DM Writer's Block: Would like Suggestions

[Mitchell McCarley]

I'd like to apologize for the length of this, but I appreciate any input you guys can give me!

Okay, quick overview of my campaign thus far. My campaign conflict right now is a plague that is advancing through this city extremely fast. Players must figure out the cause and a solution and/or cure.

Players arrived in a city by way of carriage. On the ride to the city, I added a plot hook of a farmer calling out for help taking his ill child to the city for healing. In the town, I allowed for multiple directions the players could go depending on how they wanted to play. Stealth, assassinations, collect this artifact, find this person, etc. In the end, they chose to find a priest that had not returned from a healing mission at a nearby village.

To summarize, they find the child the priest was supposed to heal dead and the mother completely disconnected from reality (crazy). They track the priest to a tower where an Elven wizard is using the priest in a ritual, supposedly using the priest's life force to power this strange orb. They fight. Wizard runs. They camp. Heal priest. And leave. The one thing they did not do was, and I facepalm so hard at this, check the wizard's notes. Oh well.

The next few sessions lead them to travel towards a temple 6 days out on cart and mule to find a lead on the Royal Mage for the city they started in who, must like the above mentioned priest, went missing (common theme?). They stop off at a very small village of misfit castouts from the Empire.. The leader of which is supposed to be a pretty fun boss fight. However, one player of mine is a druggie and decided to hit up this Tiefling for some... "recreationals." Some plague ridden Death Dogs attack the party in the middle of this drug deal on the outskirts of the village. During the battle, my Chaotic Evil Bard put the Tiefling to sleep and ended up stabbing him in the chest.

I ended the last session there and now I am unsure about how to go from here.

• I was going to offer the players a mission from the Mayor for some gold and he'd try to capture them later. However...
• I made the Village Mayor so that he is super proud of the people in his village. So, he might decide he will fight them for this crime prematurely prematurely to the planned encounter.
• The players might also decide to high-tail it out of there. If this happens, should I make him stop them?
• The mayor is a Weaver (referring to magic users in my campaign) in league with the main mystery antagonist. I could maybe make it so that he is the same mage the players saw at the tower at the first session? (There is some strong disdain for the tower wizard because he stole one's players sombrero)

What do you guys think? Where should I see about going from here? Next session starts up with the sword in the chest of the Tiefling, his last bit of life leaving him.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Personally I would make the Mayor a good guy who investigate the murder but if you do not want the party to be wanted or play out a trial then there were no witnesses, unless a party member comes forward as a witness, which is a whole other ball game.
However, someone comes to town looking for the tiefling, makes inquiries and leaves. The party hears about it later but get good enough information to recognise the person. They may even have seen them before they realised their significance and the get the direction they left town. They can now follow that person through the local settlements back to original mage or some close ally.
If the party does not follow the npc returns with allies and conducts a speak with dead ritual at the tieflings grave to find out who killed him.

Now they confront the party to extract their revenge. If they fail they have letters that link back to the current location of the original wizard.

 

[Odysseus]

I'd have the mayor try and arrest the party for murder of the Tiefling. With the Mayor a little overeager to have the party killed. This can lead to a fight, trial or the party running. If they run you can have the mayor form a posse and chase them. Or just let them go and they can pursue other leads.

 

[Eltab]

Somebody who has another sick relative dying of plague runs into the PCs. He was going to meet the Tiefling for some medicine to cure his ailing family member. He found out somehow that the PCs were also going to meet the Tiefling, and he begs the PCs to give him some of the medicine (or he offers a pittance because "it's all he has" actually he is saving money in case he has to go see the Tiefling again later).

The PCs seem to have gotten lost, or they aren't interested in the Plague plot hook. This can help you gauge what the group wants to do.

One very popular IRL response to an outbreak of plague is to take an extended vacation somewhere else, before The Authorities quarantine the place with you inside.
Your players sound like they are unconsciously trying to do likewise.

 

[Harzel]

Would love to help, but I'm unclear on what is moving the story in the directions that it has taken, since we do seem to have gotten a bit detached from the plague situation. Is it you tossing out plot hooks or the players looking for other things to do or does this all tie into stopping the plague somehow that I am not getting?

Also, questions:
- What was in the Wizard's notes?
- What is the motivation of the main antagonist?
- Why did you think that the PCs would end up fighting the mayor?
- Assuming that the Tiefling was a member of the community in good standing, and that the village has at least some elements of law and order, and that the death is discovered and attributed to the PCs, why would the PC's not be immediately pursued?
- And most importantly, is your player a druggie or is his/her PC a druggie, or both? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Shiroiken]

The next few sessions lead them to travel towards a temple 6 days out on cart and mule to find a lead on the Royal Mage for the city they started in who, must like the above mentioned priest, went missing (common theme?). They stop off at a very small village of misfit castouts from the Empire.. The leader of which is supposed to be a pretty fun boss fight. However, one player of mine is a druggie and decided to hit up this Tiefling for some... "recreationals." Some plague ridden Death Dogs attack the party in the middle of this drug deal on the outskirts of the village. During the battle, my Chaotic Evil Bard put the Tiefling to sleep and ended up stabbing him in the chest.

I ended the last session there and now I am unsure about how to go from here.

• I was going to offer the players a mission from the Mayor for some gold and he'd try to capture them later. However...
• I made the Village Mayor so that he is super proud of the people in his village. So, he might decide he will fight them for this crime prematurely prematurely to the planned encounter.
• The players might also decide to high-tail it out of there. If this happens, should I make him stop them?
• The mayor is a Weaver (referring to magic users in my campaign) in league with the main mystery antagonist. I could maybe make it so that he is the same mage the players saw at the tower at the first session? (There is some strong disdain for the tower wizard because he stole one's players sombrero)

What do you guys think? Where should I see about going from here? Next session starts up with the sword in the chest of the Tiefling, his last bit of life leaving him.

How obvious was this murder? If no one is around, the players could try to cover it up, possibly disguising the death to be from the death dogs. If successful, this shouldn't impact your original plan. If not, then consider these other options:

The village militia (or whatever) try to capture the PCs to take before the mayor for judgement. Instead of getting gold to perform the mission, they are put under a geas/curse until they complete it. The mayor has no intention of actually lifting the geas/curse, since he wants to turn them over to the original mage, but he wants to get some use out of them first.

If the PCs run for it, after killing at least one group of militia/guards, then this section of your plan needs to be scrapped. However, the mayor might keep tabs on them by scrying, and give info about them to the original mage. This would set up another confrontation with that mage, or at least some of his minions.


Secondary note to keep in mind for future play: when the players failed to check the mage's notes, you should have had the revived priest relay some of that information to the players. Not all of it, but just enough to further the plot. When you have an adventure on a set of rails, you need to make sure the players have what they need, even if they're idiots who never do what you expect (as a rule of thumb, players NEVER do what you expect).