I'm running Kingmaker on a weekly basis with a college club. They have done something a bit rash: attacking the Stag Lord, and then running away. The story with spoilers follows...
The party:
Netvor - Tiefling (limited powers) Cavalier of Tome 1/Transmuter 1 (working towards Eldrich Knight). Main speaker for the party.
Syra - Human Witch. Main source of healing.
Chronos Sertova - Half-elf Rogue.
Urien - Elf Conjurer w/teleport step.
Lucky - Halfling Cavalier of the Paw. Rides a wolf.
The party did not find Kressel's camp until 2nd level and day 19 of the adventure, which left plenty of time for Kressel to prepare defenses and a counterattack: Molotov cocktails for Oleg's. The party's assault on Kressle went down a little too easy, especially when I threw in Falgrim Sneed (the mercenary worth 4 mtw weapons), so a bit of GM illusionary magic was used. One bandit was cursed to being disguised as Sneed (a reused curse from my own playthrough of Kingmaker), while the real one took over Kressel's mission and added the Kidnapping of Svetlana to his list. The party took Kressel back with them (one of the few bandits to survive interrogation) and saw the burnt fort and Svetlana's capture. The chase was on.
The chase lasted through the night and into the day, when suddenly everybody's survival rolls turned to crap. Still, they trudged south. The Old Sycamore was spotted, and a cave entrance was found. Two mites were found and attacked. One rolled double nat 20s on Netvor, dealing a mighty three damage. Both were brutally killed. The party decided this couldn't be the place for the bandit to come, so they left the mite home for another day.
Some time later, the party finds the Stag Lord fort. They decide to attack it another day, and are followed by Falgrim Sneed and some mooks. He was easily captured and was almost killed before they stopped to heal him and check his description (1 hit point away from death). They haul him back to Oleg's, get some supplies for bribing, grab the whiskey, and head out again. They were delayed when Urien the wizard was nearly eaten by a whiptail centipede and a shambling mound, but they eventually made it.
The party of level twos got in with the password and took the loot to Akiros. They rolled 20+ on their bluff, Akiros got 0 on his sense motive, so they got to stay the day and chat. They gamed, they chatted, they hunted and ate. Dovan made contact with Netvor and paid him 2 platinum to make sure Akiros disappeared accidentally. Half the fort went to sleep, and they set into motion Operation Kill Everyone.
Round 1: Dovan takes a crit, another hit, and barely wakes up some others before going down. Auchs takes a big hit, and returns the favor to Netvor. Netvor runs for it. Akiros gets attacked by color spray, saves, and goes into rage in an effort to kill the wizard. Night watch try to shoot party, but do horribly (two nat 1s in a row).
Round 2: Dovan is confirmed killed, more bandits awaken and are cut down. Auchs lands in middle of group and sees Dovan dead. Sera rolls a nat 20 bluff to say Ayles did it.
Round 3: Auchs goes off to beat Ayles to death, Chronos continues to cut down bandits as rest converge on center room where Akiros is trying to cut down the wizard.
Round 4: Party is surrounding Akiros and dealing wounds. Akiros can barely roll higher than single digits. Auchs comes back and sees the melee.
Round 5: All converge on Akiros and Auchs. Neither one can hit anybody and are losing HP fast. Things are looking good for the party, until I call for a perception roll.
Round 6: Netvor misses the perception check and takes a sneak shot to the chest, downing him in one hit. Sera tries to hit Stag lord with hex, but it fails.
Round 7: Stag lord uses helm to sneak attack the human witch, bringing her below zero and taking a pot shot at cavalier. The party gets the Oh Sh** look on their face.
Round 8+: Nat One on stag lord, and he can't shoot worth crap anymore. Auchs goes down on Akiros, who rolls like crap to get the big man off him. Rest of party call for horses, grab up barely alive party members, and head out the door. A night of healing and hiding, and then they race back to Oleg's.
So, in total the party has killed six out of seven bandits, Dovan is dead, and both Auchs and Akiros are badly hurt. What does he do?
