So I've taken a fair amount of time to incorporate Ironbriar into the pc's experience in Sandpoint. They just found out via great rolls while interrogating a Skinsaw Cultist that Ironbriar's a major player within the Cult. The party is about to enter the Sawmill and my guess is that they will try to capture Ironbriar, interrogate him, and then turn him over to authorities once the journal has been translated.
My issue is this. . . once the authorities, maybe even the Mayor himself, get a look at this translated journal, why would they entrust the unknown PC's to go to the Shadow Clock rather than send a massive City Watch contingent (Swat team, essentially) to handle the job? I really want the PC's to encounter Xanesha now (rather than later) for a variety of reasons rather than simply have thirty City Watch bungle an attempt to bring her in and have her escape to be met down the road.
My only thought is that the PC's either go secretly or neither the Watch nor their higher-ups (the Mayor) want to make a great show of force only to come up empty handed. Very embarrassing. So they agree to send in the PC's because they're a small force and are completely dispensable.
Any thoughts would be tremendously appreciated, thanks! Session's in two days!
If memory serves, Mayor Grobaras is a greedy soul. Xanesha could have him under her thumb as well. This would place the mayor in a position to cover up shady matters and even quell any investigations.
He could owe Ironbriar for helping him get into office, etc.
Any lawful constables could come to the PCs to go to the Clocktower because their orders come from higher up preventing them from doing their job. This preserves the idea that not all Magnimar's law enforcement is crooked and that their hands are tied by the powers that be.
After dealing with Xanesha, you could easily add more evidence implicating Ironbriar AND Mayor Grobaras and remove both of them as they server no further purpose in the campaign.
I like the idea that Xanesha has a lot of hooks floating around -- if/when I run this, she'll mostly be disguised as a noblewoman and clued in with lots of information links from various elements in the city. The Shadow Clock is a hideout for her, not her main lair.
If the PCs get the Watch to go after the Clock, then Xanesha will find out about it from some contact of hers and the Clock will be empty when the raid arrives. Which means the PCs will have to figure out another angle.
Both great points and excellent input! Thank you, Sunderstone and tonyz. Going to find a way to incorporate these ideas asap.
Other solution: they will indeed send a team of city guards to go to the shadow clock, they just need 6 weeks to do all the paperwork required for invading someone else's property (several weeks to figure out whose property it is anyway, then more weeks when they can't find the owner). If the murders keep going on in Magnimar, the authorities will want to send someone to the Shadow Clock sooner rather than later, and the PCs are the only ones that can go there while being sure that they are not violating any of Magnimar's vague laws.
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My explanation for this was a bit more straightforward, but it might not work for your campaign as well. In facing Ironbriar, the party found evidence that at least some of the city guard of Magnimar was in his pocket. When the PCs informed Grobaras of this, he was unsurprised, given how ineffective the investigation had been (in my game, the Star Killings had been going on for 5 years). Thus, the PCs actually looked like competent individuals, and by sending them, he could risk very little if the mission was a failure.
That said, if there is a planned raid on the Shadow Clock, I'd like to double what tonyz said - the Shadow Clock isn't Xanesha's only base of operations, I'd expect. Have a Faceless Stalker there in her place while she repositions herself in another part of Magnimar, leaving no clue as to where she's gone - but leaving some clue about where she'll strike next. That is to say, the Mayor himself.
Whether Grobaras is in her pocket, and this is a trap, or he legitimately isn't and this is a genuine tip, shouldn't really matter. She'll come for him eventually before fleeing Magnimar.
Lawrencelot and Askar Avari, thanks so much for the replies. I had already built in the potential for red tape plus the fact that the party's dispensable to the Mayor as a potential means to get them in there but I had just thought about the delay being a few days. Six weeks is much stronger story-wise without railroading the party. Love it.
And having another location for Xanesha to set up shop is a great idea which I'm going to go put together now. Thanks, all! What a great community!