WotBS How to manage a party that doesn't retrieve the case

[barbiomalefico]

In adventure #1 an option for the party is to leave the case with Shaalesti. My party did that.
Now I'm struggling with motivations from opponents. For example, as soon as the party escapes from Gate Pass, the Black Horse bounty hunters try to catch them, but they don't have any reason to do so, because the party doesn't have the case.
Now I'm studing the second adventure, one of the opponent is Kazyk which has the order to retrieve the case too. But again, the party doesn't have the case.
How am I supposed to justify the motivation of this kind of enemies?

 

[RangerWickett]

The Black Horse can just want to abduct any possible spellcasters to sell to the inquisitors, and to kill any witnesses.

Kazyk could maybe be after Haddin, whom you could retcon to have knowledge about the super weapon the Ragesians are making. He maybe doesn't know what they're, but he helped develop some of the principles of the runes it uses to harness power, and Koren (who built the obelisk) visited him and asked for his assistance in solving a few issues.

He has records of that meeting (which Crystin could bring along to give the PCs a portion of the information even if they let Haddin die), but if the party saves him and gets him safely to Seaquen, he can give them defenses to protect when the Obelisk comes online in adventure 8.

 

[barbiomalefico]

Ok, but Kazyk send the hell hound with a message asking the party to leave the case.

 

[Tormyr]

Ok, but Kazyk send the hell hound with a message asking the party to leave the case.

You can change the message. The adventures are a framework that outlines one possible route through the campaign. As players leave their mark, you will have to adjust things to fit.

 

[emeraldbeacon]

You can change the message. The adventures are a framework that outlines one possible route through the campaign. As players leave their mark, you will have to adjust things to fit.

Precisely. "We need to parlay," is a simple message for the party. When they meet, Kazyk explains that Ragesia believes there is too much knowledge among the party, and he has explicit instructions: ensure the heroes never leave the burning wood, but return Haddin (who knows details about the Scourge Prison from Chapter 8) and his daughter (who might have learned something about it) to Ragesian forces in Gate Pass... both alive if possible.

This also lets you create more of a sense that these two seemingly unimportant individuals are actually more integral to the plot than expected, and hopefully drives the party to protect them. Kazyk probably only knows that these two are desired by Ragesia, not the reason they're wanted... he has no reason to know, after all. On the flip side, he might have been told (or otherwise found out) why they're important, and is hoping to use them as leverage or a bargaining chip over his own contract.

Either way, Kazyk explains the terms of his mission, and how he hopes to circumvent it... help to extinguish the forest, and the heroes may leave; because he is compelled to bring the two mages back alive and unharmed, he has no desire for a fight that could end with collateral damage.