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I run Howl of the Carrion King, and my players did quite well so far. However half of them never played Pathfinder or D&D before, and last session was not so brillant.
During last session, they made a few poor choices, and now Kardswann is aware of them.
Here is what they did after installing in the monastery :
They manage to save Oxvard, and to kill a group of 6 gnolls near the pesh field, they escaped the dust digger and let it devour the freshly dead gnolls.
This first step was brillant, Kardswann has no idea why his 6 gnolls disappeard, and he didn't know about Oxvard's rescue. Oxvard gave them some informations about the village, and how he was captured by the gnolls and their demon ally (Kezurkian).
Next day (the 4th after the Monastery's liberation) they went on another hit & run raid against the village. They were able to kill the Peryton, but not without raising the alarm. However the guards from B9 and their hyenas took a long time to go from B9 to the other side of the bridge.
And they split the party !
Some characters went to search the watermill, and others to explore the other building (Undrella's Tannery).
I made Undrella appear then, she proposed them to cover their track if they gave her the peryton's horns, heart and fangs. She wanted to use these components for her potions. She also asked for a future service (but had no time to ask for the snake's head). She talked passionatly with the seductive Paladin.
The players in the tannery agreed, but the others in the mill didn't know about it. One of them found the magical longsword in the watermill, and wanted to kill some gnolls. This player has the "Gnoll Killer" campaign trait.
As Undrella began to talk with the gnolls, he went out of the mill and attacked them (insulting the gnolls and ignoring the harpy).
Meanwhile, the rogue robbed some stuff in Undrella's home.
Undrella fled to her tannery, and the other characters went out from the tannery to help the gnoll killer. They killed on gnoll and some hyenas, but on gnoll was able to flee to the battle market. Kezurkian showed up to block the bridge, and the PCs fled from him.
They went to the monastery to recover.
We stopped the session at this point.
Now, the gnoll and Kezurkian can explain Kardswann about the PCs, and they should prepare for another attack. However, they cannot send the peryton spying on the monastery.
What do you think they should do to prepare ?
I don't know what to do with Undrella.
I think Kardswann could believe she is a traitor, but maybe she could come up with a good explaination and save her head. Maybe she could do the spying mission on the monastery on day 5, and defenitivly side with Kardswann, she was robbed and ignored after all.
Or maybe she could flee from Kelmarane, to see that handsome paladin again ?
The PC's (perhaps except the Paladin) have turned against Undrella and have to face the consequences. Let her side with Kardswann again (at least give him the info, that the PC's are coming and offering the scouting mission).
That handsome Paladin may be able to turn her away from Kardswann but he has to be really interested in her, not only bluffing.
(Be sure giving her some ranks in Sense Motive).
Be open for ideas how they can fool Kardswann again, but if they make another blunder, consider finishing the PC's off.
Or let the Gnolls capture them. The Carrion King needs slaves...
I'd forget the need to work in the scouting mission. From Kardswann's perspective there are only so many places the party could whole up and the monastery is the most likely one (its really too close to the town as the AP is scripted).
I'd have him send a small party of gnolls at night to verify the party is there. Maybe mount Ugruk on the hyenadon and give him a few gnolls. They could immediately retreat letting the party know that Kardswann knows where they are upping the tension and maybe provoking a debate about moving.
Have the gnoll patrol groups increase in size. If the party kills a decent sized group have them all pull back to the hill. Don't leave the gnolls as static, it makes more sense for them to do things to respond to the party. I had them place some barricades, leave some traps, move the hyenadon (I turned the direboar into a direhyena which made much more sense to me) to make things more dynamic.
IMO Undrella's assistance is a reward for a group that doesn't immediately kill everything monstrous looking on sight. Your thief screwed her over and I wouldn't reward them for that. Indeed the player needs to learn a lesson about picking his targets. Her goals are to stay alive, keep her house and have Kardswann dead in that order so I would keep her neutral short of some extraordinary diplomacy. I'd reserve her actually helping Kardswann unless the party attack her (which they might well if they think she will help the gnolls). Fighting her and Kardswann together at the battle market is quite possibly a TPK, her song plus high places to fall off while they fight the invisible flying axe murderer is incredibly deadly.
Kardswann loading up all the gnolls and attacking the monastery is the clock that prevents the group waiting around forever. Although it might be fun to run that instead of an assault on the battle market. In my game Undrella (who they befriended) told the group that Kardswann had summoned reinforcements and the plan was to attack when they arrived. That put them under some time pressure to take Kardswann out first and prevented a long and boring battle of attrition. Almah and the other warriors fought gnolls at the front of the battlemarket while the party went in the side and battled the remainder.
The last thing to recall is that Kardswann is really taking orders from the daemon and all the daemon really wants to do is escape whether or not that kills Kardswann and every last gnoll in the process. In my game I had it feel the proximity of the interdict key. It and then Kardswann's goals became retrieving the key. I think it makes more sense to work some story into that rather than just have Almah hand it over like a dutiful NPC questgiver once the kill Kardswann sub-quest is completed. A fun alternative if you run the monastery fight maybe for Kardswann to ghost inside, murder a whole bunch of NPCs and retrieve the key perhaps handing it off to Ugruk to go release the daemon while he fights the party. Then they can have that "oh oh" moment when Kardswann tells them that even if they win the freed daemon will be coming for them. That and the daemon's mini dungeon is probably the most boring part of the chapter, although I like the hecuva fight (I added a horde of skeletons inside the temple, the remains of the townspeople which gave the priest of Sarenrae a chance to shine).
My game is a PbP on this site if you want to have a look what I did.
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Thanks for your feedback, both of you.
Maybe I will do it that way :
Undrella will go on a spying mission for Kardswann, and show up at the Monastery.
Depending on the PC's reaction she might :
1) (if attacked on sight) : Flee back to report Kardswann that they are at the monastery. This will set up the clock before he comes with reinforcements.
2) (if they look like they want to talk) : Try to negociate, by asking her stuff back, and proposing her help against Kardswann again.
My next game is in 2 weeks, so any other advice will be welcomed.