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This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for the Curtain Call: Stage Fright (GM Prep) , written by Richard Pett.
I'm interested to see what other DMs have thought and what they have changed. Here is our collaborated prep with Niktorak and Ironbear. My direct feedback on the whole of Book 1 to follow.
Player's Guide and Chapter 1: Nemesis
https://youtube.com/live/PtTBxbIbHgE
Chapter 2: No Business like Show Business
https://youtube.com/live/NwTtNJHt2JQ
Chapter 3: Payment Comes Due
https://youtube.com/live/20gnVSJg4dc
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"I like the other stuff, not the opera".
Relatable lol. 100%. At least MAYBE it leaves the door open for a full on Norgorber Adventure Path in the future, because that's the content I want more of in this product line.
I had the same reaction as you to Richard Pett's previous work. He wrote Vyre, War for the Crown, Skinsaw Murders, etc., so I expected better connections to Norgorber right from book 1. Fighting a random gang is not memorable enough.
The Ashen cult thing as a red herring is maybe a bit underbaked. I don't understand if this will become a big thing in future APs or they meant in book 2 when Fenton hires them to trouble the opera.
I agree with you that chapter 3 ends on a high note. BUT Richard could have made the gang be more high up in the food chain of Vyre to make it feel more epic, and connect it better to the city lore, like add interactions with the Abbatoir organization. Who even leads the thieves' guild in Vyre? Why do we not meet them?
You liked chapter 1 more than I did. I wish it was set on Vyre island instead of Osirion, and built up to chapter 3, giving us more time to showcase what Vyre is all about.
Anyway, I liked book 2 better than book 1 because of the BBEG and ending, and book 3 is one of the rare books that I LOVE ALL 3 CHAPTERS of, which is a unique experience for me since I tend to not like 1 chapter in every book usually.
So I agree with you guys except on 1 point, I will push back and say that the Opera House becomes a good home base for the players that you spend 1 chapter in each book in, where you can interact with the cast and crew and get to know them better.
There were also callbacks to Rebels in 1e, like the crabapple inn, which didn't do very much for me. Would rather have met Hellknights, which are mentioned in every Vyre centric article in Lost Omens or Rulebook product lines. Why are they sent here, who do they negotiate with, how did this alliance happen? How did the Skinsaw Cult take over Vyre, and why is it so dominant? There are SO MANY unanswered questions.
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"I like the other stuff, not the opera".
Relatable lol. 100%. At least MAYBE it leaves the door open for a full on Norgorber Adventure Path in the future, because that's the content I want more of in this product line.
I had the same reaction as you to Richard Pett's previous work. He wrote Vyre, War for the Crown, Skinsaw Murders, etc., so I expected better connections to Norgorber right from book 1. Fighting a random gang is not memorable enough.
Yes, and that is a big part of what I was waiting for. I had the notion we were going to get something from the start, but chapter 2 took up a huge portion of the adventure and we were just occupied.
The Ashen cult thing as a red herring is maybe a bit underbaked. I don't understand if this will become a big thing in future APs or they meant in book 2 when Fenton hires them to trouble the opera.
I wish we didn't need the red herring at all, and that gives us more when we didn't need it. It could have been a Norgorber cultist right there, but perhaps I don't understand why we needed a decoy for the players.
I agree with you that chapter 3 ends on a high note. BUT Richard could have made the gang be more high up in the food chain of Vyre to make it feel more epic, and connect it better to the city lore, like add interactions with the Abbatoir organization. Who even leads the thieves' guild in Vyre? Why do we not meet them?
I read the section of Hell's Rebels Book 3 just to understand that Wormwood had broken all five rules in some fashion. She was dead for so many reasons. Possibly because Wormwood was lower than them, or she hadn't climbed the ladder high enough despite being a constant thorn to Gideon. It's a big pull to have her live so we can establish more with her, if the DM is willing to do that.
You liked chapter 1 more than I did. I wish it was set on Vyre island instead of Osirion, and built up to chapter 3, giving us more time to showcase what Vyre is all about.
I really like that idea! Paizo does one thing better than anyone else it's dungeon crawls and planting ideas to connect dots. It's a big rush to have that and be able to piece together a mystery from the bread crumbs. It might have very well been better in Vyre. I don't see why Osirin was picked.
