Players going right to the stag lords castle


Kingmaker


so my players have decided that there must be something awesome on the location where the stag lords castle is, they said that its a place where they would build village or something so someone "Must have build home or something there". they will follow the thorn river through the forest (following the skunk river later) and will soon arrive there in game session or two.
now iam in little trouble, if they attack stag lord now they will die right away. so i had the though that they could join stag lord, with that they wouldnt die and i could push them to the right direction (away from the places of the second book)

so how could i do this? in what way could i make them join the bandits and avoid them attacking the bandits and killing them self? and how would i do it?


I'd say ... this is a sandbox. Don't "make" your players do anything. Throw a couple warning signs at them about the Stag Lord's power, but if they decide they want to attack him anyway ... then let them go to it.

Of course, if they want to take over his band from the inside, then create a kingdom from there, that's an interesting way to take the module.


Here's another option that you might gently hint at, if you're worried your players will TPK: even if they go straight to the fort, they don't actually have to attack.

My players headed to the Stag Lord's fort fairly early, pretended to be bandits, gave the password, handed over some loot and grog, met the folks in the fort and had a look at the layout, ate some lunch, said "see you next time", and left without doing anything precipitous. They were given the next password on the way out, and they then knew something about the layout, defences and personalities of the fort for when they came back a few levels later.

I was very impressed with their cunning. I made sure to add the loot they handed over to the treasure in the fort, so they were able to recover it when they came back.


pennywit wrote:

I'd say ... this is a sandbox. Don't "make" your players do anything. Throw a couple warning signs at them about the Stag Lord's power, but if they decide they want to attack him anyway ... then let them go to it.

Of course, if they want to take over his band from the inside, then create a kingdom from there, that's an interesting way to take the module.

yeah, "make" was a bad word, i should have used something else.

just, i dont want them to die, i would feel bad about it. of coarse i will throw tons of warning but they are so stubborn that they will most likely just go on and attack (and die horribly).

thats why to counter this i came up with the plan that they could join them. but why and how? why would the bandits let them join or want them? and how would this happen nice and smooth (or bad and edgy, thats okay too as long as its fun).

also RobREndell, thats great. i just hope my players are clever enough to come up with something like that.


Be sure to add in the warning signs also an accurate description of how the fort is heavily defended to discourage the frontal assault tactic.


One nice warning sign is to have a knight in full plate armor impaled over the front gate, as a sign of how nasty the inhabitants are. A DC 15 Knowledge (nobility and royalty) check will reveal that Sir Locksley is a famous bandit hunter the PCs have heard of, deadly in the duel, quick in the field, etc., etc.

(In fact, the Stag Lord snuck up on him at night and killed him in an ambush, but do the PCs know that? At any rate, they SHOULD be cautious after seeing that.)


I think someone earlier was in the same boat, they let the players hear the "tame" owlbear, amid other signs of bandit power.

Like seeing another bandit-hunting group get shot down by the archers while being swarmed by the zombie minefield.


It doesn't necessarily have to be a level 1 TPK. At this point of time, the Stag Lord is spending most of his time sleeping off his booze, leaving a few lieutenants who hate each other in charge. He won't interfere and deliver a beat down unless something serious is going on, and even then there can be some delay before he enters initiative. Smart players can sneak in as bandits if they fake some credentials and some loot. Get in, chat, scope out the place, and leave. Check my thread for my level 1 party that attacked the fort at night and actually survived.


I hate to bring this thread back to life.

I find it very hard to believe that anyone with any sense would leave their newly secured base of operations to the clutches of who knows what near-by dangers to head on the long journey to the furthest part of the chartered territory.

I also find it hard to believe that the other PC's and NPC's would just go along with something like that.

Maybe the TPK should happen and then Oleg can welcome a new crew of adventurers.

I have to ask what map of the area you showed them?

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