Need help giving players a call to action they'll answer to

[Matrota]

So I'm DMing a homebrew campaign in 5th edition called The Six. The party is level five and consists of the following:

Locke: A twilight domain human cleric
Lord Seryvan: A revenant oath of blood paladin (homebrew)
Radiance: A tiefling fighter/storm sorcerer who's leaving the campaign after next session, he's going to be a father (super happy for him!)
Dr. Albert Viktor von Steuben: A gnome invention wizard,
Lydia Tadriel: A spiritfolk (homebrew, based on the 3.5 race) swarmkeeper ranger
Helter Skelter: A kobold artillerist artificer

The current plot hooks there are in-game are the possibility of a vampiric epidemic spreading from a neighboring empire, as well as a mysterious being called Shal'Khorizarr manipulating all the the beasts and monstrosities of the land into being unusually hostile. They know that there are 5 seals keeping Khorizarr bound, but one was just broken, hidden beneath the starting city. The party knows one seal is in the north guarded by xenophobic frost elves, but none of the other seals' locations are known. Locke, the voice of the party, is hesitant to do anything because they lack information on their enemies, and also believes the party too low level for fighting what they see as a "godlike nature being" or vampires. This campaign involves fighting six main story bosses (hence "The Six"), and the vampires and wildlife are associated with one of the six, respectively. I'm hesitant to introduce any of the other ones for possible plot hooks atm for fear of overwhelming the players. All they seem to want to do right now is sit in the starting city and hunt monsters in the woods, but nothing is really advancing the plot. What do you think I could do to encourage the players to pursue one of the two hooks I've introduced? Also, feel free to ask any questions if you feel I need to clarify anything.

[Man_Over_Game]

Confirm their fears.

Give them something to run to by making them run away from something else. Players are rarely disappointed when they get what they expect.

[Nagog]

Confirm their fears.

Give them something to run to by making them run away from something else. Players are rarely disappointed when they get what they expect.

This, but also they should probably have something to run towards. Typically when I come to points like this as a DM, I realize that there was a point the party missed that should've helped lead them to an idea on future ventures. For this one, I presume you'd like the party to make their way to the Frost Elves, as that's the only seal they know of? You could drop an idea to the Invention Wizard that perhaps the currently broken seal could be replaced, if only they knew more about what it was like when sealed. You could dumb it down further by dropping in the same sentence that the Frost Elves are known to guard a seal, perhaps if somebody were able to study that one they could replicate it back here. While this idea may not come to fruition, that may be enough to get them moving and on the trail of something else.

And if the Fighter (Was it the fighter?) thinks the party is too low-leveled to take on larger enemies in-character, throw a low CR dragon their way and play it up to be a more powerful dragon than it is. That should lift confidence in character. If the concerns are out of character, the same tactic may work. In that case you'd be more showing that you, as a DM, are capable of throwing them challenges they're capable of tackling and have the care not to throw them headlong into a TPK. OOC is a much more difficult bear to wrestle, as you'd need to build their trust in you as a DM rather than character development to give them trust in themselves and their abilities.

[Matrota]

This, but also they should probably have something to run towards. Typically when I come to points like this as a DM, I realize that there was a point the party missed that should've helped lead them to an idea on future ventures. For this one, I presume you'd like the party to make their way to the Frost Elves, as that's the only seal they know of? You could drop an idea to the Invention Wizard that perhaps the currently broken seal could be replaced, if only they knew more about what it was like when sealed. You could dumb it down further by dropping in the same sentence that the Frost Elves are known to guard a seal, perhaps if somebody were able to study that one they could replicate it back here. While this idea may not come to fruition, that may be enough to get them moving and on the trail of something else.

And if the Fighter (Was it the fighter?) thinks the party is too low-leveled to take on larger enemies in-character, throw a low CR dragon their way and play it up to be a more powerful dragon than it is. That should lift confidence in character. If the concerns are out of character, the same tactic may work. In that case you'd be more showing that you, as a DM, are capable of throwing them challenges they're capable of tackling and have the care not to throw them headlong into a TPK. OOC is a much more difficult bear to wrestle, as you'd need to build their trust in you as a DM rather than character development to give them trust in themselves and their abilities.

