How to deal with players getting help?

[NewDM]

Hey, I'm a new DM and am bout to run the "Crypt of the Everflame" path for a group. I've never DM'd before, and after reading the adventure, I thought of a scenario that could actually be quite common at low levels and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

Here's the hypothetical: The group of 4 gets to the tomb and quickly discovers the slaughtered animals, bodies, and skeletons at the entrance. "Oh crap", they realize "People are dead and the tomb is overrun by skeletons." But what if instead of entering the tomb to defeat the enemies, they just go "Let's trek back to town, tell them what happened, and come back with reinforcements." The small town, upon hearing of this slaughter of their townsfolk, would undoubtedly send every able bodied man and whatever higher levels they have to quickly stamp out this undead problem.
How do I handle this if my characters just immediately want to turn back, and go grab a bunch of help at town instead of entering on their own with their weak level 1 asses? Even getting a couple of NPC helpers would make the adventure super easy, and if they came back with a dozen level 2s with pitchforks and axes, it would be trivial. Their decision to run back to town for a ton of reinforcements would actually make sense and be the most practical solution to the problem. And the town would never ignore the request...

What to do if this comes up?

[MC Templar]

This is where "suspension of disbelief" needs to arise.

Sometimes in story crafting the storyteller and the audience need to agree to ignore a possible outcome to serve a narrative, i.e. "sure that girl could spend the rest of this horror movie hiding in the police station, but that would make for a crappy film" So in your case, the audience is your group of players, so you need to create a response to this kind of scenario that will allow the players to take "no" for an answer is a way that is somewhat believable to them.

A nobleman or someone else in town that rebuffs the request for aid, and tells the mob that the PCs are just highwayman out to lure the townsfolk into an ambush.

The Mayor incredulously telling the party, problems like that are exactly what we pay strangers like you to take care of. Someone in the back of the mob mutters something that sounds like "no goo murderhobos"

The village has some means of common defense protocol (church bell rings, all the villagers take refuge in a keep or palisade fort) and the elders tell the PCs that we will protect the women and children while you (the party) clears out that crypt.

None of these are particularly "logical" but each allows a specific message to be sent "the narrative demands that you handle this as the heroes, if you wanted to whine to the authorities for help, you should've made a commoner"

[RumpinRufus]

One option is to put an NPC into immediate danger. If they see a child being attacked by the undead, they don't have time to head back to town, they have to act immediately to save them.

[Third Mind]

- What Rufus and Templar said.

- The players get the help and the majority of the townsfolk are killed by skeletons. The remaining townsfolk now bear a grudge against the group.

- The town is filled with old people.

- The skeletons see the adventurers and follow them back to town, thus catching the town off guard.

- Add more skeletons that ambush them from behind, thus cutting off the parties escape route.

- The town finds this to be suicide or figures that's what the party is getting paid for (if they're getting paid. Never played Crypt of the Everflame though).

[RumpinRufus]

Third Mind wrote:

- The town is filled with old people.

LOLing so hard right now...

[kmal2t]

It's up to you as the DM to be creative and think through situations.

I'm doubting the town is a retirement community so I'd skip that one...but even logically...you tell a town that there's a creepy tomb that is full of evil skeletons trying to kill you...How many people would honestly volunteer for that? And the few that do would likely run at the first sight...not to mention sure give them help...some weak ass farmer with a pitchfork isn't even equivalent to a level 1 PC. This shouldn't be a problem.

[Dabbler]

You don't do the work, you don't get the XP. Those are some tough level 2 commoners out there now, though.

[Kimera757]

NewDM wrote:

Hey, I'm a new DM and am bout to run the "Crypt of the Everflame" path for a group. I've never DM'd before, and after reading the adventure, I thought of a scenario that could actually be quite common at low levels and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

Here's the hypothetical: The group of 4 gets to the tomb and quickly discovers the slaughtered animals, bodies, and skeletons at the entrance. "Oh crap", they realize "People are dead and the tomb is overrun by skeletons." But what if instead of entering the tomb to defeat the enemies, they just go "Let's trek back to town, tell them what happened, and come back with reinforcements." The small town, upon hearing of this slaughter of their townsfolk, would undoubtedly send every able bodied man and whatever higher levels they have to quickly stamp out this undead problem.
How do I handle this if my characters just immediately want to turn back, and go grab a bunch of help at town instead of entering on their own with their weak level 1 asses? Even getting a couple of NPC helpers would make the adventure super easy, and if they came back with a dozen level 2s with pitchforks and axes, it would be trivial. Their decision to run back to town for a ton of reinforcements would actually make sense and be the most practical solution to the problem. And the town would never ignore the request...

