Help! My players are driving the plot!

[Tortoise]

My 2 copper pieces ...

You're players have handed you an opportunity to toss more threads out and let them tie themselves all up nice, comfy, and warm.

How about this:

The target they went to get is just that, a one time target. The elemental they fought had been summoned to assassinate the missing tenant. The tenant truely is missing, having escaped from the place somehow.

Every so many sessions or adventures throw something in that hints back to the fire elemental connection/ missing tenant connection. Perhaps someone wants to know what they found in the building, was anyone else in there alive or dead? They hear a name that might be the name of the missing tenant. Later, they again hear that name and are again witness to another fire (or other element related event) which may have some elemental mischief involved. Somewhat later they encounter, in a totally unrelated adventure, information or some-such pertaining to a fire (or elemental cult) or a mage known for his specialty (fire or the elements).

At each point let the players plant the seeds and they'll begin to feel they're really onto something. Let them lead and the work for you becomes easier while they continue having fun.

 

[Tortoise]

Another 2 coppers worth ...

Something else that just occurred to me ... the missing tenant has actually been away for some time. He or she is compleltely oblivious to the goings on which hsi/her name are now attached to. The halfling is a vagrant that saw an opportunity to live for free for a short time in the empty room previously occupied by the missing tenant.

The halfling has caused someone to be angry enough to try to murder him that has never actually seen him. Learning the halflings real name this person thinks that the real target (name of the missing tenant) is another halfling that has gotten away. Turns out that the missing tenant is not involved and is not even close to being a halfling.

The PCs can keep stumbling into this plot as other things are going along.

 

[Acid_crash]

I wish I had a group of players like your group. My group has to be lead by the nose to make any decisions, which aren't really decisions at all. I'm jealous.

congrats on having a group that is actually getting into the game. Feel good about it.

 

[-Warlord-]

Of course the fire elemental wasn't there accidentily. That would run all the effort the players put in ünraveling the plot".

What did the robber rob exactly? Maybe the robbery as a whole was just a cover to obtain a single item that he looted, that was requested by someone else. And when the deed was done the robber became a liability because he could expose the identity of his employer. A small summoned fire-elemental to cause a fire is a good way to get rid of this liability without drawing attention. Fires happen in cities.

But by resqueing the robber, the players are now on the track of the employer, are about to find out what the item was that the employer requested and can start to undo his grand scheme.

The employer must be someone who doesn't want to get his hands dirty. Also he couldn't get the item he needed through normal ways, maybe because that would draw attention to his plan. Maybe there was a small statue among the loot, that was associated with a legend of summoning a demon. Suspicion would rise when the local archmage would want to buy it...maybe the legend wouldn't be a legend after all.
Or the employer could be any high-up in the city. Someone the players can't directly confront without solid evidence.

There could be other clues in the legend. Maybe other items are needed as well. The employer could have already obtained some (and left clues as to who he is), or plan to get them.

And this summoning? The legends tell of the souls of a great crowd being drained to power the summoning. Hmm...isn't the annual festival of Beer next week? With huge masses of people pouring into the city?

It would all make for a great investigative adventure.

P.S. please send me a box of players like that. They sound like fun.

 

[3catcircus]

I wish I had a group of players like your group. My group has to be lead by the nose to make any decisions, which aren't really decisions at all. I'm jealous.

congrats on having a group that is actually getting into the game. Feel good about it.

While I'm all for having active, involved players, I have a compound problem with my group - they *do* have to be led by the nose, unless it involves some bizarre out-of-pace-with-the-rest-of-the-campaign background or plot hook involving their own character. Basically, my players want to be the center of the campaign universe and want to go off and totally ignore all of the threads that I've introduced for them. They balk when I do things that demonstrate that they are not alone in the universe.

As an example, I've been using a modified version of A1-4, set in Thesk, Altumbel, and the Sea of Fallen Stars. They are a special commando-style unit of Purple Dragon cavalry, sent to investigate a Thayan warehouse - their larger unit got captured while they fled. Their goal is to find out where their captured comrades are and rescue them (hence the Slavelords modules as a tie-in... After all, Thayans love slaves.)

