Running Saint Vitruvio’s Cathedral soon
Short background:
My player’s party is most strongly aligned with The Hooded Lanterns and The Amethyst Academy. They don’t really like The Falling Fire but have assisted them and been rescued once by them. They mostly seem disturbed by the Delerium Sacrament. They don’t seem interested in and try to avoid The Queen of Thieves and her men.
The Silver Order tried to take Temple Gate from the Gnolls and my players decided to sneak in and use a Delerium bomb to destroy both sides and ruin the gate. The gnolls discovered them and fought back as they escaped back into the inner city. Due to my bad rolls the Silver Order doesn’t know/didn’t discover it was them but do know the party didn’t assist them as they asked. The Silver Order is waiting for more reinforcements and is pretty much stuck to the outer city unless they fly in.
The Issue:
My players accepted The Falling Fire’s quest to negotiate getting the AA and HL to assist in retaking the Cathedral. They have talked to everyone and relayed each side’s requests/demands to be willing to assist but when anyone asks what the plan to retake the Cathedral is, the party says no clue and want someone else to decide. I have mentioned that someone will need to lead as many gnolls away as possible and someone else will need to take on the Lord of the Feast.
They won’t make any recommendations even for who should do what or what they are willing to do. Should I just force the issue myself and assign tasks? How have other DM’s engaged their players here?
The AA didn’t really want to help as they have no reason to go to or want the Cathedral but offered to send a task force if my players would investigate/help take back the Inscrutable Tower in return. I am thinking they will send a limited number of mages with bound elementials as the main assistance.
Just curious what other DMs would suggest on who leads the gnolls away and which groups should focus on the Cathedral? It seems to me that my players should be tasked with the Lord of the Feast.
My DM experience:
I am a first time DM and my 3 players have been enjoying the campaign a lot so their disinterest in this major event surprised me. My best friend was our original forever DM so Dungeons of Drakkenheim was my way to let him play and I am the only one who has watched the Dungeon Dude’s campaign online. Usually I feel I am strong on running the campaign and adapting when my players surprise me but the larger battles involving other groups I find a little more daunting. I don’t want them to get bored with me running so much. Should I let them run the other faction groups instead of doing it?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Sorry for the long blocks of text!