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We had our first session last night which went pretty well. We only got through the initial goblin attacks and they saved Aldern (did some character and background work at the beginning of the session). Instead of killing the goblin attacking Aldern, they captured him and interrogated him. The PC's found out that the goblins are based out of Thistletop and want to start there next session. They are skipping the Glassworks and everything else in-between.
Has this happened to anyone else? What's the best way for me to get them back on track and hold off going to Thistletop. Just for the record, I'm running this using Savage Worlds, so character level isn't really an issue. I just don't want them to skip the meat of the adventure!
They are skipping the Glassworks and everything else in-between.
Has this happened to anyone else? What's the best way for me to get them back on track and hold off going to Thistletop.
I had the same problem and I did not want it to happen mainly for the level issue, a problem you do not have. I brought in greed and Shelalu.
Greed: The mayor offered them 10 gp a day to help guard the city while the Sheriff was away to get reinforcement from Magnimar.
Shalelu: Mayor & Sheriff introduced her to the PC and stated that Shalelu will be the city's eyes and hears scouting on the goblins on the outside while the Sheriff was away so they can concentrate on the city defense, pass go and collect 10gp a day.
ALthough Thistletop'll be a little tough for 1st or barely 2nd level characters... I say let them have at it! They'll probably have to retreat at least once, and when they DO return to Sandpoint, they can find out that Ameiko's gone missing.
Alternately, they could discover after getting a bit deeper into Thistletop that one of the bandits has set up camp with some goblins in the tunnels under the Glassworks, at which point they can go deal with that and the Catacombs later on.
My players also were very quickly considering going to thistletop after they learned of its existance. To delay them some, and give them time to have some of the other in town encounters which I thought added a lot to the story, I bumped up some of the other action. The night before when they were resting I had Shalelu come into town and give her talk then, which resulted in Hemlock bringing the characters aside, thanking them for their heroics and essentially asking them to serve as deputies in town.
However, with this he gave them the news that he was going to be on his way to magnimar for a few days to try and rally more troops, and requested that they remain in town and on alert, as their presence would boost the towns morale. This let them feel productive(and still hit the glassworks, and the goblin in the house, as well as a number of social encounters) while keeping them from rushing headlong into things too quickly.
-Tarlane
It sounds a bit late for you, but for future DMs who encounter this problem, it's worth mentioning that not all the goblins at the raid came from Thistletop. If my PCs take the same steps to interrogate a captured goblin, I'd like to take the opportunity to muddle the issue with exactly what tribe any particular captive(s) are from.
In this specific case, though, I wonder if you couldn't cut and paste some of the adventure. I don't have any concrete details to back this up, but perhaps your PCs could adventure through Thistletop and, after sacking a couple of Nualia's henchment, learn that she's seeking aid from her mentor in the Catacombs of Wrath. The PCs then rush back to Sandpoint to confront her and Li'l Miss Q.
Not exactly sure what to do with Malfeshnekor, but that's the basic gist.
It sounds a bit late for you, but for future DMs who encounter this problem, it's worth mentioning that not all the goblins at the raid came from Thistletop. If my PCs take the same steps to interrogate a captured goblin, I'd like to take the opportunity to muddle the issue with exactly what tribe any particular captive(s) are from.
My players were getting ready to fort up in Sandpoint, in preparation for the massive Assault. Their various mentors had to "volunteer" the PCs to go scout Thistletop instead. I gave them the age old speech of "A small group can more easily infiltrate the area than a small army."
Of course, I should take it as a compliment because in my last campaign they had a blast with Mass Combat, when they handled small army's resisting Obold's orc invasion in the Silver Marches. I'll probably use something like that for PF4 though.
My players began riding towards Thistletop a few rounds after they saved Aldern. One of the PCs had a really great tracking roll, so off they went on the road out of town. They were gung ho despite the fact that the party cleric had been dropped by a Goblin Dog and then partially healed by Father Zantus, and a few other party members were also low on hp.
I don't remember if I thought of just leading them to another tribe besides Thistletop.
What I did is put Shelelu in their path. She was being attacked by a small group of goblins. So they quickly dispatched the goblins and rescued Shelelu.
Then I had a stroke of genius and said "Night Falls."
Ha Ha, instant nightfall for the win!
After all, the ceremony and the goblin attack started at sunset. So the PCs wouldn't be able to get much done before full dark.
They went back to town, talked with Shelelu and the Sheriff, and eventually hit the Glassworks and Catacombs.
We have concluded two session so far with my gaming group, and a similar situation happened. The morning after the Swallowtail Festival goblin attack, the PC's chose to visit with the sheriff and try to investigate. They went straight to the cemetery where Old Father Tobyn's body had been exhumed, and like another DM posted, the party ranger starting making some sick tracking rolls. We actually have TWO rangers in the party, both Shoanti, so tracking was relatively easy.
The party went into the Thistletop tunnels via the Nettlewood (I would have like to have been more prepared for this, but didn't want to fudge an encounter to discourage them from doing what they thought was the right thing). Ultimately, one of the rangers lowered himself down into the sea cave where the Bunyip lives, and the creature proceeded to surprise him then follow up with a critical hit for massive damage. The party pulled his limp body back up and high-tailed it back to Sandpoint.
I then did the old "Sheriff's goin' outta town and asks you to make your presence known in town while he's gone" routine. In my campaign, Shalelu is acting as an agent for the Pathfinder Society, of which each character is seeking initiation, so she encouraged them to stay a few days as well. This allowed the Glassworks events to transpire, and the party got back on track.
Good times.
I experienced almost the exact opposite situation. The PCs hung out in town while the sheriff went for reinforcements, dealt with the Glassworks and, when they tried to track down Tsuto (he managed to flee), they followed the lesser trail in the tunnels and dealt with the Catacombs (it took them 3 attempts to deal with it). After that, met with the mayor and Father Zantus and in relaying tales of demons, dungeons complexes and unspeakable horrors, they convinced the town leaders they needed to get the town fortified for an imminent goblin attack (they misinterpreted the writings about Malfeshnekor as him being below Sandpoint).
The sheriff returned to people pulling up the boards from all but one bridge, the militia in full force and several of the closer outlying farmers moving into the town proper.
In order to keep this from turning into a massive goblin war, Shalelu showed up and pointed out, again, that goblins are not by nature organized creatures so an attack of the size mentioned would be nearly impossible for them to pull off without someone organizing them, which got them motivated to hunt out the goblins. They're in the bramble area currently ... we'll see what happens.