I introduced a plot device where a Purple Dragon Knight sent from Cormyr to become the new Commanding Officer ends up dissapearing himself the night before he was to have relieved the existing CO (which just happens to correspond with the intelligence the PCs received indicating that agents of the Slavelords were getting the heck out of Dodge for a while and there were indications that they were headed to Altumbel or the Pirate Isles and that a large portion of the slave trade involved pirates acting as transporters for the Slavelords.) I also indicated that this particular Purple Dragon Knight had recently finished up a tour as a Blue Dragon exchange officer, stationed at the Isle of Prespur as a "military advisor" to the Cormyrean Freesails. Instead of thinking something obvious "Maybe these slavers captured or killed him to shut him up," or even something not-so-obvious-at-first like "Maybe he is somehow involved with these slavers" and begin preps to set off for those two places, they instead want to continue to snoop around the city of Telflamm, even after I told them "Yeah, the Telflamm thieve's guild is evil and is capable of this, but all evidence indicates that they *aren't* behind his dissappearance, especially since a witness reported seeing him step into the portal rather than being carried, dragged, or sucked into it."

Likewise, I, early on, intoduced the idea of a plague that was killing Theskian orcs that the party was ordered by their CO to investigate since there were indications that it involved the same Thayans who had captured their comrades. Telflamm being a port city, they wanted to put to sea, despite all evidence indicating that the plague source could be found inland. Their response was, "Yeah, we don't care - we want to travle by sea." This despite the fact that inland Thesk is only reachable by land or by portal. They balked when I told them "Your gather information check reveals that the city has locked down the port to prevent the plague spreading across the Sea of Fallen Stars due to all of the foreigners that visit Telflamm by way of sea." While I was willing to let them do at-sea stuff, our at-sea house rules were not ready for prime time (a cobbled-together combination of Pirates of the Fallen Stars that was converted to 3.x and Corsair, modified slightly.) More importantly, I slaved away creating encounters (planned and otherwise) and spent a ton of time statting our NPCs.

So - I really envy the fact that you have to lead your players by the nose - at least they stay on-topic. I guess I'm one of those DMs who hate the fact that 3.x makes it so difficult to just switch gears in the middle of the game and on-the-fly go down an uncharted plot thread.

As to Castellan's problem - simply dead-end every one of their investigations into the matter of the fire elemental unless or until you want or are ready to pursue it. Perhaps a witness is too frightened to come forward, especially if the guild is involved and starts making potential witnesses dissappear.

 

[Ormiss]

* You already intimated that the source of the fire did not have anything to do with the fire elemental. (At least in the original plan.)

* An item within the house (perhaps one contained in the loot stolen by the robber) happened to be a charm with a captured fire elemental within.

* When the fire broke out, the charm reacted and released the fire elemental.

* Years ago, someone famous (or infamous) used these charms for his or her goals. Perhaps this flame dancer was a plague on the city--an elusive arsonist that used these planted items to exacerbate fires.

* The authorities are highly interested in locating the creator of these charms. Since the robber stole the item (or did he?) it might be time to talk to the erstwhile owner of the robber's loot... and the owner might go to extremes to prevent the authorities from finding out the connection between herself and the charms.

 

[tetsujin28]

Help! My players are driving the plot!
Umm...that's the way it should be. If your players are interested, and "driving" the plot, abandon all the other stuff.

 

[tetsujin28]

I wish I had a group of players like your group. My group has to be lead by the nose to make any decisions, which aren't really decisions at all. I'm jealous.

congrats on having a group that is actually getting into the game. Feel good about it.

Wordy McWord. The pro-active group is a thing to celebrate, not be worried about. If you were worried about a pristine plot being sullied, you'd be a writer, not a DM. Let them do what they want to do, go with it, and enjoy what happens. It's worked for me for 28 years.

 

[Harmon]

Reasons for the Fire Elemental-

A spell caster used Lesser Planar Ally a number of years back, the deal was he needed to help someone with something, but before he could he was drained of levels to far down to be of any assistance. It came time to take care of that debt but Mr Spell Caster wasn't up to it and told the agent to "bugger off," the elemental lord took offense and sent a low level menion to handle the guy.

Opps the building is a flame so the lord holds back the flames and lets the elemental kill the guy, the PCs on an unrelated mission save whom they can and get out.

So should the players investigate who lived there- it was formerly some high and mighty adventurer or some such, that was down and out on his luck.

Good luck, sounds like you have a good group. Wish my GM had your players. j/k