Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tmsmilner Jun 01, 2015 21:35:18	I'm running game for a small party (2) who can get a little big for their britches.  It leaves me as the DM needing to make sure I'm reading well ahead, because one of the players has little experience with extended adventures, and the other is a notorious derailer.  I've got contingency after contingency charted out, and NPCs statted who the characters will probably never even meet, but JUST IN CASE.   Instead, they decided to go the entirely logical route and head to Feathergale Spire after checking in with Shallow Graves, and made a splendid impression on the Knights therein.  Manticore hunt, blah blah blah.  The party has failed to pick up on the brainwash-y overtones I laid on, and are convinced these benevolent knights are dedicated to assisting them in their quest to bring peace to the Dessarin Valley.  Unfortunately, now the players have their hearts set on recruitment into the order, a path that the sourcebook is decidedly light on with regards to that opportunity.  I was able to get the players out of the Spire and have them distracted with a few other leads, such as peeking at the Sacred Stone Monestary and digging into Lance Rock, but having a party of two, I am reliant on more random encounters to get the party properly powered.  This gives the players more downtime between plot points to mull over things like said recruitment.    At Level 3, the players are still a bit wet behind the ears for the Big Reveal on the whole Elemental Evil ticket, but I need to either a) get them more nervous about the Knights, or b) have fun with a recruitment plot.  I'd much prefer b, but I don't have much to go on in this regard.  How did you guys handle your players relationship with the Feathergale Knights?   I've got some downtime before the next Session, so if some more plotting needs to come into play, I can make it happen.
#2 GrrHero Jun 02, 2015 1:26:23	If they do join the Feathergales screw with them. I would send them to attack Earth cultist, a territory dispute with Gnolls or Aarakocra in the Sighing Valley(here I would have the knights kill the wounded and non-combatants after the fight to show their brutality, something so the players realize these guys may not be good guys), then have them raid a civilian caravan(again here, the knights would show no mercy obviously being evil). Hopefully, they would figure out that something is not right with their new faction, and investigate them further or fight them.