D&D 5E Need some opinions on an Encounter

[transtemporal]

This is a good point, and there is a reason for it. The finale of the last campaign involved the capital city in this country being attacked by a Shadow army. The players fought their way through the city (modified Mass Combat ruling that was really fun for the table) and were able to confront the BBG. At the end of it all, the city had suffered major losses for both the City Guard and the Army.

The beginning of this new campaign has begun with a reduced presence of City Guard. Also, in a show of strength, the Army has been dispatched to retake an old Fortress on the border of the Kingdom this one is at War with (more of a Cold War). This leaves the majority of the Kingdom with a much lower authoritative presence and is going to lead to a number of other issues in the Campaign. However, because of their increased Renown and success in defeating the BBG previously, the Players were offered the Bounty on the Bridge Monsters before it went public (they currently have 3 more days before it is publicly posted).

Sounds cool and makes sense that monsters would be emboldened. If the heroes are like officially sanctioned asskickers, it also makes sense they'd be deployed first. Is there supposed to be a diplomatic option for dealing with the situation? Like are the monsters just killing anyone who comes near or are they just blocking access to the bridge to make a point? If theres a diplomatic solution that you can telegraph, I wouldn't change the encounter (in fact I might make it harder). If its just a straight combat encounter with marauding monsters, I'd leave as is or possibly bump it down a bit if you think it'll be too challenging (after all you don't want the Kingdoms premier asskickers to go down in the first salvo of the next conflict, unless the point you want to make is "Yeah seriously guys, this is gonna get rough" lol).

 

[WarpedAcorn]

Sounds cool and makes sense that monsters would be emboldened. If the heroes are like officially sanctioned asskickers, it also makes sense they'd be deployed first. Is there supposed to be a diplomatic option for dealing with the situation? Like are the monsters just killing anyone who comes near or are they just blocking access to the bridge to make a point? If theres a diplomatic solution that you can telegraph, I wouldn't change the encounter (in fact I might make it harder). If its just a straight combat encounter with marauding monsters, I'd leave as is or possibly bump it down a bit if you think it'll be too challenging (after all you don't want the Kingdoms premier asskickers to go down in the first salvo of the next conflict, unless the point you want to make is "Yeah seriously guys, this is gonna get rough" lol).

So the Oni is Shapeshifted into a Hill Giant originally, and the players that came up the road did stop and talk to it. The Oni demanded a tribute to cross the bridge in the form of 10 Sheep and 5 Horses. The players did talk briefly with the Oni, but negotiations broke down as one of them [players] decided to attack. Could they have solved the situation peacefully? Probably not. But they *COULD* have gotten some useful info as to why this mish-mash of monsters are holding the bridge. Sadly, they did not.

Next part will be the Oni shapeshifting into a man and "stumbling" into their camp. He is going to try and befriend them and lead them to an ambush (or at the very least try and pilfer some of their gear after determining their relative strength). Depending on how it goes, I might have this Oni abandon the Giants and become a bit of a foil for the players.