Recruiting the Warriors of Wrath

[Laski]

One of the PCs (Troegan, paladin of Iomedae) gave the killing blow to Athroxis and thus received the Mark of Wrath. As the PCs hadn't cleared the Halls entirely, I ruled that the surviving warriors (I said they were around 12) didn't attack the PCs when they saw the mark. After some roleplaying and a "challenger" (promptly defeated by the paladin), the warriors accepted Troegan as their new leader.
The PCs announced Karzoug's imminent return, and seeing the wrathful reaction (after all, the warriors were taught to hate that name) the PCs decided to take them outside Runeforge and use them in the upcoming "war against Karzoug".
As I understood from their background, the warriors were trained for this moment from their very birth, so it made a lot of sense for them to accept eagerly (and it seemed like fun for the development of the story). So now I have a dozen of 8th-level NPCs following the party to Xin-Shalast (much more than what the Leadership feat would provide).

- How can I reward the PCs for this (imho good) idea without making the challenges of the sixth book trivial? I'd like the PCs to think that the warriors are being useful in some way.

- Do you have any ideas for funny moments / challenges they must face to make all this work? I already told them that the warriors don't even know how to get their own food.

Thanks in advance

[Mudfoot]

They're going to be angry angry angry about a lot of things and will probably argue violently with any other PCs, NPCs, horses, bushes, furniture, each other... And they'll find a lot to dislike in the Varisia of the modern age. Their default reaction will often be very aggressive. Do not take them into Sandpoint or Magnimar unless you like the sight of blood.

Being only 8th level, they're not going to be all that effective if faced by the sort of opposition coming in Book 6. Great against mooks, but less so against invisible flying casters attacking their Will saves.

A dozen of them sounds like quite a handful to GM, so you'll want to kill a few off. That will happen.

[The Shifty Mongoose]

A similar thing happened with me - their cavalier demanded to meet their leader, and tried to teach them about the virtue of Kindness instead of the sin of Wrath. He did it poorly, but the Wrathlings (as I called them) were certain he would lead them into the Great Outdoors, as foretold, where they would bring glory to Alaznist.
"Great," I thought, "So now this guy has a half-dozen Chaotic Evil survivalists fanatically devoted to him. How do I kill them off without him feeling bad about it?"
Fortunately, I still had Freezemaw, and decided that was when he would strike. The PCs weren't prepared for him, so I had the Wrathlings charge him and get frozen/eaten. One of the PCs accidentally caught a couple of them in an area spell.

As to the advice, I'd say if the paladin really wants to redeem them, go for it. Until then, have them loudly charge anything that might seem a threat in the defence of their new Highlady. All the horror stuff at the beginning of Book 6 will have extra impact if the PCs watch the Wrathlings get eaten.

[Misroi]

That's what happened to them in my run, Shifty. Bringing a bunch of lower level mooks into a horror mod is basically telling the GM "go ahead, kill these guys in bad and painful ways." My group went into the Vekker cabin with a full compliment, and came out with maybe three.