The Refugees after TPK

[Laveral]

I began running this adventure for my regular group when it first came out. They went through book one to the last fight and then there was a tpk. I wasn’t sure where to go from there after that and couldn’t think of good ways of bringing in new characters so I scrapped the game at that time. They really enjoyed the story of the AP up to that point, so I have decided to go back to it now. Instead of making them go through the first part of book 1 again I a having them start off at 4th level but making it to where they were 1st level when the attack on Phaendar happened and they were captured. The story will make it where they eventually escape and make their way into the Fangwood. So, I basically having them showing up to the right point in the story a week after the tpk happened. My question is what do any of you think would have happened with the refugees since then?

[Yakman]

the refugees are dead or were captured and enslaved by the ironfang.

maybe one of the more memorable npcs from the first campaign is discovered or discovers the new party and tells them the horror of what happened. maybe they find like... the kids... who were secreted away by their parents who led the ironfang away from them only to be slaughtered or captured. now your PCs have to deal with a group of kids who are going to need a lot of help.

your heroes failed. there are consequences for failure.

[erucsbo]

Otherwise have them be part of a group that was heading to Phaendar from Tamran when they got waylaid by one of the Ironfang patrols that was guarding that road. The PCs have been surviving by ambushing other hobgoblin patrols in the interim and have finally tracked some of them back to Camp Redjaw after the original party failed. They run in to some of the NPCs who can fill them in on the story to that point (what the original party did in book 1) ... and the game continues from there.

They can't get back to Tamran because of the heavy Ironfang guarding, they can't head south because of the Ironfang presence in Phaendar, and they have to deal with Camp Redjaw before making it north to the forts in Book 2 or west to Longshadow in Book 3.

The refugees can survive with the named NPCs (particularly Aubren) assisting them, but not much more than that (imho). They can trade with Novvi if they have taken over the Cradle of Stone, and/or you could have them dealing with fae to survive (foreshadowing problems in later books caused by fae escaping the blight).

[Billy Buckman]

Have them make level 4 characters and then run the Fangwood Keep module, and tie the ending of that module to the beginning of Book 2, perhaps Scarvinious leads his triumphant force to claim the Keep for himself, or perhaps the new PCs learn the location of Red Jaw - and that Scarvinious is hunting human refugees in the forest - from the hobgoblins in Fangwood Keep. Geographically, the titular keep is not far from the events of Trail of the Hunted. Just a few days over land at most.