At a campaign crossroads

[MaxKaladin]

My campaign has reached something of a crossroads rather by accident. The basic setup is that the group works for a Senator in a large Roman/Byzantine empire and has found the need to make themselves scarce for a while. The basic choice is to send them somewhere far off and exotic, effectively starting a new campaign since they'll be leaving most of the old one behind, or to try to get away with sending them to some remote part of the province to keep some of the campaign alive. The former is more realistic in the making themselves scarce sense, but tougher since it's a homebrew world so I would have to start from scratch.

Background info:

Campaign events relevant to the problem include:

• Rescuing a woman and her son from kidnappers. Her son turns out to be the bastard son of the late king of a nearby strategically located kingdom. Said kingdom is currently in civil war after the king and his legitimate heir died in battle against an invading orc horde. The kidnappers turned out to be minions of a rival senator who wanted to turn the boy to his advantage.
• The rival Senators men have been harrassing the party off an on trying to find back the heir and generally trying to one up the party. This has resulted in several back alley battles between the party and hired thugs. As part of finding the heir, the rival's men have been spreading reward posters for his mother claiming her an escaped slave.
• It was recently discovered that one of the PCs is the deposed heir of a city state in the league that is the Empire's chief rival and with whom they are currently at war. There have been attempts on the party and the PC by the usurpers.
• The local thieves guild sent enforcers to smack around some of the rival senator's men for attempting unauthorized hits on the party. It turned out badly and the enforcers got slaughtered by the well armed retainers of the rival Senator. This will probably turn into tit for tat battles between the two.
• The group recently became aware that a halfling crimelord known as "Big Titus" is about to make a play for power against the reigning guild resulting in war in the streets. The party is seen as friendly to the reigning guild for various reasons.
• One of the PC mages made a deal to work on the side for the reigning crimelord (Milo) and did one job with one of his chief lieutenants "Fat Antonius" where a spy for Big Titus was rooted out. He earned a large reward and the favor of Milo for this. Last session, he told the rest of the party what he had done and then went to tell Milo the deal was off. He walked out alive, but the party is inclined to think he isn't happy with the PC.
• Another kidnapping attempt on the boy-heir was just foiled last session by a rather spectacular leap on the part of the barbarian. Alas, this indicates someone has located the heir.

Given all of this, the Senator the party works for and the party itself think it would be wise to leave town and hide the heirs.
Magical travel and scrying protection are not a problem. The Senator is an Archmage. (Securing rare components was to be a primary duty for the party when the campaign started.) No destination has been decided and therein lies my problem.

See, the campaign has largely taken place in one province of the empire and the capital of that province. I have a nice little city campaign going, but a change of pace is needed to let the ranger and barbarian shine. The party and the NPC in charge all see the need to get out for a while. I just don't know where to send them. The basic choice is to send them somewhere far off and exotic, effectively starting a new campaign since they'll be leaving most of the old one behind, or to try to get away with sending them to some remote part of the province to keep some of the campaign alive. The province is located somewhere simiar to Roman Africa. It has barbaric lands on its southern border and has the same sorts of choices for destinations like Africa to the south (southwest, in this campaign), the middle east (at war with the empire) to the east, exotic kingdoms of various kinds outside the empire to the south, the barbarian north with Germanic peoples and steppe peoples, a lost island province to the west (Britain), and so on.

The barbarian has suggested going to his homeland for a while. One other party member (or was it two) suggested going to the rest of Africa for a while.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd suggest having them go off to the backwater edges of the empire, where no one has likely heard of them, or of their trials and tribulations. This can be an area wild enough to give the nature based PC's a chance to shine (and could be near the barbarian's homeland).

In ancient roman terms, I'd say someplace like Gaul, or the British Isles. Maybe even southern Egypt. Maybe they go to the one, and are safe there for a few months, then are found by their enemies again, making them take off to another backwater area, kind of giving them the grand tour of the empire.

When they return to the big city, they'll be stronger, and tougher. Maybe the enemies they once fought will think they died, or will misjudge them because they remember them from several levels ago.

This will mean a certain amount of work developing out a new area(s) of the empire, but that can be fun. Give them the opportunity to make allies on the edges of the empire who may be able to help them later on when they return home.