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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 4397842" data-attributes="member: 54629">Hi everyone,I'm running my group through KotS at the moment and I've found myself in a bit of a dilemma. There are 5 PCs in the group (human archer ranger, dragonborn paladin, elf cleric, minotaur fighter, eladrin wizard). They got through the kobold ambushes ok, as well as the burial site ... but they messed up the kobold lair and I'm not really sure how to proceed from here (we had to leave things hanging at the end of the last session).Essentially, the ranger scouted ahead and saw the kobolds out in front of the waterfall (I had the minions fishing and the others guarding the entrance to the lair). He wasn't spotted and went back to report his findings to the rest of the group. The cleric suggested they climb the cliff and attack the kobolds at range from the top of the waterfall. Seemed like an ok plan. I had to improvise a bit but I let them trek to the south, climb the cliff, then trek back up to the waterfall. Unfortunately, even with the noise from the falls and the surrounding foliage, the kobolds spotted the PCs ... and I figured that the kobolds weren't just going to stand there and let these enemies kill them from above. I figured the obvious thing for them to do would be to retreat into the relative safety of the lair and wait to see if the enemies followed.I've also discovered that the kobolds, even the minions, pack a mean punch in this edition. They've got substantial attack modifiers and do quite a bit of damage, so the players have all gotten quite scared of them ... so they were all a bit too scared to go towards the edge of the cliff (especially after two of the minions got lucky and managed to hit the cleric, who was standing at the edge of the cliff, with their javelins, despite the range and cover and what-have-you). This meant that the kobolds were able to escape into their lair, which wasn't really what the players were expecting.They all kind of hesitated and dithered around for a bit (and the encounter lost any potential momentum it might have had) before deciding to climb back down the cliff. And the minotaur player decided to be crazy and try some sort of Tarzan thing by swinging down on the rope rather than climbing but he failed badly and hurt himself falling (falling is really painful in this edition!). But rather than chase after the kobolds, they decided to search around outside (paying particular attention to the ancient stone circle) and then take a 5 minute rest to get their encounter powers back.Eventually they decided to venture through the waterfall. They found the kobolds ready and waiting for them, but instead of attacking, I just had them yell at the PCs to leave them alone. They yelled back that the kobolds should stop attacking the village and they wanted to know why they were doing it. I had one of the dragonshields yell back that Irontooth was telling them to do it before having the wyrmpriest shout "Enough! Attack them!"So the minions poured forth and were all slaughtered but the PCs left the cave and went back outside. I had also swapped out a few minions for a needlefang drake swarm (the "Oh <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />! Get 'em off me!" monster) ... I mean, come on! This is a kobold lair and it hasn't got a single trap in it! What kind of kobolds are these?! I know the swarm isn't really a trap, but I had it act as the "guard dog". Anyway, it seriously savaged the minotaur fighter and started to go to work on some of the others, but they eventually managed to kill it.Now they've decided to run away ... and this is where we had to end. I told them that the remaining kobolds were going to give chase, but I'm not entirely sure what should happen next.Should I have all the remaining kobolds chase after them as well as Irontooth? Should I have all the remaining bad guys just hang out in the lair waiting for the PCs to come back? Should I have them abandon the lair and go to the keep? I can see the wyrmpriest being a total fanatic and urging the remaining kobolds into a suicidal charge, but what about Irontooth (incidentally, I also swapped out some kobolds for two goblin warriors so that Irontooth has some bodyguards of his own kind ...)? Would he just hang out and wait for some potential assassins to come back? Would he leave the relative safety of the lair to pursue them? Would he risk Kalarel's wrath by returning to the keep to report that some upstart adventurers have slaughtered the kobolds? Would he gather his remaining forces, follow the PCs at a distance, and attack them when they're vulnerable? Or what?I welcome any and all suggestions from my fellow DMs on how to proceed from here. Please help me tidy up this mess!Thanks in advance.Cheers,Jonathan</blockquote>

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