Story:
After meeting the kobolds in the Radish Patch, the players killed them very quickly, leaving only one of them alive for interrogation. He revealed them the existence of Tartuk and his wonderful powers, and the players, being quite experienced gamers, figured out that the scoundrel was probably using mere tricks to intimidate the other kobolds, and decided to do the same thing, turning one of the other kobold corpses into another color, which scared the prisoner out of his mind and convinced him to guide them towards their lair.
Lucky for him, during the trip the players got distracted and he managed to escape, but to no avail, since a couple of days later they found the lair on their own.
Luckily at the time the gnome paladin of Cayden Cailean (who had quite clearly expressed his hate for the kobolds) was not with them (having stayed behind with some of the captured and repentant brigands to build a makeshift bridge where the rivers meet), so they managed to speak peacefully with the chief and then with Tartuk himself, who asked them to take care of the mites. On the way out, they took with them the corpse of the mite prisoner (the kobold guard misunderstood their instructions and killed him before).
After rejoining with the paladin (but WITHOUT informing him of their agreement with the kobolds), the group reached the Old Sycamore, and sent the gnome paladin (being the smallest it was easier for him to fit in the tunnels) inside to try to speak with the mites and deliver them the dead mite prisoner.
Unfortunately, the gnome did not speak the mite's language, and the mites did not understand the gnome, so the meeting went quite poorly, ending with the mites attacking him quite unsuccessfully, and deciding then to flee in the deeper tunnels.
Instead of pursuing them, the gnome went back on the surface, informing the other pcs. of the situation.
Not looking forward to the idea of going in the narrow tunnels below, the group decided then to try to cut down the sycamore: they needed wood for the bridge, and they figured that it would attract outside the mites.
Being already late afternoon, they had barely started when the sun went down, and having realized that the tree was quite bigger than they thought, and that it would be a long and complicated work to move it to the river, they decided to desist, and camp there for the night.
The mites in the meanwhile were obviously not pleased with the pcs' work on their beloved tree, so during the night they pushed the giant whiptail centipede on the surface, who did quite a number on the players before they managed to wound him and scare him off with fire.
The players then, quite scarred and being almost out of rations, moved back to Olegs, and in the following 3 weeks went on with the exploration of the rest of the Green Belt.
Now they have almost finished, and I think they will probably go back to the Old Sycamore.
Questions:
1) I ruled that most of the bandits they managed to take prisoner were new recruits, and as such they did not know exactly where the fortress was, while the ones that did know were either killed or not forthcoming enough with information before being sentenced to death or sent back to Restov for trial. Therefore the players have not managed to find the Stag Lord fortress yet, and since they are still level 2, they kinda need the xp of the kobolds and mites quests to level up, so I was thinking maybe of somehow linking the fortress location info to the kobold and mites. Any tips about how I could do it?
2) I'm not sure of what they might find at the Old Sycamore after 3 weeks. What could the mites have done in the meanwhile?
3) And what about the kobolds? If the other players take the gnome with them this time, he will probably force their hand into a fight, but I was kinda looking forward to a more peaceful solution, at least until the fight with Tartuk.
Any tips?
Thanks in advance!
