Bad guys have won campaign help [Archive] - Wizards Community

Bad guys have won campaign help [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
the_rooster
01-04-07, 02:44 PM I'm running a campaign in a world where the bad guys have won. The heroes are rebels and have recently joined a rebel group outside of a large mining/weapon manufacturing city controlled by the enemy. the miner's are all slaves and the wor is very dangerous.

The next phase I have planned in the campaign is to cause a miner's revolt where they somehow actually escape and flood into the smaller mining community about 15 miles from teh city proper. I want to involve the PCs but not in a massive battle--which would get old quickly--but in some other way. I'd like there to be some sort of twist to the whole thing and have plenty of 'rebel' factions as well as competing factions within the occupying army to use as antagonists.

So what I'm asking for is interesting ideas, plot devices or anything to make the whole thing not so run-of-the-mill.

Thanks!
Dei
01-04-07, 03:11 PM Well in the miner's revolt there are dozens of ways the PCs could help. Chaingangs used to restrain the slaves? While the rest of the rebels distract the main garrison the PCs have to sneak in past the main battle and steal the keys so that the unrestrained prisoners can overwhelm the guards from the rear. Magical enchantments used to keep them docile? Find and kill the wizard maintaining them.

In the run up to the assault on the mining community there's plenty to keep them busy too. Entering the community to try and lower morale among the garrison or cause arguments and distrust among the officers. They sneak in and have to steal something to cause the two senior officers to call each other out in a duel that will end with one of them dead and cause ill-feeling between the troops under their respective commands. Nothing so weakens an army as internal conflict.

Perhaps instead they must steal a magical device that could be used to call aid from the city proper, or poison(non-lethally since one assumes the party is goodish)/destroy the garrison supplies if there's going to be something of a seige. Simple intelligence gathering is perfect as well, entering the town, counting the enemy troops, learning their defensive strategies, making contact with any rebel groups within it, co-ordinating an attack from within and without.

For the assault itself, are there walls around this community? In that case the PCs must assault the gatehouse and lower the drawbridge so that the rebels can pour in rather than waste their lives trying to swarm over the walls. Maybe the defenders have powerful siege weapons like catapults and ballistae which the PCs must destroy in order to spare the resistance horrific losses. It could even be something as simple as attacking the command post from within the town while the main resistance force assaults the walls, a leaderless army is no better than a mob and a mob is soon beaten.

Just a few suggestions, for more you could look at the Running a Warrior Campaign section of Complete Warrior, it's got plenty of nice bits and pieces to keep them occupied until they triumphantly raise (insert good deity here)'s banner over the evil capital.
Kesuk2k5
01-04-07, 03:15 PM There's a couple things you should do first.
1) Define for yourself who the "bad guys" are and what they're going to do and why they want to do it. Develop a few of their leaders, even if they're only names, races and classes at this stage.
2) Regardless of party level, you should avoid global evil. It'd be a better idea to make this confined to a single country or region. Even if a region is currently under the sway of evil rulers, monolithic (cooperative) evil is next to impossible. You seem to get the hint at mentioning multiple factions in the enemy army.
3) Good governments and agencies are very likely to be involved in this, either by attempting to topple the evil leadership or to provide liberation or relief to those that are suffering. This should be kept in mind for later.

As far as the party's adventure thrust goes, from what you've said the party should be able to handle one or more of the following adventure ideas.
- Defend the rebel miners from harm at the hands of a few community soldiers.
- Help the rebel miners blend into the community.
- Locate and befriend an organization or group that can help the miners escape the region, or is willing to defend their rights.
- Learn why the miners rebelled, and work to right the wrongs they've endured at the mine or in the community.

As far as factions go, you could develop factions based on the basic character classes. These are just starter ideas.
"Warrior" faction: This faction desires military supremacy over the region, and to conquer nearby land.
"Priest" faction: This faction desires to convert the prominant faith to their deity.
"Thief" faction: This faction desires to establish high taxes and "protection" services to line their pockets.
"Mage" faction: This faction desires to train mages to join their ranks, and to search for magical items and solve mysteries relevant to the region.