Anyway, I liked book 2 better than book 1 because of the BBEG and ending, and book 3 is one of the rare books that I LOVE ALL 3 CHAPTERS of, which is a unique experience for me since I tend to not like 1 chapter in every book usually.
I'm hearing that alot. Book 2 is where things ramp up and has a lot of good moments. I'm sticking with the prep to make sure I can judge it as a whole, and if it's good, that's great. Norgorber is taken into a much better character even secondhand than I thought.
So I agree with you guys except on 1 point, I will push back and say that the Opera House becomes a good home base for the players that you spend 1 chapter in each book in, where you can interact with the cast and crew and get to know them better.
I'm hoping you are right. So long as they don't start calling them actor 1-8 etc I will believe it.
There were also callbacks to Rebels in 1e, like the crabapple inn, which didn't do very much for me. Would rather have met Hellknights, which are mentioned in every Vyre centric article in Lost Omens or Rulebook product lines. Why are they sent here, who do they negotiate with, how did this alliance happen? How did the Skinsaw Cult take over Vyre, and why is it so dominant? There are SO...
Yes! I loved the recurring characters and it was good to read those entries and quests so I had some familiarity with them. Hellknights there don't seem like real ordered Hellknights, I think they are pretty much for show and just bullies to send people to torture jail/fantasy attica. Vyre is a place we just don't ask questions of people they aren't willing to say themselves. It's one of the five rules, and I am willing to accept it there. It's very flavorful. We should have just had it between Kintargo and Vyre for the whole AP.
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This feedback is directed at Curtain Call: Stage Fright Written by Richard Pett. He wrote one of my favorite modules for War for the Crown, and the single best influence session I’ve seen in Pathfinder that makes non combat encounters shine in Songbird Palace.
The tone of Curtain Call is one of Whimsical Horror, and that means a great number of small coincidences and occurrences that add up to one climax of seemingly unrelated events all come together. I assume it’s the God’s Rain, but it could be related to Norgorber’s introspection and self discovery that runs alongside the Opera.
I am very wary of having a framing device of the Opera alongside another plot while it sets up an unstoppable and irreversible event the Players have no influence over, but I need to see the actual Gods Rain books to know more. I can’t judge that here, as we are missing too much of the actual event even at the end of Book 3 when we scramble for the A plot after the B plot is concluded.
Chapter 1: The foundry team did a fantastic job with the elevator effects, and it really is a good dungeon crawl. I am very sad that the chapter was mentioned as skippable and unimportant, as I feel it sets up a major battle in chapter 3 quite well with some interesting continuation. I do like the elements of Osirion with the portal, the little elements like that are nice, but ultimately don’t contribute to the story; they make excellent spotlights for characters and RP.
The nemesis giving the players a bonus feat is a phenomenal idea similar to that and touching the stones in Extinction curse, as sort of a growth throughout the story that makes the journey feel more special. It’s a shame in Chapter 3 that is replaced by a full night’s rest in a very small dungeon that has minimal to no effect, but I’ll get to that when it’s time.
The set up is incredibly good, and then it abruptly ends with the invitation. The netherwalk incense is the travel time saver, despite where your last adventure ended, the players will be doing a lot of traveling. Osirion and the other locations are all seemingly random, save Vyre.
Chapter 2: The longest, and slowest paced of the 3 chapters has many moments in it where I feel we’re about to see some really good chances to roleplay, but they are swept up by time limits and constraints that hamper the players actually being themselves and instead take the role of performers- when in fact they cannot perform or write their own opera. There are a lot of red flags with this blind date with Falenta. The owner is stated, described, but given no art. I looked back at hell’s rebels and it doesn’t look like he is there either.
The difference between Tarry and Tarry difficulty is hard to determine if the imp was actually tared or simply late. A small issue, but it was funny to discuss between the other DMs as we prepped. The wording with the Nemesis is so deliberately chosen, I felt the wordplay continued throughout the module. I’m surprised people were unaware of the Greek word that is used to describe the BBEG.
Fallenta’s introduction is sound, and I really like her art. Then she begins to constantly go against her own character of being an established writer and producer, volunteering the PCs, making plans without notifying them, or simply calls them on a whim when she isn’t even sure about them being her next project immediately after she clearly states she is “all in”.
That moment she said she was all in, flips a 180 if one of the players questions her, or asks for creative control. Since it takes away from one of the rounds to influence her, I like to imagine she uses her bulky arms and just sweeps desert off the table once it’s served. This diminishes her character and makes her into a very paranoid and co dependant looking woman who can’t make up her mind. She throws money at her problems, except the one she can use the players for, and this is where her real cunning begins.
