Hi,
I’m here to ask for some advice about how to manage a plot issue in Weatherstone:
My players are a full orc party (a peddler, a rogue and a hunter…. We’re still looking for a fourth player) with poor equipment, almost without food. Two of them arrived to Weatherstone because a goblin (ex party member) was kidnapped (and killed) by some harpies who they saw going to the castle rock.
The ex goblin player rerolled an orc (we’re using the random character creation), so I decided the new player character would have been met in the tower accompanied by Dalb the bard
When they arrived, they were greeted by Dalb, (because they missed the sneaking throw), who was immediately killed by the hunter. They were going to prey on the corpse, but due to Dalb’s nature, I decided to make the corpse vanishing in ashes and the food which was cooking in the tower becoming pitch (so they could craft some torches because they had no one).
I don’t describe how the new orc player joined the party, but he finally did it. So, in the evening they decided to explore the river (after some rest): They crafted a raft to cross the moat, and then they decided to go sleeping (again) before the crossing. Due to the fact it was 1 day they were there (and they rested 2 times) I throw a random encounter, so an ogre arrived to the tower looking for a place to rest (it was night): they ran away climbing down the tower, then they decided to cross the moat (and it was tough but they made it) so they decided to sleep (again) in the Castle entrance while one of them kept watching. In the morning, after the sleep, they sow some harpies flying over them, and fearing to enter the castle they decided to cross again the moat (again some trouble with the tentacle, but this time the dices were better).
So we stopped the session!
Now my concerns:
I’m really bored about all this rests, I can understand they see their stats going down, but so many stops are irrealistic in my point of view and (worse) it kills the story rhythm.
Obviously without lore (nobody has it) and without Dalb I decided to give them no clues about the place
At this time the other group should have already arrived to the sword and the deads should had already had raised.
If I were Dalb I would have had liked to give the players some “gift” for such a rude behavior.
Now I’m here asking for some advice:
Should I let the player to come back to a village, buy equipment and come back? I can understand they do not know anything about the place, so they aren’t really interested to the place
Should Dalb raise the dead outside the castle? Or do something?, Or I can dismiss it by now, and maybe making him come back with a very unfriendly behavior versus the players?
Should I freeze the place or should I let the rival party get the sword? Maybe rising the dead and giving Algarond the castle and then let him march?
Another Idea could be that the rival party woke up the deads, and the players could see some of them fleeing away, after that the deads will start a march to catch them.
All this because I do not want to let the players to think that the Castle and all the location are waiting for them, I’d like to keep the world alive. Then I have also the concern that I see my group thinking to the game too much like a videogame: they want to be prepared, because they saw the fight is brutal and nasty, but at the moment they are only making resources management.
I’d like to listen some of your thoughts