Update: Since you mentioned a twist, you could either make the assisting organization or the miners themselves potential spies and informants for the evil ruling body, there to weed out those who are attempting to destablize their rule. This might be best revealed after the party has gained a few levels and can recover from the betrayal.
azardm
01-04-07, 03:28 PM As for a twist on the whole thing:

Maybe the person the group thinks they are against is really behind this uprising to begin with (he/she/it is using the revolt to hide some of his dealing from his partners or to sway a person/group that has some power over him) <think of Luke Skywalker finding out that the Emporer was actually on the Jedi Council because he hoped to rid his organization of a super-powerful Darth Vader>

The PCs could also do missions that allow the miners to find a back way out of the mine and close to this town, fighting monsters/finding traps all the way there.

Take a page or two from the Heroes of Battle book and have them fight strategic battles to win enough Victory Points to defeat the mine guards and allow exiting from the front of the mine.

AzarDM
the_rooster
01-04-07, 03:43 PM There's a couple things you should do first.
1) Define for yourself who the "bad guys" are and what they're going to do and why they want to do it.
2) Regardless of party level, you should avoid global evil. It'd be a better idea to make this confined to a single country or region. Even if a region is currently under the sway of evil rulers, monolithic (cooperative) evil is next to impossible. You seem to get the hint at mentioning multiple factions in the enemy army.
3) Good governments and agencies are very likely to be involved in this, either by attempting to topple the evil leadership or to provide liberation or relief to those that are suffering. This should be kept in mind for later.
1) Done. I have all of that, because I'm usnig a (copyrighted) sourcebook for the city. Hence I don't know what I can share here. I can say there are 2 rival factions: a priest and warrior faction for ease of labels. The PCs struck a huge blow to the 'priest' faction recently, but went unnnoticed. The priest faction is assuming it was their rivals and set up the revolt in order to embarass the warrior faction (who is in charge of mine security). Miner revolts are generally put down easily, but that one started is enough to embarass the warrior faction.
However the priest faction did not factor in the rebel group showing up in timely fashion to make the revolt a success.

2) Global evil for the most part. Only the elves still fight for good. But it works well in this setting.

3) Not here. The evil has wrestled away control of the most powerful magics and has used that to gain an advantage. it is a world fallen to evil, but that's why we love it.

Update: Since you mentioned a twist, you could either make the assisting organization or the miners themselves potential spies and informants for the evil ruling body, there to weed out those who are attempting to destablize their rule. This might be best revealed after the party has gained a few levels and can recover from the betrayal. I really like this. In fact this may be the way the priest's respond to turn a bad situation again to their advantage. hoping to root out the rebels and gain more favor in the face of their rival's failure.

Maybe the person the group thinks they are against is really behind this uprising to begin with As you can see I've already thrown this in. but thanks!

So when it's all said and done, the revolt will work...for the time being. This is where I want to start really mixing it up. but thanks for the help I've gotten so far. It's gotten me here. Any other ideas?
FntsyWlkr
01-04-07, 04:07 PM > One of the revolting miner's is heir to a throne/power/land ... he travels with the group as an NPC and dies. Someone in the group is mistaken for this heir.

> A shambling mound is walking around and mumbling to itsself. After a little while the players realize that the shambling mound is prophetic ... and need to save protect it.

> There is a inherent "caste system" with the miners/slaves.

> The whole underground railroad. They need to use it, remain hidden, and defend it.

> There are an awful of cats around. Eventually they find that 80% of the cats are Magical Beings and it is how the BBEG is keeping watch over the land.

> Some gnome invents a type of yogurt that causes traffic congestion, people in the neighborhood complain about parking, they abuse their permits ... sorry ... too close to home. (my job)
swallowyersoul
01-04-07, 09:53 PM escaping slaves mean a lot of noncombatants who need to run away.

somebody needs to hold off the guards while they escape, run escort duty, keep 'em alive to safety.

that sounds like a job for the pcs
ZolDarklock
01-05-07, 02:18 AM first give your players as a group stable job "robin hood and his merrymen scenario"

then have long standing permanent side adventures like running an underground railroad, a black market, or a spy ring inside the enemy camp scenario types of stuff for each individual pc to control alone

the have frequent ever changing mini side quest for the group like rescueing a damsel in distress, helping a captured rebel leader escape the gallows, finding an relic or something lie that, hunting down rogue monsters, and evil villanous rebels within your ranks

this way each pc alone has a major responsibility he controls and runs, and as a group they have a responsibility to the people they serve, and the mini quest to mix and spice things up a little
GoriceXII
01-05-07, 08:04 AM Here's a little twist: you could have a supposed freedom fighter leader nearby but have it turn out that some drunken bard made up stories of his chivalry and in fact the man is really nothing more than a bandit. However he has heard the stories and might be persuaded to be a real hero after all.
Derren S.
01-05-07, 08:25 AM It all depends who the "bad guys" are. Are that normal, not nice people or something like Sauron from LOTR? (If its the latter you might want to look at FFGs Midnight setting)
the_rooster
01-05-07, 10:07 AM It all depends who the "bad guys" are. Are that normal, not nice people or something like Sauron from LOTR? (If its the latter you might want to look at FFGs Midnight setting)
That's the setting I'm in.

