I'm DMing Tides of Dread and so far my party hasn't taken on a single adventure written in the book; they're far, far off the beaten path. Even so, they've done spectacularly well for themselves and Farshore, but there are no Victory Point awards for what they've done.
How many Victory Points would you assign to each of these?
1. Beat the troglodytes near Farshore, but did it non-lethally. They've explained that the Crimson Fleet is coming to destroy Farshore and likely them, and all 20 troglodytes and their 4 remaining lizards are going to help Farshore defend themselves.
2. Found the 4 Pyremian monk/clerics. But since one of the PCs is a red dragon, another is a devil, and another is a gold half-dragon (all fire-related), the party managed to convince the clerics that they're avatars of Pyremius. The monks have agreed to help defend Farshore.
3. Found Xiureksor (CR 11 green dragon). They dropped his Dex to 0 and made him a deal; in exchange for his life and hoard, if he helped Farshore he could keep the treasure from as many pirates as he killed.
Out of curiosity, what is your party's line-up? What little you wrote certainly describes an oddball collection of characters.
I think there are victory points in the adventure for recruiting Olman, etc. You could use the same amount for recruiting other parties, and perhaps double that amount for Xiureksor.
Sounds like an interesting campaign.
Out of curiosity, what is your party's line-up? What little you wrote certainly describes an oddball collection of characters.
1. Allson Lionasp, Thri-keen Thri-keen 4/Warblade 4
2. Avril, Succubus Favored soul 4/Shadow half-dragon 3/Abyssal dragon 13. Meilion, Red dragon Red dragon 1/Marilith 1/Fighter-rogue 1/Psychic rogue 1/Dragonfire adept 3
4. Sudar, Dragonborn kobold Fighter 1/Sorcerer 6/Githyanki 1/Lich 1
5. Vitalis Lockheart, Aquatic half-elf Mystic ranger 4/Gold half-dragon 1/Targetteer 1/Water half-elemental 1
Everything's in a book somewhere except lich (homemade bloodline level). The marilith level is the obah-blessed template broken down into levels and the abyssal dragon is the same thing with the abyssal dragon template. The abyssal dragon level is a little more powerful than it should be, but it helps to compensate for the player who doesn't always show up on a regular basis.
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Those are all things that will clearly affect the outcome, so they are definitely worth VP. Along with what others have said, I'd base it on what's given for the stuff in the book (which I don't have with me)
If you wish to try to get them back ON the path a little, you might give each member of your party a knowledge roll of some kind and give them an appropriate hint. "Maybe we should think about putting some kind of defensive structure on the entrances to the harbor?" Not telling them specifically what to do (nobody likes to be spoon fed) but still just some basic hints.
If you'd prefer to let them continue doing this oddball stuff, that's certainly fine as well. Just be prepared to continue making up VPs. :)
They just added two gargoyle tribes to their army (the ones in the book and a kapoacinth tribe as well).
At this point I've cooked up some betrayals for them from their allies; otherwise they won't even need to be at the final fight to win it!
For recruiting the dragon I would use the recruiting the dinosaurs VP numbers.
and troglodyte/gargoyles the number for recruiting the phanatons numbers or If I recall the trogs changes the asset value of Farshore, not the VP total so I would do some changes there, but the Olman numbers would be close.
If you want them back on track, I would start the island shaking from volcanic eruptions (a tsunami could wipe out farshore), and the needed supplies of the tar pit. For pretending to be a god, they could find themselves investigated by the Coatul who used to be pretending to be a god too.
But if you and they are having fun, do not bother.
The players are having a blast, so it's not a problem.
But they've got too many allies, so I'm going to cut them down a bit.
The half-orc pirate Drevoraz (I think that's his name) hired the bullywugs to kill Lavinia earlier on, but that's only half the story. Manthalay actually hired the bullywugs, whom he found at Blackfen Swamp, and the Jade Ravens, to kill Lavinia so that she couldn't come to Farshore and claim the title of lord mayor (he didn't know she didn't know about Farshore). The bullywugs simply took Drevoraz's money and didn't tell him about the previous contract. But by the time the party arrived to save Lavinia, there was a falling out between the bullywugs and Jade Ravens. When Manthalay heard of their failure and that Lavinia was coming, he hired the Jade Ravens to go with her and kill her along the way. But the PCs went with Lavinia, and they didn't have the chance to do it.
So all this time the Jade Ravens have been working for Manthalay.
The night before the pirates arrive, Manthalay, King Quotoctoa, Rowyn Kellani, Xiureksor, Bua Gorg, and those mentioned in the spoiler are going to try to kill Lavinia and the party while the bullywug tribe kills the troglodytes.
That should give the PCs something to think about!
That really is an interesting plot twist. Perhaps I am going to borrow part of it. My PCs have some issues with the Jade Ravens...