How should Mokmurian react?

[Aaron Gillespie]

First, let me set up where my players are and what they are doing, then I'll ask my question:

The PCs did a good job of stopping the raid on Sandpoint, but Teraktinus got away with a stone from the Old Light.

Once they figured out that he was probably heading for the Storval Stairs, they teleported to Ravenmoor (They had intimate knowledge of the town from earlier in the campaign) to try to cut him off.
They located him and killed him.

They suspect he was taking the rock back to Mokmurian so Stone Tell could be cast on it (the way they came to this conclusion would take too long to tell and is pretty unimportant.)

Most of the characters wanted to go on to Jorgenfist. The Barbarian/Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight convinced them not to. Jorgenfist will be too tough (this is something this player always does...if something is going to be hard, he talks the other players out of it until he can figure out some metagamy way to conquer it... B.I.D.)

He convinced the rest of the party to return to Sandpoint with the stone so they could find someone to cast Stone Tell on it and maybe they could figure out what Teraktinus wanted with the rock.

So far, they've come up emptyhanded. The Barbarian is currently wandering the hinterlands of Sandpoint, hoping to run into the druids that make periodic stops into town to help Madam Mvashti. He's hoping one of the druids will be powerful enough to talk to the stone.

So, here's my question...

How should Mokmurian respond when Teraktinus doesn't return to Jorgenfist? I'm getting a little tired of the one player convincing the others to deviate from the heroic course for no other reason than self preservation, so I'd like Mokmurian's response to be pretty nasty with an obvious lesson built in.
My first thought is having another party of giants sent down to find Teraktinus and, when they find his corpse a half hour away from Ravenmoor (which is where the PCs killed and left him), the giants burn Ravenmoor to the ground to extract information about what happened to him.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[FantheFlames]

Mokmurian has an army of giants that rivals pretty much anything the world has ever seen. The little Stone Giant Party he sent before is just a teaser. If he wants those stones, he'll send another raiding party, this time with something other than Stone Giants. If I recall, he has at least a few Fire Giants in his retinue that he could send off. And I know for a fact he has Rune Giants, though those are probably way too high level for this point in the campaign if they're just getting started on Book 4.

Honestly, if they refuse to go after Jorgenfist, then send anotehr group, this time bigger than before. Have Stone Giants with carts of boulders acting as Siege Engines against Sandpoint, destroying building after building. If they didn't kill the Red Dragon, send it back, fully healed, maybe with other magical items that can be found at Jorgenfist. At a certain point however, Mokmurian isn't going to care. Once he has his army, he's going to march, and at that point, the entire region is going to be in chaos. And once he decides that he's going to march on Sandpoint, they aren't stopping him.

[Hythlodeus]

err, Mokmurian has neither Fire- nor Rune Giants in his army. But you could send an army of Frost Giants or Taiga Giants instead

[Aaron Gillespie]

Yeah, there are no Fire or Rune Giants in Mokmurian's army.
There are a couple Frost Giants that are in Jorgenfist for diplomatic purposes and a taiga giant as well.

[TwoWolves]

There are a couple of frost giants at Jorgenfist negotiating to join the army.

If they don't go to Jorgenfist, then let the negotiations be successful and add several tons of frost giants to the next raiding party to hit Sandpoint....

[Latrecis]

Huh? He already has an army of Stone Giants why does he need Frost Giants?

If the party won't go to Jorgenfist, bring Jorgenfist to the party!

Spoiler:

Construct a larger force from the current occupants of the Fortress.

Led by Galenmir, supported by the Lamia Priestesses and their red dragon pets. Enga as a scout, Lokansir as a heavy unit - note his earthquake ability will be much more devastating outside of Jorgenfist. Have the Headless Lord along so he can generate some undead either giants or Sandpoint residents. Primary soldiers are stone giants, ogres and a couple runeslaves (just for fun.)

If you're feeling particularly belligerent, have Mokmurian along to hurl some spells, etc. Make sure he has teleport memorized so he can retreat when needed.

By the way, take the 7 suits of masterwork armor in the Headless Lord's lair and put them on someone.

(I assume) The players were told an army of giants was going to march over the face of Varisia. Make it happen.

Yes, torch Ravenmoor on the way.

When it's all over and the pc's are confronted with wreckage of both Sandpoint and Ravenmoor, make sure you let them know that they could have stopped the army from leaving Jorgenfist if only they hadn't been busy on a fruitless search for an 11th level druid.

[TwoWolves]

Latrecis wrote:

Huh? He already has an army of Stone Giants why does he need Frost Giants?

To smash Sandpoint/Ravenmoor without changing or depleting the forces at Jorgenfist.

Latrecis wrote:

When it's all over and the pc's are confronted with wreckage of both Sandpoint and Ravenmoor, make sure you let them know that they could have stopped the army from leaving Jorgenfist if only they hadn't been busy on a fruitless search for an 11th level druid.

Bingo.

IMC the party defended Sandpoint, but the group of giants that hit the south end of Sandpoint made off with several named and unnamed NPCs (including Ameiko, Mayor Deverin, etc etc), so the raid on Jorgenfist was initially a hostage rescue and then a seek and destroy.