Judging by some of the responses, I may not have been clear enough. The game is underway and they are already in this world...7th level PCs all of them.

Last night I sprung stage 1 and the revolt happened. The PCs attacked the orcs who were stading against the poorly armed the slave-miners and even chased down one runner who was trying to reach the nearby garrisson for help. The miners broke the orcish line and ran free--all 200 of them.

Now the PCs have been called into a secret meeting amongst the town's more notable resistance leaders or their representatives (mostly because they handled 3 strong orc commanders relatively easy, impressing the resistance leaders who saw it).

So I'm looking at running a few directions here:
1) Have the resistance decide to launch a full scale assault on the walled city to the south, hoping to deal a huge blow to the bad guy's war effort...until he sends troops to take it back.

2) Have the priests plant spies amongst the resistance, sabotaging the effort from the inside to open the doors for a counter attack, with key betrayals hapening at the right time.

3) Have word get to one of the nations that is of yet free and have support arrive, trying to genuinely hold the town--though I fear this will lead to a long war campaign since the bad guys do not want to give the town up as it provides most of their weaponry.

4) Some other option...
the_rooster
01-07-07, 09:46 AM :bump: Any other ideas?
the_rooster
01-21-07, 10:51 PM Ok, I play again in a week. The whole revolt went off without a hitch, and the general consensus was the rebel forces needed more information about how the evil army would respond to the town now in the rebel's control.

So the PCs were sent into town to find mroe info and were given (false) rumors that in the basement below the super-evil deity's temple contained maps showing a way ana rmy could breach the outer wall.

The PCs infiltrated the temple during a conveniently soon-to-happen religious holiday being celebrated at the castle. They made their way to the basement and now I'm trying to decide what to do.

1) Have them be discovered/ratted out and have a larger force than expected waiting for them.

2) Have them overhear a converstaion about the spy in the rebel's mist, who will spring a deadly attack...tonight (it's a 2-4 hour journey to the mining town). Now they have to get out quick to warn the rebels, but are discovered and attacked.

3) have them find plans, but they are false ones planted by the evil clerics to ruin the whole assault on the main city.

4) other?...
the_rooster
01-24-07, 03:11 PM :bump:
the_rooster
02-08-07, 02:55 PM Well, as usualy the players screwed it all up :P. I went with option #2, and we had a ton of fun...until the "overhearing the conversation" part came.

I dropped many clues that the conversation was important enough to listen to...they ignored/missed them and attacked the speaker before he even got a chance to reveal the spy in their midst.

They have no idea and if the spy is not discovered it could end very badly for the party...I'm at a loss

Any ideas?
Dei
02-08-07, 03:31 PM On/near the speaker they find a pre-prepared Quall's Feather Token (bird) which was intended to carry the spy's final orders to him. The small scroll attatched to it says something along the lines of:

You have done well (X). With the Rebel's Champions (the PCs) gone there is no need to wait until "Appropriate Time", strike now and let them return to find all their hopes dashed by "Evil Deity's" might.