Fallenta is often worried about people knowing it’s her, and yet she is famous and thrives on it. It’s so conflicting. We establish she’s famous and then people can’t recognize her, and she is a spell caster so this seems overly paranoid.
I don’t believe Fallenta originally wanted to make an opera about the players, I think her big takeaway from the stories about their heroism was that she could free herself from the Dragonfly Society, and that is the only thing fueling her patience and generosity at this point of the story. She needs to manipulate and captivate the players into thinking she intends to do it, that is why the facade crumbles when she is directly confronted with the subject of control and proving herself. Had this been more apparent in prep and the story, her character would have been so much sweeter in regards to taking advantage of their power, but the module states she is being sincere in the offer which really does play down her character. She could in fact have been an excellent villain or cultist of Norgorber, setting all of this into motion.
She then flips the table and tells the players they have to prove themselves after praising them for being well known due to the fact she’s known shysters before. I feel like she is calling herself out here for her past. She intends to set up a series of challenges for them to overcome with some actors based on her personal biases and not who the characters actually are and their accomplishments. Already my hopes for her become dashed, as there is no room in the challenges for anything other than a checkmark as done as intended by her. She hasn’t seen some players at the ttrpg table and how they solve problems. This is more can they portray a heroic ideal character than be themselves.
Now Fallenta is intelligent and methodical, she’s even scouted out the abandoned playhouse in advance so she can do her thing outside and set up the event which I thought was going to be the second social encounter. An amalgamation of spirits has taken over the test, and all the actors were abducted by a little old lady cultist living in the basement which is filled with 20k+ loot she never even bothered to pick up or look at. One of which is an incredible ring that is overpowered in this campaign as you never leave urban areas.
The Ashen man cultists don't want to go through the effort to keep the actors alive for long enough to witness the end like she wants, but she does want an audience for the end of the world. Okay, hold up. You want an audience, and we want actors. Come join our opera, you can have a vast audience to see the end. I feel like she is our first recruited actor, but no sadly. She’s meant to die here. A waste. All the pieces fit together and having the cultist join the cast is very whimsical horror themed. Okay I thought this was a good place to end the chapter, but apparently not, it keeps going. This chapter is rather long.
Fallenta says we have to do a fete, despite her wanting to lay low, we need the opera house owned and operated by Sheyln’s head priest Zackerin. To impress him we’ll need to participate in an art auction, talk to the artists, talk to some of the prospective actors, and have a good time at the party. Sadly there are only 4 hours which cuts our rounds of influence much shorter than I am used to for this large number of NPCs. See with Fallenta and dinner it was one person to focus on, now the players have at least 8 people to divide and conquer with some of whom are just distractions. Birdsong palace as well as the Greenwood Gala events last several days. Why are we being restricted to a single night and 4 hours in the theater district? This feels like a bad power dating session where we need to quickly weed people out, all the while focusing on getting the priest’s attention.
Sadly no matter what you do you get the opera house. There are no consequences here, and this really kills the feeling of satisfaction. If you succeed Zackerin tells you how impressive you are and that you deserve to use the opera house, if you fail he feels bad for you and lets you use the opera house. This little section is pointless. I understand we need the opera house to host the climax, but there could have been other ways of doing things here. My players would be underhanded- taking out Fallenta’s rival and stowing her in a broom closet till the party ended so they would have the priest’s full attention. Sabotaging the art from artists so they would win the auction. Yet the module doesn’t reward underhandedness until we get to Vyre.
Chapter 3: This is where the story comes alive and really feels like an adventure. Unfortunately like chapter 1 it’s short lived and over too soon. Gideon Shanklett, and he has Shank in his name that is fantastic, is an extortionist that Fallenta wants us to work for, in fact she’s volunteered us to do it without asking us first. I’ve lost all trust for Fallenta now. She’s proved several times she is incompetent and unable to solve her own problems.
When we meet Gideon in Vyre after a quick boat ride it’s immediately apparent he realized that the players can floor him without breaking a sweat. He knows who they are, and that they are powerful. The Dragonfly society helped Fallenta escape from Thrune after she wrote a satire of Abigail. I like to think she wrote her like the queen from Black Adder. That didn’t go over well and she needed to escape and start a new life with a new name. That relocation came with a cost that increases as Fallenta becomes more popular and richer.
