I think you're more worried than you need to be. My PCs also just finished the encounter with Filge, but he surrendered to them after the fight turned against him. They threatened to turn him over to the temple of Wee Jas for desecrating graves if he didn't cooperate, so he did. They asked questions, he answered.
Now they want to take him to the garrison so he can face charges, so this is how I am going to handle it:
The garrison will take custody of Filge, but since the incident occurred _within town limits, rather than out side the town, it is technically out of their jurisdiction, so they will have to turn him over to the sheriff. Smenk will have him bailed out and spirited away to the Free City by bribing the sheriff (he already knows what has happened because the PCs alerted Filge to the their presence, ran away, then came back, so he sent the tomb mote to tell Smenk) before anyone can involve the mayor, who is the only one who might intervene.
By making it clear to the PCs that the garrison only has jurisdiction _outside_ the town limits (unless asked in by the mayor) the PCs can only deal with the _corrupt_ sheriff. So, your problem is solved. And it won't matter that they didn't get any info about the mines from Filge, because they have now come to the attention of Smenk.
The intro info for TFoE specifically says that once Smenk finds out the PCs tangled with Filge he will want to get rid of them, and he figures the best way to do this is to send them down into the mines after the cultists, trying to kill two birds with one stone.
So, since the PCs didn't find the letter from Smenk to Filge and don't necessarily know about the connection, do the following:
1. Smenk knows what has happened, so he has Filge spirited out of town in the dead of night back to the free city, and has the bodies disposed of somewhere close by (due to lack of time) like burying them in a convenient nearby copse of trees, including the skeletons.
2. The PCs go back to teh observatory with the sheriff and find everything is gone. They will have some explaining to do, and likely will have to pay off the sheriff to avoid being arrested themselves.
3. Smenk calls on them the next day and says he heard about what happened and believes the "necromancer in the observatory" is in league with a mysterious cult in the Dourstone mine that has been threatening to kill him and others if he does not supply them with necessities.
Alternatively:
1. Filge is arrested.
2. Smenk bails him out, spirits him away.
3. See #3 above.
Or if the PCs _do_ know about the connection between Smenk and Filge, have Smenk use the "I was brought in my acquaintance because I was so worried about what this cult was going to do to our town. I didn't know he would dig up bodies, he wasn't like then when we were pals, but that was 20 years ago, I guess people change. Believe me, he won't be bothering the town again." If the PCs ask about the bodies and say they need/want the skeletons of the Land family, maybe Smenk will be more than happy to return the skellies to them if they will check out the Dourstone mine for him after they are done at the Land farm/Whispering Cairn.
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This is what I'm thinking of doing:
- Filge will have the zombies destroy themselves, and deny everything:
-- the bodies are for research, Smenk can quickly get him a forged document for buying bodies (such should be possible in the free city of greyhawk)
-- the attacking bodies were just animated objects, not anything else (he knows magic will have faded by now, and proving will be impossible)
-- Filge will accuse the PC's for breaking & entering (which they did, and sort off confessed to the deputyAny ideas on this ?
(I don't have the adventure in front of me...) One thing to consider is that, if I remember it right, the observatory is/was abandoned, i.e., unowned. That means Filge has, at best, squatter's rights, and really no ground to press B&E charges.
You can correct that by retconning Smenk's purchase of the Observatory (although that puts his finger prints on it even thicker), or have Smenk forge (or requisition a forging) a title / bill of sale.Another option is to leave that open for the PCs to use, if they wind up needing the ability to weasel out of the B&E charges Filge might press.
On the plus side, (no books still), I don't think you can animate a body more than once. So, once the dust settles, the PCs can find the Land bodies and re-bury them. Smenk could offer to drop the charges if the PCs do him a couple simple favors: Some side quests to get the PCs up to the appropriate level for 3FoE - it's a bad idea for the PCs to go in under-prepared; followed by the 3FoE thing.
WC page 40, third column, 4th paragraph, last sentence.
..he sent for Filge and put up his old friend in Diamond Lake's observatory.
This same thing is said in Smenk's letter, that he has arranged to "put him up" in the observatory.
The phrase "put him up" to a north american (Canadian) anyway suggests that it has been done legitimately, although I suppose that is up to interpretation. If it was not legitimate, I think the letter from Smenk would have said something like, "I will hide you in an old abandoned observatory, but you MUST keep a low profile in case people start asking questions about someone being there."
The observatory is not that far out of town, surely the inhabitants would have noticed someone living there, and if it hadn't been taking care of legitimately, the mayor's office, and/or the corrupt sheriff, likely would have gone by the observatory to see what was going on and to make sure money was going to the right place.
I think we can assume that Smenk leased or rented the observatory from the city, and that if it was described as "abandoned" that is only because it has been empty for so long.
Also, never forget that the sheriff and deputies are corrupt!!!! SO it doesn't actually matter what Filge does, Smenk can very easily get him out and send him off to the Free City. Even if they take him to the garrison, just have the garrison turn him over to the shriff saying it's out of their jurisdiction because it happened in town instead of out of town.
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WC page 40, third column, 4th paragraph, last sentence.
..he sent for Filge and put up his old friend in Diamond Lake's observatory.This same thing is said in Smenk's letter, that he has arranged to "put him up" in the observatory.
The phrase "put him up" to a north american (Canadian) anyway suggests that it has been done legitimately, although I suppose that is up to interpretation. If it was not legitimate, I think the letter from Smenk would have said something like, "I will hide you in an old abandoned observatory, but you MUST keep a low profile in case people start asking questions about someone being there."
I agree with your interpretation of the phrase, "put him up", but I think that the context modifies it some:
I remember reading that other buildings (including perhaps the mine-office the PCs start at) were abandoned for so long that there was no record of who owned it in the first place, and therefore it was up for grabs. I assumed the abandoned Observatory fell into the same category.
I guess ultimately it's up to the DM to decide how he/she wants to play it. The map key description for the Observatory in the Backdrop Diamond Lake article does say "abandoned", but also says "Now it houses a constantly rotating group of unusual tenants with ties to Balabar Smenk," That suggests to me that Smenk has leased it, purchased it, or rented it from the city. If he always has someone there, and it is truly "unowned" I imagine the mayor or sheriff would have said _something_ because it would mean a loss of taxes/rent revenue if no one is paying for it, but there is obviously always someone there.
I suppose it's something that should have been addressed in the adventure, or in errata. It seems a lot of groups are having a similar discussion. I have seen other posts where DMs have said their players want to use the observatory as a base of operations. I know my players had the idea (no matter how much I try to steer them to the truly abandoned mine office.)
It certainly makes for a great RPing opportunity. If the PCs want to use it, and Smenk holds the lease, they will either have to buy it from him, or face the consequences of squatting when the corrupt sheriff comes around at the behest of Smenk.