So im at the half way point with my group for the skinsaw murders AP, and the party easily destroyed aldern foxglove. they missed the phage, but oh well.
the problem is is that they didnt catch the hook to get them to magnimar to investigate the next step in the path. they didnt catch on to the list of names and instructions to bring the phage back to magnimar, and on a side note, they totally skipped the ghouls in the farmlands, but i have that covered. Its getting them to magnimar that is stumping me...
any ideas?
So im at the half way point with my group for the skinsaw murders AP, and the party easily destroyed aldern foxglove. they missed the phage, but oh well.
the problem is is that they didnt catch the hook to get them to magnimar to investigate the next step in the path. they didnt catch on to the list of names and instructions to bring the phage back to magnimar, and on a side note, they totally skipped the ghouls in the farmlands, but i have that covered. Its getting them to magnimar that is stumping me...
any ideas?
I'll cogitate on this more later, but I was going to point out that my PCs ended up in Magnimar due to the fact that Aldern managed to stealth up on them, and sneak attack two members of the party to death, thus making the trip to Magnimar a bit more imperative . . . ;)
Spoilers!!
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Are any of them greedy individuals, or have attracted the attention of either Justice Ironbriar or Xanesha? You could send some of the Skinsaw cultists after them with some evidence linking Foxglove to the Brothers of Seven. Something like a note from Foxglove warning them of the PC's or the dying whisper of one of the cultists hinting something similar.
Sounds like you could drop some hints into your Ghoul plan B.
Failing that, just have word of the identical murders come to Sandpoint from Magnimar after a week or so of down time*. In some ways, that's almost a better transition, IMO — the whole "evil papertrail" phenomenon of the first two Runelords books was already the subject of ridicule at my table by this point.
Thankfully, I haven't seen the villains-keeping-OCD-diaries trope crop up again in any subsequent Pathfinder installment.
*: If the group won't follow such an obvious plot hook, you're going to run into problems later in the AP. If this is the case, start planning ahead, your transitions are going to need help. I'm blessed with a group that takes the hooks as they are given, so I didn't need to — but I can see an obstinate group being a total pain when it comes to heading for Ft Rannick, or back to Sandpoint after that.
I have Madam Mvashti get hints from Ravens and (because this is a west coast area of the level of Washington State) since there are lots of Ravens around she gets lots of news from them she tells them a little advice now and again... and the Wizard in the party has a Raven familliar... and its good as I used the Murder of Crows and I use the crows and ravens to fortell death lots...
Who's in your group, and what if any relationships have they established with the NPCs of Sandpoint and/or Magnimar? I'd look there for hooks to pull them into Magnimar.
For example, it's pretty easy for PCs to develop a connection to Ameiko (since they've presumably rescued her from the Glassworks), so in my campaign I'm using that to set up Kaijitsu family intrigues in Magnimar as that branch of the family tries to strip Ameiko of title to the Glassworks owing to her brother and father's wrongdoing (since Tsuto's a psycho and Lonjiku was renting out his furnaces to the Sczarni for body disposal, that's a pretty good pretext for taking the valuable property away from the Sandpoint Kaijitsus).
Later, I'm planning to have one of these greedy greedy Magnimar Kaijitsus turn up dead with a Sihedron Rune carved into his or her corpse, and that should spur the PCs to do some investigating not only because of the murder itself, but because as Ameiko's agents in Magnimar, they're going to be obvious suspects and will need to clear their own names by finding the real killer(s).
So that's one way you could do it.
Another alternative: have the PCs themselves hired, through intermediaries, to find the phage and bring it to Magnimar. If any of your PCs is evil, a thief type, or a Sczarni (or Sczarni wannabe), this is easy. If not, it might not work for your group (although you might still be able to pull it off because the PCs are known to have gone into the Misgivings and survived, therefore they're logical choices to go back there again and retrieve something dangerous safely). But if it does work, that's one way to get them back on the trail.
As for who's hiring them? Depends on your group. Maybe a good-aligned temple in Magnimar has reason to be suspicious about the phage and want a sample so they can figure what it is and how to counteract it. Maybe it's Xanesha working through charmed intermediaries. Maybe it's the Sczarni worrying about a rival gang (Xanesha's) getting hold of a dangerous new weapon before they do.
Third alternative: someone on the list of names got word that an unknown assassin is after him/her, and wants to hire the PCs (who are now known as local heroes, and, being outsiders from Sandpoint, are considered less likely to be in cahoots with a Magnimar-based threat) to act as bodyguards against the Skinsaw cultists. PCs have to investigate the reason their employer's life is in danger (should be lots of red herrings here for anyone greedy enough to make the list), uncover the true nature of the threat (again getting them back on the trail), and protect their employer from cultist attacks in the meantime.
I wouldn't worry too much about them missing the Aldern/Skinsaw connection (which is pretty tenuous and not that plot-important anyway) so much as just getting back on track with the main story.
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Later, I'm planning to have one of these greedy greedy Magnimar Kaijitsus turn up dead with a Sihedron Rune carved into his or her corpse, and that should spur the PCs to do some investigating not only because of the murder itself, but because as Ameiko's agents in Magnimar, they're going to be obvious suspects and will need to clear their own names by finding the real killer(s).
That sounds particularly interesting, considering by that point in the game at least one sihedron rune medallion has been found (Nualia's) and is likely being worn by a PC.
On topic:
If the PCs went to testify in front of Lord Ironbriar during the trials of any of the Burnt Offerings main villains (Nualia, Tsuto, Orik, or Lyrie), Ironbriar, after finding out about the PCs defeat of Foxglove, could request they come and go through his townhouse, to check for...I have no idea, really.
But it plays into Ironbriar setting them up, and gets you there.
Many have Justice Ironbriar the unknown elf that is Tsutos Father...