Basically I want the PCs to witness the scene where Queen Ilosia has the crown of thorns and killed the Commandant, Endrin because I don't want to say "oh there was a major event where thousands of people turned up, but you somehow missed it" which is silly that the party would miss such an event, but at the same time I don't want them to be at the scene as the AP does explain there is a chance of the PCs getting over the heads by trying to attack her right then.
So I'm after suggestions. So far I have these:
1. Field Marshall Cressida Kroft is already suspecious of the Queen due to what's happened so far and has a bad feeling about this public appearence so she sends them a note, telling them to wait for her at the citadel.
2. Have them witness the event, but have the Shaman from part 1 emerge and then grab the party before dimensioning dooring out of the area to help them escape and to protect them.
I'm open to any other suggestions you might have.
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What I did was have them invited, but put many rows back in the crowd. Everything that happens literally happens in 2 rounds, maybe three. You put enough people between the party and what is going on and they will have a very hard time influencing anything. If they are daring enough to launch a long range attack, it won't harm the queen, you can brush off any such attacks as the crown defending her further, and Togomor would be foolish to be in public without some major defenses up as well. I just made sure they realized it would take 5 or 6 rounds for them to even get through the crowd and by the time they could nothing good would come of it.
What I did was have them invited, but put many rows back in the crowd. Everything that happens literally happens in 2 rounds, maybe three. You put enough people between the party and what is going on and they will have a very hard time influencing anything. If they are daring enough to launch a long range attack, it won't harm the queen, you can brush off any such attacks as the crown defending her further, and Togomor would be foolish to be in public without some major defenses up as well. I just made sure they realized it would take 5 or 6 rounds for them to even get through the crowd and by the time they could nothing good would come of it.
Love that idea, afterall the crown does give her powerful spell resistance that none one of level 7 should be able to passI believe.
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I don't remember the crowns details off the top of my head, but who really cares. The players are never going to know if it is correct or not. Just dramatic it up a bit and they will go pasty white with fear (insert BBEG laugh here). But the gist of the argument is she is by far out classing them at this point. (and if you pull her stats from book 6 she could charm the pants off of them...litterally!)
Still the key is to limit the number of actions they get and make sure those actions are spent doing things like trying to avoid the stampede as the other people try to escape, or the mob of people behind them that decide to try to help eliminate the queen. One of my parties was caught right in the middle of faction fighting and barely escaped with their lives.
I don't remember the crowns details off the top of my head, but who really cares. The players are never going to know if it is correct or not. Just dramatic it up a bit and they will go pasty white with fear (insert BBEG laugh here). But the gist of the argument is she is by far out classing them at this point. (and if you pull her stats from book 6 she could charm the pants off of them...litterally!)
Still the key is to limit the number of actions they get and make sure those actions are spent doing things like trying to avoid the stampede as the other people try to escape, or the mob of people behind them that decide to try to help eliminate the queen. One of my parties was caught right in the middle of faction fighting and barely escaped with their lives.
Wow intense!
I did come up with a bit of a subtle suggestion by giving them a nightmare of a immensly large blue dragon invading Korvosa.
Of course you and me know what that really is, but it'll be interesting just to mess with their heads and they won't know what it's about until they realise what the crown is.