The way things have played out so far in my campaign, the skulks and Kazmojen are alerted to the fact that the City is on to them and will soon be launching an expedition against them.
My players had Ghelve arrested by the City Watch for his part in the kidnappings and they retreated to buy gear and get ready for an expedition the following day. The skulk in the shop was killed, but a second one got away to alert the dungeons below.
Reasonably, Kazmojen and his warriors would pack up shop and boogie into the Underdark, but if my players move quickly enough they might catch him yet before he gets away. I plan to have Kazmojen send his hobgoblin jailer up to Jzadirune, along with 12 hobgoblins, to organize the skulks and dark creeprs into a massive delaying ambush of the party, with burning oil, waves of missile weapon attacks and hit and run assaults if they can manage it.
Has anyone else had a similar development in their AP experience? How did you as a DM handle it?
Things sound exciting in your game! Are the players still 1st level? If they are facing a 'hobgoblin ambush' is certainly going to be challenging and having the Half-Troll alerted to the party/city law so early is going to make the plot spin on its head also. If he retreats into the underdark not only are the slaves going to disappear along with him but so will their encounter with Vhalantru.
You can make it all still piece together but you are making a lot of work for yourself by throwing the plot in to such a disarray. My biggest worry is that at 1st/2nd level the party are going to be hard pressed battling an organised and collective force such as you describe. Even if you bring in help from the gaurd this has the effect of disempowering the PCs and making them mere audience members rather than the lead role.
I would have everything return to normal some way. Perhaps the Haf-Troll and his hobgoblin force defeat the city gaurd are feel the threst is abated? Perhaps the Half-Troll has committed himself to a meeting in that exact location with no way to change it and 'must' remain to complete the transaction?
My party has waded successfully through the upper levels of Life's bazaar and are about to head down into the Malachite Fortress. They actually found the 'short-cut' down when they first arrived but realised after their battle with the Stone Spike that they should comp[lete the upper level first before attempting to go any further.
In any event good luck with the events and good luck to your party.
Delvesdeep
Good stuff fare but I do agree with delve that you may be jumping the gun a little too soon.
I definitely agree that the inhabitants should change their tactics based on the party's actions. That said, I would
slow down a bit considering the party's level and the inherent deadliness of the Life's Bazaar dungeons.
Would Kaz be alerted? It's likely, sure. But when I ran LB, I decided that the skulks and creepers/stalkers weren't very organized (they are all spread out in Jzadirune). The party ended up picking them off one by one (I did have them move around though).
Once they got to the Malachite Fortress though, all bets were off. I had the hobgoblins use guerilla tactics against the PC's. They then setup an ambush in the main corridor with the pit traps. I played Kaz as being over-confident and certainly not afraid of some meddling adventures. He certainly wouldn't flee right away, especially considering how good "business" is lately.
Thanks for the great advice. I'm not as worried about my party being low level, as they have a centaur wizard (35 hp with 4 HD of monster) and a half-silver dragon cleric with them. Initially I thought I was only going to have two players for this campaign and I wanted them to have a fighting chance, but I ended up with five, so now the party is a little overpowered....but, there are so many delicious ways to fix that, especially in the AP.
I think I'll have the skulks and dark creepers a bit more organized, maybe with a half-squad of hobgoblins as muscle and we'll see how things play out once they head "below" to the Malachite Fortress....
The initial combat turned out okay. I had 4 skulks ambush the party's advance scouts on two seperate occasions, but they were pretty ineffective, even with the sneak attack. However, the six hobgoblins used a thunderstone and waves of crossbow bolts to pin the party down in area J3. They dropped the charging halfling barbarian to -9 hit points and put a few good falchion strokes on some other party members before the centaur wizard used her lance to skewer them. She's definitely too powerful for this right now, but if I think Kazmojen and his ilk are too weak of a challenge, I might up the number of hobgoblins in the Malachite Fortress or give the remaining ones another level of warrior each.
If the party doesn't get into the Malachite Fortress within 24 hours, Kazmojen and the orphans and the duergar-fiend dude will be gone and the party will have to hunt them down in the Underdark....maybe....