Why should the party listen to Clegg Zincher in Children of the Void?

[The Imperator]

I'm preparing to run Children of the Void, and I noticed that part of it requires the party to hang around Zincher and not just kill him outright. They know that he put a snake in the kitchen of the Golden Goblin, sent thugs to attack the place multiple times, and even after they negotiated with the wizard school to negotiate with Zincher his men still tried to sabotage the Party's boat.

Why would they stop to even listen to him? They were actually getting friendly with him, but then his men attacked their boat, and now the party is out for revenge right now.

I have several ways to get around this problem, but how have you gotten around this problem? Frankly I hope the PCs listen to him and don't kill him, but I have a rather murder happy group so I'm doubting that will happen.

[YogoZuno]

Because Zincher is clearly a powerful crime lord, and not to be trifled with? Because he has a bunch of bodyguards?

Honestly, it's not critical that they DO listen to him. He's likely to wind up dead before the adventure is out. In my version of the campaign, the group were untrusting, but were trying to make friends with him, right up until they figured out he was charmed. And then they ensured they knocked him out rather than killing him. Once they got back to Riddleport, Clegg owed them one hell of a big favour, and even ended up buying the Gold Goblin from them.

[fatbaldbloke]

My group are about to reach this point. They had previously come to a bit of an accord with Zincher at the end of Shadow, but they managed to capture a couple of the folks who tried to fire their ship.....bit of intimidation and they soon learned Zincher was responsible.

They are a little overpowered for the AP as they came to Riddleport after a few other early adventures so I've been tweaking encounters anyway. I was planning to heighten the threat of the Void Zombies and 'ALIENS!!!!' to make them more inclined to hear Zincher out and see him as a potential ally.....at least until they get off the island. (At that point I think the Sorceror and Barbarian in the party may wish to extract a little retribution)

I increased the size of the Goldhammer party so that it was even more unnerving for them when the party encounter only 4 survivors and had the expedition leader go into scenery-chewing mode when he described the horrors awaiting the PCs. That and the fact that Captain Creesy couldn't wait to cast off and get back to Riddleport soon as he could have the party wondering if they've bitten off more than they can chew....so hopefully they will look to at least listen to Zincher when they find his camp.

At this point they still have no idea of the force behind all this as Depora escaped and managed to keep her heritage a secret from the party.

[justaworm]

Some possibly good reasons are (though most of these play together):

• Safety in numbers
  
• Covert revenge / Infiltration
  
• Overthrowing a crime lord, either as a good deed or to take over his organization
  
• Curiosity (perhaps even drop some more clues that he may be tied somehow to whatever is going on)
  

You could play up his (or his underlings') request for help, agreement to put things in the past, and reward for help (like a new ship or something).

It doesn't look like it really matters if they kill him though. They can just as easily stumble upon on cave path on their own or after dealing with his camp.

[Slaughterwombat]

LOL. I JUST ran this encounter last week. My six person party of 3/3/3/3/4/4 made short work of Zincher. This is an old mod and most of the encounters are for 3.5 characters and with 3.5 characters, so they aren't very tough. I've been beefing up some of the encounters, but hadn't adjusted this one.
Honestly, there a few points where the narrative implies the party would work with/ally with people they wouldn't necessarily have a reason to.
The very first scene, where the golden goblin is robbed, the PCs actually have zero incentive to do anything but take the money and run. They don't have a pre-existing relationship. Vancaskerin means nothing to them and isn't presented as being very appealing.

[Jessica Catalan]

I highly recommend that if your PCs don't want to ally with Zincher - or even want to kill him - you let them. Don't try to force or manipulate them into working with him if they don't want to. He's not necessary to the adventure.

The point of the island isn't that they ally with Zincher, but that they discover the drow base of operations and learn that the drow literally called down a meteor from outer space and crashed it onto an island that they aimed at.They need to know the drow did this and they intend to do it again. That they've harnessed outer space as a weapon.

If your PCs choose to pick a fight with Zincher, let them. Killing him won't change things and - if you're worried they'll lack motivation or the means to find the drow - think about their motives and use that to drive them. Whether they're after the drow, other survivors, sky metal, the meteor, aliens or loot in general, Zincher's men themselves can play into this.

Think about his workers for a second. The guys left are scared, angry and want to go home. Some of them are infected and dying in one of the tents and Zincher's keeping them that way instead of putting them out of their misery. These guys have to listen to their pals scream and struggle in the night and wonder if they've turned into monsters yet. Lastly, Akron's undercover and wants to take Zincher back to Korvosa as a prisoner. Once Zincher's out of the way Akron can seize control of the Zincher's group. He can keep his identity in tact, claim Zincher's body (though he'd prefer his alive, obviously) while simultaneously passing along important information to the PCs in a private meeting (just as if the group had won his trust as mentioned in the book). Zincher's other guys will just be happy to go home.

If your group ends up killing Akron AND Zincher, instead the PCs can take control of the men themselves. Most of the workers have a hunch that something's up and can be used to provide the PCs with any supplementary information they need to find the drow. If your group's more here for the sky metal than the drow, Zincher's men can pass on the fact that Zincher's been sneaking out of camp to the west (towards the drow caverns) but they all knew better than to follow him. Perhaps they assume he's stashing sky metal (or whatever your PCs are after) out there.

Lastly, if the PCs take out Zincher, Akron AND all of his men it's likely the group will take their camp over as a place to sleep for at least a night or two. With Zincher not heading out to meet Shindiira, she might think he's rebelling against her control. She could easily send agents (or go herself) to rectify the problem. She could attack the PCs in their camp or take a stealthier approach and have her men lead akatas to the PCs camp, let loose the axe beaks, or order her shadow demon to take them out. Sicking the drow on the PCs is a good way to ensure their focus is kept on the drow and their weapon (not just the aliens and sky metal) without Zincher around to guide/order them about.

[Nathan Monson]

I had the reverse problem, my pcs teamed up with Zincher and didn't question his behavior, despite the hints I dropped that he was acting erratically. their reasoning being that the island was a dangerous place and the wanted a safe place to rest.