As I stated on another thread I’m a brand new DM running a party of 3 (summoner, gunslinger, ranger) plus Shalelu as an NPC through Burnt Offerings. This past week was the assault on Thistletop. Before our session began I warned them that their party makeup might make this part of the adventure quite difficult, but they decided to press on as is. They managed to cross the rope bridge without incident and defeat the mounted goblin guards outside of the complex, but it was all downhill after that.
Since Gogmurt managed to get his animal messenger off, and eventually escape through the briarbush, the complex was on high alert. The front door being barred, the party chose to climb up the eastern guard tower. From there they chose the just happened to chose the hallway north which lead straight into Ripnugget’s throne room. I RPed out the encounter where Ripnugget called the summoner up to his throne and then after a bit of banter sprung his trap.
The summoner was quickly knocked unconscious and the party made the hard decision of regrouping in the ground floor of the tower. A commando and the goblins posted in the trophy hall pursued, but the majority of the force remained in the throne room. The two remaining PCs and Shalelu managed to defeat the first wave, but when the gunslinger peeked back into the throne room he saw that the summoner had been impaled on the spiked column and was subsequently demoralized. At this point they successfully did a full retreat back to Sandpoint.
At this point I feel like I need to run something for them to build a level or two. They’re very close to 4th level and the summoner is re-rolling a rogue. I have two ideas: One is run a little part of Shadow In the Sky for them since two of their back stories have ties to Riddleport and Mierani Forest (although it might get confusing because the defense of Crying Leaf has already occurred and failed and Razorhorn is still running free).
My other idea is to run them through a one-and-done module. I was considering Masks of the Living God since it’s relatively close and the appropriate level. I figured I would take them down to Magnimar and take a ship down to Korvosa and then do a little river rafting out to Tamran.
What would you recommend? I don’t have the knowledge of the rules or, frankly, the time to whip a custom adventure up to fit my needs to I need to have a base adventure that I can modify to fit our situation.
Help!
Doing a whole other adventure might make it difficult for the time frame of things that are going on in the AP. Maybe you just need to make some adjustments to help your low balanced party. Have half the goblins, led by Bruthazmus, ambush the party on the road as they return. This would split the goblin forces and make each encounter a little easier for your party to manage then having all of them in one place. It also then gives the party time to heal, before facing Ripnugget and the rest of the goblins at the Stockade. You could also send a couple of NPC helpers. A volunteer Cleric from the temple to provide some healing, a city guards man with a bow who stands back and peppers the battle with arrows, One of the town's folk magic people volunteers to help and comes with a few boosts and offensive spells. Let the PC's run one these sub characters (or another that you think would help fill the missing skill/power set in the group) to help take the work of you and also keep the party from thinking of them as a "red shirt" to throw into the fray.
I'm taking your advice and have modified my plans. Since the ranger won't be able to attend this week I had Shalelu lead him out to a meeting place to rendevous with one of her agents. It is Orik Vancaskerkin (whom I had already rolled up as a potential NPC because his back story ties in with the summoner/rogue.) He tells her about pursuit from Bruthazmus and also notes that he sabotaged what he could on his way out and that he has abandoned his post as Nualia's bodyguard to accompany the party to raid the treasures of Thistletop (I still wanted to maintain money as a motivating force for his actions.)
As far as what he sabotaged I was thinking that he let Shadowmist loose to terrorize a few goblins, or maybe he gave up on his feelings for Lyrie and possibly got a lucky bluff check coaxing her into believing that someone else in the compound murdered Tsuto.
There's quite a few possible helpers in sandpoint for your party. My players took Naffer Vosk CLR2/ROGUE1 with them to the catacombs of wrath, and took Shalelu (and her wand of CLW) with them to thistletop. I fudged a feat for Naffer and some extra CHA to get him selective channeling which helped the party a lot. I don't know if you de-leveled Shalelu when you had her accompany the party, but I did not and there were still a number of difficult fights, especially when the Yeth Hounds were around.
There's also a retired Paladin brewer who's name I forget in Sandpoint who might be up for one last adventure, among many others. Maybe Ameiko is recovered from her bout of depression and ready to get some payback against Nualia for her part in Tsuto's madness?