Okay, so at the end of 3FoE my crew of five (at that point) came back to the surface with evidence Smenk and Rangolin (sp?) had been aiding an evil temple. Confronted with clear evidence the Mayor put the two in jail and called for a magistrate from the free city. The party, meanwhile, set about resting for a while before Alustan requested thier company on the way to EBK. Early on in the down-time Smenk used his connections to escape captivity. After that time the party "hired" on 3 more members (a merger of two AoW groups when the other one fell apart).
So, I figure Smenk wants revenge against the nosy PCs who got him removed from such a nice perch atop Diamond Lake's mining community. I need to review some notes, but Kullen and at least one other member of his gang are dead, so I figure Smenk will need to call in some of his connections from Greyhawk. I'm thinking of a small probing attack with an assassin (ROG 5/ Assassin 3) hidden amongst the reinforcements from Diamond Lake headed to Blackwall Keep. He'll be employed to kill and return with the heads of the five PCs that foiled Smenk.
During thier trip into the swamp the party had its first death. One of the five original PCs is dead and being carried out of the swamp. When the party arrives at Blackwall Keep I intend to have the reinforcements from Diamond Lake arrive with the assassin (disguised as a militia man) and the replacement PC, a paladin of Mayahien (sp?), just setting up camp and learning of the monster in the basement, having only arrived a short time earlier. Oh, and the replacement PC is the dead PC's half brother. Now, the assassin, wanting to get his money, will liekely try to steal the head of the dead PC at ther earliest opportunity, before it is burried. Hey, bounty on a guy he didn't have to kill, how much easier can this get? I also figure that the assassin will attempt to pick off one or two "easy" targets and leave when it looks like the going will be too tough.
How does this sound as an early vengful Smenk encounter? Are there any glaring holes I'm overlooking?
This sounds like a good beginning! I especially like the attempt to get the dead PC's head. Having an assassin in with the militia sounds too tempting not to connect or overlap the attempts with HoHR. Perhaps Smenk, in looking for a likely assassin, was the source of information to Raknian that the PCs were the ones to take out the Triad. I'm envisioning multiple attacks on the PCs which at some point stop originating with Smenk and start coming from the HoHR baddies.
Maybe the PCs could find evidence from the first assassin that he was hired in the Free City and that is why they really head off there. "While you're going," says Allustan, "I have a friend over there you might want to speak to..." That way Allustan isn't once again the goad for the storyline, he merely augments.
Anyway, the PCs might succeed at stopping Smenk but for some reason the attacks continue (cue the PC replacement for HoHR).
IMC Smenk hired/threatened/bullied the PCs into going into Dourstone's mine. If you did something like this perhaps when the PCs track Smenk to the City they find Smenk already dead. Raknian had him murdered (for his role with the fall of the Triad). Then the PCs get attacked again and the PC replacement happens.
Well, those are just ramblings. Hope they help!
Someone other than Alustan to act as a goad would be very helpful. Thanks, I think your ideas can help this build up nicely. Now I need to decide who besides Smenk and his Dire Apes the party will face off against.
Well, Smenk's a bit overweight, aging, and trying to be a fop. He's got rogue levels for the sneaky killing blow in a fight. I think that his tendencies are toward big meaty bullies. Hence the Dire Apes and Kullen. Second to that, I think that Smenk would appreciate the raw power that magic might represent. I don't know if the wizard from Kullen's gang is still alive in your campaign, but that's who I'd go with. Maybe advance him a level or two so he can actually do something evil...
As I envision him, Smenk's hardnosed business dealings would have no truck with religious freaks like clerics. If he's gonna be in a fight, Smenk would want plenty of ferocious meat shields. So if the Dire Apes and a wizard aren't enough or what you were thinking, you might follow Erik Mona's campaign and employ a bunch of goblins under the leadership of a barghest.
But I think that the wizard (Merovinn?) probably would run to Smenk as soon as Kullen was brought down. He's a frail wizard and needs some ferocious meat shields of his own, so it makes sense that he'd still be a loyal employee.
IMC, the party followed the leads from the encounter with Filge to the Dourstone Mine on their own (there's no way they'd work with Smenk willingly). To get in, they bribed and Diplomacy'd their way in, but only just (thanks to a group Diplomacy effort against one of the Mine Overseers).
On their way out, I had Dobrun Trent and Sherriff Cubbin waiting for them outside to arrest them on trespassing charges. They were taken to the Garrison and locked up for perhaps half a day while Melinde' (who is an NPC in the party at the moment) was taken off to explain to Captain Trask exactly what had happened. When she returned, the party was escorted to Trask's office, where they found themselves face-to-face with Smenk and Dourstone. Dourstone threatened their lives should he catch them in his mine again, and left. Smenk, however, advised them that HE was the reason they were free...
This is after the party slew all BUT Kullen in an ambush when they found out that Kullen's crew was involved in Alastor Land's family's bones disappearing. Smenk is enjoying knowing that such a "capable" group of people are now in hock to him and has advised them to tell him directly what they find in the Dourstone Mine, within a week, or they go back to jail.
Of course, he fully expects them to come back raring for a fight, so I'm going to borrow the goblin/barghest idea as fillers for Smenk's place...