PCs sent Shalelu to Thistletop. (Spoilers)

[Aaron the Paisley]

So my group figured out pretty quickly that the initial attack came from Thistletop. They were set to head there when Sheriff Hemlock summoned them and asked them to stay in Sandpoint while he went to Magnimar for reinforcements. During the meeting the PCs asked Shalelu to go check out Thistletop.

Should Shalelu go to Thistletop, or ignore the PCs' request since it is not on the list of places Hemlock wants her to "sniff around"?

If she does go, should I have her clear out part of the dungeon and deny the PCs XP? Should she automatically be captured or should I play it out and see how she does?

Should I do something else entirely?

I should mention that this group of players routinely sends NPCs to "take care" of things while they are off doing something else.

[James Jacobs]

The adventure is, in theory, about the PCs, not about the NPCs. Shalelu going to Thistletop is fine, but I'd have her get captured and go missing, which gives the PCs one more reason to go there—they also need to rescue Shalelu.

[Lawrencelot]

I like James' suggestion above. Another possibility would be to have her come back wounded after a fight with Bruthazmus.

[Jhaeman]

I think of Shalelu as a scout, not a one-woman SWAT-team. I'd have her watch the place, for a couple of days, realize just how many defenders it has, and return to the PCs with some useful information they can use to formulate an attack plan.

[Askar Avari]

If you're still looking for any advice for this, I'd ditto Jhaeman's sentiment. My PCs work EXTENSIVELY in concert with NPCs, most of all Shalelu, because early on they didn't think of themselves as uniquely powerful heroes so much as concerned citizens.

Now, my PCs personally handled this particular situation in the exact opposite way (they went to scout out Thistletop as soon as Shalelu returned from scouting the hinterlands, asking her to stay and guard the town in their stead). That being said, Shalelu is most useful as a source of information that can protect herself in books 1-3.

Here's the sort of info I'd have her report with:

- There are refugees from another goblin tribe present.
- The refugees are being fed to some sort of creature??
- There is a goblin druid who seems to be handling and mistreating the refugees, who doesn't seem to be in frequent communication with the goblins of Thistletop.
- Ripnugget doesn't seem to be coming out much.
- Nualia hasn't come out AT ALL, and the only way Shalelu is sure she's there is because the druid keeps complaining about her loudly and often.