Spoilers inside.
My PCs smoked Mathus and the druid wolf he had with him pretty easily last night - completely charring the druid to -35 hps with a maximized fireball when she was only at 2 hps (so no real hopes of getting info out of her dying corpse).
They got the Dusk Moth communion ritual scroll but I told them, as the story is written, that the temple would need about a day of reconsecration. None of them worship Desna so there's no real motivation for any of them to commune with the goddess.
So where it stands, I have 2 dead NPCs and no motivation to commune with the goddess and, therefore, the PCs have no idea what to do next.
Essentially, the trail has gone cold. They were coming to Mathus to learn about where the Way went and ended up just killing everything.
I'm looking for some suggestions on how to address this. The PCs are planning to camp at the top of the tower tonight since they are totally spent.
I'm considering having the wolves in the woods go into disarray with the fall of the pack lord and wondering if I might be able to lead them to Feldrau that way.
Any clever ideas - especially to encourage them to commune w/ Desna for the fun reward?
I don't have the books in front of me, but aren't the PCs supposed to be approached by the Prince's Wolves after the Stairs of the Moon, with a potential alliance in mind? This tribe can pick up the scent of the Jezeldans travelling with the WW.
As for the consecration ritual, if the PCs are resting in the Tower, then Desna could visit their dreams and beseech them to help purify her tower.
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As written, they're supposed to run into the Prince's Wolves outside of the tower, and they can tell them to go to Feldgrau.
Too bad they're going to miss out on the consecration. No Wis or Int for them! :)
I used the consecration as an opportunity for an epic scene of interaction with the Night Monarch. It was a great way to show the PCs that there's huge consequences riding on their actions in the campaign, and to transition into a more epic, higher-level campaign feel. At least that was the idea.
Thanks guys, I had forgotten about the Prince's Wolves. I kept reading over that section but stopping before reading the ambush section and going "darnit, I know they are supposed to figure this out somehow!"
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I agree with Gonturan and Trinite. Even if they aren't actively pursuing the consecration of the temple, you should still give them the opportunity to do so. It's a fairly unforgettable scene, at least it was with my players, and the boons they receive is incredibly worthwhile. It would be a shame for them to just walk right past it.
There's a Scroll in the chambers below the tower on the corpse of the WW cultist that has map coordinates of everywhere Auren Vrood has been and is going including Feldgrau. The Devil is in the Details.
--Schoolhouse Vrock
Yeah they have that map but it says that the other location is somewhere off to the southeast. None of my PCs knew the location (know: geography / local, etc).
They actually said they thought the map was a map of places we've been - like "these guys have been tracking us! where we've been!" It was pretty way off base. I'm not saying that was smart of them, but it's what they did heh.
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My PCs also failed the Knowledge Geography check but returned to Ascanor to consult the library there after cleansing the Stairs of the Moon. I waited to spring the Princes Wolves encoutner until later to drive home the fact that Duristan was missing.
Unfortunately for them they never encounter Duristan in the ruins of Feldgrau and so I may use him as a foil in Ashes at Dawn to bring some Underworld action to the table.
--Count Vrockula
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My PCs also failed the Knowledge Geography check but returned to Ascanor to consult the library there after cleansing the Stairs of the Moon. I waited to spring the Princes Wolves encoutner until later to drive home the fact that Duristan was missing.
Unfortunately for them they never encounter Duristan in the ruins of Feldgrau and so I may use him as a foil in Ashes at Dawn to bring some Underworld action to the table.
--Count Vrockula
I like that idea! In my game, the found Duristan but he convinced them that he wasn't a werewolf. They left him in the building with the Prince's Wolves, and he proceeded to hulk out and kill them all.