Ideas to get my players back to town? (KoTS Spoilers)

[Grundgen]

I have been DM'ing KoTS for several sessions now, and the party has begun clearing out the first level. They fought they're way bravely through five encounters, and decided it was a good idea to take an extended rest. No big deal, they really enjoyed setting up a camp with a pretty interesting defensive position in the excavation room...the wizard was really excited to use his Eye of Alarm ritual, so everyone was happy.

The "problem" is that they really dont have any need to return to town before their quest is completed. I would really hate to miss out on the Ninaran (sp?) encounter though, because of some great roleplaying earlier this will be an amazing shock for the party. **Quick aside, I said the mirror they found at the dragon burial site was a sort of 'two-way' scrying mirror...only Valthrun finds this out too late, only time to scrawl a note concerning the "caves of chaos", and the keeper of the other mirror sends an agent to capture him and the mirror...So now they have motivation to find these caves and hopefully Valthrun alive. (Of course, The Keep on the Boarderlands...I was reading through it again, and the mirror in the medusa room inspired me...plus theres evil cultists there too)**

Anyway, any suggestions to nudge them back to town and trigger all this craziness?

 

[Sceadeau]

I used the "you only level back in town" meta game trick.

Barring that, you could have a villager run up to them, out of breath, after making the dangerous trek up to the keep, begging for their help. Maybe a first wave of zombies attacked and got through, and there is someone in the graveyard brewing up a new batch, or whatever.

Considering that the BBEG has an incentive to turn the players back around, you could even have him make an appearance, (or something one of his minions says), alluding to the fact that the town is about to be overrun by a hoard of undead. Que evil laughter and mustache twiddling.

 

[Micco]

Or a dream when they are "extended resting". If the players have made any friends in town a quick dream of them getting eaten by a zombie might get them back asap. If you've got a Star-Pact Warlock around it fits perfectly. Otherwise, you might want to make one of your characters a "dreamer"...really useful throughout the whole campaign to feed interesting stuff to the PCs.

 

[Rechan]

Have rats eat their supplies of food.

Some sort of messanger (A goblin, a winged creature, whatever) is intercepted by the party. The creature has a message for Ninaran, giving extra details (or a hit list on who are more important to hit in the town). Word it so it sounds like she all ready has the orders to attack, and these are added orders.

They could rescue a hostage (sacrifice, whatever) who is too badly wounded to make it back to town alone.

 

[Boarstorm]

I have a group that's camped out on the first level. They've been there for six days now (not entirely excessive, since they went up against the blue slime three times before defeating it and barely escaped with their lives the first two times.)

Tomorrow, they run out of food.

If you can't attack their food supply, attack their light. Remember, sunrods have a limited duration and lamps can run out of oil.

If they have everburning torches... well, that's a problem.

 

[Rechan]

Also, attack them while they sleep.

Seriously. I would make it very difficult for PCs to sleep in a dungeon.

The hobgoblins should come up for something (Food, check on the goblins, come to beat UP the goblins, etc).

A wandering monster comes from one of the other rooms.

This isn't mean, I should note: the PCs went out of their way to reinforce their position and come up with a good watch rotation. Reward their ingenuity by letting them get alerted early to an intruder. Or have the hobgoblins respond intelligently by it; sending some decoy monster or some grunts in, while setting a trap just beyond the field of their observation.

Once the party realizes they can't stay here safely, they'll return to town.

Final thought:

Sleeping in the Keep makes them feel fatigued when they wake up from terrible nightmares. Because it's so close to the shadowfell, their dreams are easily pierced by that which lives Beyond the Veil.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Also, attack them while they sleep.

Seriously. I would make it very difficult for PCs to sleep in a dungeon.

The hobgoblins should come up for something (Food, check on the goblins, come to beat UP the goblins, etc).

A wandering monster comes from one of the other rooms.

This isn't mean, I should note: the PCs went out of their way to reinforce their position and come up with a good watch rotation. Reward their ingenuity by letting them get alerted early to an intruder. Or have the hobgoblins respond intelligently by it; sending some decoy monster or some grunts in, while setting a trap just beyond the field of their observation.

Once the party realizes they can't stay here safely, they'll return to town.

Final thought:

Sleeping in the Keep makes them feel fatigued when they wake up from terrible nightmares. Because it's so close to the shadowfell, their dreams are easily pierced by that which lives Beyond the Veil.

Nightmares should be used, I agree.

My general idea is that anyone resting close or in the Shadowfell or Feywild should have strong dreams.
Shadowfell dreams should be dark, nightmares involving death, suicide, lost limbs, seeing people long dead.
Feywild dreamshould be primal, powerful, living, the character hunting or being hunted, (and if you want, it can be sexual - but not in the cuddly way ).
But either dream should lead to the character waking with heavy breathing. No mechanical effects, unless you want to, though. Just to set the tone... And sometimes to get some information to the players (maybe some Puzzles?)

 

[Grundgen]

There are some great ideas here! Dreams that close to the Shadowfell make perfect sense...I'll just hit my head and say "of course!" Just about every single post has jump started an idea. I have a built in little helper I had forgot about...The party had spared Splug's life...it makes perfect sense the morning after they camp he could find them, and as a thank you tell them of a hooded figure trailing them and taking off to Winterhaven in the night. Heh, and strangely the last time we played, the 2 newer players asked about when they use up rations...so if they spend too much more time, its already in their minds to get more food eventually...and the dreams will just be icing on the cake!

Rechan is right too, I think I need to show the new guys the joys of dungeon camping with no wizard lock All in all, I think they should be sufficiently terrified of leaving town without an entire cart full of supplies!

 

[vazanar]

Have rats eat their supplies of food.

Some sort of messanger (A goblin, a winged creature, whatever) is intercepted by the party. The creature has a message for Ninaran, giving extra details (or a hit list on who are more important to hit in the town). Word it so it sounds like she all ready has the orders to attack, and these are added orders.

They could rescue a hostage (sacrifice, whatever) who is too badly wounded to make it back to town alone.

Even simplier Valthrun uses animal messanger to tell them the village is in danger. Or prehaps the priest.

 

[Deltran]

Even simplier Valthrun uses animal messanger to tell them the village is in danger. Or prehaps the priest.

I think this is the best idea so far for one important reason.
If you over-sell the idea of playings needing to return to town because they can't sleep/eat/anything in a dungeon, you will be back here in a month with a thread asking us how to keep a party FROM returning to town instead of getting them to town.

Some players will fall for the same trick time and again, however some players are the opposite; they are overly paranoid and will guard against specific intrusions to the greatest extend allowable (and sometimes beyond ). The obvious solution to "I can't sleep or eat in a dungeon" is to not stay there over night.

The haunting/nightmare solution is also a good one, because it can be made to stay on the 1st level (where most of the guards probably have been killed and where all the undead are anyway), so it's a localized 'hazard' of the dungeon.

If they are deeper than the first level, I say screw it. Have the traitor flank the party with several zombies that look like the folk they met in town. Maybe she can even get away and join the "B"BEG at the end and give him some additional cover support. Either way, the party will see the zombies and the traitor, so there is still RP potential.