What to do if this comes up?

There's a reason the town didn't do this before. They just aren't as capable. They're not self-starters. Maybe the town has some hunters who can track, but they're too scared to go shoot up some undead.

The militia might go. They're basically a bunch of low-level warriors and commoners. They can tie up some of the threat.

The real way to solve the problem is the "hidden railroad", a term that nobody uses because hating railroads is in vogue. As long as the PCs don't know how many undead there are, you can arbitrarily increase their number. And even if the PCs know how many there are, some bad guy could perform a ritual to create a whole bunch more. Perhaps they'll start coming out of the ground after the PCs and help deal with the initial clump of skeletons.

In short, when the PCs throw you a curve ball, come up with a plan to counteract it.

[Dorn Of Citadel Adbar]

Just because the AP or module or whatever says that this happens this way with this, this and that. It doesn't mean that you as the DM/GM have to follow it word for word.
When you read through it try and think of things that the PC's might think of and then use some little twist here and there to work around the path that they have chosen, leading them back to where you wanted them in the first place.
As mentioned above, Have them followed back to town, you've just created a whole other issue to deal with and now the towns people are preoccupied. If they do get back up adjust the numbers here and there.
The PC's are the Hero's not the villagers otherwise they would be out there doing it themselves instead of hiring the PC's to handle it. Look at the real world for a sec. Almost anybody can fire a weapon, but are they trained in the use of said weapon to take down a bank robber or a terrorist cell? Very doubtful. So if you drag them out there more people are going to get killed.
I'm not familiar with the AP but what if it were zombies (Res Evil, Walking Dead), again if you bring the townspeople out to deal with it, you've just increased the numbers of the enemy.
To use Kimera757's line, "In short, when the PCs throw you a curve ball, come up with a plan to counteract it." You are in control no matter what. keep your head and think ahead of time of what they can do, and be ready for it.
But remember, just because your ready for plan a,b,c,and d. The PC's will come up with E-Z. Just adapt and roll with it.

[Skeld]

Crypt of the Everflame.... I ran it a while back. There are a couple things to remember if you run this "by the book."

The quest of the everflame is sort of a coming of age ceremony for the PCs and is a celebration for the town. Every few years, a group of young'uns get old enough to send out on the "quest" and the older townspeople (some of whom may have participated in the quest when they were younger) make a bit of a show of it by throwing some fake challenges at them (remember the illusionary orcs on the way to the crypt?). The PCs should be aware that the townsfolk like to prank the groups of young people on the quest, so that when they get to the crypt, the assumption is that what they see is an orchestrated part of the coming of age test. It's not until they encounter the guy hiding in the room that the realize that something really has gone wrong. And the something has taken his sister. And there might not be time to go back to town for reinforcements (remember its a 2-day trip back to town). At this point, the PCs should realize they're the only ones who can help.

-Skeld

[BillyGoat]

Skeld's point is an excellent one, this adventure sounds like it's got a built-in hook to pull the characters forward.

Add to that, MC Templar might think all his ideas lack real-world logic, but I disagree with him on this one:

MC Templar wrote:

The village has some means of common defense protocol (church bell rings, all the villagers take refuge in a keep or palisade fort) and the elders tell the PCs that we will protect the women and children while you (the party) clears out that crypt.

This is exactly how most medieval towns react to an "enemy at the gate", hide and wait for the local lord / hired mercs to take care of the problem. If you were a level 2 commoner, would you want to test your luck going into a dank, dark crypt to fight a horde of the walking dead?

That's why your PCs are heroes, they are willing to do incredibly stupid things that get re-qualified as "heroic" when they don't die. (To paraphrase the Dresden Files)

As others have said, you've got ambushes, you can move up the discovery of that NPC Skeld mentioned, having him fleeing past the party into the crypt, because the walking dead are behind him. So now the PCs not only have an NPC to rescue, but they're between said NPC and a bunch of riled up skeletons.

Of course, you could just give them the help, then they're out the XP, and the loot, and the village elders decide that the PCs need to go out on another coming-of-age quest to a more remote dungeon crawl which, since the players never actually saw this dungeon crawl isn't quite suspiciously similar (if with re-skinned enemies).

There's nothing wrong with letting the story play out this way. And, if you're players keep going "nuts to this, we're getting help", you can always remind them that they are the help everyone else already turned to.