HoHR: Moving the Party Forward After Defeating Telakin

[Dichotomy]

My PCs defeated Telakin and survived Zyrxog's ambush from area D19. No one in the party has any decent tracking ability, so they didn't venture far into the sewers. Instead, they returned topside to relocate (since the Crooked House was apparently not a safe base of operations), sell some loot, and decide what to do next. They discovered what Beggar's Gold is and learned that "cold forge" in the note Telakin had refers to the Cold Forge smithy.

The problem is that I think the PCs are going to decline to act on their knowledge, hoping to wait for Eligos to get back to them first. Of course, their meeting with Eligos to discuss his findings is supposed to occur after the PCs have discovered the connection of Raknian's purchase of the Apostolic Scrolls and that he was the one that hired Zyrxog to kill them.

I'd also think that, since Zyrxog now knows that the PCs have destroyed his doppelganger servants (and are a bigger threat than Zyrxog thought), that Zyrxog is not simply going to wait if the PCs don't come after him.

I'd appreciate any ideas for how to prod things in the right direction, or, as an alternative, rework the story to allow the PCs to wait.

[Dennis Harry]

You could have the mind flayer send further agents against the characters. One would prompt them to probably look for him. A second one would for sure I would think. Perhaps if a third is necessary allow the characters to trail one of the surviving attackers.

In the meantime I don't think knowing that Raknian hired the mind flayer and purchased the Apostolic Scrolls matters all that much. Perhaps have Eligos or the characters find out about "someone" purchasing the Apostolic Scrolls in Greyhawk recently (with a Gather Information check) which will prompt him to dig further into his research.

The bard (whose name I forget) in the Champion's Belt hires the characters to dig up dirt on Raknian. Once they start exploring and find the Urgustala they will realize something is up with him. Even if they never get the clue from the mind flayers layer (it is a bit of a stretch that a mind flayer has written documets for all of his transactions I mean he is a Genius) or never explore the underground of the arena, they will figure out that he is involved once the final scene plays out.

[Smarnil le couard]

Dennis Harry wrote:

Even if they never get the clue from the mind flayers layer (it is a bit of a stretch that a mind flayer has written documets for all of his transactions I mean he is a Genius) or never explore the underground of the arena, they will figure out that he is involved once the final scene plays out.

Yep. Do all you can to remove the written documents (nothing is sillier than assassins keeping written orders, except customers sending them in the first place). Replace them with something subtler, tailored to your PCs (in my case, it could be something like a psicrystal-notebook, one of my players being a psion).

[Dennis Harry]

That's funny because I think I may make that mind swapping machine a set of psicrystals that the mind flayer uses to imprint the memories of his victims on. I think that is a more interesting twist on that mind clone plot device. :-)