I just started a new campaign after a long hiatus, and things are off to a bad start.
Two of the players are playing monks who became friends on a caravan that passed through the desert Aunarauch and came out alive on the other end. Which is better than what you can say for their fellow riders; everyone else aboard died of a strange plague and there's an odd lapse in memory of the entire voyage.
The party's favored soul refuses to show up, so the only other character is an arctic druid who came to Sundabar (and coincedentally, the same city the monks abandoned the sickness-ridden caravan in) in search of warriors to accompany him to the Night Trees to kill off a rival Druid guild.
The whole session was extremely slow and when the party eventually met up, the two road-weary monks decided they had seen enough action lately and that the druid would have to convince them to come along. This was expected, but all the druid offered them is food and now the motivation for a trek through the wilderness into extremely hostile territory seems unrealistic. Both monks have decided to work with the druid but feel that they have no long-term commitment to stay (basically, as soon as things look dangerous, they quit). This is no adventuring party! I'm wondering what I can do now to supply motivation without seeming heavy handed. It took the whole session just to get them on board, so they haven't even started moving yet. The characters are very cold and distant to each other, including the monks, which I don't entirely understand. Does anybody have any ideas or should I just scrap this campaign and run the Shackled City when it comes out?
Two of the players are playing monks who became friends on a caravan that passed through the desert Aunarauch and came out alive on the other end. Which is better than what you can say for their fellow riders; everyone else aboard died of a strange plague and there's an odd lapse in memory of the entire voyage.
The party's favored soul refuses to show up, so the only other character is an arctic druid who came to Sundabar (and coincedentally, the same city the monks abandoned the sickness-ridden caravan in) in search of warriors to accompany him to the Night Trees to kill off a rival Druid guild.
The whole session was extremely slow and when the party eventually met up, the two road-weary monks decided they had seen enough action lately and that the druid would have to convince them to come along. This was expected, but all the druid offered them is food and now the motivation for a trek through the wilderness into extremely hostile territory seems unrealistic. Both monks have decided to work with the druid but feel that they have no long-term commitment to stay (basically, as soon as things look dangerous, they quit). This is no adventuring party! I'm wondering what I can do now to supply motivation without seeming heavy handed. It took the whole session just to get them on board, so they haven't even started moving yet. The characters are very cold and distant to each other, including the monks, which I don't entirely understand. Does anybody have any ideas or should I just scrap this campaign and run the Shackled City when it comes out?