It seems that the opera writer who throws money around everywhere and at everything is unwilling to pay this guy, and he demanded creative control of her opera too. There it is again, she is unwilling to give up control, yet puts people in situations beyond theirs. She’s a hypocrite of her own values. Unwilling to do this, she makes us do a job for him that will apparently wipe the slate clean, and she’ll be free from the dragonfly society entirely.
Gideon’s rival Wormwood was originally his superior in the society, he betrayed her and took her position. I love this man. He's a true scum bag and he doesn’t deviate from that character. This is perfect and I am eating it up. Now it’s a gang war in Vyre, and I am all in, not like an opera writer, actually all in.
The dungeon is short and sweet, and two rooms are of particular interest with one housing the physical ‘nemesis’ form from the cave in Osirion, and the other is Wordwood’s library. The Nemesis this time grants a full night’s rest and spell prep upon death, which is not very useful in such a small dungeon since that trivializes going through the rest of the rooms. The library is the best resource I’ve seen in a while since Abomination Vault’s ghoul library that has a heavy bonus for players that is useful throughout the campaign. The goons watching the library and the junk room are very ill prepared for someone raiding their hideout. Tons of treasure here alongside a wand of teleport, which is super useful. Gideon has his portrait and personal items in the scrying room, which sets up a fantastic little scene with Wormwood’s profession as a scryer that’s successfully killed 5 of the 6 people she’s been watching. Gideon is definitely next.
Remastered Word of Recall and Legend Lore rituals are being studied by Wormwood when the players intrude, and it gives the players a chance to kill Gideon instead, which is really tempting. Having Wormwood escape as intended and be a recurring villain in Kintargo seems like a waste, I think we’ve found our second actress. She seems to have a flair for the dramatics, can channel any spirit of a dead actor into herself for a short time, and has the ability to learn entire texts of complicated dialogue. She seems like a perfect addition for the opera.
Getting the stolen loot back to Giden sets up one of the best pay offs of the AP thus far. Gideon will grant you a few items, but if you don’t tell him about Norgorber triggering his reluctance to take any of it and letting you have it all not wanting to get cursed, he’ll send you the entire 7 items claiming he had a change of heart. This slime ball, I love him.
Fallenta gets the papers showing her identity, and wants to have a funeral for herself. It seems weird she wants to be who she was 20 years ago when everyone knows her as the person she is now, but ok. There is a quick section for earning more production points of checks of the players choice, and that’s it.
Of all the module chapter 1 and 3 were the best for me, and 2 just dragged on far too long. Is it wrong that the chapter that supports the actual opera and main story felt the worst?
Also Richard Pett doesn’t feel like he wrote the auction, it’s just too fast considering how I know those events play out with so many npcs on the table. There is just too much going on in chapter 2 that it overstays it’s welcome compared to the other two. Why not just break it up into two separate chapters, for a total of four? The fete feels like it deserves its own focus away from the initial meeting with Fallenta and the audition.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent book. Chapter 3 was especially great and seemed like it'd be a blast to run. My curiosity, though, is w hy anyone would say or believe that Chapter 1 can be skipped. Without Chapter 1, there's no frame of reference for something in Chapter 3 (and one line of text specifically makes ZERO sense if you skip Chapter 1.).
Don't skip Chapter 1 folks. It's absolutely worth doing. I'm not even sure why it was framed as filler content.
I'm not sure how I feel about the Production Point subsystem either; on one hand, the payoff for engaging with the system seems very backloaded into later books, but on tne other.... the book really does throw money at the PCs. I think I would have liked a more substantial social benefit, even if it was a short-term one.
That being said, Book 1 absolutely makes one want to check out where things go in Book 2 from both sides of the GM screen.
I asked if we can start this adventure at level 12. That's why I was given the answer I could EITHER do chapter 1 with no level progression OR skip it and start level 12 with chapter 2.
Nobody said you "should skip it".
Misrepresenting, misunderstanding or misquoting is a guaranteed way to have less interactivity with developers and we would all be worse off for it.
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I asked if we can start this adventure at level 12. That's why I was given the answer I could EITHER do chapter 1 with no level progression OR skip it and start level 12 with chapter 2.
Nobody said you "should skip it".
Misrepresenting, misunderstanding or misquoting is a guaranteed way to have less interactivity with developers and we would all be worse off for it.
