Well, now what? (Asking for GM advice)

[Chaotic_Blues]

I am currently running Northland Saga, and am in the middle of NS:5.
And here's the scenario: Last night, the partty has stormed the tunnels of Jomsberg, hunting for Jasella the Sea Witch. However, after the fight with the Bearded Devils they decided to fall back, and rest. Thier Cunning womman is just about out of spells, as it the Druid. Everyone took same nasty hits durring the last fight. All in all, I think the idea of resting is a wise one, for the party.

The thing is, Jasella is in the middle of a ritual to sacrifice Sveni (one fo the people they are supposed to be rescuing) to her lord in Hell now, not latter. Honestly, I can't see streatching out the ceromoney another day, just for the party to rest up. So this leeds to the question, what now?

I see two possibilities.

1: (I'm kinda leaning toward, but entirely happy with). By the time the party has recovered, the ceromaony is pretty much a done deal. Sveni is dead, and her soul is now condemned to Hell. Jasela is has gained Something (Currently this is a CR14 fight, honestly bumping it up to a CR 15 would be reasonable). She'll be a much nastier opponent, but defeatable with the party at full health. Oh wait, two have a bit of contagion, and it's the spell casters. Not to mention the Cunning woman also took a Crucify soul attack (2 levels of level drain, not much hope she'll make the save to get rid of it either). This may not go so well...

2: Donnar(aka Thor) intervenes. After all he's a god, and owes them a favor. So he slows time in the Hall of the Sea Witch for them. They no longer have the limited wishes they don't know about, but hey that's the price they'll need to pay for victory.

The problem I have with the first option, is the Sea With is already a nasty opponent for a party of 11th level PCs. She's already pact-bound to a Pit Fiend. One option would be she gains the service of another even more powerful devil(s). Actually, what the Sea Witch hopes to gain is not spelled out So I'm free to go with what ever I see fit.

The problem with the second, is that it removes the consequences of the part's actions.

I'm hoping for another Idea.

[VoodistMonk]

I, personally, would go with something along the lines of choice number 1.

The ceremony waiting for them to rest doesn't make sense. So, they either throw themselves at her without resting, in hopes of disrupting the ceremony and try get away to fight her another day. Or they all die in a blaze of glory.

Or they rest and let their friend die and fight a more powerful enemy, but they fight her well rested.

It's up to them to figure out alternatives, not you, in this particular case.

Maybe one of them will pray to Thor and he will grant them a recharge as a limited wish.

That way they still have to fight her and save their friend, but they have to do it, it's not divine intervention of the ceremony itself.

Or...

Carry out the sacrifice and have Jasella reanimate Sveni as a mindless servant just to rub their failure in their faces.

Or... have bearded devils pursue them, and don't let them rest, and still kill Sveni.

Or... have Thor kill Sveni just so Jasella cannot become more powerful through her ritual.

Running out of resources sucks, but the show must go on. Tough choices have to be made. And the party has to know that by resting they are turning this into a mission of revenge, not rescue, because Sveni is going to die if they rest.

[Mike J]

I'm not familiar with that particular adventure/AP, but I can provide some general advice:

What you explain is the problem with time-sensitive adventure elements. Hopefully, the author of the adventure/AP made some allowances. Some Paizo APs have "time-sensitive" elements but go to great lengths to tell the GM that the "clock" moves at the speed of the PCs. So, they get there "just in time." Alternatively, some adventures down play the "time-sensitive" elements so that if the PCs make it or not, it isn't a big deal (maybe one encounter gets harder/easier).

But it doesn't sound like you are the author. Did the PCs know there was a time-sensitive issue? If so, they made a bad choice and bad things should happen. If not, could/should they have known? As a GM, sometimes you have to beat your players over the head to get them to realize stuff. If the PCs could not have known, the author basically wrote in a PC screw-job, which is crappy, and as a GM you have to be on the lookout for these things and head them off.

Having said all that and not being familiar with the adventure, how important is Sveni and the ritual to the story? Does Sveni have to live? Do the PCs have to stop the ritual? The answers will be helpful in developing good options.

[Meirril]

I agree with Mike J, if the Players know the ceremony is going on and that they are on a short clock then for the sake of the story you need to have the sacrifice happen. Otherwise nothing you threaten in the future will have any teeth. There will be no sense of urgency. The players will do whatever they want no matter what you say because you'll go soft and have it happen when its convenient for them.

One alternative you could do is have Jasela leave. Like maybe she was pulled into hell with Sveni to receive training/blessing. She'll return later in the AP and the PCs will get another shot at her when both they and her are more powerful. You could replace Jasela with another devil or an apprentice with anything needed for the PCs to advance.

If they didn't know about the ceremony happening when they first engaged, then its ok to have it happen as the Players arrive. It doesn't give the impression that you delayed everything for their convenience. I'd prefer this myself since it sticks closer to the AP, but every other AP gives a 'what if the players don't arrive' scenario so its a bit confusing that this one doesn't.

[Val'bryn2]

Perhaps instead of the ritual killing Sveni, it either bound him to a Devourer, or transformed him into an Executioner Devil or Barbed Devil. At that level, they should have Breath of Life, so killing him would allow them to bring him back, especially if the ritual wasn't fully complete to make it a permanent transformation, similar to how in Final Fantasy Tactics the demons only temporarily possessed their host. If you have time, you could make an aspect of her deity, so they end up fighting the shadow of a god.

[Dave Justus]

As others have said, if the PCs already know the ritual is in progress, they have to make the choice and accept the consequences.

However, I could certainly see a bit of GM help to make not resting a more plausible option. Giving them some consumables (potions and scrolls, maybe even a wand or two) to renew some of their HP and probably a bit of the casters magic. I could even see a few one-time use pearls of power equivalent to let the casters choose what resources to get back. Exactly how much they should be given probably depends on how bad off they were, and how tough the upcoming fight would be. I'd want it to be doable, but more challenging then if they were at full, so their choice has meaning.

How this could be delivered would depend on exactly where they are at the moment, it could be in treasure from the last fight, to a known NPC ally showing up to help to (most extreme) emissary of Donnar arrives giving gifts if they will act to prevent a great evil (losing a limited wish or two that they don't know about is a fair exchange.)

[Cevah]

If the cleric has an open 3rd level (or higher) slot, he can take a few minutes to get Nap Stack.

For adding two hours, they all can get an overnight rest equivalent.

Delaying two hours is better than 8.

If there is no open slot, option 2 can be used to swap a random 3rd level spell for this one. Or a scroll of the spell.

/cevah