The PCs should figure that the arrival of the aforementioned time will mean something fairly unpleasant happens at the Rebel camp and will thus be obliged to rush back there as you planned for. If you planned on them attaining more data then throw that into the message as well and that should solve your problem fairly neatly.
DoctorRomulus
02-08-07, 03:32 PM Just how Bad are these "Bad Guys" is what would determine how they would deal with the town. Are the rebels a strong enough force to contend with an army of well armed Orcs. How far is the "evil" leader willing to go to win. Were the miners slaves or paid and treated crappy. Being the BBEG I would find a way to undermine the revolt first by seeing who's weak in virtue among the rebels. Then offer him/her some kind of position or reward for his/her help in ridding myself of the rebel leaders. You know cut off the head and the body dies. Do it secretly that way they aren't martyrs and maybe use the "traitor" to get things stirred up with some major infighting. Let that simmer for a bit and and when they're weakened and too busy fighting each other as well as some elements from my forces. I send in a main force and mop up whatever is left then drag the rank and file back to the mines. All the while playing groups off against each as who is to blame for the failed revolt.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
the_rooster 01-04-07, 02:44 PM	I'm running a campaign in a world where the bad guys have won. The heroes are rebels and have recently joined a rebel group outside of a large mining/weapon manufacturing city controlled by the enemy. the miner's are all slaves and the wor is very dangerous. The next phase I have planned in the campaign is to cause a miner's revolt where they somehow actually escape and flood into the smaller mining community about 15 miles from teh city proper. I want to involve the PCs but not in a massive battle--which would get old quickly--but in some other way. I'd like there to be some sort of twist to the whole thing and have plenty of 'rebel' factions as well as competing factions within the occupying army to use as antagonists. So what I'm asking for is interesting ideas, plot devices or anything to make the whole thing not so run-of-the-mill. Thanks!
Dei 01-04-07, 03:11 PM	Well in the miner's revolt there are dozens of ways the PCs could help. Chaingangs used to restrain the slaves? While the rest of the rebels distract the main garrison the PCs have to sneak in past the main battle and steal the keys so that the unrestrained prisoners can overwhelm the guards from the rear. Magical enchantments used to keep them docile? Find and kill the wizard maintaining them. In the run up to the assault on the mining community there's plenty to keep them busy too. Entering the community to try and lower morale among the garrison or cause arguments and distrust among the officers. They sneak in and have to steal something to cause the two senior officers to call each other out in a duel that will end with one of them dead and cause ill-feeling between the troops under their respective commands. Nothing so weakens an army as internal conflict. Perhaps instead they must steal a magical device that could be used to call aid from the city proper, or poison(non-lethally since one assumes the party is goodish)/destroy the garrison supplies if there's going to be something of a seige. Simple intelligence gathering is perfect as well, entering the town, counting the enemy troops, learning their defensive strategies, making contact with any rebel groups within it, co-ordinating an attack from within and without. For the assault itself, are there walls around this community? In that case the PCs must assault the gatehouse and lower the drawbridge so that the rebels can pour in rather than waste their lives trying to swarm over the walls. Maybe the defenders have powerful siege weapons like catapults and ballistae which the PCs must destroy in order to spare the resistance horrific losses. It could even be something as simple as attacking the command post from within the town while the main resistance force assaults the walls, a leaderless army is no better than a mob and a mob is soon beaten. Just a few suggestions, for more you could look at the Running a Warrior Campaign section of Complete Warrior, it's got plenty of nice bits and pieces to keep them occupied until they triumphantly raise (insert good deity here)'s banner over the evil capital.
Kesuk2k5 01-04-07, 03:15 PM	There's a couple things you should do first. 1) Define for yourself who the "bad guys" are and what they're going to do and why they want to do it. Develop a few of their leaders, even if they're only names, races and classes at this stage. 2) Regardless of party level, you should avoid global evil. It'd be a better idea to make this confined to a single country or region. Even if a region is currently under the sway of evil rulers, monolithic (cooperative) evil is next to impossible. You seem to get the hint at mentioning multiple factions in the enemy army. 3) Good governments and agencies are very likely to be involved in this, either by attempting to topple the evil leadership or to provide liberation or relief to those that are suffering. This should be kept in mind for later. As far as the party's adventure thrust goes, from what you've said the party should be able to handle one or more of the following adventure ideas. - Defend the rebel miners from harm at the hands of a few community soldiers. - Help the rebel miners blend into the community. - Locate and befriend an organization or group that can help the miners escape the region, or is willing to defend their rights. - Learn why the miners rebelled, and work to right the wrongs they've endured at the mine or in the community. As far as factions go, you could develop factions based on the basic character classes. These are just starter ideas. "Warrior" faction: This faction desires military supremacy over the region, and to conquer nearby land. "Priest" faction: This faction desires to convert the prominant faith to their deity. "Thief" faction: This faction desires to establish high taxes and "protection" services to line their pockets. "Mage" faction: This faction desires to train mages to join their ranks, and to search for magical items and solve mysteries relevant to the region. Update: Since you mentioned a twist, you could either make the assisting organization or the miners themselves potential spies and informants for the evil ruling body, there to weed out those who are attempting to destablize their rule. This might be best revealed after the party has gained a few levels and can recover from the betrayal.
