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I have gotten myself into quite the conundrum since last session. The PCs were fighting a reoccuring villian of my own creation immediately after "Foundation of Flame" when the villian was basically messaged by one of the Cagewrights telling him to come to the Fiery Sanctum because the Stormblades were attacking. This was mainly because my PCs seemed to have no interest in going down there themselves, however the bait worked and they followed the villian down into the volcano.
My problem is where should I put the Stormblades in the dungeon. I don't want to party to join up with them because I run an 8 PC game already and those NPCs would be annoying. But I don't want to flat out say their dead either because thats kind of cheap. And ideas?
Why not assume the Stormblades are out of spells, hitpoints, etc and are in dire need of rest when the PC's come in. Perhaps they are holed up in one of the cagewrights' lairs. Of course they still have enough protective spells and traps set up to give the cagewrights a run for their money, so they aren't too keen on just storming in. In other words, they're at a stand-off.
The cagewrights are on allert, and together, so the encounters should be a lot more difficult. On the other hand, the stormblades may have taken out a few cagewrights and depleted their resources as well.
Even if the PC's and the stormblades meet up, the stormblades won't be able to help the PC's in a meaningfull way. And you won't have to bother with extra NPC's complicating encounters.
ps: Just read Calidore_Chase's reaction. I guess they're both allong the same lines
The stormblades escaped the dungeon and are staying out of sight while they lick their wounds?
The report that the Stormblades were attacking was merely bait to lure the other villain into a trap for some obscure reason?
I have to admit I haven't read whichever adventure you're running so my advice might not be good.
I like Chef's Slaad's suggestion, personally....they've done some damage, but now they can't press on any further.
A second possability, building a variant off of what Calidore_Chase suggested, would be that the setup was bait...but partly due to the fact that the Stormblades have turned traitor...or part of them anyways. Todd has sold out the others. Zaccary and Annah are dead (Todd killed Zaccary outright, and Annah was killed by a Cagewright, which Todd tried to stop from happening), and the PCs run into a severely wounded Cora in the dungeon, who spills what took place to the others and badly wants revenge on Todd, despite her injuries.
Dispose of her early on in the first major fray and you're out of extra NPCs to deal with, and a dimention of drama and NPC interaction on a personal level (not just the faceless "The Stormblades") is introduced.