So what happened last time?
First of all, the game didn´t start under a good star. The Player who re-joined the group playing Balan Bastom couldn´t make it. Two Players were there on time, one was 90min later, one was 2hrs late and the last player appeared even one hour later. All within good reasons (real life reasons) and in hindsight I should not have insisted on the appointment because it was hard to find a good start with the players appearing by and by.
We started with the PCs joining the last day of the festival in Bresk. Last time the PCs decided to not react to the King´s cook having an argument with a customer. When they got back to their accomodation in order to prepare for the Banquet they got to know that the King changed his plans and that Duke Gallo was already in the castle. The PCs panicked, took their stuff and headed to the Castle gates only to learn that King Steppengard ordered the guards to let no one enter at this point. In order to make the PCs realize that something foul was about to happen, the Bard spotted Serrimus on the castle ground. So they knew that they had to enter the castle at all cost. They waited a couple of minutes in a dark corner and then flew over the wall, sneaked to the main building, flew up the wall up to a balcony and entered Glibglammer´s room. The room was in total Chaos. After a thorough search they went to the hall and fought against two guards and entered Steppengard´s bedroom. From there I decided that there will be a secret passage leading to the throne room which the group entered. This was the time when the last player finally appeared and the group was complete.
The Bard cast invisibility, went into the kitchen saw nothing interesting and sneaked into the banquet room. The doors were closed, the Bard alone in the Banquet room, the rest of the Party waiting in the throne room and then all hell broke lose!
It was a hell of a fight. Steppengard initiated the killing and then my players panicked again. They broke into the banquet room and tried to sort out what was happening. The fighter knocked out Steppengard and tried to protect him from the others´ attacks. To be honest it did not help that the Ranger which evolved a habit of collecting magic items and put them to use without identifying beforehand had to use a cursed weapon which made him berserk and also start killing others in the room.
After the fight which some of the PCs barely survived was over they took the opportunity to bring Gallo away before someone could ask any inconvenient questions. The last they got to know was that the King is alive but still unconscious.
After they brought Gallo to a safe place they started some investigations and met the cook and his friend the guard who both told their stories about what happened beforehand and so they got to know about the secret entrance through the sewers and the Special Cooks which were engaged by Steppengard to prepare the feast.
After that I called it a day.
When I drove home I had the impression that nothing plot relevant had happened and was afraid that my players might not have the amount of fun they normally have.
So I was really impressed when the players started a discussion in our chatgroup about what happened, what all of this means, where to go next, what to do next, and how intense the fight scene had been etc.
We even met in person a week later to talk about some Things that happened so far, to sort some stuff out and it got clear that my players really love the story and what happened so far. We decided that we have to order a really large Whiteboard for our gaming room...
One of the best comments was concerning how hard this campaign feels. One Player stated that after letting Kerrycheck kill the elven Girl, killing all Seela in the burning forest, freeing Indomination from the lake, snuff the fire in the wood, letting nearly all of Seaquen´s command crew be assassinated by Giorgio, letting the Elves take Control in Seaquen, etc. he feels as if the setting of the game has been set on "nightmare" so far.
So now up to the question:
I asked my group what has to be completed in order to make them feel they accomplished the right thing and can leave Bresk so that we could start the next adventure. They replied that the situation in Dassen has to be stabilized and they would like to know whether Dassen supports Seaquen in the war or whether Dassen still supports Ragesia.
At the Moment the King is still unconscious so I could have it both ways. the King wakes up and is a) a normal Person again, sees his mistake and supports Seaquen or b) he wakes up and is still mad and keeps supporting Ragesia c) or the King does not wake up and someone else will be the new King, preferably Gallo?
C seems to be the easiest solution, followed by A. Both secure the support for Seaquen and could make the PCs return to Seaquen to start the next adventure. But I am tempted to go with B and let Steppengard still be crazy when he wakes up so that my PCs have to find a solution for the Ragesian threat. They even talked about that they maybe would have to assassinate the King as a last resort. The Paladin´s player talked with me about that. When the group last time decided to go on a killing mission he refused to participate but now he said that this would be a great opportunity to initiate the downfall of his character which he really would like to rpg.
So what do you think? Which route should I chose and what do I have to watch out for?
Thanks in advance!