AoW: The party does something unexpected/bad. Now what?

[WinnipegDragon]

*** SPOILERS FOR AGE OF WORMS WITHIN***

Looking for advice here. It's early in my AoW campaign, Whispering Cairn has just finished, and the party is moving into Three Faces of Evil.

Allustan has already asked the party to investigate the temple in Dourstone Mine, but they have also been approached by Smenk, who is playing the frightened innocent terrified by the cult. The party is smart enough not to trust Smenk, but they are also still a bit wary of Allustan, so they decided to do something unexpected: They went to Ragnolin Dourstone and told him everything that they had been told.

So, of course Dourstone plays the part of the innocent, easing their concerns and trying to assure them that this is just a political ploy against him. One of the players is from the area, and knows that Dourstone has an impeccable reputation, reinforcing their belief that Dourstone is telling the truth.

I don't think it will be too hard to get the party back on track, but how should Dourstone react? I assume that Dourstone will inform the Faceless One and Thendrick of this, and I think that they will attempt to 'take care of' the party.

I can leave hints that tie this attempt to kill them back to Dourstone easily enough, but now the party will have serious trouble getting into the mine. The foremen/guards will all be alerted of the party's presence so bribery is out, they will obviously not be able to take jobs at the mine, and there is no way the Fighters are going to sneak in. Frontal assault will just end up getting the militia involved, so how else are they going to get in to find the Dark Cathedral? I'm a bit stumped.

The next session is this Friday, so I could use a few ideas to help me get through this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nightfall]

Maybe they should get someone to cast invisibility just before they enter the mine...

That might mitigate the chance of being seen.

 

[Erik Mona]

Here's what I'd do.

Have Dourstone befriend the PCs. Since they're now buddies and he knows they have an interest in the Cairn Hills, have him tell a tale of an unexplored cairn in a nearby patch of land he happens to own. Or whatever. The point is he sends them out into the hills to liberate some riches that they will all share together, and maybe then they can talk about how to get back at Balabar Smenk.

Have the players get to the empty cairn and then have a group of toughs (hell, maybe even the tieflings from the Hextor temple) sneak in behind them and attempt to kill them. The players trace the would-be killers back to Dourstone, et voila.

All of a sudden they're interested in what's downstairs.

Better yet, they may have a reason to side with Balabar Smenk, which is always great. I love that guy.

--Erik Mona

 

[Nightfall]

I like Erik's idea better.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Maybe rejiggle the storyline so Dourstone is the good guy?

Mind you, I've always had a tendency to be like Schrodinger's DM.

 

[Aloïsius]

My PCs had a changeling among their rank. He took the appearance of Dourstone, put cloaked robs upon the other PCs, and they entered the mine without problems from the guards...

 

[Joshua Randall]

Maybe there's a heretofore unknown secret back entrance to the mines....

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Here's what I'd do.

Have Dourstone befriend the PCs. Since they're now buddies and he knows they have an interest in the Cairn Hills, have him tell a tale of an unexplored cairn in a nearby patch of land he happens to own. Or whatever. The point is he sends them out into the hills to liberate some riches that they will all share together, and maybe then they can talk about how to get back at Balabar Smenk.

Have the players get to the empty cairn and then have a group of toughs (hell, maybe even the tieflings from the Hextor temple) sneak in behind them and attempt to kill them. The players trace the would-be killers back to Dourstone, et voila.

All of a sudden they're interested in what's downstairs.

Better yet, they may have a reason to side with Balabar Smenk, which is always great. I love that guy.

--Erik Mona

WINNAH!!!

It's funny because my party is just at the end of the Whispering Cairn too and they are exactly the type to do what the OP's party did so I'm already working hooks in for 3 Faces of Evil as well as the Blackwall (sp?) Keep scenario.

I'll keep Erik's solution in mind in case things play put in a similar fashon with my party.

But yeah, typically I'd give the PC's a reason to investigate the Dourstone Mines anyway. If you play Smenk right the PC's are going to be leery of anything that he has to say anyway and are going to seek some kind of confirmation.

 

[Ragnar69]

Trusting Dourstone? What gullible fools are those PCs? A dwarf without a beard just HAS to be evil!

 

[Peni Griffin]

**

but now the party will have serious trouble getting into the mine.

This isn't your problem; it's the PCs problem, and that's a good thing. If the DM has an expectation of how the party should do something, he won't be ready to roll with what they actually do and you risk railroading. Your job is to set the problem according to what your NPCs would realistically do, and their job is to find the solution. Don't worry. They will.

When 3E first came out, I ran a shake-down one-shot to familiarize us with the rules, which consisted of unjustly imprisoning the PCs in the city jail, a converted castle, on the eve of a civil war. I used a castle plan I got off the internet, statted and placed guards, dogs, and assorted other prisoners, made sure I understood the mechanical systems such as ventilation and waste disposal, inserted some political chaos, took away all their equipment, and locked them down as tight as I could. I had no idea how they were going to get out - but they did, and so expeditiously that they forestalled most of the worst political chaos I had planned. They had so much fun they wanted to keep playing long enough to get out of the City, which an oppressive claimant to the throne tried to seal up so that his rivals couldn't escape him. So I gave them all handouts with information on the city suitable to their characters and turned them loose. They put their heads together for maybe half an hour while I read a book, then came back and fomented a riot that stormed the wall from the inside at its weakest point and escaped in company with the poor, the oppressed, and the rivals.

Trust the PCs. All you have to do is motivate them to do something and give them their heads, and you got a game.