Secrets of Souls Pillars, aborted assault on Wee Jas cathedral, what now?

[exilas]

Last session, the party I'm DMing through SCAP decided to enter the Cathedral of Wee Jas after being subject to the assassination attempt and tracing it back to Ike Iverson.

They entered the temple and battled the first batch of guardians in the main hall. Being the "naive" tacticians they are, they attempted to bring down the giants with ranged weapons and spells. Of course the giants were more than happy to stand in the rear and to demonstrate them how well versed they were with thrown boulders, one of which made a rather elegant circular mark 5 inches deep into the chest of the party sorcerer, leaving him stone dead on the ground.

In the end the party managed to kill all the opponents, included the cleric which was trying to run toward Ike in the upper floors, but they were down one member and quite low in both HPs and spells, so they decided to call it a day and ran away from the Wee Jas cathedral toward the cozy safety of Jenya's church.

Now, I'm expecting them wanting to recuperate and assault again the following day, and I'm wondering what should I setup for them.

The first obvious choice is having Ike to replace the dead guardians with some others (assuming he can manage to find them so quickly). The sorcerer assassin escaped alive the battle against the PCs, so he could be a prime choice.

However, I was thinking of some other more indirect ways to hamper the PCs. For instance, Ike could raise loud complaints about the assault with the city guard and try to have it to go after the PCs.

Ideally, I'd like to have the PCs sweat a lot to recover from their error (assaulting the Cathedral with almost no preparation at all), without derailing the story too much from its planned path.

What could you suggest me?

Thanks,
Marco

[nib]

Well, you've come up with some interesting ideas already. I think, the best course of action is one which is kind of realistic. Like, what would Ike most likely do to achieve his goal? He is devoted to crushing the party but still fancies his own life a bit. His first offense has been repelled, his first line of defense has been destroyed, he should be pretty worried by now. He has two options. Pursue the party now, before they can recover, or flee and hope for the best.

I don't think he would just sit and wait unless he has an ace up his sleeve, which I don't think he has.

If he tries to assault the party on his own, he would grab anyone he can and go for it. He should keep an escape plan ready (plane shift or similar). In this case he wouldn't lose time to cover up anything in the cathedral. The party can find all kinds of clues after they mopped the floor of Jenyas church with his fellows.

If he tries to get away, he would likely destroy most of the evidence of the Wee Jas involvement in any sort of greater plan. He might think of getting rid of the spare soulcage. I would make it such that he overlooks some details, which can help the party find either him or the clues necessary to continue with the path. Maybe, he flees to Karran-Kurral, after all, he won't return to the cagewrights since he has failed Embril by not killing the party, but he may know Fetor Abradius and wish to consult him. F.A. has also abandoned the CWs, so maybe they would team up.

In any case, as long as the PCs find the soulcage, the letter of Embril from Fetor or any other clue that they should continue their investigations at Karran Kurral the path will continue...

In fact, after writing this up and putting my thoughts together, I would do the following:

Have Ike animate as many of the dead as he can to guard whatever's left, destroy most evidence (not enough to stop the PCs dead, he is in a hurry, so he makes mistakes) and leave with some clue that his destination might be Karran-Kurral (an open book on his desk with a map of KK's surroundings or a description, a teleportation device (one-time use) which needs to be activated by inscribing the intended destination, etc.) Make it somewhat hard to get to that info by upping the number of (undead) guards, just take Ike away from the scene ...

Cheers,
Nib

[exilas]

Nib,
thanks for sharing your ideas. I just ran the next session, and as usual my players managed to surprise me (not necessarily in a positive way ;))

They had an afterthought as soon as they leaved the Wee Jas cathedral, and decided to reenter it to behead the corpses to avoid someone could cast "Speak with dead" on them and discover who was responsible for the slaughter.

(Of course, the fact they were storming a temple hosting at least two high level clerics more than capable to cast divination or commune to fetch that information didn't cross their mind...)

Anyway, I ruled it took them about 5 minutes for the beheading, and during this time Ike did get nervous enough for the waiting to send the death wraith investigating.

So the party thief watching the tower door got surprised by the wraith emerging from the door itself, and another combat ensued, with the undead draining constitution from several PCs before they managed to kill it.

Still, they insisted in completing the beheading before heading again to Jenya church, dragging a couple of sacks full of bleeding heads.

So, the issue about Ike reactions is postponed to next week. I've almost decided Ike will try to stand its ground in the cathedral, still fearing the wrath of Valhantru and Embril more than the PCs. He will reinforce the church defenses with some traps (glyphs and the like) and he will hire some more mercenaries (I think I could put Zarik to a good use for that -- IMC the PCs didn't combat Dhorlot, so the hooks for using Zarik weren't good for me).

Ike will keep an escape root open, thought, and your suggestion about him reaching FA in Karran-Kurral is really good.

Ciao
Marco

[nib]

Sounds good.

My party had quite some trouble with Ike, who hammered at them with all his buffs active and with his personal guard and the party in confined spaces (on the stairway entering the dome), so it should be a good battle if you relieve them of a few spells/HP by the wards you intend to place in the cathedral.

Have fun !

Nib

[EATERoftheDEAD]

What I'd do is incorporate nib's ideas of escape and a half assed attempt at covering his tracks. But i would also assault the Temple of St. Cuthbert with a horde of undead. I like to throw things at the party, sometimes in rapid-fire succession, to keep them off balance and forcing them to think on their feet.

So when Ike flees he animates as many undead as he can muster, enough to properly challenge the party, and then flees, leaving the horde to take out the party or at least delay them.

[exilas]

Just to let you know I've further elaborated the Ike Iverson escape to Karran-Kurral.

I wrote a recap here.

Ciao
Marco