The party is close to level three. Aside from taking a week to recover and recruit replacements, I don't have a solid plan for Stag Lord aside from siege of Oleg's fort. Akiros still hasn't played his card yet. Auchs will have to follow Akiros. Svetlana is still with the Stag Lord.
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The players have lost their two biggest advantages: surprise and the Stag Lord's alcoholism. He's still an alcoholic, but now, he's more likely to go on a rampage than snooze off his drunkenness and leech off his subordinates' work.
The Stag Lord is going to switch from a passive, drunk, out-of-touch bandit lord into an active, somewhat less drunk, pissed-off bandit lord. The players invaded his home, humiliated him, killed one of his best lieutenants, and then left before he could mete out proper punishment.
Here's what I think should go down:
First, Staggy is going to bring his daddy up out of the basement. With Dovan gone, Staggy's going to need some more support, and dad, the crazy druid, is the solution.
Second, Staggy's going to get murderous. Real murderous. He's going to execute whoever was guarding the fortress door. A few bandits (those who are more into "robbing the poor" than "get executed by the insane guy with the horned helm") will flee. Staggy's dad will track most of them down, but one or two of these poor, bedraggled souls should appear as a wandering encounter.
Third, Staggy's going to isolate Oleg's rest. Any caravans from Restov or elsewhere are going to run into serious cases of dead. At this point, Staggy doesn't care about the money. He cares about revenge. Additionally, bandits are going to patrol in larger groups, and Staggy's going to deploy his lieutenants (Auchs, Akiros, and his dad) to the field. If your players encounter bandits as a random encounter, double the humber of bandits in the group, and enact a 25 percent chance that a lieutenant (or Staggy himself!) is leading the bandits. Within a week, Oleg's should be effectively cut off from the rest of the world, and food and supplies should start to run low.
Fourth, if the Stag Lord (or one of his lieutenants) is clever, they're going to look for allies. If your players haven't resolved the mite-kobold war yet, Staggy's going to make an alliance with one group or the other, with Tartuk as a possible wild card. He might make alliances with both -- one group as willing allies (probably the mites), the other as unwilling slaves (probably the kobolds).
Fifth, Staggy could attack Oleg's Rest directly. He'd start, I think, with a few raids designed to lure out the players, or Kesten Garess and his men. The idea is to whittle down his opposition until there's as small a group as can be managed inside Oleg's rest. For the actual attack, my Siege at Oleg's Rest might provide some inspiration. You can sub in bandits where appropriate.
In general, I think that in this scenario, the Northern Greenbelt should go from a place with natural dangers and a few bandits to a place with a lot of very dangerous bandits, and few natural dangers.
The Svetlana issue could be interesting ... if you're running a dark campaign, Staggy could execute her for "Crime's Against the Stag's Peace." If you're going less dark, he might use her as a go-between for communications. He could take another hostage (say, Bokken), then send Svetlana to Oleg's with a suitably bellicose message (and a requirement that she be sent back alone with reply).
If you're feeling particularly sadistic, perhaps the Stag Lord forms an alliance with a certain troll warlord, who then sends one or two trolls to "help" the Stag Lord with his player character problem ...
Hope you find this helpful. The Kingmaker boards are a fantastic place for ideas. I heartily commend anything from Dudemeister, Redcelt, or Orthos.
The wounded guys aren't a big deal - the Stag Lord's father can heal them.
I would say that the remaining lieutenants get sent out to round up any and all bandits they can find. The Stag Lord himself tracks down the attackers, which he should have no problem doing, especially when sober (remember to remove the sickened penalty from him). He watches them, figures out how to best kill them, and goes back to the fort. Once he has enough men, he attacks them, ideally when they have their pants down.
In my own game, the players hit Kressle's camp but let some bandits get away. The bandits warned the Stag Lord, and I created a new lieutenant (a druid "huntmaster" - I would use the new hunter class if I were to do it again) to send after them. I also had Dovan & Auchs & some goons attack the trading post, but the PCs weren't present for that. When the huntmaster didn't return, the Stag Lord sent Akiros after them. They defeated Akiros, turned him, and assaulted the fort (successfully).
