Sorry this turned out quite long.
I'm running the anniversary edition and have a group of 4 players.
On the first attempt into the thicket area by thistletop island after making lots of noise, getting ambushed by the goblin druid and 3 characters dying after getting stuck in the entangle area, a single member managed to get back to town and recruited 3 more comrades.
Second attempt saw the goblins ready and a big fight with Ripnugget and his horde ensued. Another death here as Ripnugget executed the healer after shouting at the party to leave. We had an extra player for that session and the player of the dead character took on this other character following on from this session.
They found Lyrie who escaped with the use of invisibility who ran to Bruthazmus and a fight kicked off, Bruthazmus killed the Catfolk Ranger on a crit with an attack of opportunity as the ranger tried to run away and then Bruthazmus died(he killed the ranger while on 1 HP). Lyrie then surrendered.
Looking around they found the replacement character for the ranger (Aasimar paladin) in the shrine of Lamashtu chained against the wall. Party free him and talk a bit, then realised Lyrie had legged it.
They eventually found the secret door down and the rogue narrowly missed getting chopped up by the trap. Nualia and Orik then opened doors and things went downhill from there. 2 characters ran after being panicked by the Yeth hounds leaving the paladin and a dwarf fighter to face everyone. Dwarf went down and Nualia challenged the paladin to single combat, which the paladin accepted and ran straight into the trap and got chopped up and dumped in the pit. Nualia told her crew to keep them alive as they would make good sacrifices and the other 2 characters returned.
They tried in vain to talk their way out and Nualia took them hostage and showed them the pillar of coins. Getting bored the rogue asked what was behind the other doors in the room, went in and just about got out after the shadows nearly killed him. After lots of searching they managed to open up the pillar and then the door to Malfeshnekor. Driven insane he lashed out at the character who opened the door who then ran, Malfeshnekor then charmed him and called him back. Malfeshnekor had a good meal. The rogue then broke down and begged for his life and pledged to Lamashtu.
So it all went wrong. 2 characters to be sacrificed for the glory of Lamashtu, 1 eaten by Malfeshnekor and 1 joining Nualia and her crew.
The group are drawing up new characters and will be starting at the next section (I gave them the choice of going in with new characters to try finish things or move on), so i need a way to bring Nualia and her expanding gang back into the storyline. Tsuto could well join them as he is languishing in Sandpoint's jail awaiting his shipping to Magnimar for trial.
The AP contains a few little nuggets to help you navigate this kind of scenario. If Nualia isn't stopped, her plan is to free Malfeshnekor (which she is close to being able to do), rally the goblin tribes into a single force and wipe Sandpoint off the map. She's pretty well motivated in that regard. She's hopeful there's a finished demonic transformation in there for her somewhere.
Sounds like your new characters could start by defending Sandpoint against Nualia's Goblin army.
If that doesn't appeal, Sheriff Hemlock and Mayor Deverin should both be well aware of what Nualia has in store for Sandpoint and a bit desperate after the failure of Plan A, and so might simply come straight out and offer a massive reward for her head. And some guards to help get the job done.
Wow. That's a pretty vicious rolling TPK.
Are the two "to be sacrificed" actually still alive? What happened to Orik? Are the players committed to abandoning their previous characters? If not, could Orik have a change of heart - he is not interested in being directly involved in sacrificing a paladin to Lamashtu - there's a difference between being a common criminal and participating in the worst of dark rites. Could he and the traitorous rogue stage an escape for the paladin and dwarf? Nualia doesn't have a lot of allies left for guard duty - maybe while she is distracted dealing with Malfeshnekor, a prison break can be staged. Many of those goblins and other combatants had healing potions, maybe a few of those are still about on corpses and such...
Thanks for the feedback so far.
Yes, things did go horribly wrong for the players and they aren't the most attentive of gamers. One kept thinking they were only there for the horse.
No one in town currently knows that they have failed yet, but they do know another attack was planned to destroy the town.
The rogue will most likely be taken to the catacombs of wrath to drink the waters of Lamashtu. Nualia will make sure that happens personally.
Orik hasn't done a great deal apart from doing as Nualia says to keep himself alive, and the players do seem to have written off these characters. A prison break for Tsuto could well be on the cards as the rogue knows where he is and Orik is likely to get away during that
With the party's help Nualia has now got to Malfeshnekor and has to try and figure out how to release him, which will take some time.
After the players wishing to move on i'd rather not push them back in there, so they could well know Shelelu who finds them and tells them a goblin force is heading to Sandpoint. Sandpoint would be preparing for defense as a few days will have passed and the rogue was identified freeing Tsuto. Orik could well have been captured and spilled the beans on the plans.
Looks like i have a framework to run things around, but it would be fun for the rogue that switched sides to be a recurring villian. After drinking the waters of Lamashtu he should be quite deranged and a useful servant for anyone with a link to Lamashtu.
Again thanks for the thoughts, and any other ideas that people have on this will be read through.
Yeah if it were me I'd probably use Orik as my out. He could easily finally be bothered enough by what is going on to turn on Nualia, he and the rogue could free the other 2 and go from there, etc.