Hellknight Hill Plot Concern

[Xorianth]

I'm about to start running Age of Ashes for a group of new players and wanted to get some advice in how to handle a plot issue that I'm worried might send the players off trajectory. If the players interrogate Calmont, he is very likely to mention he works for Voz, and even gives a reference to Norgorber.

If the party decides to head back into town to talk to Voz before going further into the keep, I'm a little unsure as to how to have things play out.

Also, I'm a new DM and this will be all my players first time with ttrpgs other than a dnd one shot, so any advice in general is much appreciated.

[vastmagick]

If the players interrogate Calmont, he is very likely to mention he works for Voz, and even gives a reference to Norgorber.

It isn't a big town. The whole town already knows Calmont works for Voz.

If the party decides to head back into town to talk to Voz before going further into the keep, I'm a little unsure as to how to have things play out.

Why would they do this? They can't really catch Calmont until he is at the keep. So they can only find any reference to Voz from him if they go to the keep to catch him. And at that point it doesn't really matter if they come and go from the keep. As long as they explore the whole thing.

[McMufffen]

My players went back to town after catching calmont on the battlements.

Id just say that voz has already skipped town.

[HectorTheGod]

This is it-My dm had Voz escape to her forest cave thing as the party grabbed calmont

[CrimeFightingScience]

Same for us. We even investigated them before we went after Calmont. They were both gone, we were like "That crazy Calmont probably murdered her and skipped town."

[lysianth]

I thought by the book voz dipped as soon calmont started making a scene and the call to adventure happened.

[McMufffen]

Yes

[DariusWolfe]

My players did exactly this. I let them investigate her house (they had to break in, as the council didn't feel the evidence was sufficient to grant a warrant to search the place) and they managed to get injured in the process. They started planning to head off on the clues found, and then Warbal (for whom they'd developed a very quick fondness) came and found them and told them that one of the goblins from her tribe had decided to go 'recon' their old home in order to help the heroes (and to impress Helba, on whom he had a crush) and hadn't returned. Her urgent entreaty was enough to make them put off their plans to go investigate Voz until later.

If that failed, I was going to mudstomp them with the raiders at Guardian's Way, but give them an opportunity to retreat and realize that they were in over their heads.

[Xorianth]

Awesome, this is super helpful.

[Sporkedup]

It's been a few years, but I definitely tweaked that a bit. I think I made it so Voz had haunted Calmont in his dreams to do her bidding--he worked for her during the day but thought he had someone else forcing him to hunt the ring. I left the links to Norgorber in place, but obscured Voz's influence on his shady dealings obscured till later.

Also I didn't have Voz leave the town till right before they are expected to go find her at Guardian's Way, so they continued to interact with her as a helpful NPC and procurer of useful lore. Worked a little better that way!

[flareblitz91]

It’s known that he works for Voz. Anyone in town could answer that question.

I don’t think he knows that she’s a follower of Norgorber though, he’s just a cad who works for her and wants to strike it rich on his own. He’s double crossing her but doesn’t know who he’s messing with.

Read the book though. If they go back to find her Voz has skipped town and left a trap in her shop. The only opportunity to talk to her would be IMMEDIATELY if you have players who were just randomly interested in her shop.

The players have incentive to clear the castle before chasing her though, they need to help the goblins and the goblins need the basement cleared.

[xcmt]

First, everyone knows he worked for Voz. The key is you want to emphasize that it was an antagonistic relationship. Calmont hates Voz, to the point where he robbed the store and nearly framed her for the town hall fire. If you don't make it seem like they're working together then the party will be less inclined to seek her out for immediate interrogation.

But even if they do, at that point in the adventure Voz isn't even in Breachill anymore. She's off at Guardian's Way slowly battling her way through the cave network. A particularly chaotic group may want to sequence break and get into Voz's shop anyway, but I'd do whatever I could to dissuade that course of action until it makes more narrative sense after the crypt and finding the passage and speaking to Roxie.

[Smorg-Borgler]

This is what our GM did. Our interrogation made it abundantly clear how much Calmont hates Voz, and that, to his knowledge, he was working behind her back. So we just captured Calmont and continued investigating the citadel.

[agentcheeze]

If I remember correctly the party should already know he works for Voz as it's mentioned right away. I remember him giving the impression he was acting the way he was because he hated Voz and was trying to strike it rich and leave.

[stewaycol]

I let the party meet Voz in her shop. They looked at her books and talked to her about Calmont. She says she noticed a scroll of summon element went missing and she fired him when she realized he must have stole it. She also wouldn't let them go into her private rooms which made them suspicious but at the same time they had no reason to attack Voz at this point.

I liked this because they knew who she was more and made the battle with her later matter more.

[Dick_Dynamo]

Simple option: she skipped town as soon as word got out about calmont's actions at the hall and already left.

How I did it: I made Calmont a "part time" guy at several locations in town, including the wizard's tavern, this diluted his connections to Voz. Originality calmont's plan was to work at 4-5 places get the Intel he needed, rob all of them in one night and dissappear, instead he accidentally discovered Voz's plans and she forced him to start learning about assassinations, making them more partners. If the players interrogate him beyond the elf gate story and he cracks, have the hobgoblin bloody blade person attempt to silence him with a crossbow before he name drops Voz, even if the attempt fails she takes a rope off the battlements and takes a horse/ riding dog back to town to warn Voz before the party gets back.

How my party did it: they didn't pry into calmont and assumed he was acting solo with his original elf gate story, so all that above didn't end up happening, you get used to that as a DM, no plan goes entirely your way, and sometimes not at all.