Don't be afraid to create new lieutenants. They could have been out of the fort when the PCs attacked. Just make them distinctive. Also feel free to give Staggy more bandits - they're not all sitting in the fort.
A quick summary of what went down.
Auchs and Akiros were healed by daddy druid. The rest of the injured mooks were left to bleed out. The only named mook left was a dwarf I inserted to replace Falgrim Sneeg.
A trade blockade was setup. Aside from the PC's reward for Sneeg's capture (4 mtw weapons), no convoys make it to Oleg's. This of course cuts down what he can buy and sell, making him steadily more miserable. Bokken was also kidnapped and saw his hut burn to the ground.
Both the Stag Lord and his lieutenants spent much time recruiting help. Tartuk agreed to help them, and when the PCs came to the Sootscales, he sent them to the mites and sent word to the Stag Lord. A crazy gnome alchemist blasted shut the exit tunnel to the mite home and tried to suffocate them inside. The PCs kept Mikmek alive and het him take charge of tunneling their way out. Upon their return, Tartuk betrays the PCs again and gets his guts ripped out.
Another source of trouble was a Fey-touched Hunter I engineered to keep a watch on the PCs. She recruited more hunters to go after the PCs, leading to some midnight ambushes. She's still out there, somewhere.
Finally, after the PCs tried to ambush the Stag Lord crew, I had them encounter Auchs alone with a declaration of war. While he read pictures on one side to announce war, the backside of it (facing the PCs) had a message from Akiros, asking to meet sometime with a secret sign. The party scout eventually got the secret sign to Akiros and got him to meet the party. They agreed to go in as a party of new recruits that captured two of the PCs. They go in, get interrogated by an evil cleric, and the Second Battle for the Stag Lord's Fort began.
Akiros kept Auchs busy while the PCs swept aside the mooks. Staggy tried to take down the same people, but they were better prepared this time. 8 rounds of combat and he fell.
Daddy druid was dragged up to the surface. Some backstory took place, and he was ended. As soon as the PCs deal with zombies and last few hexes, we can get started with book 2. Looking to add political intrigue and Hargulkla's Monster Kingdom to the game.
Three of my friends wanted to try Kingmaker, so I started a game with them. Everyone is a bit overpowered to make up for only 3 people. They took out Happs easily, who told them the bandits were to the south, along the river.
This party runs straight south until they find a river, and follow it downstream. They run across Nettle's crossing and learn of the one called "Stag Lord." They follow river south to the fork and all the way down to the lake, barely escaping a will o wisp along the way. They find the fort and immediately try to figure out a way in.
Sneaking in from the rear didn't work, thanks to the zombies. They then decided to go around front, snipe the guards, and hope they come out to fight. 5 bandits plus Auchs sally forth with torches to take them. Auchs + 3 bandit falls, rest fall back as Akiros, Dovan, and 2 more bandits come down. The party did an impressive amount of damage on Akiros, bringing him to half.
On round 7, arrows start coming down. Anyone whose hit takes real damage. The party does well to stay out of the lighted areas, moving carefully and putting out torches. When glowing arrows start appearing, they book it on round 15 of the fight.
The party had 2 people go below zero. The Stag Lord lost 3 bandits and almost lost more. This all happened on day 5 of the campaign with three PCs, slightly overpowered, level 1. The party also seems to believe Akiros is the one in charge (2 medallions seen).
On the 19th of Sanerith (the same month), the flayed body of a trapper the party just met is found just outside Oleg's trading post, with a declaration of war. There are kobolds, mites, the Thorn River Camp, more fey, and even trolls wandering around. It may be difficult not to completely bulldoze the party and Oleg's home.
I plaid Stag lord a ruthless drunk, but not a dumb one, and efficient one. The let a few bandits escape here and there to tell Staggy what's up... 1 month after the players shoved a few sticks into his chariot he mounted an assault on Oleg's fort, by himself and with best men, to make an example of Oleg. He torched the place, kidnapped Svetlana, tortured Oleg and the priest, killed most of the guard from Restov (Only good ol' Garess survived) and left his lackeys to loot the place, showing he's not the kind of guy to mess with. Party barely saved the place.
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