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So my PC's just survived the assassination attempt and found out the church of wee jas was behind it all - so like any good party they decided to sit around and construct magic items, join the last laugh, hob nob with nobles... for the next 45 days. So what would the temple of WJ do? I would think hire more assassins but they know that the PC's are probably too strong to handle anybody they can hire. Suggestions?
Well if the PCs are going to sit around doing nothing but build magic stuff and be unconcerned with the machinations of the church of WJ, simply have the church continue on its path and. I doubt it would use any more resources on simply trying to assassinate them, but would definitely shore up their own defenses should the PCs attempt to retaliate.
At this point, have the church move towards its end game only since theres no PC interference have them nearly succeed, and cause all sorts of trouble on the way. Perhaps some NPCs very dear to the PCs become collateral damage along the way - death, injury, or even reputation or financial ruin. Perhaps the church has members within the Last Laugh that secretly plot to undermine the PCs and what they're doing with the guild. Perhaps the guild gets routed out by the authorities, and the PCs wind up incarcerated due to guilt by association.
Either way, the plots and the world shouldn't merely be "paused" just because the PCs want to sit for a month and a half. I'm usually pretty reasonable with PCs wishes in using their craft feats, but the players know not to abuse the generosity when important time-sensitive matters are on the line.
Robert
The question is what you want? Do you want to allow your players the time to make their magical items or not?
If you don't, you'll have to force them back into the adventure. The best way to do that, I think, is to use the next installment in the AP, Lords of Oblivion. This adventure puts the PCs right on track again. You could add links to Fetor Abradius and Karran-Kural in this adventure, so you can play out the Secret of the Soul Pillars afterwards and still enjoy major parts of the adventure the PCs skipped. You'll have to adjust both adventures though, to get the challenge ratings correct.
On the other hand, there is nothing preventing you from giving your PCs the time to do their own thing (I would strongly advise you to take this course). Allow them to make their items and schmooze with the nobles or infiltrate in the thieves' guild. You could actually get some really nice roleplaying out of this, I imagine, which could also result in XP. In the meanwhile you could have the Stormblades clear out the temple of Wee-Jas in the background, maybe after Ike Iverson attempted to turn Todd Vanderboren into an undead abomination. This would also get the church of Wee-Jas of the PCs' backs.
Then find a new link to Fetor Abradius and Karran-Kural, maybe through the Last Laugh connections. You could have the dracolich Vittriss Bale demand a certain magical item to ensure his lasting cooperation with the Cagewrights. This item, which might be an old spellweaver relic, is in the hands of Lord Taskerhill. The PCs who've infiltrated in the Last Laugh guild, have to steal the item and deliver it to Karran-Kural.
I'd send more assassins after them, myself. But I'm not a very nice person.
Poison. Definitely poison.
Is anyone vulnerable to poison at these levels? Our PCs aren't....(Heroes' Feast!)
You could consider having Jenya or another trusted NPC do a Divination or Commune and find out that, indeed, something is about to hit the fan and the PCs cannot wait. But if you've been running pillar to post for a while, maybe the PCs really need the downtime now. It can be very annoying to players who take downtime-dependent feats if they never get any.
Mary
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
That's all your PC's are doing, getting stronger, nothing wrong with that. But in a 3D world, the bad guys shouldn't sit idle, either. I imagine that the powers-that-be would call an emergency meeting, upon learning the assassination failed.
What happens at that meeting? What would these highly intelligent, evil beings come up with? That's your challenge.
- Kidnap a loved one
- Kidnap a loved one in a far off place (Sasserine)
- Weaken the foes (PC's) by striking at their safe-house, burning down their resources. Fire is cheap and readily accessible.
- Destroy the allies of the PC's.
- Buy up all the ingredients the PC's need for their magical items. These baddies are wealthy and connected
- Hire proper assassins to do the job
- meet with the Most-Likely PC in attempt to persuade them to the dark side
- Engineer some foul deed, and frame the PC's for the crime
Maybe this meeting is called at a quiet little tavern where one of the PC's information merchants happened to be. Maybe that information merchant can then rush to the PC's with 'Oh my goodness, you heroes better go do something, they're planning to do XYZ to you!'
Shade
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One thing you could do is just have the church hire a second group of assassins, who can even be a few levels lower than the average party level. However, since the PCs are taking time to themselves to train and whatnot, have the assassins attack them individually, when they're alone. It's a smarter strategy for assassination anyway, and the PCs will quickly learn that they need to band together and find the source of the assassins before some of them get lucky or come up with a good enough plan.
Of course, you also have a chance to introduce one of the Cagewrights a bit earlier in the AP. Have a look at all the Cagewrights and try to decide which one they would send after the PCs now ...
Of course, you also have a chance to introduce one of the Cagewrights a bit earlier in the AP. Have a look at all the Cagewrights and try to decide which one they would send after the PCs now ...
Nulin, Ardeth, and Alurad all spring to mind; could also use that Derro from later on. Or a planar ally - an Ice Devil buffed to the gills by Ike could probably easily remove one character a day (or something considerably tougher, depending on the party since Horned Devil, Marilith and even Pit Fiend are also options for Greater Planar Ally - could also do some kind of interesting Demodand or whatever, but it may as well be something new)
As a suggestion, as long as the PCs have the ability to resurrect, it's probably reasonable to have the next attempt be successful on its target. Especially if using one of the more 'daily' oriented members of the Cagewrights... blow all the buffs, engage a party member singly, chop off their head or destroy their body somehow, move on. If it's one of the crazier ones, they don't even have to make sense in why they left them resurrectable - messages might be carved into the corpse, body arranged in prayer to a symbol of Adimarchus in entrails, etc.
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My players did something similar to this, but for quite an opposite reason.
They got hit really hard by the assassination attempt, enough so to shake them a little bit(and make one of the characters really angry), but when they investigated further and found out that it was the church behind it they started to reconsider any sort of reprisal. I remember hearing 'its the biggest church in town!' an awful lot while they were arguing about what to do.
In the end they decided to hole up in their guild hall(they had formed a mercenary unit) and just watch them backs as much as possible(detect magic, glyphs and symbols everywhere, ect) and see if the church would be satisfied that it had scared them off with its attack rather then going on and trying to kill them. They figured that if they were going to have to fight the powers the church could offer then they would be better off doing it on home field.
Instead I took a bit of a different approach rather then launching a massive assault. One morning a group walked into the guild house wearing the symbols of their mercenaries, and suddenly drew blades. The group, having been ready for an attack, let of a counter attack that just easily destroyed the enemies. When they looked closer they realized that it was a handful of their mercenaries who had been doing guard duty in town that were killed and raised to be sent after them.
The PCs decided that was enough and stormed the church the next day. If Ike wants a fight let him pick one. To bring the characters to his home turf he just needs to find what is important to them and threaten that. They'll do what they can to put a stop to it.