I also think some of the confusion comes from the wording in the Player's Guide and Book 1. The second paragraph of Stage Fright is "This Adventure Path’s plot doesn’t really begin until Chapter 2" and the Player's Guide says something like "Fallenta’s offer to turn your group’s story into an opera doesn’t happen at the start of the Curtain Call Adventure Path, for there’s some loose threads to wrap up first, but by the time your characters reach 12th level, her exciting new opportunity will bring your group into your next harrowing challenge: the public stage!" As well as in the Concluding the Chapter where it says "Eventually, they’ll return home—at which point the Curtain Call Adventure Path begins in earnest"
I agree with you that this chapter would have been much better if it were set on Vyre Island, it would also help explain why the creature was in Vyre in chapter 3. If I ran this I think I'd just make this change as most places have mountains, it may require a little handwaving but I think that's better than having these events take place in Osirion which holds no relevance to the plot.
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Chapter 1 being set in Osirion seems to be there just to establish idea that PC party is world traveling group of heroes and not just locals to specific region where they are famous.
(I guess because none of 1-10 aps are set in Ravounel entirely either, so idea of pcs jumping to Osirion from different ap then to Ravounel would seem more natural than just "and now we go to Ravounel"? Kinda like of Fist of Ruby Phoenix relies on "it doesn't matter where players are from, because they got invited to come here", but done slightly differently)
Osirion is also closer to Otari and Alkenstar than Ravounel, which are the locations of the two APs that make the most sense for Curtain Call to follow up on imo.
Although if I run this as a follow up to my Alkenstar AP I'd probably consider moving it to the Mana Wastes instead of Osirion.
Creative Director
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I chose Osirion...
Since a published adventure has no control over where the PCs start if they're already established as a result of an Adventure Path that ended at 10th level, I had to choose somewhere, and so I chose a place that was distant from the low level ones we've done so that the element of having to travel somewhere distant and new to investigate strange rumors would be as shared an experience as possible.
And also because I like Girtablilus, and wanted to feature some non-evil kholos.
More than most Adventure Paths, Curtain Call relies and requires on GM enhancement, because you, the GM, are the expert on your players' previous campaign, not me. If switching the location of Chapter 1 to somewhere else makes more sense for your group, then absolutely that's the correct choice!
That all said—with Curtain Call's unusual open-ended links to previous campaigns, that does make this Adventure Path a bit extra complex for a GM to run. Please let us know if you appreciate this or are frustrated by this, since that feedback will help me and the Narrative team calibrate how we link high-level Adventure Paths to low level ones going forward!
EDIT: Gonna post that informal questionnaire as its own thread in the Adventure Path forum.
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Ya I'm in the camp of appreciating more Garund content :D Plus it gave me nice flashbacks to Strange Aeons where you get to do lot of traveling to specific locations just to chase after someone else xD
But then again, I don't think I need AP to be "perfectly fit together", I actually do like it when they can have varying type of content (part of reason why I find it hard to "cut" things from adventures) and I do like world traveling flavor of any kind.
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I chose Osirion...
I LOVE Osirion, it's one of the most interesting locations on Golarion. Ironbear Jones is working on a PF Infinite AP that we're currently playtesting set in Osirion/Sothis. With that said, I personally don't mind globe-trotting as long as there is a reason for us to do so, like CorvusMask said, Strange Aeons was great because you had a reason to be there in your chase but in CC it doesn't feel necessary.
Expanding the world and letting people explore all of the wonderful locations is something that I think the Adventure / AP's lines should explore more and do a great job at. I'd personally just want them more contained, right now it feels like we're getting just a taste of a wonderful meal, when I would prefer to eat the entire thing and be much more satisfied.
CC has you going to 5/6 different locations, some of them are just pitstops. I personally would appreciate more time in the two main cities to help develop the really cool side characters that this AP has to offer with the Opera, we do spend a chapter in each book in both Kintargo and Vyre but we're so absorbed doing other stuff that it doesn't personally feel like we developed the Opera enough when I'm more excited about the B plot happening in Vyre.
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I agree that as someone who wanted to see more of Garund, a quick pit stop in Osirion to do a dungeon crawl doesn’t do much to satisfy those desires. It’s something I felt frequently with Stolen Fate too—-I loved finally getting to see more of Arcadia, but if we’re barely even getting a glimpse of the culture or getting to spend any meaningful time there… what’s the point aside from fanservice?
