I just completed the riot scene in Cauldron for the taxes. Everything went pretty well and the party controlled the scene with no loss of life. However, they did manage to obtain one of the Last Laugh guild members who was there to incite the riot.
My question is this: How do I change the story line now to manage for the information they obtained? Through some very "persuasive" (warmage has an extremely high Intimidate) talking, the party managed to get the information out of the LL rogue that he was there to start a riot by attacking the guards and making Maavu look bad. So now the party has proof that Maavu is not directly involved in the riot (which they trust) and will fight against Skellerang going after the "Chisel" in Redgorge.
What can I do? I thought of having Vhalantru get to the rogue first and "persuade" him to say that Maavu was still behind it all, but my PCs will probably follow that up with disproof since they *hate* Vhal. Any suggestions at all?
I don't see why you have a problem. In fact, I think that most parties will end up on Maavu's side. Because they want to stop the invasion of Redgorge, they should want to take up Maavu on his offer to meet him there, on their way to try to rescue Alek Tercival from the Demonskar. The Chisel in Redgorge should try to convince them to try to find Alek in order to stop the invasion.
But the way I see it happening is that the party will argue against the invasion of Redgorge instead of going to Maavu. Instead of going to him in search of Alek, they'll argue with Vhal and Skellerang against invading Redgorge, possibly even by passing Maavu.
Well, I would just let the party try in vain to convince Vhalantru and Skellerang not to invade Redgorge. The fact that the Last Laugh have been shown to be working against the Chisel doesn't automatically restore the Chisel to their good graces. Skellerang has worked with the Last Laugh before (in Drakthar's Way) and he seems easily swayed by Vhalantru. Also, Skellerang doesn't want to be deposed by Tercival's challenge and he blames the Chisel for being behind that. If the last laugh prisoner is inconvenient, Vhalantru can easily hire someone to dispose of him as well, don't forget-perhaps the mad Derro, Kravichek. That should add to the party's paranoia...
Hmm, maybe I should engineer it so my guys capture a provocateur as well....
I see your problem. If Skellerang can't be convinced now, why should he be once Alek Tercival shows up? Or even worse, once the party shows up with Alek's body claiming 'the hags made him do it'