Need Kingmaker encounter advice (Spoilers Inside)

[Con carne]

Sorry in advance internets down and im typing this on my phone.

Im running kingmaker and im about to have the staglord encounter ........for the second time. My players were very gung ho and went almost b-line to him round 1 and got trounced being under lvld. I didnt want a tpk so I left them nakked unconcious in the woods. Then had mikmek drag them back to the silver mine. Its been months in game time and im not sure how to follow up. During the fight they did manage to fear the owlbear ehich ran into the wilderness.

Im mainly looking for ideas on how to set the encounter.

Thanks.

[Diego Rossi]

There is a forum section dedicated to the Kingmaker AP here. It is a better location for Kingmaker advice than the advice section..

[STARGAZER_DRAGON]

not advice but I am considering running that line next game once these toons finally retire, how smoothly does it run? how fun is it to run from a dm standpoint?

[Thrund]

I think it's a tricky one. On the one hand, the bandits have had time to regroup and reinforce. On the other, presumably the party have been doing a good job of keeping trade routes clear, so the bandits might be short of resources.

So I think it depends on how much bandit activity has been observed since the last encounter. If it's been a lot, then the Stag Lord has obviously been successful in maintaining his power and probably recruited new troops. If it's been none, then perhaps the bandits have abandoned the fort entirely, and the party will find something else living there when they come back.

[Paulcynic]

If you haven't already finished this scenario, something that might be equivalent to the Owlbear is to move one of the other map challenges to the Stag Lord's fort. Something like, 30 minutes after defeating the Stag Lord, the carnage attracts Crack Jaw, who them rampages into the camp catching the player's exhausted and unawares. At first he goes for the bodies of the slain bandits, giving the shocked party a surprise round's worth of time to get their gear. Or any scenario along those lines can make finishing that Fight memorable :) Hope this helps.

[Travis Garess]

Paulcynic, that's a very nice idea.
Hell, could be anything, drawn to the smell of dead people and the noise

[redcelt32]

Assuming the party didn't make too much carnage in the way of dead bandits:

The Stag Lord is a drunkard and unlikely to change anything he doesn't have to. The party waltzed in and got their behinds handed to them, then stripped and dumped out in the wilderness. The other bandits at the fort are arrogant and overestimate themselves, or are too dumb to bother to even estimate.

Change the password, rinse and repeat. No changes necessary. If you want the part to face the owlbear again, just put it back and say the bandits tracked it down again and re-captured it.

There really is nothing to change here, unless you want it changed. The Stag Lord and his men have been doing this for years, I feel certain they have been challenged before and defeated their enemies before.

One small note for continuity- I would have left a note on their naked bodies written to their mommas "Please don't let your little boys outside of their fancy homes, they seem to wander into places only men should go". This would reinforce the image of the bandits being arrogant and overestimating the danger of the party. Otherwise, it looks suspiciously like you spare their lives.

[Jabberwonky]

As redcelt calls it, the bandits work very well as an arrogant lot who think they run the entire narlmarches. If you don;t want to bring in crackjaw, or some other nasty, give them two owl bears instead of just one in the cage, and watch them fill their pants.