I don't know if this came up for anyone else, but supposing the pcs try to do a large scale attack on Scuttlecove? Would the other factions align with the Crimson Fleet or would they hide and hold back? What if the pcs had made a deal say with Kedward Bone or Tyralandi for example?
Okay, let's rephrase this. Let's suppose that my pcs do it. Let's suppose as well that they manage an alliance with certain factions, making it clear that they don't want the city--just their particular enemies.
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ok, had another post eaten by the postmonster
long story short, my party did just what you described
how it happened:
they killed the fleet, burned down the wreck, stole all the stuff
in the process they finished off the seventh coil peeps.
then they went back to SC, where they had annexed one of the buildings first time round (thus now having a small base of operations), found out about the brotherhood, Bone, and spoke w/ Tyralandi again.
they destroyed the brotherhood readily, then immediately headed for Bone's tower (may have been the other way round, but not important)
basically, they did the SoS adventure (which, if done to the entirety results in the destruction of the Crimson Fleet and removal of the leadership of the Seventh Coil as it is), then came back to SC to take out the rest of the leaders
Bone went down like a chump, as well as the brotherhood's leaders/summoned monsters/mercenaries
-the hamster
(if they DO decide to take out SC en masse from the start, prepare to TPK them w/ multiple high-lvl spellcasters, many golems, summoned/called devils, and wizard apprentices)
My players came into Scuttlecove thinking they were the bee's knees, considering their level, and thought Scuttlecove needed to have some goodness beaten into it. *Sigh*
It's difficult to convey to the players the level of power of the different factions in Scuttlecove without outright saying, "They'll all get together if you go into town, guns-a-blazing...oh, and they're all CR 17-18 or something." So I used an old trick from my last campaign.
Scuttlecove may be evil, but that's really only it's power struggle. A full-scale war in the streets would result in the destitute, and otherwise "innocent" victims becoming casualties. Since 15th-level players are unlikely to fear much--though they should--they should be reminded (insert convient and "wise" NPC to deliver said advice here) that their actions in Scuttlecove will have consequences to those who cannot defend themselves. (Kind of playing the alignment card for "good" PCs, but hey...)
Another good one is allowing the "sense motive" to gauge level via the rules in complete warrior or adventurer, I forget which.
Another is show someone who you think they would respect as powerful effectively brown-nosing in Scuttlecove. Watching something like a Horned Devil beggin for its life in front of Tyralandi might make them rethink things.
And yeah, drive the point home that the few "civilians" in town will get mowed down by the town defense, and that will be entirely on the PCs heads for not taking it into account.
well, not actually a problem around here, since I foreshadowed the ruthlessness and vile reputation of Scuttlecove an the power of its rulers (if any of such were readily identifaible ). Since we were (its over for us since the weekend ) in the FR, where powerful NPCs traipse around all over the continent, they correctly assumed that anyone who could stay in business liek Scuttlecove does, definitely has some aces up the sleeves.
always consider that while factions in SC might hate each other they might hate outsiders even more - or have no interest in _them_ changing the status quo (which seems to work ). Or getting to take revenge on someone other bad guys may own loyalty too, and which may result in long-term revenge or payback. Actually Scuttlecove profits mightily from the crimson fleet, which both provides ready influx of commodities (such as gold, slaves, drugs and other less-than-legit "tradegoods" ), customers (scores of pirates), naval protection an forces and demonic backers. I mean, take a look at the Seventh Coil - they readily profit from each other.
Besides, if th players rok the boat too much, don't let the bad guys sit still and wait for the hammer to fall - have THEM strike at the PCs with overwhelming and well-prepared force, some advance intelligence gathering and carrying the fight to their enemy. The forces avaliable in the installment are what is "possibly" ready to strike at the PCs, which leaves plenty of room for some less "coventional" strike teams to go after the "Sea Wyvern" or any other known PC haunt, or simply bribingthe PCs erstwhile allies/hired help to arrive "a tad too late".
one of the main problems of pre-written adventures are static, reaction-only NPCs and BBEGs. Something that does not always happen in RL.