Tonight I am running Carrion Crown with one of my groups. We are in Trial of the Beast, just after returning from Sanctuary. The last session ended with an attempt at infiltrating Vorkstag and Grine's, only to have the party severely beaten up by the Flesh Golem hound at the gate. We play in a little over three hours, and my group just informed me that they have voted, and decided to skip the Chymick Works altogether. They say that defending a monster isn't worth possibly dying, especially when they aren't convinced of its innocence themselves. I don't disagree with them, especially given their alignments. However, this puts me in a sudden pickle, as the story would now send them to Schloss Caromarc, and they are not nearly strong enough. (They needed Vorkstag and Grine's, as well as the courtroom diplomacy checks to level one more time before heading to the castle. What do I do? I don't want to just give them the XP, as they didn't earn it and I don't want to reward them for skipping out on their responsibilities as PCs. I also think it would be boring to say, "on your way to the castle, you have a half dozen different random CR 5 encounters". I also don't want to simply water down the CRs of the castle, as that would be a ton of work for me, and unless they caught up somehow, I would have to continue doing this the rest of the AP. Can anyone think of some good story related ways to give them the XP? Has anyone else encounters this sort of derailment?
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Here's some quick ideas for how you can still use V & G, since you've already got their stats and everything:
1. Do Vorkstag and Grine know that someone tried to infiltrate the chymic works? Was there any physical evidence left behind by the PCs when they fought the golem hound? If so, then Vorkstag and Grine could come after the PCs in order to protect their secrets. They have no way of knowing that the PCs plan to leave them alone.
2. Have they already done the mob scene? If so, have the mob attack the courthouse again, this time led by a distinctive man with blond hair (actually Vorkstag in a skin). V & G attack the party in the middle of the chaotic mob.
3. Have one of the Crooked Kin, or some other NPC that the PCs kinda like, disappear. Then they reappear later, but it's really Vorkstag in their skin.
4. When the PCs head to the Schloss, have V & G offer to serve as guides, intending to lure the party out into the wilderness and murder them.
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The castle is ridiculous for level 6 characters, i assume they will be lvl 5? Reduce two specific encounters and let them enter book 3 as a lower level/XP total.
The two summon monster traps, they kill parties. Also the last encounter can be done very poorly.
An other option is to punish them by hurting loot, don't pay them for the trial due to their illegal activities/failure getting back to the judge. But she's not a jerk about it. (Assuming my gm didn't add getting paid to investigate due to us missing something)
I second Trinite's suggestions. If V&G know the PCs attacked (and why wouldn't they, since the hound probably barked up a storm), then it makes perfect sense they would want to turn the tables on the PCs. This is a little heavy-handed, but it is also perfectly logical. Attacking the PCs while in disguise in the midst of the chaos of a mob attack could be really neat and challenging for the PCs. If you don't want to do a mob attack, having V&G attack the PCs where they are staying could be neat too.