Players Skipped Glassworks

[Agognon]

I have two players each playing 2 characters.
Player 1 plays: a Paladin of Erastil, and a Jester (Dragon Compendium)
Player 2 plays: a Celestial Bloodline Sorceress and a Cleric of Sarenrae
They are all human and they are all siblings. And they are all level 2.
We are playing it with PRPG (and having a blast).

After the initial assault of Sandpoint, my players caught wind of a captured goblin being held in the Sandpoint jail. They interrogated him and learned of the 'secret mission' to the graveyard. They also learned that the goblin was from a place called Thistletop (they forced him to tell them where he was from). So before I could set up the kidnapping of Ameiko by Tutso or anything really, they were all ready to go investigate Thistletop.

They met with Aldern the next morning and went on the boar hunt with him and after they killed a boar, they sent Aldern back to town with the boar and they headed to Thistletop. I had them meet an elven woman (Shalelu) staking out the Thistletop lair and she introduced and befriended them (they're gonna need the help).

Which gets me to my problem of sorts. Assuming the party is successful in Thitletop and find and defeat Nualia, how do I introduce the Catacombs of Wrath and run them without them feeling anti-climactic after their success at Thistletop? Do I even try to do the whole Tsuto kidnaps Ameiko thing? What other hooks could I use to get them to explore the Catacombs?

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Thistletop might be a bit tough without the experience gained from the Glassworks and the Catacombs. If the PCs get word Ameiko's been kidnapped they'll surely run back to the Glassworks. If you don't want to feel like your railroading them then move the encounter with Tsuto somewhere into Thisletop, and have some clue on him that mentions something he found beneath the Glassworks (a letter to Aasimar oughta do it).

[Agognon]

Hmmm... Maybe they find a list of plans like...

Spoiler:

Step 1 - Raid Sandpoint while Tsuto and small group of goblins exhume Father Tobyns remains

Step 2 - Sacrifice Father Tobyns remains to Lammashtu, begining Nualias demonic transformation.

Step 3 - Tsuto and gobbos recruit his sister Ameiko (she will join us or be sacrificed to Lammashtu)

Step 4 - Secure aid of Quasit, and sinspawn army in Catacombs of Wrath beneath Sandpoints Glassworks.

Step 5 - Release Malfeshnekor from his Thistletop prison.

Step 6 - Burn Sandpoint.

Eh?

[James B. Cline32]

You could always reverse some of the room locations.

rooms:

For instance move Malfeshnekor and Nualia to the Catacombs of Wrath, or just create a new dungeon under Sandpoint and put them there. Basically, you could just remove some of the major players from Thisteltop, leave the goblins, and put the newly created dungeon under Chopper's Isle or something.

Who said Malfeshnekor couldn't be in some kind of sealed sarcophagus thing that Nualia was moving into position, but still couldn't open.

Plus putting something out at Chopper's isle could be really fun, just add a secret passageway. If you have trouble getting people out there you could always start the use some elements from the Skinsaw murders to throw suspicion on the place. Someone had a neat story about Chopper's child ghost being out there, maybe it gets irritated and starts wandering around town scaring people.

"Someone is disturbing my rest" kind of thing.

[pjackson]

Agognon wrote:

After the initial assault of Sandpoint, my players caught wind of a captured goblin being held in the Sandpoint jail. They interrogated him and learned of the 'secret mission' to the graveyard. They also learned that the goblin was from a place called Thistletop (they forced him to tell them where he was from). So before I could set up the kidnapping of Ameiko by Tutso or anything really, they were all ready to go investigate Thistletop.

I am confused. Why did you give them such a big pointer to Thistletop if you didn't want them to go there?

Whilst letting them speak to a captured goblin is fine, that goblin should be from one of the other tribes involved, and should be a grunt who knows little about who is in charge. In my game he mentioned that several tribes were involved and that a white haired scarred woman had been involved in organising the raid, but that was about it.

Having them meet Nualia before they know about her from Tsuto's journal would not be good.

I think it would be best for them fail at Thistletop and have to return to Sandpoint to regroup. Then they can be diverted by Ameiko's disappearance. At level 2 they are likely to fail. The problem is how to avoid them dying. How willing would they be to retreat?

[Delthos]

It does say in the "Rescuing Ameiko" section that if the pcs somehow don't go to the glassworks that night, that Tsuto and his Goblins take Ameiko to Thistletop. To me Tsuto should meet up with the PCs either in Thistletop sometime during their assault or sometime on their way back to Sandpoint. In this way they still find out about what was going on. It works either way really. If using the PFRG rules, assuming they survive, and you have them meet him after the assault on Thistletop, you may just have to bump up his level and give the goblins a few more hitpoints so that they are a challenge as they'll be higher level than they were intended to be when the meet up with them.

[Sir_Wulf]

I'd hit them hard before they enter Thistletop itself. If they get hammered while retreat is still an easy option, they're likely to fall back to the town.

The goblins are unlikely to keep notes or an agenda, but Gogmurt or the recruits in the thicket might know of the goblins in the Glassworks. Since this party likes to interrogate their prisoners, Gogmurt might reveal the goblins' scheme, hoping to keep the party from attacking Thistletop right away.

[pjackson]

Maybe have them meet a party of goblins on the way to Sandpoint, who will say when questioned that they are to join others who are being shown a secret way into town by a longshanks.

[Citizen117]

pjackson wrote:

I think it would be best for them fail at Thistletop and have to return to Sandpoint to regroup. Then they can be diverted by Ameiko's disappearance. At level 2 they are likely to fail. The problem is how to avoid them dying. How willing would they be to retreat?

This is similar to what happened with my players.

Movie plot spoiler:

A goblin captured during the raid revealed that part of the raid was on the boneyard. The PC's investigated and found that Ezakian Tolbyn's bones were missing and found where the ladder had been left against the wall. The party's ranger made some good tracking rolls and they followed the prints, one human and several goblins, back to the north road where they lost the tracks. Then he rolled a natural 20 to refind the trail so they found where the goblin and human tracks turned off the road beside the Thistle River.
I allowed them to track the goblins to Thistletop. The Ranger found the entrance and they went in. As they wandered the first thing they came across was several goblin dogs tied up.... they decided to take them out now rather than later. As they did so Tangletooth and Grogmort showed up and gave them hell... They were still 1st level at this point. Shelelu showed up and encourage a quick retreat. One of them was carried out unconscious.
They got back to town to recuperate, Shelelu gave her spiel, the Sheriff left for Magnimar, and that night Ameiko's employee approached them with the news of Ameiko's disappearance.

Humbled and back on track. :-)

I like this adventure a lot.

[Citizen117]

(that'll teach me to copy and paste html)