up shop in Red Larch, so I was thinking of him sending out a messenger to find them and let them know he has some new supplies for them, at which point I can run the Rumors of Evil for the Scarlet Moon. The druid was tipped off about the wicker man ceremony, but they don't yet know where the encampment is.


I feel for sure that they'll delve into the water or earth temples ahead of schedule. Is there a way to scare them off without a TPK?



Any suggestions would be helpful!

[Lord Vukodlak]

Howdy folks,

I'm just going to wrap the whole thing in spoiler tags just in case.

Ok... so my party bought the Feathergale Knights' story hook, line and sinker. The party seems more interested in the delegation than the knights (which is fine), so they never asked any questions that would raise suspicion, and Savra stumped the one character that tried to get more information (my story for that hook was that Savra's aunt was concerned because Savra ran off to avoid an arranged marriage to a Waterdeep noble house, so the entire party was extremely sympathetic and didn't question further). So now they're headed to the Sacred Stone monastery. They have the leads to Womford and the trajectory of the delegation caravan, but they seem to be operating on whatever clue they received most recently - Thurl mentioned the Sacred Stone monastery as a source of trouble, as indicated in the book, since the characters were courteous and 2 of them participated in the manticore hunt. They just found the Reaver ambush, so I'm hoping the evidence they find will point them towards Rivergarde Keep instead.

Other issues:

They're avoiding towns. They've returned to Red Larch once, but have been trekking the Sumber Hills since then. One person suggested checking the caravan route, but the consensus was to check the Spire first, which hinted at the Monastery. I'm not sure how to get them to check in on a town without metagaming.


Feathergale Ambush will get them back to the spire, but currently, Thurl feels like they don't suspect a thing, and wants them to attack the Monastery before doing anything. So I figure run that ambush after the Monastery.


I feel the Monastery will TPK them, so hopefully they check Womford after searching the Reaver Ambush site. I ran the ambush near the Stone Bridge instead of the normal area to hopefully redirect the party. Any feasible ways to direct them to Rivergarde?


If they don't return to Red Larch (or... any flipping town!), how do I get them the location of the Scarlet Moon encampment? They're working for a Mirabarran merchant who hired them to find the delegation and has set up shop in Red Larch, so I was thinking of him sending out a messenger to find them and let them know he has some new supplies for them, at which point I can run the Rumors of Evil for the Scarlet Moon. The druid was tipped off about the wicker man ceremony, but they don't yet know where the encampment is.


I feel for sure that they'll delve into the water or earth temples ahead of schedule. Is there a way to scare them off without a TPK?



Any suggestions would be helpful!
They save some NPC from a random encounter whom promises a reward if they follow him back to town.

[SpikeFightwicky]

They save some NPC from a random encounter whom promises a reward if they follow him back to town.

It could work, but I know my group would be instantly suspicious and think something was up.

[Lord Vukodlak]

It could work, but I know my group would be instantly suspicious and think something was up.

The tell them it’s a pre-boxed campaign so it’s on rails and they need to just deal with it or someone else can DM.

[Toadkiller]

Princes is on some serious rails despite seeming on the surface to have lots of options. We got thumped and bad to run away a couple of times. It was nice of our DM to not have the baddies chase us to death. Smack them on the nose and let them run away.

[dgnslyr]

It could work, but I know my group would be instantly suspicious and think something was up.

Refinement on this idea: the players rescue a traveler who asks the players to escort them into town, for fear of further attacks. Maybe even throw in a small cash reward. Free money for no work should sound suspicious, but honest pay for honest work sounds a lot better, and in most parties there's at least one player who's empathetic enough to be moved into action by a helpless bystander.