So way back in book 3 the party fought the Dreamstalker sisters. One died, the other escaped, the party burned the dead body of the one in a ritual to learn Shadow Walk. Malga came back during the battle for Longshadow and killed Mayor Thom. The party tracked her from there after the battle to the Valley of Alloi, where she had entered the tower back to the Vault and has been chilling for all of book 4.
Now we have begun book 5, and she's come back. She began targeting the players again with Nightmare, and picking off Chernsardo Ranger patrols in the Fangwood with the help of a couple Ironfang Shadows (see book 6.) They just got back to Fort Ristin from Kraggodan, and I had a conveniently timed dead patrol get discovered just as they arrived. But instead of go trek a few miles to investigate the scene of the crime, they opted to sleep. (Despite having a lot of spell slots left, by my reckoning.) Leaving the scene of the crime overnight meant the scavengers had gotten to the corpses and the trail had gone cold. Based on the wounds of some of the older corpses, though, they've realized Malga is involved.
So now they want to track her down, and for the life of me I'm not sure how besides waiting for her to strike again and then pick up a fresher trail-- but that means more dead Chernasardo Rangers. To further complicate matters, my players have Read Omens: "You peek into the future. Choose a particular goal, event, or activity that will occur within 1 week. You learn a cryptic clue or piece of advice that could help with the chosen event, often in the form of a rhyme or omen."
We ended the session with them casting the spell so I'd have time to think about what the Omen would be. I have a week to figure it out.
1) How should the final confrontation go?
2) What sort of cost should there be from dallying? Was I overly punitive?
3) What clue can the Omen give?
My original plan had been to have Malga lead the party to a valley with Ironfang Shadows hidden in sniping positions. I had a vague idea that the Omen could give a clue to the presence of the snipers, or at least the danger of following the trail into the valley. I guess that can still happen? I dunno. I'm tired and frustrated with life stuff at the moment, so solutions aren't coming to mind and I feel like there should be a cost for dragging their feet. I suppose I could give Malga time to bring in more troops-- the party was spotted by Ironfang soldiers on their way back from Kraggodan, so it isn't crazy to think she'd beef up her team for her final ambush. (Also, I leveled her up to keep pace with the party.)
Guess the question I would be asking is what are Malga's plans and goals? Is it revenge on the PCs for killing her sister? In that case, maybe have the Omen be a vision of a PC's family member or loved one attacked/killed by Malga. Where does she go next? What does she have her followers/henchmen do?
Overall I wouldn't ever punish players for taking initiative with a clever spell, but take the opportunity to tell Malga's story, whatever that may be in your version of the AP.
Guess the question I would be asking is what are Malga's plans and goals? Is it revenge on the PCs for killing her sister? In that case, maybe have the Omen be a vision of a PC's family member or loved one attacked/killed by Malga. Where does she go next? What does she have her followers/henchmen do?
Overall I wouldn't ever punish players for taking initiative with a clever spell, but take the opportunity to tell Malga's story, whatever that may be in your version of the AP.
Oh yeah I am not looking to punish the use of Divination. More failing to go investigate a murder scene of their troops in the woods immediately upon being informed of it. That's a terrible decision, IMO. And is basically the opposite of taking initiative.
Malga's goals are to avenge her sister and keep doing what she's always been doing: killing folks to inflict a reign of terror on behalf of the Legion. I think she and her shadow pals are gonna keep picking off Chernasardo Ranger patrols in the Fangwood. Strategically, her groups ability to ghost in, slaughter the lower level NPCs and ghost out means no one but the PCs could safely patrol the forest. That means the good guys can either:
A) Give up patrolling the Fangwood, which leaves opportunity for the Legion to establish a foothold there again.
B) Send the PCs out to patrol the Fangwood. But they can't be everywhere at once, so this is barely better than not patrolling at all, and then the good guys have tied up their most powerful soldiers on watch duty.
C) Accept that some causalities are going to happen to maintain territory. Terrible for morale.
D) Maintain patrols, perhaps with castings of Status cast on a member of each patrol, and come as quickly as possible the next time a patrol is attacked. Probably means that patrol dies though. This seems like the most likely scenario.
E) Something I haven't thought of yet, perhaps realized through the use of Omens. Maybe there is a way to play off of Malga's desire for vengeance to make her attack the players directly?
I'm not up to where you are (just started book 3) but where do you want things to go? The valley with the snipers and the final battle?
Are Malga's goals to avenge her sister subservient to the Legion? What if she picked off a non-Ranger patrol, say a family of refugees who were moving from one of the Forts to another (or Misthome)? Or she kidnapped someone rather than just murder? Or someone thought murdered had actually survived and was able to give the party a push?
For the omen - what was the goal, event, or activity they chose?
I'm not up to where you are (just started book 3) but where do you want things to go? The valley with the snipers and the final battle?
Are Malga's goals to avenge her sister subservient to the Legion? What if she picked off a non-Ranger patrol, say a family of refugees who were moving from one of the Forts to another (or Misthome)? Or she kidnapped someone rather than just murder? Or someone thought murdered had actually survived and was able to give the party a push?
For the omen - what was the goal, event, or activity they chose?
I am thinking the final confrontation will still be in the valley, but I actually don't want the party heading there immediately. After some chatting with other GMs, I am currently thinking that Malga is going to use the time and warning the party has given her to recruit the help of a Rawhead from Fort Phaender (they are featured on book 6) and send some Bloody Bones to attack Fort Ristin. I'm figuring the party can track the bad guys after the attack, leading to whatever final confrontation.
The party's question was how they could track down Malga. And I think the answer is "wait for the next attack." I have a vague idea I need to put into rhyme about the Omen warning them to get rid of mirrors (vanity will be your downfall, etc) which will force the bloody bones to stage a conventinal assault on the fort rather than teleporting into the barracks.
how about
To follow a thread to a definite end, one end, at least, must be secure, but reflect not overmuch on your own security lest what you seek finds you unprepared.
may be too obscure depending on your group (I find that riddles and such often need to be spelled out in a bit more detail for most PCs to get). First part is waiting for an attack while the second half hints at the mirrors.
That's a good omen! A little too late though. I went with something pretty simple:
The wolf will come to you if keep your flock close.
But to shepherd them to safety, you must reflect on the dangers ahead,
Or vanity will be their downfall.
I wasn't entirely happy with it, but it wound up working pretty well. The players couldn't figure it out-- one thought it might be related to mirrors, and another thought that would be a stretch. But when they heard a ranger getting teased for seeing ghosts over their shoulders, they made the connection and rolled Religion to realize there were Bloody Bones about. They evacuated their rangers and started taking down mirrors, triggering the combat without risking NPC lives. But it wound up being a pretty draining combat for them. 5 bones followed by a second wave of 6 more. Their 3 action harm meant they could heal each other and chip away at the health of the whole party, though the low DC and Juggernauts made for more critical successes than anything else.
They then used a homebrew feat called Planar Tracking to figure out where the Bloody Bones entered from, traced that back to the Rawhead's spot, but it had already shadow walked away. They will be following after it next session.
The end result was that while the Omen helped them avoid killing off a ton of NPCs and crippling their militia, they still burned quite a few spells and can't rest without giving the Rawhead a chance to make more Bones. So they are going into a tougher battle with less resources than if they hadn't made the two cowardly decisions the previous session.
That's a good omen! A little too late though.
figured it might have been but wasn't sure exactly when your game was on and if I'd get it posted in time.
Sounds like you got the result you wanted anyway so well done.