Need a little help on direction

[Gandalf970]

There was supposed to be a big fight where the party helped stop the Night of Dissolution in Ptolus.  Well as usual the group went in a completely different direction and let it happen.  They hid themselves away in a deep mortuary they had found and stocked it with food.  Basically it was eight days of complete darkness where the various cults roamed free.  At the same time some barbarians were attacking.  This was all brought on due to these cults doing rituals.  The aftermath was about 30% of the City being destroyed along with the army fighting off the barbarians.

 

The group isn't really do gooders and are all about themselves.  They have a few hooks in the town, but I need to find a new story arc for them as they didn't stop the cults.  Something more they can do for themselves that has some importance after the disaster in the city.  Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[Urlord]

Yeah, creating a linear plot line and hoping the characters follow it can be quite difficult without the players feeling railroaded. 
Since the character let the rituals happen, the city has changed and they must live within the new paradigm.
i would create three to five plot hooks and introduce them to the characters through rumors and such. Once the players have all the rumors, have them tell you which one they are going to run down before the next game session Then, you only have to detail that one. 
i do this with my group and it works out pretty well.

[Sveta8]

They seem to be out for themselves, so frame it in that way. If they want to leave the city, and don't have some Nope-Out power like a massively improved Teleportation or similar, they need to make it so the Army isn't dealing with a Shoot-on-Sight approach because of the barbarians.

Their power will go out. Their water will dry up. Someone may come in and try to raid them. Make it personal for why they want to fix that issue. And if they start to fix that, then some unfortunate survivors may want to get in on that. Offering what help they can. 

Perhaps Cults are recruiting in the area. Or are trying to establish where they have set up in the mortuary as part of their area of control. Contention can build there. If that is noticed by other cults, they may come in to try and Hire the Party to push in or take out their rival cult for them. Payment in whatever you feel appropriate. 

They aren't dogooders, and they are out for themselves. That means you have to bring the problem to them, and make it why they should want to do it. That's my first impression at least.

[mallet]

With 30% of the city destroyed and presumably 30+% of the population killed then that is a massive amount of dead bodies laying around. The smell alone would be sickening after a few days, and diseases would run rampant possibly also contaminating the cities water supply, Just staying alive and healthy would be a challenge. All the dead would start attracting scavenging wild animals and monsters. Maybe a flood of Ghouls descend upon the ruined parts of the city to feed on the dead  and set up their own powerbase there/there own kingdom is it were. The ruined 30% of the city becomes a "dungeon" of sorts making life for the 60% that choose to remain in the rest of the city very dangerous as they are right next to a place housing hundred of monsters. If stopping the monsters and staying alive isn't enough of a motivator maybe all the wealth and and treasure in the ruins is enough of a motivator for the party to explore it and kill off the monsters so they can get it. 

 

Have the King declare the city "lost" (as in no chance of rebuilding/saving it) and order the army out of the city and to patrol the exterior, allowing no one in or out (they know about the cultists by now, and can't risk letting any of them out of the city, but since they don't know who the cultists are they can't risk letting anyone out). The cult magic used to cause the destruction also warped the magic of the area of the city. making it impossible to "teleport" away or other types of mystical escape. Make it like the movie "Escape from New York", but the party is stuck inside with a lot of other unfortunate citizens. All fighting to survive. Not only for food and water, but also against all the monsters and ghouls and such.  Maybe a dragon moves into the ruins eventually. 

 

Only way to really survive is to clear out the ruined part of the city of monsters and evil (and kill off the remaining cult members (some of who who are hiding among the other survivors and some living "free" in the ruins). 

 

make doing the "right and heroic" thing the only option they have to survive. 

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

12 hours ago, Sveta8 said:
They aren't dogooders, and they are out for themselves. That means you have to bring the problem to them, and make it why they should want to do it. That's my first impression at least.

I agree with this. I say one of the Cults ask nicely for the PCs to join or else. And they don’t take “No” for answer.

[archer]

This is one of the problems with expecting heroes to protect a long-term campaign location rather than go out adventuring: if they don't protect the location, it warps the campaign.

 

Personally, I'd send them out of the city on random adventures for a couple of sessions and see if they like that better or just want a break from normal.

 

If they didn't protect the city, there might be a reason beyond self-preservation.(some of the players don't want to play through "I'm a soldier in a war" tropes, they don't like the premise of the campaign, they don't like cities, they don't like the people who had been running the city, they haven't made any ties to people in the city which would make them care if the city burns or not, there's more money-making opportunities in a half-destroyed city, the necromancer has plans which call for a LOT of dead bodies, etc.)

 

Ask yourself whether anything has changed in the campaign between the point that everyone was loving it and the plan to intentionally let everything go to hell (any change, that is, other than the war itself).

[archer]

16 hours ago, Sveta8 said:

Perhaps Cults are recruiting in the area. 

 

I like the idea of them choosing sides among the cults and trying to help that cult take control of the city. They wouldn't necessarily have to join since most cults crave power more than fidelity.

 

Obviously someone needs to be in control of the city and I presume that not all the cults are equally unattractive. So it makes sense to try to pick a winner then help him to win.

 

Once that cult gets rolling, it'll have the power to bring at least some of the other cults to the negotiating table, try to cut a deal, and make alliances.

 

At that point, it should become clear which leaders (inside and outside the cult) are too fanatical to do the pragmatic thing and make deals...and the PC's will have some tough decisions to make.

 

[Thia Halmades]

Wow, I remember when this happened to me (not identically, but similarly). It made me restructure how I assemble games and parties and the “basic buy-in” that everyone agrees to. But that’s not your question.

 

My answer is “let it ride.” Instead of coughing up a new plot line, really think about what all of your other major actors are doing:

 

1) Who was affected the most? What is their angle, and what is their end goal?

2) What toll has this taken on the town? What is their response going to be? PS: There’s always a response. It can be leaving, it can be assembling a militia, it can be any number of things, but a leader will always rise. Will that leader blame the party? 

3) Who has lost the most?

4) Who had the most to GAIN from this? In any tragedy, someone comes out ahead. Seeing as your game is not about gleaming armor and heroism, delve into that. 

 

Once you know how your major actors are responding to these events, you can start to ask the next logical series of questions; among them, who is interested in the PCs? You should come out with one individual and/or group who: Wants to hire them, one who wants them to suffer, at least who has picked a specific party member to have their thread pulled from the tapestry early and permanently, and one who wants to see what they do next. That will hopefully get you off the ground and out of the corner.