azardm 01-04-07, 03:28 PM	As for a twist on the whole thing: Maybe the person the group thinks they are against is really behind this uprising to begin with (he/she/it is using the revolt to hide some of his dealing from his partners or to sway a person/group that has some power over him) <think of Luke Skywalker finding out that the Emporer was actually on the Jedi Council because he hoped to rid his organization of a super-powerful Darth Vader> The PCs could also do missions that allow the miners to find a back way out of the mine and close to this town, fighting monsters/finding traps all the way there. Take a page or two from the Heroes of Battle book and have them fight strategic battles to win enough Victory Points to defeat the mine guards and allow exiting from the front of the mine. AzarDM
the_rooster 01-04-07, 03:43 PM	There's a couple things you should do first. 1) Define for yourself who the "bad guys" are and what they're going to do and why they want to do it. 2) Regardless of party level, you should avoid global evil. It'd be a better idea to make this confined to a single country or region. Even if a region is currently under the sway of evil rulers, monolithic (cooperative) evil is next to impossible. You seem to get the hint at mentioning multiple factions in the enemy army. 3) Good governments and agencies are very likely to be involved in this, either by attempting to topple the evil leadership or to provide liberation or relief to those that are suffering. This should be kept in mind for later. 1) Done. I have all of that, because I'm usnig a (copyrighted) sourcebook for the city. Hence I don't know what I can share here. I can say there are 2 rival factions: a priest and warrior faction for ease of labels. The PCs struck a huge blow to the 'priest' faction recently, but went unnnoticed. The priest faction is assuming it was their rivals and set up the revolt in order to embarass the warrior faction (who is in charge of mine security). Miner revolts are generally put down easily, but that one started is enough to embarass the warrior faction. However the priest faction did not factor in the rebel group showing up in timely fashion to make the revolt a success. 2) Global evil for the most part. Only the elves still fight for good. But it works well in this setting. 3) Not here. The evil has wrestled away control of the most powerful magics and has used that to gain an advantage. it is a world fallen to evil, but that's why we love it. Update: Since you mentioned a twist, you could either make the assisting organization or the miners themselves potential spies and informants for the evil ruling body, there to weed out those who are attempting to destablize their rule. This might be best revealed after the party has gained a few levels and can recover from the betrayal. I really like this. In fact this may be the way the priest's respond to turn a bad situation again to their advantage. hoping to root out the rebels and gain more favor in the face of their rival's failure. Maybe the person the group thinks they are against is really behind this uprising to begin with As you can see I've already thrown this in. but thanks! So when it's all said and done, the revolt will work...for the time being. This is where I want to start really mixing it up. but thanks for the help I've gotten so far. It's gotten me here. Any other ideas?
FntsyWlkr 01-04-07, 04:07 PM	> One of the revolting miner's is heir to a throne/power/land ... he travels with the group as an NPC and dies. Someone in the group is mistaken for this heir. > A shambling mound is walking around and mumbling to itsself. After a little while the players realize that the shambling mound is prophetic ... and need to save protect it. > There is a inherent "caste system" with the miners/slaves. > The whole underground railroad. They need to use it, remain hidden, and defend it. > There are an awful of cats around. Eventually they find that 80% of the cats are Magical Beings and it is how the BBEG is keeping watch over the land. > Some gnome invents a type of yogurt that causes traffic congestion, people in the neighborhood complain about parking, they abuse their permits ... sorry ... too close to home. (my job)
swallowyersoul 01-04-07, 09:53 PM	escaping slaves mean a lot of noncombatants who need to run away. somebody needs to hold off the guards while they escape, run escort duty, keep 'em alive to safety. that sounds like a job for the pcs
ZolDarklock 01-05-07, 02:18 AM	first give your players as a group stable job "robin hood and his merrymen scenario" then have long standing permanent side adventures like running an underground railroad, a black market, or a spy ring inside the enemy camp scenario types of stuff for each individual pc to control alone the have frequent ever changing mini side quest for the group like rescueing a damsel in distress, helping a captured rebel leader escape the gallows, finding an relic or something lie that, hunting down rogue monsters, and evil villanous rebels within your ranks this way each pc alone has a major responsibility he controls and runs, and as a group they have a responsibility to the people they serve, and the mini quest to mix and spice things up a little
