Horde of Dragon Queen advice please: (spoilers) 2nd title: All your fault, You Big Fat Goliath!

So, I started running HoDQ. The cast is: Wood Elf Rogue, hafling druid, Goliath Paladin, Dragonborn Wizard. In the second session, when they were trying to rescue the people from the church, they got TPK'd.

They attacked the back of the church but one of the cultists got hit and didn't die. He ran, they failed to drop him. I gave them several rounds as the cultist tried convincing the group in the front to help stop the PCs. Eventually and, a Bit by bit, a few more kobolds showed up. Things were fine until the goliath dropped. They would have fled right there but the problem was no-one in the party was strong enough to move him. They refused to retreat and they all dropped defending him.

So, now, since the kobolds were taking prisoners, I'm starting their next session captured and tied up in the bandit camp, skipping the whole 'travel to the camp' part of the adventure. I leveled them to 2nd because they succeeded in rescuing the people from the church.

Here's my issue: The adventure is a bit rail-roady. The adventure wants them to rescue the monk and retreat and then come back later when the army has 'moved off' so they can explore the hatchery. Assaulting the hatchery too soon is suicide but I don't really want to tell them 'no, don't do that.'

If I hint too loudly that they are over their heads and they just sneak out of the camp, they will, likely, not want to go back because the bandits will recognize them and they will know they can't assault the camp....

so....I'm not sure my next move...should they just be tied up after the bandits have moved on? Or should I have them wake up en-route to the bandit camp and see if they can escape before they reach it?

Now that I'm typing it, I like that last solution.

TaranTheWanderer said:

so....I'm not sure my next move...should they just be tied up after the bandits have moved on? Or should I have them wake up en-route to the bandit camp and see if they can escape before they reach it?

Now that I'm typing it, I like that last solution.

Click to expand...

Jailbreaks are always fun! This allows them to get creative and go outside the scope of the linear adventure.

Plus it means you don't have to add a whole lot, just a side quest using material that's mostly already there.

Look deeper in this sub-forum for a thread titled "Enhancing Hoard of the Dragon Queen". It is full of ideas created by other folks who played / DM'ed their way through it.

Have your PCs wake up in the camp tied to a post, next to the guy they were supposed to rescue if they hadn't got captured themselves. If the PCs come up with a reasonable Breakout plan, have another group of heroes show up trying (clumsily) to scout out the place and generally becoming a fortunate distraction (and showing the players how not to proceed).

Here's a link to the "Enhancing" thread"

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...en-quot-(Practical-stuff-to-try-at-your-table!)

Re the monk, my group completely blew the mission to rescue him. I just had him escape on his own and turn up in Greenest later. They were still able to clear out the dragon hatchery after the main body of the cultists had already moved on.