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More than most Adventure Paths, Curtain Call relies and requires on GM enhancement, because you, the GM, are the expert on your players' previous campaign, not me.
I would advise relying less on expecting the DM doing this level of work, when we pay for the adventure to be done for us. I don't wanna pay full price to do extra work on a 'completed' module like I did with WW, and CC making me do more work than that is shaping up to look badly. It just doesn't make sense. I can buy a DMs guild or a Pathfinder Infinite module for that level of work for half this price or less. Not 90 USD + tax for 3 adventurers were I get to do the heavy lifting.
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On flipside, it is nice to get APs with more free space to do homebrewing, in some aps things feel tight enough that its hard to do your own spin on things without just cutting things out or reflavoring them entirely, so I'm curious to see how useful Curtain's Call's framework is with making your own flavor for it :O
(well at least with my prepping style. Its going to be either really fun or really difficult or both xD)
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I am currently prepping this part and will have some questions.
In Chapter 1, who is pulling up the platform between A6 and A8? There doesnt appear to be anyone at A8, at least not in the Foundry module.
Looks like a short sentence got lost in development, but that lift is one the PCs can raise or lower themselves while they're on it. Sorry about the confusion.
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Speaking of that area, I can't find any indication for the DC to disbelieve the illusory walls in area A7. I guess the character will know that it's one anyway the moment the Girtablilu start their ambush, but they won't be able to see through it until they disbelieve it.
Also, that ambush don't work as written with the assumption that it's the PC who raise the lift while they're on it, since it's supposed to keep raising automatically even after the ambush start (at a rate of 5 feet per round), while the PC would stop raising it if some of their members got snatched away. So either it work on an automatic mecanism, that doesn't care that an ambush is taking place, or it's being raised by someone that's not on the lift, and thus might not be aware of the attack (and also isn't a PC).
In both case, it's rather simple to come up with a solution on the fly (just pick a standard DC for the level I guess, and either make the lift an automatic one that keep raising to make the ambush more frantic or a PC operated one that they can stop raising to make it more simple), but I'd still like to know what was the intended DC and lift operation (as we all know, the minutiae of how a lift operate is the most crucial element to run a successfull roleplaying game).
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Speaking of that area, I can't find any indication for the DC to disbelieve the illusory walls in area A7. I guess the character will know that it's one anyway the moment the Girtablilu start their ambush, but they won't be able to see through it until they disbelieve it.
Also, that ambush don't work as written with the assumption that it's the PC who raise the lift while they're on it, since it's supposed to keep raising automatically even after the ambush start (at a rate of 5 feet per round), while the PC would stop raising it if some of their members got snatched away. So either it work on an automatic mecanism, that doesn't care that an ambush is taking place, or it's being raised by someone that's not on the lift, and thus might not be aware of the attack (and also isn't a PC).
In both case, it's rather simple to come up with a solution on the fly (just pick a standard DC for the level I guess, and either make the lift an automatic one that keep raising to make the ambush more frantic or a PC operated one that they can stop raising to make it more simple), but I'd still like to know what was the intended DC and lift operation (as we all know, the minutiae of how a lift operate is the most crucial element to run a successfull roleplaying game).
Whenever we forget to include a DC like this, the "DCs by level" table in the GM core is your best friend. Just pick the DC equal to the PCs' level and you're pretty much good to go. AKA: for 11th level PCs, go with DC 28.
And yeah, there's something weird going on with that ambush, I guess. The easiest solution is to have another girtablilu at the top turning it, I guess.
Yeah, I think adding one level 8 sentry on top of the lift pulling it upward (so as to not overwhelm the player who fell in an ambush too much by making them fight another level 10 creature while they're already in a very unfavorable position) should do it, taking it from the shrine room to keep the exp total of the place consistent. That way, if the pc get off the lift to fight the ambush (or if they struggle enought already with the two girtablilu in the shaft), the sentry can retreat to room 9 and warn the others to set up the big confrontation.
Setting up the big confrontation this way also have the added bonus of foreshadowing that a pretty big fight is awaiting the PC right after the ambush, so they can prepare better for the end of the chapter, and to lightly "punish" them for getting caught in it, even if the ambush itself isn't that dangerous (and even if the confrontation would probably also have happenned like that even without the sentry raising the alarm, but they aren't supposed to know that).