GoriceXII 01-05-07, 08:04 AM	Here's a little twist: you could have a supposed freedom fighter leader nearby but have it turn out that some drunken bard made up stories of his chivalry and in fact the man is really nothing more than a bandit. However he has heard the stories and might be persuaded to be a real hero after all.
Derren S. 01-05-07, 08:25 AM	It all depends who the "bad guys" are. Are that normal, not nice people or something like Sauron from LOTR? (If its the latter you might want to look at FFGs Midnight setting)
the_rooster 01-05-07, 10:07 AM	It all depends who the "bad guys" are. Are that normal, not nice people or something like Sauron from LOTR? (If its the latter you might want to look at FFGs Midnight setting) That's the setting I'm in. Judging by some of the responses, I may not have been clear enough. The game is underway and they are already in this world...7th level PCs all of them. Last night I sprung stage 1 and the revolt happened. The PCs attacked the orcs who were stading against the poorly armed the slave-miners and even chased down one runner who was trying to reach the nearby garrisson for help. The miners broke the orcish line and ran free--all 200 of them. Now the PCs have been called into a secret meeting amongst the town's more notable resistance leaders or their representatives (mostly because they handled 3 strong orc commanders relatively easy, impressing the resistance leaders who saw it). So I'm looking at running a few directions here: 1) Have the resistance decide to launch a full scale assault on the walled city to the south, hoping to deal a huge blow to the bad guy's war effort...until he sends troops to take it back. 2) Have the priests plant spies amongst the resistance, sabotaging the effort from the inside to open the doors for a counter attack, with key betrayals hapening at the right time. 3) Have word get to one of the nations that is of yet free and have support arrive, trying to genuinely hold the town--though I fear this will lead to a long war campaign since the bad guys do not want to give the town up as it provides most of their weaponry. 4) Some other option...
the_rooster 01-07-07, 09:46 AM	:bump: Any other ideas?
the_rooster 01-21-07, 10:51 PM	Ok, I play again in a week. The whole revolt went off without a hitch, and the general consensus was the rebel forces needed more information about how the evil army would respond to the town now in the rebel's control. So the PCs were sent into town to find mroe info and were given (false) rumors that in the basement below the super-evil deity's temple contained maps showing a way ana rmy could breach the outer wall. The PCs infiltrated the temple during a conveniently soon-to-happen religious holiday being celebrated at the castle. They made their way to the basement and now I'm trying to decide what to do. 1) Have them be discovered/ratted out and have a larger force than expected waiting for them. 2) Have them overhear a converstaion about the spy in the rebel's mist, who will spring a deadly attack...tonight (it's a 2-4 hour journey to the mining town). Now they have to get out quick to warn the rebels, but are discovered and attacked. 3) have them find plans, but they are false ones planted by the evil clerics to ruin the whole assault on the main city. 4) other?...
the_rooster 01-24-07, 03:11 PM	:bump:
the_rooster 02-08-07, 02:55 PM	Well, as usualy the players screwed it all up :P. I went with option #2, and we had a ton of fun...until the "overhearing the conversation" part came. I dropped many clues that the conversation was important enough to listen to...they ignored/missed them and attacked the speaker before he even got a chance to reveal the spy in their midst. They have no idea and if the spy is not discovered it could end very badly for the party...I'm at a loss Any ideas?
Dei 02-08-07, 03:31 PM	On/near the speaker they find a pre-prepared Quall's Feather Token (bird) which was intended to carry the spy's final orders to him. The small scroll attatched to it says something along the lines of: You have done well (X). With the Rebel's Champions (the PCs) gone there is no need to wait until "Appropriate Time", strike now and let them return to find all their hopes dashed by "Evil Deity's" might. The PCs should figure that the arrival of the aforementioned time will mean something fairly unpleasant happens at the Rebel camp and will thus be obliged to rush back there as you planned for. If you planned on them attaining more data then throw that into the message as well and that should solve your problem fairly neatly.
DoctorRomulus 02-08-07, 03:32 PM	Just how Bad are these "Bad Guys" is what would determine how they would deal with the town. Are the rebels a strong enough force to contend with an army of well armed Orcs. How far is the "evil" leader willing to go to win. Were the miners slaves or paid and treated crappy. Being the BBEG I would find a way to undermine the revolt first by seeing who's weak in virtue among the rebels. Then offer him/her some kind of position or reward for his/her help in ridding myself of the rebel leaders. You know cut off the head and the body dies. Do it secretly that way they aren't martyrs and maybe use the "traitor" to get things stirred up with some major infighting. Let that simmer for a bit and and when they're weakened and too busy fighting each other as well as some elements from my forces. I send in a main force and mop up whatever is left then drag the rank and file back to the mines. All the while playing groups off against each as who is to blame for the failed revolt.