Here's the situation, spoilered in case people playing in Book 6 are reading this post. Obviously this question is for GMs who have ran all of book 6 only.
Since Big K is already well aware of them at this point, how should I handle them deciding to give the BBEG several days of additional prep time?
Baddies in there with him? Bring back one or more of the lieutenants they let live? Bring in some mercenaries? My idea was that Big K has other agents elsewhere in the world and might be calling on them to come, very quickly, to aid him.
Resting now, in the Pinnacle and for 3 days - baaad idea.
Do they know the bad guy knows about them?
I like your idea Ashkar. They brought this upon themselves.
Do they know the bad guy knows about them?
Yes, yes they do. They're taking the time anyway.
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Let's meta-game for a moment. Have they done this before? Have you changed encounters, increased difficulty, added allies, etc. in previous "inappropriate rest" situations? If not, would doing it now make you look like a <word that rhymes with trick?> If you did give Karzoug more allies/benefit of more prep time, how would your players know the encounter changed because they took their own prep time? Do you intend to continue the campaign further? Otherwise this is the last encounter of the AP, what is the benefit of making a difficult encounter even harder? (I interpret making Karzoug more effective as increasing the difficulty.)
Getting content specific:
First, Karzoug has known they were coming for a long time - since the end of Book 5. Depending on how much time has elapsed between them reaching Xin Shalast and getting to the Anima Focus, he should have very precise knowledge of their arrival and plenty of time to prepare. If there is some awesome prep strategy available to him, he should have already put it in place whether they delay going to the Eye or not. To that end, there are a few threads out here that discuss potent spell combinations and strategies for Karzoug - those would be a good thing to review.
Second, where are they spending this rest/prep time? In the Anima Focus room itself? Are there any survivors in the Pinnacle? If so, they of course rally among themselves and attack - preventing spell recovery, etc. Perhaps they are supported by another Karzoug image. But if all the occupants of the Pinnacle are dead, I think the players are within reason to assume they've cut Karzoug off from his Golarion based allies and his ability to communicate with them. And if all the leaders in the Pinnacle are gone, there isn't anyone left to call for aid from Xin Shalast. Karzoug could still call for aid in the Eye via spells such as planar binding or gate.
If the pc's leave the Pinnacle (keep in mind they cannot teleport in or out due to the Occluding Field) they could find the Pinnacle held against them by various Wardens and lamia led by Rune Giants. There is a Rune Giant general detailed in the Lost Cities sourcebook that might be used as a new leader.
Leave or stay, extended time between clearing out the Pinnacle and assaulting the Eye should let Karzoug shrug off any negative levels from dispelled images and even let him place new ones. Maybe the answer is as simple as a new image in the Anima Focus room: he activates the image, casts time stop, drops as many high level Summon Monster spells as the time stop allows and then casts Gate to summon a Demon Prince (annoyed and uncontrolled) and lets the fun begin. Karzoug isn't there so guess who faces the wrath of whatever comes through the Gate?
In my view, Karzoug wants to do everything he can to keep the pc's out of the Eye. If they get to the Eye, he's in real peril. From Golarion, they can't hurt him. In the Eye, they can kill him.
If they spend one day resting, that should be fine. It does give Karzoug a chance to recover negative levels, but he really shouldn't have any additional allies. However, if they have not fully cleared out the Pinnacle then they should come under attack.
More than one day would risk Karzoug finding a way to attack them. In addition, he could always change his spells according to what he learned of the group.
Small question: did you have the party make Perception checks to detect his scrying?
Only when it's worn, you mean. :-)
Considering how high a level they are at this point, I'm rather surprised that they aren't putting up anti-scrying spells already.
Not sure whether the off-topic spin about the Sihedron medallion and scrying was in jest but...
No, Karzoug cannot use the medallions (or rings) to scry on the pc's if they are NOT wearing them. See AE p. 426: "By concentrating on a scrying device (such as a runewell), a runelord can sense the world through the Sihedron medallion wearer’s senses, and could speak through her voice—provided the runelord knows of the existence of the medallion and the fact that it is being worn." Emphasis mine.
Not sure if the OP meant Karzoug was scrying on the pc's via the medallions even while they were in the portable hole or if his pc's simply thought putting the medallions in the portable hole would prevent him from scrying on them at all.
Putting them in the portable hole or simply not wearing them should keep Karzoug from using them to scry on them but not keep him from scrying on them the "normal" way.
Of course if they are not wearing the Sihedron items they should be getting regularly whacked by the Occluding Field even while in the Pinnacle.
Ok so the big bad knows that they're coming, and they know he knows !
And there still rest for a few days, then yes if there is anything he could do to strengthen his position then do it , or if he has some way of attacking the party at rest then he should go and f@+@ there s#$% up big time
Have they done this before? Have you changed encounters, increased difficulty, added allies, etc. in previous "inappropriate rest" situations?
Yes, there were several points where the party decided to take weeks or even months off to craft this or that, or have this or that crafted for them. Afterwards things were adjusted as there would be stringer and/or more enemies present.
Second, where are they spending this rest/prep time? In the Anima Focus room itself? Are there any survivors in the Pinnacle?
They headed to Magmidar.
Small question: did you have the party make Perception checks to detect his scrying?
Not a perception check. The person being scryed upon though did get their will save to resist it. He never used the medallion to actually scry on any party members. Also when encountering Mokmurian, one of the party members gave their full name to Mok/Big K, during the whole boxed text speech at the end. The party called Big K out and said they were coming for him and that he 'should expect them' if I remember the dwarf's words correctly.
The biggest thing they have going for them is they managed to salvage one of the 'trapped' mirrors from Runeforge. They plan to weaponize it in their fight.
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If not altering the final encounter I would most certainly have the staff of the Pinnacle refilled (maybe not named NPC's) almost completely.
If the NPC's / K have the time to craft one shot magic items I would consider throwing in some scrolls or potions that kind of make things even more difficult specifically for the typical tactics of your players.
If your players are anything like mine they won't have a problem reclearing and dealing with all of the monsters again but maybe they 'might' think twice about taking such long breaks?
Additional: Take the Fight to Them
Have K scry them every day until they fail their save (of course they might cast mind blank but...) and then have a powerful caster servant of his and an assassin force teleport to their position and try to kill them while they would be resting / cause considerable damage to Magnimar causing the loss of much innocent life.
They should not have been able to salvage one of the Runeforge mirrors. Those are designed only to work in the Runeforge.
They could make their own, possibly, but not just carefully remove the ones from the Runeforge. The writeup on the Runeforge specifically states they cannot.
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Keep in mind that if the characters are going in fresh with no spent resources, you will need to up the encounters. The purpose of the Pinnacle was to force the party to spend resources before the final fight. So, I would increase the CR of the encounter (3-4+) if you don't do anything else.