Prepping for Saturday's game. Here's the current situation at Castle Naerytar:
*Pharblex is dead and the bullywugs have been routed.
*Rezmir has left the building, as has Azbara Jos.
*The PCs are heading back to the roadhouse to meet with reinforcements, after they nearly slaughtered each other in a hallucinogenic drug-induced haze.
I'm struggling to figure out how to proceed, specifically in terms of how the cultists and the lizardfolk would respond to any further incursions by the PCs.
First, the lizardfolk. The PCs helped them rise up and overthrow the bullywugs, so in that respect, they owe them big time. And they sort of regard them as saviors, too, thanks to Snapjaw's praise. However, they still work for the cult, and Dralmorrer would undoubtedly order them to stop the PCs from causing any more trouble. At the very least, he'd want them to capture the PCs and bring them to him so he can question them. I'm not sure what the lizardfolk would do in this situation.
Second, the cultists. I feel like I've been playing the overconfidence card for the entire campaign so far. With the PCs unrelentingly dogging their steps all the way from Greenest, surely the cultists would start to get the message that these guys just aren't going to stop. I had Rezmir set up an ambush in Baldur's Gate, but that didn't work. When the cultists figured out who the PCs were on the caravan, they ambushed them and got two of the PCs, but one survived and the other got reincarnated. Now the PCs are showing up at their secret swamp base! Surely the cultists would start being a little more proactive instead of just huddling in the castle waiting to be killed, right? Or continuing to run away, like Rezmir does. Won't Severin be upset that she's allowed this band of troublemakers to disrupt her treasure supply line?
With that in mind, I've still got the cultists I fleshed out for the caravan journey. The PCs' have so far managed to avoid meeting up with them again since the caravan reached Waterdeep. I could perhaps have the higher-ups task them with hunting down the PCs and making sure they succeed at eliminating them this time. Perhaps one of the higher-ups can scry on the PCs so as to make it easier for the would-be assassins to find them in the swamp.
That being said, since the PCs are planning on heading back to the roadhouse, I could make it so the assassination squad is still there (since the PCs have been avoiding them, I've just left their current whereabouts undetermined), and Rezmir or whoever is able to magically contact them and tell them to keep an eye out or whatever.
I'm going to assume that the PCs survive this assassination attempt as well and head back to the castle. Perhaps I could have Snapjaw speak to some lizardfolk and learn that his fellows have been ordered to attempt to capture the PCs alive, so it'd be in the PCs' best interest to sneak back down into the caverns via Pharblex's underwater tunnel, thus avoiding the lizardfolk guards all together.
Any ideas?
but I'm pretty sure I would have had it act like DR. Not that that's necessarily right, just that that's how it read to me. But I admit it didn't occur to me that the other reading was possible.