I like the idea of giving them something to run towards. As to where I want them to go, hard to say. I'm trying to avoid railroading but they clearly are wanting me to provide more direction for them to latch on to. I have a lot of the north fleshed out but idk if they'll wanna go as one npc has flaunted that their seal is well guarded and the other seals are up to humankind to protect, even if they don't know the location. In terms of trust, I've been playing with this group for 5+ years so I don't think it's much of an issue.

[Matrota]

Elves (via Sending): “Your incompetence has been noted. Be thankful your superiors guard one of the five seals. Postscript: Don’t visit us. We’ll serve you kale and kimchi.”

That's essentially what happened lol. A frost elf showed up in front of the party and city's nobility, scolded them for failing to guard the seal, promised the seal in the frost elf capital would never be destroyed and said he had work to do so the city should let him go (the guard captured him snooping around the broken seal in disguise)

[Sigreid]

Take it as a lesson learned. Next time start with a cult or something that is working to break the seal, release the ancient vampires or whatever. Let them build up to the world shattering catastrophe.

And it's not to late now. Don't add another BBE, put out some clues about a secret society helping the big bad evil that they can fight to gain a little confidence.

[suplee215]

I probably will put in a few side quests that can lead back to these big issues in some way. They are only level 5.

[Monsterpoodle]

Cultists- worshippers of the deity know that the party is trying to find the seals and are desperate to stop them. Start off with small groups then crank it up. Let the party know that if they stay in the city (actually in the thrall of the cult of Whatsisname) they will be overwhelmed eventually, or arrested and executed, or assassinated etc..

Their only hope is to flee the city and break the power of the cult by fixing the seal.

[Monsterpoodle]

Yup.. 2nd the cult idea. Maybe the city is secretly in thrall to the cult that have put a death mark on the adventurers. If the heroes stay they will eventually be overpowered, or arrested or assassinated. Their only hope is to get out of the city and repair the seal, maybe by studying the others. Or accumulating rare components l(so they can still do their monster hunting).

[Lord Vukodlak]

Maybe just reassure the party you aren't going to have them face to much to soon. When I ran a campaign whose first arc involved liberating this kingdom from its centuries long occupation by The Garr Empire. I had to assure the players that the God Emperor Shao'Garr would not awaken from seven centuries of hibernation just to deal with the rebellion in one colony. Despite never having fought or met him in any campaign I ran in my homebrew setting. My players were terrified of him purely by reputation.

And Arc 1 was simply a way to level up the party for the Planar invasion arc the seeds of which were woven into side quests in Arc 1 and the previous campaign. So yeah gave to much to soon,

[ChildofLuthic]

Not to be an elementary school teacher about it, but maybe talk to your players OOC about it? Ask them what sorts of things would motivate their characters, and let them know that you've been trying to give them a plot hook but they haven't taken the bait. Maybe they have specific ideas about what their characters would be motivated by, and you aren't speaking to that. Maybe they just didn't know that you were trying to feed them plot hooks. But something like this sounds like something you need to talk to them about.

[Sigreid]

Take one of each of their actual, real life family members hostage and demand they make a choice.

[greenstone]

What are their bonds?

[Spo]

Railroading is only bad if done poorly, otherwise it’s called giving them some direction (like a good first person video game.

Some plot hooks ...

1) The ice elves secretly send a message to the king that they need the magic thingie the king has to better secure their defenses of the seal. King calls upon the heroes bc less conspicuous than using royal guard. Should be an easy mission because NO ONE knows about the ice elves request

2) While hunting the beasts in the forest, they come across a monster chewing on a severely injured ranger who had been shot with some arrows. Once rescued and given a few hours to revive (not just injured but really exhausted) the ranger reveals he was trying to deliver a map to the location of one of the seals to the king when he was attacked by a group of strangers who had been hunting him for two days. They shot him, took the map and were about to kill him when the monster arrived. The map must be recovered and the PC’s might be able to catch up the the strangers. Only they have a chance of success.